Woke up to another glorious morning in Bangkok, and I was hungry! So I decided to go down and get breakfast in the hotel, which is served at
Riva del Fiume Ristorante. I normally don't care for buffet breakfasts but I wanted to take things easy today. It has been a LONG time since I last took in a meal or a drink by the Chao Phraya River so I decided to get myself a table on the terrace.
I tried to pick up a few things which gave me more of a "local" flavor, but I did start with one of these very pretty
butter croissants.
Then moved on to the
pandan and coconut French toast.
I could never pass up an opportunity to have some
Thai northern east sour pork sausage (ใส้กรอกอีสาน) with rice vermicelli inside. In some parts of the world, sausages are seen as the perfect complement to French toast, right?
The
Thai style BBQ pork on sticks was OK.
Just a liiiiitle bit of
pad thai (ผัดไทย) for the sake of, well, having
pad thai.
And I wouldn't dream of not having mango in Thailand. Didn't ask about the cultivar, but this was pretty good.
I had a short break after breakfast, then went down to the Urban Wellness Center. The welcome drink was made with roselle, honey, and ginger.
After being treated to the Four Seasons Bangkok Signature Massage, I came away very relaxed and enjoyed a small half of pineapple as well as a pandan and lemongrass drink.
After checking out of my room, I went over to have lunch at the brand new
Palmier by Guillaume Galliot - which was, after all, why I came all the way to Bangkok.
The amuse bouche was a salmon tart topped with some salmon roe. The flavors from the dill were pretty nice.
The baguette was pretty on point and legit.
Roasted frog legs in parsley emulsion, spinach coulis, mushroom - it's been a long time since I last had frog legs like these...
My friends know how much I love putting food on good bread, and I just couldn't resist. I probably should have smeared more of the parsley emulsion here, but this was tasty enough.
My hot and cold onion soup: onion ice cream, marmalade, Melba toast and parmesan - OK... so I was a little disappointed. Not with the flavors here, as they were very much as I remembered from previous meals where I had this soup. I still love the
chaud-froid contrast here, but it was missing an element that was very prominent the
first time I tasted it back at
The Tasting Room - the long, thin slice of baguette emerging out from the center.
Well... after I joked about having a
schlong in my soup, Hairy Legs decided that the soup needed to be more "elegant"... so no more
schlong.
Chou farci: stuffed cabbage with duck and pork, seasonal fruit marmalade - this was a REAL disappointment. I was so excited to see
chou farci on the menu, and immediately visualized a smaller version of
this beauty I had in Paris late last year. But why isn't this round like a ball?!
We've got chewy duck skin inside, and the flavors of liver were pretty prominent, which needed the marmalade to provide acidity and sweetness for balance. The sauce was also pretty rich. I think there's definitely room for improvement here.
That was a lot of food for me, so I passed on dessert and just had the
macaron and the
canelé to finish.
Many thanks to Hairy Legs and Four Seasons Bangkok at Chao Phraya River for having me, and I wish my friend can manage to make this into a great place for people to go for some simple but delicious French fare. Finally, congratulations to Keith on the new gig!
Time to move to a different hotel that is more centrally located for my itinerary for the next few days.
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