My Birthday Meal

We had a lovely day yesterday and one of the most amazing meals I have had since being in Thailand (Oh it was great!!).

Chris had noticed that The Amazing E-san Fair 2007 was being held this weekend at the Queen Sirikit National Convention Centre so we decided that we would go along and see what it was all about. Moon said that she was free so we invited her to come along with us since she is from E-san. It was really interesting - there was lots of information about places you could visit (Some we already had on our history of Khmer art tour), different resort offers, Kab Bua cloth weaving and demonstrations of silk dyeing as well as music and dancing. Moon absolutely loved it!! We took part in a friendship ceremony which involved holding hands and getting string tied round our wrists (The only word I understood was Friend....but it was interesting to take part!!), we watched the crafts being made (The woven work was so intricate it was amazing to watch the women make it - I would have got lost in about three seconds!!) and the dancing was quite different to what we had seen before. It didn't finish till 8pm so we ended up leaving Moon there and we came home to get ready for going out.

Chris decided that since this was our official celebration of my birthday that we would open the REALLY GOOD bottle of wine that Tom had brought over with him in January. (Good choice Tom - It was absolutely gorgeous!!). Then we jumped into a taxi and headed to Soi 38 to The Face complex where we had booked a table at Hazara. (The Face restaurant group consists of Hazara which does Indian food, Lan Na Thai which specialises in food from Northern Thailand, a bar called The Face bar and a pastry shop called Visage and it is situated in an exquisite complex of old Thai teak houses). When you arrive you go up a wide wooden staircase lit with small lanterns where you are given the choice to either have a drink in the bar or go straight to your table. We decided to have a drink and were shown to a huge day bed with about a zillion cushions on it and a little table in the middle - Chris had a Vodka Martini and I had a Lychee Vodka Martini before heading up to our table. (If you have not been then you really must go - not only is the setting stunning the food is fantastic too!! Hazara is actually named after a tribe and a region in Afghanistan although the cuisine served is associated with northern India). We had lamb samosas as a started which we shared followed by butter chicken, Dhal Hazara (creamy black lentils simmered slowly over the tandoor for eight hours - divine!!), a lamb kebab and saffron pilau rice. Sometimes Indian food can be a bit heavy, especially when your used to eating Thai, but this wasn't at all (Which meant we both had room for desert!!).

We had a great time - the atmosphere was lovely, the décor beautiful and the food fantastic!!!

Ahhh the joy that is good Indian food......

Last Sunday Chris had to go into the office to do some work for a couple of hours. He called when he was done and we arranged to meet in our local boozer for a quick drink before grabbing some dinner. I was just closing the doors to our balcony when I looked at the apartment building across the road and thought 'That looks like our friend Ben' (He has quite distinctive hair).....it can't be.....Ben and Georgie don't live here!! Then a woman came out onto the balcony and I thought 'and that looks like Georgie!!' so I called them - and discovered that they have moved into the apartment block next to ours. We later timed it (I know, how sad are we!!) and it takes a grand total of 26 seconds to get from one to the other. (Actually we can see into their apartment from our balcony and I had to stop Chris from calling them to say 'What crap is that you are watching on TV?'). Anyway, we agreed that we would meet for dinner on Thursday evening, Georgie has never really sampled the delights of good Indian food, so we decided that we would go the Moghul Room and that we would pre-order our main course - They have a dish called a Goozie Leg which is a leg of lamb that is slow roasted and stuffed with Chicken Biryani which we thought sounded amazing so we went for that.

On Thursday night I got a call from Chris to say that his friend Tony (He is actually now known as Khun Baa Tony - Khun in Thai means Mr/Mrs/Miss and Baa means mad - so he is Mr Mad Tony) had contacted him and would it be OK for him to join us. I didn't think it would be a problem but called Georgie to check 'The more the merrier' was her reply so Chris met up with Tony for a drink prior to dinner and I went over to Ben and Georgie's to have a nosy round their new apartment (It is very cool - they have a bar and everything!! I think I may be developing bar envy). Then we all met up at Cheap Charlies and went over to the Moghul Room.

We ordered way too much food, which was fine because Tony is actually a human hoover (This is Tony doing an impression of Man the Hunter - you can see why he is known as Mr Mad Tony), - we had samosa's, pakora, nan bread, a potato masala doza and our Goozie lamb. It was magic!! Georgie and Ben (See what I mean about Ben having distinctive hair) got on with Tony like a house on fire and we had a brilliant evening - there was a lot of laughter (as you can probably tell from the photo's). Chris looked like his knees were at his ears at one point (the table we were at had incredibly low seats), there was a bit of confusion regarding ashtrays so Georgie was using Ben's hand (Now that's love for you) till an ashtray arrived, Tony went downstairs to go to the loo and ended up in the kitchen by mistake and by the end of the night our table looked like a bomb had hit it. (Georgie is now an Indian convert). After dinner we headed over to Cheap Charlies, had a couple of drinks, then went back to Ben and Georgie's for a night cap and so Chris could see round their apartment - didn't end up getting to bed till after one!!

I had decided, in my infinite wisdom, to invite our friends Louise and Gordon and Belinda and Ian over for dinner on Saturday night. So spent most of Friday chopping and cooking - Ben had gone to Singapore on Friday for a meeting so Georgie had called and invited me over 'You had better come here -I need to keep an eye on my meringues' was my response (Now you don't hear that statement every day!!). Chris went out with Mr Mad Tony and Georgie and I had a lovely girls night in.

It really was a great start to our weekend