Your tummy on tour

I CAN’T blame my friends who think my job writing food reviews is fun, but Taste It All – the single-day “walking tour” of restaurants at five top hotels – is certainly no picnic.

The Ratchaprasong Square Trade Association’s 10th edition of the annual Taste It All involves magnificent dishes created by the head chefs at seven hotels, but fortunately it’s been extended well beyond one day – right through next month, in fact. 

That’s gives you plenty of time to savour what the neighbourhood has to offer. However, my job is to report all the facts and tastes quickly, and I tried my best in the span of seven hours, but could only manage five of the seven appointed destinations.

This year’s theme is “Imperial Delight”, and I can at least testify that much delight is on offer.

At the InterContinental Bangkok’s Chinese restaurant, the Summer Palace, Chef Khor Eng Yew combines tradition with modern presentation amid imperial ingredients like ginseng (imported from Mainland China), cordyceps (from Hong Kong) and abalone (from Australia).

The five-course menu starts with a combination platter of pan-fried foie gras with pomelo yuzu dressing in a crispy bean sheet, deep-fried stuffed prawns with a roasted-chicken roll in chilli sauce, and Alaskan king crab salad with preserved Mandarin orange. 

The Double-boiled Herbal Consomme with abalone and ginseng that follows is stupendous, with scallops, mushrooms, cordyceps, pak choi, black chicken and young Thai coconut joining the headline ingredients. The mix is covered in pastry and steamed to bring out the fragrance and full flavour.

Next up was Oven-baked Snowfish on a bed of baked asparagus, topped with fried onion rings, honey-teriyaki sauce and “caviar cherry tomatoes”. And then Japanese rice stir-fried with egg white, a seared scallop in XO sauce perched above, all served in roasted-duck stock. And finally refreshing chilled Lemongrass Jelly with lychee mojito sorbet topped with an Oreo-banana dumpling. 

It was a walkway stroll to La Tavola & Wine Bar at the Renaissance Bangkok, where Chef Jose Martin Ruiz Borja had another three courses waiting. The menu harks back to the 18th century when the Bourbon rulers of Spain (los Borbones) imported the French cooking techniques of their ancestors along with such niceties as foie gras and truffles. 

Ruiz Borja’s Foie Gras Ganache has the liver cooked sous vide and blended with cream and gelatin to create a creamy, savoury emulsion. On the side are a Granny Smith apple compote, sour plum, truffle ciabatta and pickled mustard seed to cleanse the palate.

The main dish is two grilled acorn-fed Iberico pork chops with poached white asparagus, heirloom tomatoes and a Marsala wine reduction, all dressed in truffle oil. For dessert, Valrhona dark chocolate meets hazelnuts in a “cremux” served with banana sorbet and sesame paste.

I mounted my steed and raced off to the Centara Grand at CentralWorld and its restaurant Fifty Five for another three-courser by Chef Hugo Coudurier. 

His starter, Foie Gras Royale, derives from a classic French recipe in which the liver is blended with egg and cream and baked like a creme brulee. It’s then topped with a fennel-seed emulsion and a sea urchin. 

Centre stage belonged to Poached Bresse Poularde, which is apparently the dish for which French chef Alexandre Dumaine is most famous. The filleted breast of young chicken is slowly poached with veal jus and Armagnac and served with truffle Basmati rice. 

The Crepes Suzette is second to none, sizzling in a warm Grand Marnier sauce and Bourbon vanilla ice cream.

Japanese restaurant Shintaro at the Four Seasons Bangkok has four courses to match, all paired with sake. Chef Satoshi Sawada, a 17-year veteran in the kitchen there, demands authentic flavours and cooking fundamentals. 

Up first is Sashimi Tartar – amaki tuna, salmon and hamaji cooked in truffle oil with ponzu and a Korean chilli base, capped with wasabi espuma and paired with Kirinzan sake. 

Shintaro’s Signature Rolls have spicy red tuna, shrimp, eel, avocado crispy soft-shell crab and spicy salmon tempura. His Chilean Sea Bass is marinated in Saikyo miso for a day, then grilled and is served with mushrooms and Hajikami ginger. That comes with Masumi sake. 

The wonderful dessert is Arabica and Matcha, served in a glass bowl in layers of coffee jelly, Arabica crumbs and matcha ice cream. Raise a toast with Kozaemonyuzu sake. 

My walking tour was a little on the wobbly side as I arrived at the Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok’s Tables Grill, renowned for the meals prepared right next to the table. Chef Michel Eschmann also goes for three courses, his evoking nostalgia for traditional European cuisine, mainly French.

The highlight is the first course – Boston Lobster Variation – the shellfish in bisque, salad and aspic. The lobster head and shell is fried with vegetables and seasoned with cognac, then minced and filtered into rich soup. At tableside, the chef fries the lobster meat with butter, splashes on cognac and sets it alight – and then douses the flames with his soup, now thickened.

And that wasn’t even the main dish! Now you get to choose between Wood-fire-grilled Beef Sirloin with bearnaise sauce or Sauteed Atlantic Salmon a la Grenobloise (that is, in a sauce of browned butter, capers, parsley and lemon). The side options include creamed spinach and sauteed new potatoes.

The meal ends with a Mont Blanc Meringue Tartlet housing chestnut mousse and Kirsch cherry-liquor ice cream, topped with whipped Chantilly cream. It looks like the famed French mountain crested with snow.

All I wanted to do by this point was ski home, so I had to wave off tempting offers from the other two hotels. This was a sin, considering that the St Regis Bangkok was proffering the Ottoman Rose – a rose-water jelly in a chocolate dome with orange sorbet – and the Novotel Bangkok Platinum had made a Braised Corn-fed Chicken Breast Fillet with a truffle and poached egg. 

 

 

TAKE YOUR TIME

>>The Taste It All festival continues right through November. 

>>It costs the same at every hotel: Bt3,900-plus for two. Kasikornbank credit-cardholder pays net. Advanced reservation is recommended. Visit www.HeartOfBangkok.com.

>>The Summer Palace at the InterContinental Bangkok is open daily for lunch and dinner. Call (02) 656 0444.

>>La Tavola & Wine Bar at the Renaissance Bangkok is open daily except Monday for dinner. Call (02) 125 5020.

>>Fifty Five at the Centara Grand at CentralWorld is open daily for dinner. Call (02) 100 1234. 

n Shintaro at the Four Seasons Bangkok is open daily for lunch and dinner. Call (02) 126 8866.

>>Tables Grill at the Grand Hyatt Erawan Bangkok is open daily for dinner. Call (02) 254 6250.

>>The Square at Novotel Bangkok Platinum is open daily for dinner. Call (02) 160 7100.

>>Viu at the St Regis Bangkok is open daily for dinner. Call (02) 207 7819.