La Table de Tee

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La table of tasting

Click to read CNNgo, BK, and Bangkok Post talk about London Roussillon trained chef Chatree (Tee) Kachorklin and his La Table de Tee in Bangkok. Praised by media and foodies have made La Table de Tee flies loose. A revisit last night I found that the restaurant made some changes (but not necessary sound improvements).

The dining room, from smart and well lighted ambiance we enjoyed last time, now becomes deadly dim. This is to make sure those LED sexy girls nasty dancing in the box been seen.

The 5-course (not seven, unless we also count the bread and petit four) dinner rolled out directly with its first course (a soup), skipping that amuse bouche most French restaurant may do. Also skipping was the sorbet to cleanse taste in between a course being served.

Last night, I didn't see chef Tee came out from the kitchen to check if customers enjoy the dinner while La Table de Tee claimed to be Bangkok's true chef table according to media! And, waiters hesitated to announce the food and briefly explain what were on the plate upon delivered to my table.

So La Table de Tee does make some "changes" from my previous visit few months ago. I agree with Bangkok Post's khun Vanniya said that "there are a number of absolute hits and definite misses at La Table de Tee"; in my view both food and service.


1st course - Sweet corn and garlic soup
2nd course - Tofu tempura and cumin salad

3rd course - (choice)
Risotto in vegetable stock and white wine, sauteed seaweed, sweet basil & lime sauce
/or Salmon with coriander paste, sauteed mushroom & kale, coriander curry sauce

home-baked bread

4th course - (choice)
Chicken breast stuffed with herbs, crispy rice tuile, lime and tomatoes chicken jus
/or Duck breast with lemongrass oil served with cooked vegetable and duck jus

desserts - Chocolate fondant and coconut ice cream
petits fours

If it wasn't that destructive LED eyes-sore from Shanghai (hanging on the wall) spoiled my appetite, Tee deserves a four-star rating in this post.

La Table de Tee ***1/4
69/5 Soi Saladaeng, Silom Road
Bangrak, Bangkok 10500
Tel.: 02.636.3220
LaTableDeTee

Open Tuesday-Sunday : 6:30 pm - 10:30 pm
Pay (5-course tasting menu): THB 750+ per person
* no a la carte menu served


judging from the LED sexy pictures hanging on the wall, my friend said he suspects that La Table de Tee is a sex club if I didn't tell him that it is a restaurant in the first place

DooRae

BANGKOK AMAZING GOURMET
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Kimchi fantasy

Sukhumvit Plaza (corner Sukhumvit Soi 12) is well known to Bangkokians as the Korean Town. There never run out of authentic Korean restaurants. One restaurant caught foodies attention is DooRae.

Armed with owner Kim Seungwoo's grandma inherited recipes, DooRae standing-out from the others. Eating at DooRae is not just bulgogi (Korean barbecue) but rather selective home-cooking dishes from the Seungwoo family.


1. kimchi ji gae (fermented sweet and spicy vegetables stew with tofu and pork)
2. mul naengmyeon (chilled noodle in beef consomme Pyongyang style)

banchan (side dishes)

3. sam gae tang (chicken soup with Korean ginseng)
4. bibimbab (mixed rice and vegetables in gochujang chili sauce served in a stone bowl)

DooRae Korean Restaurant ****
1/F Sukhumvit Plaza
212/15 Sukhumvit Road
Klongtoey, Bangkok 10110
Tel.: 02.653.3815

Open daily : 10:30 am - 10 pm (except the second Monday of each month)
Pay (food only for two): around THB 500

Krua Puksa

BANGKOK AMAZING GOURMET
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Escape to serenity

Went to Crystal Design Centre in the afternoon but didn't want to eat mall food. Therefore I revisit a nearby country style restaurant, Krua Pusak, to do my early dinner.

Krua Puksa serves simple yet delicious central (Thai) dishes in the setting of traditional Thai wooden house and pavilions with countryside influence in its decoration.


1. spicy and sour prawn soup; 2. stir-fried bitter gourd leaves

3. deep-fried sea bass in Thai herbs dressing

Krua Puksa Thai Restaurant ***1/4
12/3 Moo.1, Praditmanutham Road
Ladprao, Bangkok 10230
Tel.: 02.553.1244
Krua Puksa



Open daily : 5 pm - 1 am
Pay (food only for two): around THB 400

DEAN & DELUCA

BANGKOK AMAZING GOURMET
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A taste of SoHo in Bangkok

I have many dreams. I dream that two world finest grocery and gourmet markets, FAUCHON Paris and DEAN & DELUCA New York, may come to Bangkok. Now one of them just landed (to Bangkok).

It is DEAN & DELUCA.

A sample meal may start with minestrone (THB 150+), follow by mouthwatering roasted beef sandwich (THB 170+), concludes with a cup of coffee (THB 65+) and vanifon's aristo (cup) cake (THB 90+). Before temporary farewell to DEAN & DELUCA, get some D&D kitchen herbs, bread and a bottle of truffle oil for yourself or loved half. That was what I did yesterday.



DEAN & DELUCA ***3/4
Mahanakhon Project

92 Narathiswasrachanakarin Road

Silom, Bangkok 10500
Tel.: 02.234.1434
DEAN & DELUCA

Open daily : 7 am - 8 pm
Pay (food only for two): around THB 500

Starbucks

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Share a cup. Share a story.

I have read a book when I was 14, 'What They Don't Teach You at Harvard Business School'. I believe that Howard Schultz must have read this book too.

The success of Starbucks does not lay on the food (definitely not on its coffee) alone, but rather on the service. Starbucks is probably the only fast-food category restaurant that comes with good service. Eighty percent of customers are not foodies, but all of them are discerning consumers. Starbucks has very strong marketing strategy and impeccable customer service to all. They share with customers "what we want" instead of what the company "push you to have" like some other brands do.

A greeting card from Starbucks has being sent to me on my birthday's month, every year. I have no idea where did they obtain my address from, as I have never disclosed my mailing address to them. (A little surprise!) For hotels and restaurants, through membership, keep sending promotional materials to me, which is their main purpose of course. In contrast, Starbucks, never sent me any junk (promotional) mail. Just cards and gift vouchers. This is an impeccable marketing job.

I don't go to Starbucks for beverage and food, but comfort drink and soul food. Shared and connected, so to enjoy. That's a lifestyle.

Starbucks Coffee ***
39/1 Soi Langsuan
Ploenchit Road
Lumpini, Bangkok 10330
Tel.: 02.684.1524
.. and at major shopping centers
or around the corner of your house
Starbucks Thailand

Open daily : 10 am - 10 pm
Pay (a treat for two): around THB 350

Steak Today

270
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Steaks for all

Where in Bangkok almost all twenty vendors in a food court serve steaks instead of soup noodle or one dish rice menu? There is one (and only one) - The Samyan Food Loft.

Samyan Market, the first modern fresh market in Thailand, is located in the vicinity of Chulalongkorn University for half a century. Two years ago the renowned Market had been relocated (by the Chula Committee) to its present location between Chula Soi 32 and Chula Soi 34. The new Market is bigger, brighter and better. Second floor of the Market is a welcomed food court (or Samyan Food Loft) for the pretty well-off Chula students and Samyan residents. Maybe high-so kids don't like somtum, they have a good appetite on steaks.


chicken steak, THB 70

additional steak sauce the Samyan Food Loft style

mixed grill on sizzling hot plate, THB 130 (since the beef steak is not from Snake River, to save my teeth, I asked for a replacement, a piece of fish fillet, very fresh, and good)

Steak Today ***
Upper Floor, Samyan Food Loft
Samyan Fresh Market
Chula Soi 34 (/Chula Soi 9)
Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330
Tel.: 02.214.1001

Open dialy : 10 am - 8 pm
Pay (food only for two): around THB 200

Tan Tan Men

BANGKOK AMAZING GOURMET
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The real thing

Recently there are too many ramen outlets opened in Bangkok sharing the cake of Jap food scene. Some claimed to be direct from Japan but came here only to embarrass citizens of the rising sun. Some bought the franchise from Japan but without enthusiasm to boil a bowl of ramen right. Some just worse, purely imitation by locals.

My choice. Good ramen joints still honor to the old guns. Ramentei in the south of Bangkok's Silom and Surawong area; and Tan Tan Men in the east of Bangkok's Sukhumvit area. Of course Sagano and Yamagoya are also in my list of favorites.


chilled noodle with sesame paste sauce
ramen with pork cutlet in Japanese curry thick broth

Chinese influence gyoza (dumplings)

ramen with fried chicken piece in Japanese curry thick broth
vegetables tempura

Tan Tan Men ***3/4
Soi 33/1 Sukhumvit Road
Wattana, Bangkok 10110
Tel.: 02.259.9599

Open daily : 11 am - 12 midnight
Pay (food only for two): around THB 400