by | 04/07/2010 · 4:55 pm

Iron Chef hits Bangkok

Whose cuisine reigns supreme?

Chef Hiroyuki Sakai of “Iron Chef” fame (the one who cooked French food, as opposed to the “Chinese” and “Japanese” Iron Chefs) came to Bangkok to bring his love of delicate flavors and vegetable flans to food-loving Thais. Last night, he held the second of three dinners at Maduzi Hotel (full disclosure: my husband’s family owns this hotel, but that didn’t save me from having to shell out the 7,500++ baht like everybody else.) Needless to say, I was excited; this is the closest I will probably ever get to Iron Chef without donning a poufy wig and cape.

"Seriously, guys--is there something in my teeth?"

And Chef Sakai totally delivered. His persnickety attention to detail, illustrated by his high hygienic standards (the kitchen was cleaned after every single course), was reflected in a series of perfectly turned-out dishes despite his having to cook for 60 covers. This somehow didn’t affect the pacing of the dishes, which reached perfection at around the end of the meal.

It kicked off with a completely smooth crab flan, reminiscent in texture of Japanese chawanmushi (egg custard), paired with a deep-fried crispy scallop and wasabi sauce to cut the fattiness.

crab flan with leek and courgette soup, deep-fried scallop and wasabi sauce

A parcel of foie gras came encased in a mashed potato shell and deep-fried into a golf ball, served atop a pool of truffle sauce and topped with a parmesan tuile.

foie gras croquette with truffle sauce

Sakai’s “signature” dish turned out to be a Thai freshwater prawn tail (the Brittany langoustines shipped to the hotel for the event were unfortunately not up to snuff) wrapped in threads of blanched zucchini, braided Bottega Veneta-style over the lightly poached flesh. 

Langoustine wrapped in courgette

After that, grade 9++ Wagyu beef (apparently the highest grade there is, although I don’t understand why you can’t just suck it up and say “grade 10”) was smoked in the hotel kitchen and arrived to the table wrapped in bamboo skin like a Christmas present. 

Lightly smoked Wagyu beef baked in bamboo skin

Finally, a mango custard came layered with a green tea foam and accompanied by a salty chocolate crepe, garnished with a pinch of candied orange peel.

Mango blanc manger and green tea espuma with chocolate crepe

But the best part of the meal, for me at least, was a cold hors d’oeuvre initially described in a preliminary menu as a dreary-sounding “turnip mousse”. What came out of the kitchen was a beautiful mixed custard of Kabu turnip and sea urchin, topped with Alaskan king crab, abalone, fan lobster and scallop chunks, ringed by turnip rounds and topped with a dollop of caviar. It was among the best dishes I’ve had in a while.

This dish is the bomb.

Final verdict? Totally worth it, even if I have to snack on streetside noodles for the rest of the month. I mean, that’s what I’m supposed to be here for, isn’t it?

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Filed under Asia, Bangkok, beef, celebrity chefs, food, French food, Iron Chef, Japanese, restaurant, seafood, Thailand, TV chefs

by | 04/05/2010 · 4:43 pm

Duckfest, or How Not to be China Rude

Maybe it’s the sweltering heat. I actually had to hail a cab for the 100-or-so meters from the grocery store to my house, and I consider it the best 35 baht I have ever spent. Maybe it’s the hordes of diners who, in an attempt to avoid the Red Shirts protesting downtown, have been swarming my neighborhood and turning it into a literal feeding frenzy for parking lots, restaurant tables, and ice cream. Or maybe it was the disappointing lunch I had today (how can your restaurant symbol be the picture of a mussel, and then have no mussels available for lunch? How does that happen?) A dozen Kumamoto oysters failed to salvage the  meal.

In any case, I’m feeling a bit down. When life gets this way, I do what a lot of other people do in the same situation, and eat my feelings. And if you are a fan of tender, moist, smoky flesh, something like this will likely do the trick: 

Roasted duck and crispy pork at Jibgi Ped Yang

Located across from the old Nanglerng wet market on Nakhon Sawan Road, Jibgi has what I think may be the juiciest, least-bony roasted Chinese duck around (you know those shards of bone that stick to the fatty parts of the skin? I hate those too). The skin may not be as crispy as at Mandarin, and the open-air dining room is not as swanky as, say, the Mandarin Oriental’s Noble House, but the duck here is definitely worth a gander (get it? I crack myself up). Don’t forget to order the accompanying stewed duck soup for an extra 20 baht.

While we were there, the duck on rice (30-40 baht) was certainly a popular dish, eaten with gusto by the octagenarians who occupied the neighboring table. It was here that we learned how to express our appreciation of Chinese food: with much clacking of chopsticks and a cacophony of slurping (the art of slurping is similarly practiced in Japan, but I have never learned how to do it without getting broth in my eye). So in our way, we were being China Rude, something we hope to rectify the next time we wander over to that part of town.

stewed duck soup

Thank you, @Specialkrb, for this final set of pictures. Looking forward to your return to this neck of the woods in July!

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Filed under Asia, Bangkok, Chinese, duck, food, food stalls, restaurant, rice, Thailand

by | 03/31/2010 · 11:14 am

It’s not street dining, it’s…shopping-mall-walkway dining

At Paragon Shopping Complex for a Thailand Tatler soiree celebrating the launch of this year’s edition of “Thailand’s 100 best restaurants”, we discovered a few things.

First and most importantly, examples of the best nosh included the hibiscus blossoms stuffed with foie gras mousse in waffle cones from Plaza Athenee hotel’s Reflections restaurant; cubes of rare seared beef with foie gras at Pan-Pacific’s Panorama restaurant; and the foie gras custard with creamed spinach and scallop mousse from the folks at D’Sens in the Dusit Thani. Sense a trend here? Yes:

1. Anything with foie gras is still in vogue here in 2010 Bangkok. 

cones of hibiscus blossoms stuffed with foie gras mousse

Other things we learned:

2. Hold your event in a space large enough to house all the exhibitors but small enough to ensure no one gets comfortable and stays long enough to actually score a full meal for free.

3. Jumpsuits are actually appropriate cocktail party-wear.

4. Sliced roast beef and a raw bar are guaranteed crowd-pleasers no matter where you are.

5. Spinach will inevitably find its way between your teeth before any kind of photo op.

6. Alcohol is a precious — and very limited — resource.

7. Never take foie gras terrine from a man wearing a cravat.

8. Thais are only just discovering the joys of serrano ham.

9. The future of cocktail nibbles is cone-shaped.

Dessert cones of berries and cream

10. There are a crapload of restaurants in Bangkok.

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Filed under Asia, Bangkok, beef, food, restaurant, seafood, Thailand