We thought we've had our last meal in Bangkok as we headed for Suvarnabhumi Airport, but thanks to a bout of stupidity with yours truly, we managed to miss our flight out of the city. Due to previously scheduled commitments the next morning, we ended up booking ourselves on a redeye flight at an ungodly hour. So... with more than 8 hours until we fly out, we decided the only thing for us to do was to head back into the city and get ourselves some dinner.
Having failed to pay for both of our meals at Gaggan this past week, Hello Kitty felt that we could show our appreciation by going to
Meatlicious and finally paying for a meal there. We decided to try out the
Airport Rail Link, and took the train to Ramkhamhaeng Station, then grabbed a taxi to Ekkamai Soi 6.
I pinged Gaggan on our way to the restaurant, asking him whether we'd have a problem getting seats at the last minute. I knew he was already in the middle of service for the first seating, so I didn't really expect to hear back from him.
We showed up at Meatlicious without a reservation, and were seated at the "chef's table" - counter seats facing the open kitchen. Of course, I was wearing my Hug Me I Smell Like Curry shirt that I got from Gaggan last night, which the staff immediately recognized. Chef Jorge Grande asked me how I liked the food there...
After the ordeal I just put ourselves through, we badly needed a few drinks... so I ordered up my favorite
Hitachino Nest Weizen (常陸野ネスト ヴァイツェン), since the White Ale was not available tonight.
The Great One told us that she really enjoyed the rice congee when she was here yesterday, so we ordered up bowls of
khao tom Meatlicious - which was basically
pot-au-feu with rice. This was indeed very good, and uses up the bits of meat that the restaurant otherwise would have discarded. What a great way to reduce food waste!
Argentine chimichurri - a really delicious tenderloin from Argentine cattle that was grass-fed but grain-finished. Definitely nice flavors in the meat, and that
chimichurri was good...
Just look at this... so tender and juicy!
Meatlicious roast chicken - Hello Kitty doesn't eat chicken when we're in Hong Kong, as she finds them tasteless, but she loved this Tanaosree chicken. It was so delicious and so well roasted that we didn't need any of the condiments on the side.
I also needed a second beer, so I got myself a
Hitachino Nest Red Rice Ale (常陸野ネスト レッドライスエール). Yum.
My phone rang in the middle of dinner, and it was Gaggan - wondering whether I was OK. I told him we were already at Meatlicious and that everything was fine. Five seconds after Gaggan hung up, it was Jorge's phone's turn to ring. Of course Gaggan was calling him to tell him to take care of us and not to let us pay. I didn't know exactly what Gaggan said, but I told Jorge not to listen to whatever was being said by whoever was calling him.
But clearly Jorge wasn't gonna ignore his boss' instructions, and we weren't given a bill at the end of our meal, despite our protestations. So I left a tip big enough to cover the cost of the dinner.
We still had a few hours before our flight, and our friends RC and Ro Ro were actually having dinner at
Gaggan, so Hello Kitty and I decided to crash their dinner date. We were, of course, taking advantage of our relationship with the restaurant's owner and staff... And I walked in still wearing my T-shirt, which was exactly what the kitchen staff was wearing. One of the managers later told me - not sure whether he was joking or not - that he thought I was a staff member...
So we ended up sitting with our friends for the next couple of hours, sipping on wines that they generously shared with us - which we exchanged for the leftover portion of our delicious roast chicken from Meatlicious.
2012 Knoll Grüner Veltliner Smaragd Loibner - nice and mineral, a little white pepper on the nose. Ripe on the palate.
2009 San Giuseppe Stella di Campalto Riserva - very fragrant with dried herbs, sweet on the nose. A little vanilla and coconut butter. Soft on the palate.
It was a nice way to end our last day in Bangkok, in spite of the travails we had to go through. We were happy to (unexpectedly) spend some time with our friends, and of course very happy to see Gaggan and Vladimir - for the fourth time in 6 days and for the third day in a row. Hopefully we'll see them soon in Hong Kong.
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