not so smart

I keep seeing more toddlers and kids transfixed to a tablet computer or smartphone while they're having their meals or being spoon-fed. I'm not sure whether it's the same when they're in their homes or only in public places. In my opinion, it's not a good thing to do. Does it mean that they won't eat without the tablet or phone? Whatever happens to the good ol' days of concentrating to your meals?

If the parents did it because that's the only way their kids would sit happily for a meal, then for me they're just taking the easiest way out.

It's not just children who are affected with tablet or smartphone. One can only look at the seated passengers in a morning train. Almost all of them look down at their smartphones, either playing games or watching movies.

However, the most tragic sight is when a couple seated for their meal are busy looking down at their smartphones instead paying attention to each other.

Is your partner very boring that you need to keep yourself interested through games? Is updating your Farmville or Restaurant Story a matter of life & death that it can't wait after the meal is over?

We have to admit that technology changes a lot of things in our lives. It's supposed to make our lives better instead of making it worse. If playing games on your phones is preferable than talking to your partner or parents, then what's the use of having another person in your life? One has to draw a line when personal interaction is required in his/her life, and when to keep the phones in their pocket.

Personally, I'm not tempted to upgrade to smartphones or tablets. I resist the urge because I don't need it. I don't need to browse all the time, I listen to music through my MP3 player, and I don't need to play games every time. I only need my mobile to make & take calls, send SMS, and take pictures.

But I finally used a smartphone after my old & reliable mobile was finally out of service. I did it because there wasn't any standard mobile that's up to my liking, and I also felt that smartphone is the future, whether I like it or not. I upgraded, tried to accept it, and the only good thing about it was that it made waiting less boring. That's the only benefit of having a smartphone for me until today.

So the next time we're talking or eating and I smash your phone with my baseball bat, you'll know why I do that.

coffee beans/stars

In my first business trip to Bangkok, my client took my colleague and me to a restaurant behind their office building. As it was my first trip to Bangkok, I just followed them and trusted their palates. Soon enough, I found out that they brought us to the right place. Because by the moment they handed me the menu, I immediately drooled by looking at all the food pictures there.

It was a big menu, and full of big close-up picture of the food. If food photography or styling was able to generate appetite from the customers, then the restaurant did a very good job on it.

We didn't order anything because we didn't know what to eat, so we let the client do the ordering for all of us. Then, the food came and they were around 5-6 different dishes enough for all of us to share. I didn't remember all of them, but I did remember the pad thai, and also one type of spring roll with the skin that reminded me of sun pan. I also remembered looking at the prawns in some of the dishes and wondered at their size and how succulent they were.

I didn't know if it was because of the company who came with us, or the food. But the lunch was very enjoyable, and I kept marvelling at how delicious all the things that I ate on that day. After we were already full, the dessert came.

The waiter served a couple of cakes to our table, and me not particularly having sweet tooth, took a bit of the cake just for being polite. I instantly regretted not taking a bigger part of the cake. It was so good and made me crave for more. I think it was some kind of cheese cake. And if it wasn't for my full tummy, I could have ordered another cake to finish for myself.

Since then, I made it a point to visit the restaurant's outlets at CentralWorld or Siam Paragon whenever I visited Bangkok; because those two were the nearest to my hotel. But after CentralWorld was burned down by the demonstrators last year, I wasn't sure if it's still there. At least the one in Siam Paragon should still exist.

Therefore, I was so happy when I found out that the restaurant has opened a branch here. The Sunday paper reviewed the restaurant, and I was determined to go there to see if it's as good as the original one in Bangkok.

I realized that there's a slight difference in the name. I'm not sure whether it's because there's already another coffee outlet here which have used that name as part of their brand.

My wife came first to the restaurant, and while waiting for me she's ordered a Brownie Pudding cake. I took one bite, and then finished everything. So yummy!

Then, we ordered the main dish. We had tom yam prawn, then my wife ordered tofu with crab meat, chicken, & pork, while I ordered Lad-Na with beef.

Tom yam came first, and it was a hearty soup. Hot, spicy, and fulfilling. I particularly loved the mushroom they put inside the soup. There's one type of mushroom that I especially liked. I didn't know what type of mushroom it was, but it looked like a thick bamboo shoot. You could also taste that the restaurant used quite a bit of coconut milk for the soup, because it's quite thick.

Next, my Lad-Na was served. I thought the waiter delivered a wrong dish because it didn't look like in the menu. In the menu, my Lad-na looked like Papa instant Kway Chap, while the one on my table was like a big prawn cracker. Only when I picked up the "cracker", I found out the beef, vegetable, and the gravy soup underneath it. Furthermore, I realized that the "cracker" must be drenched with the gravy. Soon after, the "cracker" became soft and looked like the one in the menu :) My Lad-Na was also good, and I particularly liked the gravy because it tasted as I imagined it would be.

The last to arrive was my wife's tofu dish, and it was definitely worth the wait because it was also delicious. The gravy tasted almost the same with my Lad-Na, but it was even better when you ate it with steaming rice.

In overall it was very satisfying & fulfilling, and it managed to uphold the same standard like their outlet in Bangkok; in a sense that I came out of the restaurant happy & full. We'll definitely be back and bring along our friends & families as well.