Green House

10
.

Midnight eating pleasure

I assume Bangkok has surpassed Singapore of ASEAN shopping paradise as shopping centers here are more creative tend to offer shoppers pampered services. Merchandise is diversified and creative, not just those boring brands we see everywhere. The only setback is the air-conditioning is always too cold (in any major shopping mall). We didn't shop for international brands but focus on those creative and unique local designer labels and home decor stuffs. However, we still couldn't resist the Lacoste sale with eight big bags carried back home. After a tired day we took a nap and moved the dinner to 11pm.

Where in Bangkok can still offer us with a decent dining near midnight? The answer is, the Green House at the 4-star Landmark Hotel. The Hotel has ten F&B outlets in the compound offering gourmet around the world. Green House is the hotel's coffee shop serving the hungry of us not only Western and Thai fare but the best keep secret in Green House is they also serve authentic and ho-mei (delicious) Cantonese light meal. It is a perfect match to have such a meal at late night as it is light.

The Chinese menu at the Green House is those family kind with a focus in bistro specialty and barbecued meat instead of some grand fare such as Peking duck (anyway Peking duck is not a Cantonese dish), shark fins soup, steamed live fish and braised abalone. Just some typical tea-room and street side dishes Hong Kong people eat around the corner in their everyday routine. We didn't want to eat too heavy that night, so we ordered four mains to accompany with rice and noodles. Our first order was barbecue honey glazed pork, the meat was tender and the taste is naturally sweet with hints of aroma from barbecue. Followed by soy sauce chicken, a highly recommended dish from me; just taste as good as we eat in Hong Kong I therefore wondered if the chef abandon the use of local soy sauce for Hong Kong one. Both dish has its sauce served separately. Came next were poach pak kwang-tung veggie with oyster sauce, fair but not outstanding; and stir-fried grouper fillet with Chinese celery, another dish got my thumbs up. The deep-fried fillet was fresh, crispy outside and flesh was soft, then stir-fried again with celery and other ingredients brought out the taste of celery and seafood sweetness in a good balance.



To accompany with the mains, we had rice roll noodle filled with barbecue pork, a dim-sum type food, the rice roll noodle here was not very thin but acceptable; noodle with braised beef brisket, chunk of meat was braised in its perfection and seasoned to exactly like those prepared in Hong Kong; noodle with wontons (dumplings Hong Kong), consisted of five big wontons with fresh whole shrimps; and noodle with braised pork knuckle, another dish that is outstanding. The Pork knuckle braised in broth for hours was tender and aromatic, seasoned with fermented bean curd (pink) paste, a secret weapon in Cantonese culinary.

Hainanese chicken rice in Green House served with three kind of sauces known as sweet soy sauce, ginger and chives oil, and sour chili sauce. There are not many places in Bangkok serve such marvelous sauce of the same quality, so we ordered one even we were quite full.

Judging that there are many sophisticated-looking locals out of a few tourists tucking into great mounds of good food here, I assumed that Green House already earned a reputation in causal dining among Bangkokkians. Green House also serves Western and Thai fare. I will review them in a separate post in the near future.

Green House Coffee Shop ***1/2
The Landmark Hotel
138 Sukhumvit Road
Klongtoey, Bangkok 10110
Tel.: 02.254.0404
Landmark dining

Open daily : around the clock (yes 24 hours)
Pay (food only for two): around THB 600