There have been several messages about the "great Smoothies in Bangkok." Please ---- where?

Thanks

everywhere

Wow! Is there an "Everywhere" in the Sukumvit area?

rbm
If by smoothies you mean the likes of banana or any other kind of fruit shake. You can get them in just about any restaurant and yes they are wonderful. I don't know where you are from but when it is described as a shake it is not thick as they tend to be where I have had them in the US but more like ones I have had in Oz thinner blended milk & fruit. I have had them without milk also and they were also great. Just check out the menus & try one. I had one in a cafe in a shopping mall on my last visit and that was just as good as the ones I have had in more local atmospheric places. Years ago I discovered the banana ones on a beach in Samui and got hooked had one for my lunch everyday I was there!
Happy & safe travels

J

If you go upstairs to the top level of the Emporium Shopping Mall, you will probably find them there since they have just about everything drink-wise and food-wise there. There's a huge foodcourt/grocery store and restaurant area there. I just remember seeing them all over. Emporium Mall is at the Prom Phong skytrain stop...soi 24. Happy Travels!

Banana! Banana! Banana! (Yes, my favorite.) And yes, just about everywhere.
I think every restaurant we tried had them. Pineapple's also good. My daughter tried watermelon once, and it was also fabulous. There are other flavors, too. I can't imagine that any would be losers. But I loved banana so much that I'd find myself unable to resist getting it again and again.
And they're cheap, too! (Wish I had one right now!)
Karen

So how do smoothies fit with the conventional advice not to eat fruit that you don't peel yourself, not to drink any water except bottled, and to avoid dairy foods other than yogurt?

I'm less concerned about this issue in Bangkok than in Laos, for example. My instinct would be to avoid smoothies, but people rave so about them, I'd like to try them.

I would guess that a strict follower of the "if you can't peel it yourself of have it cooked don't eat it" rules would not be allowed to have many of the delicious things in Asia.

Obviously, we are not so strict with food control (and that could also explain the 10 pounds that somehow found their was to me). Over the years, we've all had many a watermelon shake, banana shake, watermelon-lime shake mmmmm, mango-lime shake...the list is endless...we've probably tried more than I can even remember. I like watermelon versions so much I take to comparing shakes prepared by different people and ordering only from the one I like best.

The shakes do tend to do two things. One is they are fruit dense, not just juice, but the whole fruit, glorious fiber and all. I speak from experience when I recommend limiting your daily shake intake to 1 a day for the first couple of days, then move up to 2 (you will move up to 2 easily) and IF you can resist moving up to 3 fruit shakes a day then be prepared to visit the toilet more often than usual. You won't be sick...you'll feel fine other than the laxative effects of fruit whizzed up with simple syrup and ice....see where I'm going here? Taper on, like some drug treatment regimens we hear about, and taper off (important, too, or you'll find that the previously all systems go status of your body will quickly revert to all systems on holiday).

The other thing about shakes...calories. Gobs of them. Don't kid yourself and think you're getting a healthy low-cal refreshement. You are not unless you specifically and emphatically ask for one. These shakes are made with fruit, plenty of it, and bits of ice, and simple syrup (read highly concentrated sweetener), so what you though was a cup of watermelon with 80 or so calories...just became a watermelon shake with ice and a 1/4 to 1/2 cup of sugar syrup...3 to 10 tablespoons of the sweet stuff depending on who is doing the mixing. Then there are the ones made with coconut cream, or homemade whole milk super creamy yogurt...yummy. How anyone loses weight on an Asian holiday is a mystery to me ?

But they are good...to die for. Can't have only one, so if you are watching your waistline like I am (currently watching it grow ever bigger, however) you might want to close your eyes or not watch your drink being made. And, skip dinner daily, having instead a bowl of leafy greens.

Well, if you drink the shakes not much reason to not eat the greens. The greens can even be cooked.

Kim you hit the nail on the head with the calories!! That is why I was on a meal replacement diet.....shakes for lunch!! Thailand Bali wherever. I am also one of those bodies that gains weight in Asia/Africa....

Karen I am totally guily of always ordering banana. I think I have had mango but banana is just sooooo good!

Shellio you are right about those "rules". I am usually pretty darn careful but somehow I got a shake once and I was hooked!! I am still very carful about most things. I am one of those that brushes my teeth with bottled water anywhere in Asia.

Happy travels.
J

Anybody try a jackfruit smoothy? Be forwarned though - you cannot find them everywhere and when you have to go for plain old mango or banana or passion fruit - you really long for jackfruit.

I strongly recommend that you avoid Smoothies in Bangkok. It is often, usually, hot there and that is the positively the worst time to have a smoothie. It is also the time when you think that you really need one, but you have to be very careful and doing that removes the beneficial qualities of the smoothie: the coldness. Yes, they are dangerous and I can explain why in just two words: brainfreeze. On a hot day, you take a gulp too cool off and what happens? You get the center of your head gets frozen. It is very painful and you have to stop drinking and put your tongue over that soft spot on the roof of your mouth in the back to warm it up. After that, one sip and you are back in hell. The only thing left to do is to sip it into the front part of your mouth and heat it up and melt it before you even begin to swallow it. My advice is to just drink bottled water because if that is really really cold (too cold to drink) then you can dump it on your face or the back of your neck to cool off. Ok, well, that's my two bahts worth.

watermelon is my current fav! I have not experienced 'headfreeze' from any shake I've had here yet, although know what mrwunful is talking about as I get it if I drink a Starbucks frappucino! I found out the banana ones often have condensed milk in them the other day, yikes, no wonder they taste so sweet!

Thanks to jules39, guenmai and the rest of you for the information. We are familiar with the Emporium, so that's a start.

I'm looking forward to a "smoothie" trip in the near future.

rbm/shm

I am very lucky: there is actually a Thai guy with a smoothie street cart right outside my office building here in NYC. They do not use sugar syrup or mil, just fruit...so I think that is a pretty healthy breakfast? My fav is mango, banana, pineapple and strawberry.

cruise---i suspect you only have to pay about 25B for that nyc smoothie also???

or is it $25

rhkkmk-
The NYC smoothie price is 120B for a regular and 160B for a large...still a pretty good deal for this neck of the woods.

In the Chicago tthe availability of these Oriental smoothies has increased greatly and with good reason. They are delicious. In the Thai places here they are often referred to as "bubble tea' and have tapioca in them. Scrumptious.

jacketwatch- I am no Asian beverage expert, but I think that fruit smoothies and bubble tea are two seperate things.
http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Bubble_tea

(and yes, in case anyone is wondering, it is a slow Friday at my office....so I am googling "bubble tea"...)

jacketwatch, you have my attention!!!! I think tapioca is a major product of Thailand -- maybe we can make them in our room if we can't get one anywhere else. Is the tapioca prepared somehow before making the smoothie?

Karen -- where did you find them made with coconut milk or yogurt? Anywhere particular?

KimJapan -- yum-m-m -- condensed milk -- where?

Thanks again to all!

S

mrw:

Had a smile on my face when I read your comment. I get brainfreeze all the time with smoothies in bkk but I love those things. It must be something to do with the size and content of our brains .

Aloha!