397

Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year!

Baruza

361
.

Fusion or confusion

A visiting friend stayed at Le Meridien Hotel on Surawong Road. We did dinner pretty late after a day of business meetings and a little bit of shopping. At almost 10 pm, most decent restaurants were closed. Since choice was not on our side and we were pretty hungry, for convenience we picked a bar, cum restaurant, across the street (from his hotel) to comfort our stomachs.

It was Baruza, a bar, a beer house, a Thai restaurant (proclaimed traditional Thai cuisine), a steakhouse and a Japanese fusion eatery under the same roof, all dishes cooked by the same chef. The interior is very Tokyo's Shinjuku feel (as it is investment from Japan), and the bill is of Tokyo standard - in Bangkok this means quite pricey.

We opted for Thai food that Baruza proclaimed is traditional and ended up worse than any tourist-palate-friendly standard, with a lack of any trace of authentication. I wonder if the chef uses purified sugar in stead of palm sugar in the kitchen. We ordered six dishes for a table of three persons (my visiting friend, my personal aide, and me). We started with somtum Thai (spicy shredded raw papaya salad, THB 130+); the salad was decorated with a piece of lettuce that made it seems funny, and taste lacked of any depth, not pungent hot, but very salty. Next dish was tord mun goong or deep-fried minced shrimp paste cakes (THB 150+), the color of the shrimp cake was nice, but the texture was too mashed-like, and pork belly seemed to be the main ingredients, not ground shrimp as they should be in a good balance. The next dish, was stir-fried chicken fillet with cashew nuts, for THB 220+ the portion of chicken and cashew nuts was thrifty, and the taste was ultra MSG enhanced.



We almost would like to leave the table to keep our taste-buds from suffering, but we needed to finish our order. We asked for fried fish, like the popular sea bass or grouper, but to no avail. The only fish available there was tabtim fish. It is a kind of fresh water fish developed locally by CP Farms and the cost is around THB 40 per fish at Tesco Lotus; decent restaurants don't have tabtim fish on the menu, while open-air pochanas or khao tom joints may offer it at around THB 100 to THB 150 per fish. At baruza it was THB 390+. The deep-fried tabtim fish appearance made me think of an over-sized cockroach, deep-fried in overnight cooking oil! Before we were free to have a cup of coffee, we needed to finish two more dishes, tomyumgoong (sour and spicy soup with prawn, THB 220+) and stir-fried seafood in yellow curry sauce (THB 290+). The tomtumgoong again had lack of depth in taste and was quite salty; the stir-fried seafood in yellow curry sauce would be better renamed to stir-fried vegetables in yellow curry sauce.

After dinner we went to Starbucks, the three of us never thought that drinks and pastry at Starbucks can be such a treat!

Baruza Restaurant **
135/18 Surawongse Road
Bangrak, Bangkok 10500
Tel.: 02.634.4433

Open daily : 11 - 1 am
Pay (food only for two): around THB 1,300 (Thai food)

Surawong hawker food

55
.

Cheap Eat

Roadside dining
Surawong area Hawker food



.

Ruen Urai

49
.

Ruen Urai

For decades Benjarong has been a culinary landmark in Bangkok, a recent revisit confirmed its status as one of the most established eateries serving authentic royal Thai cuisine a thon krueng (ancient chef in a royal kitchen) would have prepared the same. Benjarong not only earns countless credits from local and worldwide food critics, but also received the pride to provide the members of the royal family dinner the superb royal Thai touch.

The restaurant in elegant surrounding with outdoor dining overlooking the sparkling waterfall from the patio, offers a comprehensive selection of excellent dishes. My all time favorite is the Hor Mok Goong Mankrong, this steamed curry custard in banana leaf cup is usually mixed with minced fish while the Benjarong version is mixed with diced lobster. Freshness of lobster meat and the aroma of Thai herbs mingled with prik chee fa chilies made the custard cup so remarkable.

Our appetizer was Khanam Jeep Thai (minced pork wrapped in rice flour dumpling). Main dishes were Chuchee Kampoo (crab claw in red curry sauce), Pla Samlee Yum Mamuang (deep-fried king fish with green mango salad), Pad Pak Ruam Mit (stir-fried mixed vegetables), accompanied with Khao Ob Sapparot (baked seafood fried rice in whole pineapple).

Benjarong is the perfect place for entertaining friends and business associates, as well as dining alone. It is one of my favorite hotel’s Thai restaurants in town. Thais, equally as important as the taste in each recipe is the presentation. Dishes are served in intricately designed and elegant Benjarong crockery made from fine bone china after which the restaurant is named, Benjarong.

Le Bouchon

47
.

The bistro at Patpong

If there wasn’t our French buddy also a food consultant in 5-star hotels showing us Le Bouchon, we would never have found this gourmet sanctuary in the Bangkok Patpong red light district. Judging from the eatery name we expected the fare was a bit provincial to the Southern France as ‘bouchon’ means a bistro in Lyon, and we later found that our guess was right as the owner Serge Martiani is from this peaceful and beautiful town.

Decoration of Le Bouchon promotes our imagination of being in a bistro on the street of Lyon, with a taste of French and homey added some romantic ambiance as bonus, prompting it a perfect place to cheer your girlfriend or even for friends gathering as we did on the night of boxing day. Good food doesn’t need fancy decoration to do the cover up. We were so glad that Le Bouchon do home cooking (both classic and bistro dishes) which matching well with the atmosphere in the bistro and our appetite. Choices of wine in Le Bouchon were extensive not only limited to French labels, but we chose the French red wine recommended by the house to kick off the dinner.

Le Bouchon didn’t have a big menu instead their limited daily selections were written on a blackboard as a bistro will do. Savory dishes started with the starter Petits Clams a La Cream (baby clams in cream sauce), and the Salade de Chevre Chaud (warm goat cheese salad). The goodness of the clam was on the cream sauce and the goat cheese salad was aromatic in taste and rich in mouth I almost didn’t want to share them with friends.

Soup selection was limited as Le Bouchon would like to offer only its specialty and freshness from the market. We had Soupe de Lentilles (lentils soup), and the Bisque de Ciqales de Mer En Croute (lobster bisque in puff pastry). Didn’t like to place a comment here as I would like you to see for yourself how good it could be. Especially the lentils soup was worth us a ticket to Bangkok.
We shared two entrees, they were the Cuisses de Grenouilles a La Bressane (frog legs Bouchon style), and the St. Jacques Gratinees aux Epinards (scallops with spinach gratinated). Simply good!

Followed were our main courses. We had, Jarret d’Agneau Sauce au Romarin (lamb shank in white beans sauce), a dish of French specialty and Le Bouchon version didn’t let us down either. Also we had Fillet de Daurade Facon ‘Bouchon’ (sea beam fillet Bouchon style); then two duck dishes as Cuisse de Canard Confit ‘Maison’ (home made duck leg confit), and Magret de Canard a l’Orange (duck fillet in orange sauce). The succulent taste of duck confit was the traditional culinary art of French while duck stored in its own fat preserved the meat for a long period of time before brought to a gourmet table. We also ordered the Lapin Faqon ‘Bouchon’ (stewed rabbit in white wine sauce), and the Filet de Sole Sauce Champignons (sole fish in mushroom sauce).

We did blame the pleasant waitress for not warning us ahead that the portion was big, so we left no room for desserts. But the honest waitress did warn us that their kitchen was too compact to prepare home made desserts. So they sell what they got from next door. Oh, in this case we didn’t owe ourselves some sweet.

Bread served in Le Bouchon was good although they didn’t bake it, but they ensure matching quality to their dishes. As most brilliant French chef will do, Le Bouchon makes the use of native ingredients to ensure freshness, and the technique in French culinary. This is the way leading Le Bouchon to define French home cooking to its highest array in Bangkok, the unpretentious way.

Our Ratings (1 to 5 the higher the better): Le Bouchon has [4.1]
(Ratings are based on Food, Service and Ambience, with Price taken into account in relation to Quality) Food =4, Service=4.5, Ambiance=4, Money Worth=4

Price range for two without drinks (incl. local water) in Thai Baht = BBBB
(B=below 200, BB=201-500, BBB=501-1,000, BBBB=1,001-2,000, BBBBB=over 2,000)

Details: Open daily Dinner only 6-11pm (Reservation highly recommended)
Le Bouchon French Bistro, 37/17 Soi Patpong 2, Surawong Road, Bangrak, Bangkok; Tel.: 02-2349109
.