Cosmopolitan Food, Latest Food Trend of 2012

Cosmopolitan Food, the newest food conception of 2012 by Unilever Group. 

The conception reflex the big city itself; Integrated cultures, Modern cooking method and faciness of presentation. Personally, I think fusion food with nice presentation would be eligible to the concept. 

The conception of Cosmopolitan Food based on 4 Factors.

1. Chef Inspiration
2. Ingredient Selection
3. Cooking Method
4. Presentation. 


Many chefs from all over Bangkok including the Executive chef of Water Library Michael Johari presented his Lolipop Foie Gras, a savory presented in form of dessert. Seasoned with Thai Tomyam spice and Japanese plum as a representative Cosmopolitan Food.

Other Cosmopolitan Food created by Thai chefs are Tomyam favor deep fried dumpling, Thai spice Carpaccio, Lemon Meringue and Crab Cake served with Somtam and such.


The renowned Water Library, In the mood for love, The Garret Secret Bistro Bar and Audrey Cafe & Bistro joined this latest food campaign, Cosmopolitan Food. We can expect new creations of Cosmopolitan Food  from these restaurants in short future.

SALT

Aree is probably mostly well known as the Sanctuary of café. Yet, there is another popular gene of dining place in this area, Bar and Restaurant.

One of the famous Bar and Restaurant in Soi Aree, SALT. The concept of the restaurant is  contemporary fusion food accompanied with various original cutting edge drink. My first visit to SALT was actually a late bite, we ordered not many foods yet a lot of drinks.

First dish landed on our desk was Chilled Tuna Pasta. I expected chewiness from al dente pasta, as this is a chilled one, Yet the pasta was completely cooked thoroughly. The sauce, which was Japanese Shouyu soy sauce based, it tastes okay, yet the it was too light and watery that it couldn’t attach itself to pasta when we pull up with fork. Tuna Sashimi was slightly under average.

A good dish, actually the best dish of the meal was, Grilled Beef with Fresh Wasabi sauce. The beef was grilled to the right doneness, medium rare. Wasabi sauce came in form of sticky paste with strong kick and aggressive flavor, which I found it was a delightful component to the fatty beef.

Deep Fried Crab meat Balls, which were nicely fried to gloden browning. Inside were packed with crab meat, Bacon and mushroom. Creamy taste crab meat ball was intensified with honey mustard sauce (The sauce was a bit too sweet for my liking, yet a good dish overall).  

SALT has high reputation on their pizza so we didn’t hesitated to try out. Many fake Italian join in BKK serve lousy dry and flaky thin pizza, yet SALT’s pizza was different. Pizza dough was nicely bake until golden brown and crispy outside, yet there was some moist left inside that it wasn’t too dry and hard chew.  The Italian sausage and Grilled vegetable were abundant.

The biggest fatal failure of the night would be the dessert, Tiramisu. I don't know what kind of fresh cheese or cream they use, but it doesn't taste like Mascapone and the smell was strange. 3 of us couldn't finish a small cup of this Tiramisu. Anyway, When the manager asked us about our impression of the meal, we frankly told her about this. And she was generous enough to remove Tiramisu from the bill. (She even went to kitchen to confirm with the chef if this is the way the chef wants the Tiramisu turn out to be. Apparently the answer from chef was 'Yes'. So there wasn't anything wrong about the dessert. She could have charge us, and I think she should. Yet she didn't.)

The drink has so many variety. There were plenty of original cocktail so we tried out many of them. SALT In Love (Cranberry vodka, Cointreau, Lemon, Orange), Sake Wasabi (Sake, wasabi. lemon), Full Moon (Gin, Cointreau,Lemon, Mandarin) , Lychee Slut (Tequila,CoinTreau,Lemon, Lychee), Sugar Daddy (Vodka, Peach Liqeur, Orange, Cranberry), Toy Boy (Gin, Creme de casis,Lemon), Beautiful Boxer (White Rum, Passion Fruit, Orange Vanilla), Dark Tall Handsome (Dark Rum, Kahluam Coca-Cola) and Smooth Operator (Brandym Kahlua, Bailey's). These drinks were good overall, even I found some of them were a bit too sweet. We need a few glasses of water.

One more thing should be mentioned about SALT is the ambience. Exotic unpainted cement was a nice combination to warm tone wooden goods . With some lighting, it turned out to be a fascinated place, I must say. 

SALT
111/2 soi aree, (corner soi ari 4), phaholyothin soi 7,, Bangkok, Thailand 10400
Mon - Sat : 18:00 - 24:00 

Close on Sunday

02-619-6886
http://www.saltbangkok.com

Rain Tree Cafe @Plaza Athénée Bangkok

Not very often I would find myself in a Hotel for buffet.

A friend of mine applied the member card of Plaza Athenee Hotel and acquired a 50% discount voucher for Rain Tree Café, the international buffet restaurant inside hotel.

The voucher is eligible for up to 10 persons, so she asked me and my friends to join her table for Sunday Brunch. (Not pretty sure about the full price, but the discounted price was 1660B net.)

Rain Tree Café’s Sunday Brunch is the most renowned meal of its own. With all you can eat Lobster, Foie gras, Wagyu and Movenpick ice cream as the highlight. Alcohol drinks are also included. And they even prepare weekly special dish, molecular food, prepared by the Chef in front of our eyes.

I dine out a lot, yet in the aspect of portion, I am not a big eater. I skip healthy salad and appetizer and went straight for main dishes like Lobster and Roasted Wagyu & Lamb.

The quality of food was nice yet I found the hot meat station over cooked most of the times. I was lucky enough to get moist and juicy Lobster for a couple of times, yet Lamb Chob was completely well done. Roasted Wagyu was cooked to the right doneness, yet I wonder if the Wagyu they use is a premium one, as there was no marbled fat to be seen in the meat. As if we were eating a nice Australia imported beef. (Which is not at all bad, by the way.)

Foie gras was generously served. Both pan-grilled one from the hot station and terrine one from cold cut station. Also there were few kinds of fresh Oyster, French one and Australian one, freshly cracked from the shell. The freshness was acceptable.

The special dish of the day was Fresh Ham and Tomato jelly, flavored with woody scent smoke. It was a delightful creation, as woody smoke gave a new sensation to the dish. While the ham and the smoke gave strong flavor, you tongue will be afterward refreshed by tanginess from tomato soup in jelly form slowly melting in your mouth.

We also had Frozen Cosmopolitan made from Apple Juice and Vodka foam being poached liquid nitrogen. The mixture turned out to be an fluffy icy apple vodka flavor foam dessert. The taste was like a common apple vodka sorbet, yet the texture was very interesting as liquid nitrogen froze the foam instantly, keeping the air inside the foam. The foam was completely frozen that once we put in in our mouths, our breaths turned to white color breezy smoke.  

Highlight among the highlight wouldn’t be anything else but the Movenpick Ice Cream. Caramel flavor is my favourite, pity it wasn’t available on the day of my visit. There were 7 flavors of them, Espresso/Swiss Chocolate/Raspberry/White Chocolate/Tiramisu/Pistachio/Maple Walnut. For me all creamy Movenoick Ice cream taste as good as Heaven Cloud. I had 12 scoops of them. Mostly Walnut and Tiramisu flavors. I didn’t even glance at other desserts like Apple Pie or Chocolate Mousse so I have no comment for other desserts.

Drinks were generally nice. I had Mojito and Sparlking wine. Also a cup of fine illy coffee cappuccino. The meal was great overall with 50% discount. Thank to my friend I had a pleasant Sunday afternoon.

Rain Tree Cafe
Plaza Athénée Bangkok, A Royal Méridien Hotel

61 Wireless Road Lumphini Pathumwan 10330

Breakfast 05:30 AM - 10:30 AM
Lunch 12:00 PM - 02:30 PM
Dinner 06:00 PM - 10:30 PM
Brunch 12:00 PM - 03:00 PM

02-650-8800 

http://www.plazaatheneebangkok.com/restaurant/theraintreecafe

Cafe Tartine

I found it's hard these day any brunch-lover would never been to the renowned Café Tartine.

Cafe Tartine position themselves as a cafe. Sandwiches, Omelette, Quiche, Crepe and many more French comfort dishes. As a plus, All menu are available in reasonable price and the portion is generous. Personally I think putting down Café Tartine with the other word like French Bistro wouldn’t be unjustified. 

Even though there are plenty of French bistros opening in Bangkok lately, what I found a huge advantage for Cafe Tartine is that the menu is very playful and flexible. They have D.I.Y. salad sand sandwiches starting from 75B. Groovy drinks menu like, Café latte in size XXL traditionally served in a bowl (That’s how a French enjoy drinking Café Latte.) or A glass of milk (40B) with additional shot of syrup (Vanilla, White Chocolate, Caramel, Hazelnut, Butterscotch). Aside from regular comfort dishes in the menu, Café Tartine is even bold enough to come up with special menu every day also.

On the day of my visit, Half Grilled Chicken with Garlic Jus was the special of the day. I seized the chance ordering it, also 3 other French comfort dishes. Later that I realize the portion of 4 dishes is way too much for a party of 2. Half Grilled Chicken with Garlic Jus came in Gigantic size, accompanied with a big bowl of thick-cut fries. I couldn’t possibly predict this portion from the reasonable price, only 199B. Chicken was nicely grilled, the meat was tender and juicy. The skin wasn’t crispy, yet the fat under the skin was completely gotten rid of. I found the Garlic Jus a bit too plain but caramelized onion helped intensify the taste.

Frankly speaking. I didn’t expect much of Pork Tenderloin Sandwiches when my friend ordered it. Yet surprisingly it was one of the best dish of the meal. Pork was well marinated, resulting in tenderness and juiciness. This cafe is brave enough to apply sufficient amount of mustard to the sandwich, and it gave the dish a delightful kick.    

The next one is Ham, Cheese and Béchamel sauce Crepe. The Crepe itself was a bit too thick to my liking. Rather like a pancake. Anyway, the Béchamel sauce inside was DELECTABLE that my friend and I had to say Wow! out loud. The sauce is very rich and concentrated. The last dish was the Omelette, which was fluffy and full flavor. The egg was perfectly half way cooked giving the soft and creamy texture.

I wanted to try their renowned Tart Tartin, yet we were too full for any solid sweets. So I ordered Chocolate Mousse for after meal dessert. I found it a rich fluffy custard based chocolate mousse with firm taste of chocolate.

I rarely mention about service, but I found it’s hard not to give a praise to their friendly and attentive service. Overall, Café Tartine is indeed a nice place that I would like to visit again. I had my mind on their Egg Benedict and Tart Tartin for next time.

Cafe Tartine

Open daily 8:00 - 20:00

02-168-5464 

Soi Ruamrudee at the Athenee Residence

65 Wireless Road (BTS Pleonchit)

Lumpini, Pathumwan

Bangkok 10330

www.cafetartine.net

Jidori-Ya KENZOU

This is my first visit to well and widely known as one of the best premium Yakitori house in Bangkok , the renowned Kenzou.

The food we had all entire meal were made from chicken only, yet each of them were prepared in different and fancy methods that we didn’t feel bored of chicken at all, on the opposite I found our dinner was very entertaining and colorful.     

We ordered a course of Yakitori (Including Radish Salad and 5 skewers). The starter Radish salad came with Tsuyu (Soy sauce dissolved in dry fish stock) and slow cooked egg. Unlike common salad dressing, Tsuyu is Soy sauce based light soup, no tanginess in there. The chef manage to add the tanginess in to this dish by using sliced Takuan, traditional pickled Radish which of course goes well with sliced fresh Radish.

Kenzou lives up to its name.  Thank to good quality Binchou Charcoal they use for grilling, All Yakitori skewers are nicely browned outside with the juice packed inside. These are DELECTABLE that we had to ordered some extras skewers other than those in yakitori course. The signature yakitori Toribou (Chicken Thigh with skin) would be my favorite. Each pieces of the meat were carved to same size and shape to assure each pieces are evenly grilled. Also other Yakitori Skewers are impressive with the right doneness. Ex : Refreshing Breast with Plum sauce and Shiso leaf, Tsukune (Minced Chicken meat on the stick) with Egg yolk, Nicely broiled Chicken Heart Skewer.

Other than Yakitori, many rare chicken dishes are also available. Ex: Tori Yukke (Minced Raw Chicken meat + Egg yolk + Sesame sauce) Tender minced chicken meat is enhanced with crispiness from fresh veggie and richness from egg yolk. They use fine quality of egg yolk which was very sweet and creamy.  Toriteba (Deep fried Chicken wings) was nicely crispy, but I personally don’t really like sweet sauce coated on chicken wings, as I don’t like sweet flavor in savory food. Gizzard with Miso vinegar sauce was again nicely cooked to the right tenderness, yet the flavoring wasn’t my cup of tea, I don’t think Miso and Vinegar make a perfect combination as both of them has too strong flavor and aroma.

The last savory dish which is a must to be mentioned would be Oyakodon (Rice topped with Chicken and Egg). Better not compare this to Oyakodon you have seen elsewhere. This is arguably the BEST Oyakodon in town. The chicken is charcoal broiled before being cooked with egg and soup, as a plus the chicken meat has nice aroma from charcoal broiling. The egg is cooked to the prefect soft-boiled stage giving it the thick creamy texture with rich sweetness from the egg itself. This is even better than most of Oyakodon I ever had in Japan.

Good news for Sweet tooth, Kenzou serve a nice dessert also. The most famous one would be Annin-Tofu Kinako (Milk Pudding with Soybean powder). Annin Tofu was full flavor, soft and creamy. Kinako(Soybean powder) and Brown sugar caramel give the dish a touch of Traditional Japanese. It was a nice finale to end our superb meal.

Jidori-Ya KENZOU

Open daily : 17:00 - 24:00
02-661-3457

http://www.jingcorporation.com/kenzou/kenzou_index.html

The Chocolate Master Class by Chef Jean-Louis Graindroge

I has been informed a delightful news that Wall Ice Cream has a curtain plan to upgrade Mugnam ice cream to a fancier form using Belgium chocolate for the chocolate coating.

The press conference was held at The Okura Prestige Bangkok, a newly opened 6 starts hotel on Wittayu Road. There also was a Belgium chocolate workshop being held at the event, which my blogger friends and I are invited to attend.

Chef Jean-Louis Graindroge, the head chef from ‘Duc de Praslin Belgium’ Chocolaterie was the conductor of the workshop. As a Belgium himself, he guarantees that Belgium Chocolate is the best one and is superior than those from other countries.

There is a simple way to prove the word he claimed, of course,  a tasting showdown. The chef arranged us a box of chocolate, contaning 6 pieces of chocolate in side. Country of the manufactor of each piece is written on the small card attached to each one. We are advised to eat each one in order from the list below.

1. Swiss White Chocolate (Sweet and creamy with vanilla-like smell. No chocolate flavor.)

2.English Milk Chocolate (Medium chocolate flavor, yet taste a bit sour)

3.American Milk Chocolate  (Medium chocolate flavor with nutty smell)

4.African (Peru) Dark Chocolate (64% Strong flavor. Sour smell.)

5.Asian Milk Chocolate (Compound chocolate with vegetable oil. Fake chocolate.)

6.Belguim Milk Chocolate (56% rich chocolate flavor. Creamy. Slowly mealt in your mouth.)

I wouldn’t define the 5th one as a chocolate. (And the way the Chef named it Asain Chocolate sure somehow hurts, I must say.) Anyway, the trick worked effectively, after we had vegetable oil based chocolate, Belguim Chocolate taste heavenly like never before. (Personally I like the 4^th one, Peru Dark Chocolate a lot too though.)

We also had Milk and White chocolate pairring with Prosecco and Dark Chocolate pairring with Red wine. White chocolate came with Raspberry Truffle filing and Milk Chocolate was filled with salty caramel. Dark Chocolate was stuffed with Hazelnut caramel. This is the first time I had chocolate with wine, I found wine can help washing and refreshing up my tongue far better than a cup of tea or coffee does.

That’s not all, after the event we are allowed to create our own original plate dessert from Belguim Chocolate Magnum, imported directly from Belgium. We enjoyed decolating our dishes with ourselves with friuts, nut and chocolate, and of course, eating the ice cream leaving the plate empty.

It sure was a enjoyable event I shared another good moment with my blogger friends. I would like to express my gratitude to Wall Ice Cream especially to the PR team (K.Fern and K.Ann) for inviting us. We all looking forward to see you again.

The Bar & The Restaurant

The first time I heard about ‘The Bar & The Restaurant’, I didn’t realize it was actually a name of a restaurant. I thought it was a description and frankly speaking, I even thought one should have come up with a better name with more impact.

Anyhow, Despite their unmemorable name, ‘The Bar & The Restaurant’ caught me off my guard with impressive dining experiences. I found all the foods I had there delightful. Every dish came with nice presentation and the quality of the ingredient is above average.

We went there with a party of 3 for Lunch Set. The options is quite limited, yet as the compensation, each dish are finely created and made.

For the starter, We had Shrimp Caesar Salad, Salmon Tartar and Insalata Caprese. Shrimp Caesar Salad  was a nice dish. Shrimp was fresh and plump and the salad was not overdressing. Salmon Tartar was mildly seasoned just right to bring out the sweetness from the fish itself. Herbal aroma from dill sure goes well with Salmon. Insalata Caprese was impressive also with decent quality Mozzarella Di Buffala. Chopped Shallot spices up the basil sauce to new sensation.

For Main course, we had Unilateral Grilled Scottish Salmon which was nicely grilled and seasoned  with cream sauce. Vongole pasta was cooked to al dente, intensified with garlic olive oil. The biggest star of the meal would be Deboned Chicken drum with mushroom sauce. Rolled chicken meat was grilled to the perfect stage of crispy skin outside juicy inside. Decoration of the dish was very fancy and colorful.

We had Profiterole , Honey French Toast, and Lime Sorbet for desserts which all were intensely satisfying. They were indeed decent desserts and far better than those being served in most of average restaurants. Yet after we had exceptionally great savory dishes, we expected dessert would be a little bit more fancy.

Anyway, ‘Don’t judge a book by its cover’ would be the lesson I learned from about ‘The Bar & The Restaurant’. I would like to come back for their tapas dinner next time.



The Bar & The Restaurant
open daily 11.00-01.00
24th Avenue, Sukhumvit24 Rd. Bangkok 10110
02-261-6677, 082-222-7474

Madison

I am a meat lover, and steak is one of my most favourite choices for beefy meal. Many gourmet friends of mine speak highly of Madison, Four Seasons Hotel, Saying they serve finely grilled beef steak. So my friend and I went to the hotel to try out their lunch set.

Madison offers 2 options for lunch set. 740B for 2 Courses (Salad Buffet Table and Main Course)  or  780B for 3 Courses (Salad Buffet Table + Main Course + Dessert). We both picked 3 Courses.

Anyhow, apparently it wasn’t our lucky day, as the main dishes in lunch set change daily and there was no grilled meaty dish included in the list on the day of our visit. So we unavoildably selected Lamb Stew and Braised  Ox tail for main courses. Also we ordered additional soup of the day, Lobster Bisque.

There were about 10 kinds of appetizers on the Salad buffet Table. Including Soft Shell Crab, Smoked Salmon/Duck beast and many mores. Appetizers in sald buffet table were in nice quality overall. Also the soup of the day, Lobster Bisque was full flavor and delightful.

The biggest problem would be the main dishes which were disappointing. Lamb meat in Lamb Stew was too dry and hard that I couldn’t chew. And the stew soup was too light. There wasn’t particular fatal problem about Braised Ox tail, the meat was nice and tender, yet it was not an impressive dish as the seasoning was too plain. The desserts were nice to look at, yet I won’t say dry and flaky macaron shell is exactly my cup of tea. 

That could have been the end of story, but it wasn’t as the PR of the hotel happened to find a blog my friend wrote, describing how we feel about the lunch we had. The hotel was friendly and generous much enough to invite us to try out their dinner at Madison.

We accepted the invitation, so there began our another trying out at Madison. We were there with a party of 4. Once we took a look at the menu, we know instantly that dinner menu and lunch menu are created with completely different level and standard. Prime US beef Beef steak starts from 2,400B (6oz Tenderloin).

We had ourselves nice starters. Complimentary Beetroot&Yogurt mousse was smooth and nicely made.  Scallop Cucumber Ceviche was refreshing. The scallops were perfectly fresh and plump. Pan-grilled Foie Gras was crispy outside, juicy inside.   Foie Gras was accompanied by onion compote which was new and very creative. Also Blue fin tuna tartare was fresh and seasoned just right to bring out the sweetness from the flesh of diced Tuna. 

For the main, 4 of us are all beef lovers, we had Prime US Rib eye and Tenderloin. Also Black Angus Prime Australian Striploin and T-Bone. All steak are cooked to the right doneness we selected, medium-rare. I think the meats were cooked Sous-Vide, before being lightly grilled only outside for the browning. As the result, our steaks were evenly pink through out the whole pieces. 

T-Bone and Striplion came with 1 inch thickness allowing the juice to be packed inside. Prime US beef came in smaller cut and portion, yet Prime US beef Ribeye would be my most favourite among 4 dishes we had. The meat is very tender, juicy and full flavor. Empty plates left us a big smiles.

PR manager was generous enough to share her Grilled North Sea Scallop with us. Scallop was fresh and packed with juice. Unfortunately I had to left the place earlier than the rest of my friends, So I missed the desserts. (My friends confirmed they serve on of the best Baked Alaskaa in town.) Anyway, after the dinner dining experience at Madison, I must say their dinner has far higher quality than lunch.

The biggest impression I found about the Madison is that, there is no specific nationality for this grill dining room. So the food is not limited to American, Italian or French. They serve grilled dish with flexible choice of side dish. You can design your meal in American way by selecting Onion Rings or going Europian with Sauteed Mushroom/Spinach. The choice is all yours.

Madison

Four Seasons Hotel Bangkok

155 Rajadamri Road, 10330 Bangkok, Thailand

Breakfast 6:00 am – 10:30 am

Lunch (Monday to Saturday) 12:00 – 2:30 pm

Dinner 6:00 pm – 10:30 pm

Sunday brunch 11:30 am – 3:00 pm

02-126-8866 ext. 123

www.fourseasons.com/bangkok/dining/restaurants/madison/