WHEN CHAROEN Pokphand Group – Thailand’s largest agribusiness and food conglomerate – joined forces with Taiwan’s leading hotel and restaurant operator HiLai, the result was bound to be delicious. A must for all big eaters – and smaller ones too – is the country’s biggest international buffet restaurant Harbour, which can accommodate 450 diners a round or 1,000 diners a day.

Taiwan’s famed international buffet restaurant brand Harbour opens its first outlet in Thailand at Iconsiam with a megasize dining area and a large choice of dishes.

Spanning 2,000 square metres on the sixth floor of Iconsiam, this is the first outlet in Thailand of Taiwan’s famous buffet brand that first saw the light of day at Taiwan’s Grand HiLai Hotel in 2003 and now has seven outlets in Taiwan and two in China.

Operated under the joint-venture firm CP-Hilai Harbour Restaurant Group with Bt130 million in registered capital, the restaurant has an elegant ambience and boasts the silver, gold and bronze palette of Iconsiam’s key decoration.

A selection of tempura

“Harbour has enjoyed overwhelming success in Taiwan and China. We believe that we will be warmly welcomed by Thai consumers thanks to the restaurant’s strengths and the Thai love for eating out. And that’ll be the beginning of Charoen Pokphand Foods’s success in the restaurant business,” CPF’s chief operating officer for the food business Sukhawat Dansermsuk said in a recently released statement.

Harbour, which opened late last month, is CPF’s first step into the luxury retail restaurant business, having preferred up to now to focus on quick service eateries Chester Grill and CP Kitchen. It expects to generate revenue of Bt240 million in its first year.

Pizza and teppanyaki station

Encircling the mega-size dining area are six large cooking stations offering seafood and Japanese, Western, Asian, Chinese, pizza and teppanyaki, as well as desserts and drinks. The high-ceiling restaurant is decorated in warm wood tones and furnished with banquettes, circular couches and wooden tables and chairs. There’s enough space between seats to give diners a sense of privacy.

The buffet for weekdays is arranged for lunch (11.30am to 2.30pm) and dinner (5.30 to 9.30pm). The former costs Bt941-net for adults and Bt471-net per child, while dinner is marginally more expensive at Bt1,058-net and Bt530-net respectively. There’s all-day service at weekends with the buffet going for Bt1,294-net and Bt648-net for adult and child respectively. This month’s promotion is “dine in a party of four, get one free”.

A variety of sushi

“We offer a more than 200 items, which is more than the buffet selection in any hotel. All choices of beverages including free-flow beers are also included in the price tag,” says director Jason Wang who oversees the culinary team.

The biggest station sits next to the entrance and is laden with seafood and Japanese food selections. As of now, the seafood is not as varied as might be expected. Displayed on ice are three-spot swimming crabs, sea shrimps, oysters, Babylon snails, and New Zealand mussels.

Shrimps on ice

The big draw is the sashimi, sushi and tempura. The sashimi choices include salmon, hamachi (yellow-tail fish), maguro (tuna), tako (octopus), sea bass and shime saba (cured mackerel). Diners can feast on nigiri sushi with a variety of toppings such as grilled eel and flash-torched salmon, together with nori maki, inari sushi with tofu skin and chirashi – rice topped with a variety of raw fish and vegetable garnishes. Chilled soba noodles with a variety of sauce choices are also available.

Barbecued pork, roasted duck and chicken

The Chinese station offers such dim sum choices as har gau (steamed shrimp dumpling), steamed sumai with shrimp and mined pork, double boiled phoenix talons (chicken claws) in abalone sauce, and stewed pork intestine with Chinese five spices. Not to be missed are the BBQ pork, crispy-skin roasted duck and chicken and stir-fried beef rumen with Sichuan-style mala spice.

“Among the most popular dishes at every Harbour outlet are stewed scallop cooked with crabmeat and XO sauce in casserole that is made fresh upon ordering, as well as beef soup and danzai noodles, which originate from Tainan province in the South of Taiwan,” adds Wang.

Stewed scallop with crabmeat and XO sauce in casserole

The crabmeat, needle mushrooms and egg seasoned with in-house XO sauce made mainly from dried shrimp, scallop and chilli are cooked in a hot casserole before the scallop stew is added.

Taiwanese-style beef soup corner

For Taiwanese-style beef soup, fresh thin slices of Australian beef are available to cook in your choice of beef bone and daikon soup or Thai-style spicy soup. Tainan’s speciality dish of danzai noodle soup offers chewy yellow noodles in an amber coloured consomme that’s topped with simmered minced pork, and seasoned quail eggs. It’s seasoned with your choice of chilli oil, bean sprout, chopped spring onion, fried garlic and pickled vegetables.

Danzai noodle soup

The Asian station is currently dominated by Thai cuisine such as pad Thai with river prawn, som tum and boat noodles all prepared in front of the diner.

“About 60 per cent of our customers are tourists who would like to try Thai food. We will be offering Korean, Vietnamese and Indian cuisine later,” he says.

 Pad thai with river prawn

Those who fancy some Western cuisine have a choice of 20 items in the salad bar with different sauces along with cold cuts, roasted Australian beef and salmon, pork knuckle, Italian tomato seafood and Hungarian beef stew. There’s also a pizza and teppanyaki station offering Italian-style pizzas and spaghettis together with the popular dish of steak served on a sizzling pan found in Taiwan’s night markets.

Flambe orange brandy

To cleanse the palate, Harbour offers flambe orange brandy for which a Valencia orange is split into halves and flame-tossed with a sugar topping and brandy.

Fluffy pancake

Wang is justifiably proud of the dessert station, which has over 40 choices of Western and Thai sweets. They include cheesecake, white chocolate mousse, vanilla creme brulee, financier, strawberry choux as well as Thai favourite mango sticky rice. The signature Harbour dessert is fluffy pancake with your choices of whipped cream, caramelised strawberry, fruit salad, honey and almond flakes. Premium Movenpick ice creams in different flavours are all-you-can-eat.

Bubble milk tea

For drinks, the options range from canned soft drinks, fruit punch, smoothies, to tea and coffee, beer and of course, Taiwan’s famous bubble milk tea.

BUBBLING OVER

Harbour is on the sixth floor of Iconsiam mall in Bangkok.

Call (02) 033 0158 or search for “Cp-Hilai Harbour Restaurant” |on Facebook.

The exclusive epicurean evening will see Menard creating a special four-course dinner for guests at the seafront Seven Seas Wine Bar and Restaurant. Guests will be treated to a refined menu that focuses on light, vibrant flavours. While the dishes will have their roots in French cuisine, they will also reflect the chef’s personal culinary journey which has taken him all across Asia, including to Japan. To ensure a deep connection with Koh Lanta, many ingredients will be sourced from the resort’s own herb garden.

The evening will commence with an amusebouche of borscht emulsion with marinated mushroom, followed by an appetiser of confit salmon with caviar, asparagus and Chantilly sauce. The main course will showcase lightly poached turbot with white wine and extra virgin olive oil emulsion, ikura and condiments and the feast concludes with a dessert of textured red fruit with espuma de creme Catalane.

“We are thrilled to welcome chef Bruno back to Koh Lanta for another amazing evening of gastronomy. Our aim is to establish our resort as a renowned gastronomic destination. This takes time of course, but our ability to attract the world-class chefs like Bruno is a wonderful reflection of the progress we’re making. We want to inspire guests through food and create culinary occasions that diners will treasure forever,” said Franck de Lestapis, Pimalai’s general manager.

The dinner costs Bt3,150 net per person for the four-course menu or Bt4,900 net paired with wine.

Menard comes from a family of food professionals; his father was a famous chocolatier in France before his brother took over the family business, and his sister is the head of a hotel in Paris. His 35-year career as a chef has included many highlights, including earning three Michelin stars for L’Osier in Tokyo. He also founded his own culinary consulting business in Singapore, and he was a judge on the popular TV show “MasterChef Asia”.

In 2018, he became the food director at Junon, the celebrated French restaurant in Hong Kong, and executive chef at Vranken-Pommery Monopole, which owns a collection of exceptional European vineyards, including many in the Champagne region of France.

For more information about the Gastronomic Journey dinner, visit https://pimalai.com/promotion/gastronomicjourney.

WHEN IT comes to seafood, particularly crabmeat, Viya Crab Co in Chaiya district of Surat Thani has a well-earned reputation for finding only the best.

As a leading manufacturer and distributor of seafood products, the firm exports some 300 tons of crabmeat annually and four years ago expanded its reach to the dining retail business with the opening of a standalone restaurant Chaolay Seafood on Bangkok’s Nawamin Road.

Chaolay Seafood restaurant offers a wide selection of seafood dishes and delicacies – all are also halal-certified.

Catering to people living and working in downtown Bangkok, the second outlet of Chaolay Seafood just opened on the sixth floor of MBK Mall with an extensive list of seafood dishes mostly cooked in Southern style. The dishes are also halal-certified, meaning they adhere to Islamic dietary rules – no pork or pork by-products and no alcohol. The entire production, including storage and the utensils and equipment used, are processed according to halal requirements.

The new branch can accommodate about 60 diners and boasts floor to ceiling windows to allow the light to pour in. Deliberately low key, the better to appreciate the food, the dining area is equipped with wooden tables and chairs, plus marble tables with brown sofas. The shelves are decorated with household kitchen utensils such as mortars and pestles, enamelware and pots. Blue crabs swim in the glass tanks.

“Surat Thani, my hometown, is one of the best sources of blue crabs with sweet and delicate flesh though the price is higher than other sources. The wholesale price for the chunks of crabmeat taken from the paddle-legs can cost Bt3,000 per kilo,” says Mareeya Laojaroen, a daughter of Viya Crab Co’s founder.

“My mother started the business by distributing fresh crabs from Surat Thani to Yaowarat – Bangkok’s Chinatown – until she could manage to open a plant in her hometown of Chaiya district. We have supplied seafood, mainly crabmeat, to leading local restaurants and other countries including the US, Singapore and Hong Kong. We also set up a crab bank to promote sustainable fisheries in the community,” she says.

Crab Condo 

The best-selling product of the company is the ready-to-eat pasteurised canned crab under the brand Siam Crab. The restaurant is a good channel to promote its products to retail customers through a dish amusingly called Crab Condo (Bt1,350).

A 454-gram jumbo-sized can of crabmeat is steamed and served on a plate, allowing diners to slowly remove the can to reveal the layers of crabmeat. Diners can opt to eat some portions, then ask the staff to cook the rest as they prefer, in hot sour soup or stir-fried with curry powder, yellow chillies or black pepper without extra charge. The canned crabmeat is also available to take home.

 Cooked Rice with Crabmeat 

A single dish of Cooked Rice with Crabmeat (Bt159) looks simple but tastes heavenly. The jasmine rice is simply cooked with crabmeat, crab roe, chopped chilli, red onion, garlic and spring onion and seasoned with freshly squeezed lemon juice and fish sauce.

“This is the easy-to-make dish we always eat at home when we have leftover crab. The dishes we offer are mostly our family’s recipes,” says Mareeya, a graduate in food sciences from Kasetsart University.

Fried Banana Prawns with Turmeric 

Fried Banana Prawns with Turmeric (Bt400) offers large-sized sea prawns cooked with fresh turmeric and garlic. The fresh turmeric will be pounded and marinated after the dish is ordered to give off an aromatic and flavourful taste.

“Poultry and other meats are processed according to halal requirements. Soup is made from vegetable stock and the pork fat usually added to tod mun goong (deep-fried shrimp cakes) is substituted with chicken breast,” she adds.

Deep-fried Whole Sea Bass with Sweet, Sour and Spicy Sauce

A whole sea bass weighing around 900 grams to one kilo (Bt480) is deep-fried and seasoned with sauce and gives off a combination of sweet, sour and spicy tastes. The sauce is made fresh upon ordering with pounded chilli, garlic and onion, chopped tomato and pineapple then seasoned with fish sauce, lime juice and sugar.

Batter-fried Bai Liang Leaves with Spicy Dressing 

While the young, edible leaves of bai liang –grown mainly in the South – are usually used for stir-frying with egg, here the older leaves are batter-fried until crunchy and seasoned with a spicy dressing made from chopped shrimp, pound roasted peanut, red onion, Chinese celery, chilli, lime juice and fish sauce. It costs Bt220.

Hot Sour Soup with Sea Bass and Young Coconut Shoots

No Southern meal is complete without hot sour soup. The curry paste is made fresh daily by blending chilli, garlic, fresh turmeric then seasoning with tamarind juice, shrimp paste, fish sauce and sugar. A hot pot with sea bass and young coconut shoots (Bt220) is ideal for those who like their food fiery.

Rice Dumplings and Nipa Palm in Coconut Milk

Two desserts are on offer: warm rice dumplings and nipa palm in coconut milk (Bt55) and chilled nipa palm in syrup (also Bt55). Both are perfect to end the meal.

“The coconuts used in the restaurants are from my grandfather’s plantation in Chaiya. Each outlet has its own grating machine to make sure that we get very fresh coconut milk. Nipa palm from Surat Thani is used as the main ingredient for desserts because it’s considered my hometown’s native mangrove palm,” says Mareeya.

Nipa Palm in Syrup

FRESH FROM THE SEA

Chaolay Seafood on the sixth floor of MBK Mall is open daily from 10am to 9pm.

Call (098) 880 9065 or search for “@chaolayseafoodhalal” on Facebook.

For centuries, families have honoured their young women by putting the dolls known as Hina on display and the girls hold partiess with their friends at which traditional foods such as sweet and savoury rice crackers and multicoloured rice cakes are eaten.

In Thailand, the festival is celebrated from today until March 24 with the Gozen lunch platters that include three-coloured sesame tofu, shrimp and broad beans with yuzu miso, and delicious Hina sushi, which comprises vinegar rice topped with conger eel, shrimp, lotus root, broad bean, carrot, shrimp oboro, shiitake mushroom, dried gourd shavings, egg omelet, and salmon roe.

The Kaiseki dinner boasts Hina sushi plus other courses such as a simmered dish of bamboo shoot, eggplant, spring herring and udo of mountain vegetable; and a grilled dish of Spanish mackerel and Wagyu garnished with yuzu miso dressing. The meal is rounded off with traditional rice cakes filled with sweet bean paste and wrapped in a pickled cherry leaf.

Prices are Bt1,400-plus for the Gozen lunch and Bt4,700-plus for the Kaiseki dinner.

Book your table at (02) 687 9000 or email yamazato@okurabangkok.com.

More than 200 years ago, the officers of the famed Hussar light cavalry under the command of Napoleon would celebrate their victories across Europe by opening a bottle of Champagne, quite possibly encouraged by their commander-in-chief’s own assertion: “Champagne! In victory one deserves it; in defeat one needs it”. But rather than rummage around their saddlebags, they would just slice the top of the bottle off with their sabres without dismounting.

Another legend has it that Madame Clicquot, the 27-year-old widow and proprietor of a large, inherited Champagne business, liked to entertain the officers of Napoleon’s army as they passed through. She would present each a bottle as they were riding out and the men used their swords to uncork the Champagne bottles as a parting salute.

This historic dashing French tradition has been kept alive by the prestigious Confrerie du Sabre d’Or, or the Brotherhood of the Golden Sabre that was founded in 1986. The order currently boasts over 12 chapters and 30,000 members around the world.

Each year the various country chapters hold events that promote this noble art and the enjoyment of Champagne. Anyone can join the confraternity, with initiates being inducted as a sabreur after learning the right way to sabre a bottle, before moving up the ranks to Chevalier, Officier, and eventually Commandeur and Grand Commandeur.

In Bangkok, this is an opportunity for anyone to test their skills in the noble art of sabrage, join the brotherhood, and enjoy a fantastic evening of cuisine, Champagne and camaraderie. The evening will be presided over by Grand Maitre du Sabre d’Or, JeanClaude Jalloux, who will promote members and induct new ones.

The ceremony will be followed by a special six-course dinner prepared by chef Nanang Aditama. It will include such dishes as scallop tartare with mango jelly, and coconut and yuzu dressing; Bouillabaisse with lobster and infused with Asian spices; and slow-cooked organic duck breast accompanied by a potato and carrot puree, Hong Kong kale, foie gras, and soya pepper sauce, and more. Each course has been paired to four vintages from Champagne Vielle France available exclusively at 137 Pillars Suites & Residences Bangkok.

The ceremony and dinner is priced at Bt6,000 per person, Bt3,500 for Investiture as a Sabreur and Bt8,500 for Investiture as a Chevalier Sabreur.

Make a reservation at (02) 079 7000 or https://137pillarsbangkok.com/en/events/thenobleartofsabrage/

Hyppolite will be on the panel at the discussion on “The Digital Museum: New Technologies and the 21st Century Museum” taking place tomorrow (February 26) at 6 in a multifunction room on the first floor of the Bangkok Art and Culture Centre “Art Talk”, which also includes Chawin Srabour, operation manager of Google Street View Thailand.

On March 1 at 4pm, Hyppolite will take part in a presentation and food tasting on “Food Culture: African American and Thai Traditional Foodways” at Museum Siam together with ML Kwantip Devakula, chef, chef guru, judge of Master Chef Thailand, and moderater Saraichatt Jirapaet.

The programme for the food tasting is conducted in English. Audio devices for simultaneous interpretation will be provided free of charge (limited). Registration starts at 3.3pm.

Hyppolite moved to the United States when she was four years old and grew up in Boston. Her family hails from Les Cayes and PortauPrince.

Prior to joining the Smithsonian, she was the chief curator at History Miami Museum from 2008 to 2014, where she curated the exhibitions “Black Crossroads: The African Diaspora in Miami”; “Haitian Community Arts”; “Rob Storter: Art of the Everglades”; “Necropolis Cristobal Colon: Photographs by Raul Rodriguez and Black Freedom in Florida”.

She holds a PhD in literature from the University of Miami, an MA in African American Studies from the University of California, Los Angeles and a BA in English and Afro American Studies from the University of Pennsylvania.

Running from March 30 until the end of August between 11.30am to 3.30pm, guests can celebrate the end of the month with allyoucaneat a la carte selections of freshly cooked favourites with freeflow refreshments while a DJ spins retro hits to set the funky mood.

Diners can choose from stations brimming with succulent roasts, fresh oysters and seafood, savoury cheeses and cured meats, or eggs, waffles, and pancakes cooked to order. There is also an extensive menu featuring Char’s unique take on Caesar salad with prawns, eggs benedict with wagyu striploin, and pumpkin pie with pecan cream.

The Uptown Funk brunch costs Bt2,200plus including soft drinks and mocktails, or Bt3,800plus including signature cocktails, champagne, premium red wines, white wines and beers.

And before that, from March 1 to 15, guests can taste the tart tang of rhubarb in speciality cocktails created by expert mixologists at the rooftop bar.

Rhubarb is technically a vegetable, but its sour stalks most often sweetened to create a delicious tartness for desserts like pies, muffins, and jams. Widely used in Europe and America, it is not commonly found in Asian recipes, even though there are records of it being used in ancient Chinese medicines. So, Char is bringing the extraordinary rhubarb flavours back in some astoundingly refreshing cocktails.

Guests can enjoy a delightful rhubarb concoction while enjoying the glittering Bangkok skyline, choosing from an Old Smock Rhubarb, a creative twist to a Manhattan with Makers Mark and Antica, or a Rhubarb Wireless Sour, a rum cocktail inspired by the neighbourhood, or a Char Rhubarb, reminiscent of a classic rhubarb strawberry pie, or, last but not least, the Rhubarb Elderflower Bellini, exuding exotic herbs in a decadent champagne cocktail.

These exclusive rhubarb cocktails can be ordered from 5pm to 1am for Bt450plus a glass.

For more information or to make a reservation call (02) 207 4999 or email CharBangkok@ihg.com.

LAUNCHED ALMOST 57 years ago in Southern California and today boasting some 7,000 outlets across the US, Tex-Mex fast food chain Taco Bell has finally crossed the Pacific and arrived in Bangkok, opening its first branch late last month at Mercury Ville mall in the Chidlom area.

Queues are still long, particularly during the lunch and dinner hours as Thais rush to try such favourites as tacos, burritos, nachos and quesadillas customised to their personal preference with a selection of ingredients, dips and add-ons.

The American fast-food chain Taco Bell brings its TexMex favourites to Bangkok with its first branch doing a roaring trade at Mercury Ville.

The 60-seat, 215-square-metre restaurant has plate glass walls allowing natural light to stream in. It’s decked out with plank panels, high tables with stools, sockets to plug in mobile devices and a scattering of wood-and-metal tables and chairs for a retro vibe.

Built around Taco Bell’s iconic international design, the open kitchen allows customers to see their orders being prepared for them. A colourful mural by emerging local artist Sorncha Kidsanakaraket features iconic landmarks such as Wat Arun, the Giant Swing, a Tuk-Tuk and a skytrain surrounded by Taco Bell’s tacos, burritos and cheeses.

Named after its founder Glen Bell, the restaurant’s logo of bell is recognisable for its simplicity. In a nod to its name and that logo, a real purple bell is attached to a wall and customers are allowed to ring it though the loud noise will inevitably have everyone else in the store turning to stare at them.

The cloud-based jukebox allows visitors to play their favourite songs in the public space.

It also features a jukebox where customers can choose cloud-based songs from the playlist of the crowdDJ app. The app can be downloaded to mobile devices allowing diners to check out the store’s playlist, search for songs and then request tracks via the app. Just don’t expect to dine in peace – quiet it isn’t.

There are currently more than 450 Taco Bell restaurants across 28 countries outside the US and Thailand’s is operated by Siam Taco, a subsidiary of the Mahagitsiri family’s Thoresen Thai Agencies, which also runs Pizza Hut. The firm expects to open 40 outlets within the next five years and the second branch at Siam Paragon is slated to open soon.

Staff at work in the open kitchen

“Taco Bell is a successful brand under Yum! Group, which is also the franchise holder of the global Pizza Hut brand. It’s a well-recognised brand among foreign tourists, expats and Thais who have lived and travelled abroad. The dining scene in Thailand is increasingly vibrant and versatile and people today are more open-minded about try new things. The pungent taste of Mexican-inspired cuisine can easily please the Thai palate,” says Nan Chaiyadel, Siam Taco’s operations director.

The tortilla, pulled pork and sauces have to be imported to maintain the qualities while chicken and vegetables are sourced locally. No beef is available here yet and the menu is smaller than at US branches. On the other hand, Thailand does get the first “fire” sauce ever – everywhere else, the “hot” sauce is the spiciest available.

2Kickin’ Chicken Tacos 

“According to our research, Thais generally love fried chicken so we have a special menu called 2Kickin’ Chicken Tacos (Bt158), which features two soft flour tortillas stuffed with crispy fried chicken seasoned with fire sauce and topped with lettuce, pico de gallo salsa and a blend of cheddar and mozzarella,” adds Nan.

“The health-conscious can ask for grilled chicken as a substitute. Our dishes are all made-to-order to ensure customers have hot, delicious and quality food every time.”

 Crunchy Taco 

The classic Crunchy Taco (Bt69) is filled with seasoned ground chicken, fire sauce, lettuce and cheddar cheese. Customers can opt for pulled pork or grilled chicken or even soft taco if they want.

Crunchwrap Supreme

The unique hexagon shaped Crunchwrap Supreme (Bt119) has both soft and crunchy textures. Seasoned ground chicken, fire sauce, sour cream, nacho cheese, tomato and lettuce are first wrapped in a crunchy tostada shell then a second time in a soft flour tortilla.

California Burrito 

The California Burrito (Bt129) features a wrapper of soft flour tortilla filled with seasoned rice, grilled chicken, guacamole, salsa, sour cream and creamy ranch sauce and lettuce.

Add an additional Bt50 to each price for a combo set with additional nacho chips or French fries and refillable soft drinks. Beers will be sold during the licensing hours.

Loaded Fries 

Side dishes include Loaded Fries (Bt229) – French fries topped with pulled pork, creamy ranch sauce, salsa and nacho cheese – and Loaded Nachos (Bt199) – crispy chips topped with seasoned ground chicken, salsa, guacamole, sour cream and nacho cheese.

Mango Madness, Berry Blue and Tropical Punch Freezes

Perfect to cool down the summer heat is the Freeze – an ice cold drink available in three flavours – mango madness, tropical punch and berry blue (Bt60 each).

WRAP IT UP

Taco Bell is at Mercury Ville mall in Bangkok (BTS: Chidlom) and open daily from 10 to 10.

Check out Facebook.com/TacoBellTH

The Frappuccino features blended dark and white chocolate with a topping of duo cocoa sauce with pink raspberry-flavoured whipped cream adding the finishing touch.

Those who are cutting back on caffeine can experience the creme version, Sweet Valentine Creme Frappuccino Blended Beverage, which doesn’t contain any coffee.

For Starbucks fans to celebrate the festival of love, whether with a close friend, lover, or family, the brand has worked with trendy two dessert cafes After You and Coffee Beans to create Valentine specials, namely the Valentine Red Velvet Cupcake by Coffee Beans, which has a rich texture and cream frosting on top and a heart-shaped decoration patterned like Starbucks cards. The cupcake is served in a lovely pink box, wrapped with a silver ribbon to make a perfect gift.

Another treat is Red Velvet Marble Brix with Chocolate, the red cube-shaped bread that’s crispy on the outside and filled with chocolate lava on the inside. These exclusive beverages and desserts are available until Sunday at Starbucks stores nationwide.

Also available this month is the Dark Chocolate Butter Bun by After You. Soft in texture and strong in flavour, this butter bun is filled with custard cream and topped with icing sugar and chocolate for just the right amount of sweetness.