Buffet in a Trend, Charcoal Grill.

Moo Gra Ta( moo=pork, gra ta= pan)

For the pass three years I've been reading about the new trend of eating in Thailand - there is one trend that is quite popular for a period of time which is a Buffet Eating or like the....All You Can Eat...here in the state. You just get in there, pay for a mount of each person, and off you go - dig in as much as you can eat.

Moo Kra Ta is one of a big hit in this type of category. There is no reason that I was gonna miss it when I was in Thailand, so my sister and niece, Fon and Bai-Fern, took us to the place close to her house where Fon said that it is Bai-Fern's favorite place, she can almost eat here every day, I can see why.


The grilling pan comes with soup ready to be working on.

It is an open space kind of restaurant, which is appropriate for grilling. The restaurant prepares all the meats, seafood and vegetable for you, all you do is to dig in what ever you want, bring to the table and get you hands on over the charcoal grilling.



They also have already cooked food as an appetizer. I can see why it's such a favorite for my niece, which is in her teens, she eats a lot and she can only choose what she wants. I found it is enjoyable if you are an eater.

Back to the heaven of Thai Foods. Part One, Bangkok

Our first meal back home at Noom's parents's house in BKK

It'd been two and a half months I spent my precious times in my home country, Thailand, where I almost drowned in a vast sea of yummy foods.

The great thing of them all is that most of the times I didn't have to lift my fingers to cook it at all. In Thailand, there are always foods ready to eat everywhere we were. Kitchen is always mom's territory that I can only be a helper.

Noom's mom at her usual butcher stall in fresh market

Fresh market where you can find everything, and I mean everything.

Both my mom and Noom's mom are serious cooks. They are always busy thinking about what we will be eating right next after each meal. It could be exhausted sometimes. They cook tree times a day. I have no idea how they do it, but they make it happen everyday.

In BKK, at Noom's house, mom has a helper named Kra-Taar. She's from Lao, and that's why she made a dead on delicious Som-tum or papaya salad with a secret that I have never known before - adding shrimp paste in it, instead of Pla-Ra or fermented fish as usual, and it is soooo yummy.

Noom's mom in her territory.

With Kra-Taar, the lovely helper

Noom's mom is the Eastern origin, so if you want to have a dead on delicious Thai Eastern foods, come to her kitchen, you'll never be disappointed.

Kra-Taar's signature Som-Tum that made me cry...so spicy

goes with grilled herbal chicken

and mom's Nam Sod Kao Tod ( Seasoned Fried Rice Ball with sour aging pork)

Fresh vegetable picked right off her garden

another delicious meal at home

From Noom's mom's kitchen, I got a tip of making oh-so delicious Som-Tum that I took it with me going back to my mom's kitchen which is the Southern kitchen, and from my mom kitchen, I brought back my mom's signature - Southern curries to Noom's mom kitchen....like a small food ambassador between the Eastern and the Southern in our family.