Simply made for eating

THERE’S NOTHING like a long drawn-out weekend brunch in the company of friends and relatives to bring a stressful week to a restful close. Most, of course, are organised for Sundays, the day on which the majority of hotel and independent restaurants lay out their buffet delicacies. But the Up & Above restaurant at the Okura Prestige Bangkok is now offering an alternative choice by offering a Saturday brunch featuring an extensive selection of seafood, Thai and Chinese delicacies.

Seating 100, the market-style buffet presentation, which also offers a la carte options, comprises live station food huts and a wide selection of dishes cooked to order. At the seafood station, you can have river prawns, Alaskan king crabs or mussels or ask one of the attentive members of staff to chuck oysters delivered fresh from the Southern province of Surat Thani.

The oysters are carefully selected for their size as well as their chewy, sweet and buttery flesh. You can enjoy them as nature intended with a drop of raw lemon juice or Thai style with golden fried shallot and garlic, Thai-style spicy sauce and a sprig of krathin (white popinac).

The giant river prawn from Ayutthaya is another highlight and you can order it grilled, baked with black bean sauce or wok-fried with black peppercorns.

Over at the Chinese station, a chef stands ready to slice ham and chop BBQ suckling pig and crispy pork belly. 

“As our Sunday brunch focuses on international dishes with lobsters from the US as a highlight, we decided that our Saturday brunch should emphasise local best-quality ingredients like Surat Thani’s oysters and Ayutthaya’s giant river prawns. We are sourcing the very best products from local markets throughout Thailand. There are also ‘live’ cooking stations, obviously inspired by the traditional food stalls in Asian markets, where you can have shabu shabu, Mongolian-style grilled meats and seafood, BBQ suckling pig and Thai sweets,” says assistant executive chef Jachnarong Taksapagorn. 

The Mongolian station offers everything from pork, beef and chicken to squid and scallop and diners can ask for them to be cooked as they prefer them. The meats, according to Jachnarong, are marinated with sesame oil and dabbed with Mongolian sauce made from a marinade of ginger, sesame, chilli, garlic and sesame oil before being grilled. There’s also a less strong Mongolian sauce made without chilli for those who can’t tolerate the hot flavour.

A wide selection of dishes jostle for space on the buffet line and include stir-fried prawns with red curry, wok-fried pork with black peppercorn and spicy prawn soup as well as spicy salads made with Chinese sausage, squid and soft-shell crab. There are some Western choices too, among them potato gratin, pan-fried seabass fillet with pesto balsamic, pork loin with BBQ sauce and lamb stew. The sushi bar, dim sum counter, salad, dessert and seasonal fruit corners are irresistible. 

Do keep enough space to try the typical Thai dessert of khao kriab pak mor – steamed rice-skin dumplings filled with minced chicken, roasted peanut and garlic – or the crepes with seasonal fruits prepared live at the dessert station. 

 

BOUNTIFUL BRUNCH

The Saturday brunch is available every Saturday from noon to 4pm. It’s priced at Bt1,950 with free-flow soft drinks and mocktails, or Bt2,650 with selected free-flow wines, local beers and cocktails.

Up & Above is on the 24th floor of the Okura Prestige Bangkok on Wireless Road. Call (02) 687 9000 or visit www.OkuraBangkok.com.