In partnership with Bitemojo, the world’s leading app for food tours, Taste of Thailand’s first self-guided food experience is the “Best of Vegan Bangkok,” a delicious journey along Sukhumvit Road to six distinct, select eateries where tour goers seamlessly receive six vegan delights along with insider stories on the place, recipe and people behind the dish. The places include Broccoli Revolution, Veganerie Concept, Sustaina Organic Restaurant, Hunter Poke, May Veggie Home and About Eatery. Each vendor has also created a special dish specifically for those exploring with the app.

“Following the success of our guided food tours in Bangkok and beyond, we saw the need for a more flexible alternative for the independent traveller,” said Jacob Holder, founder of Taste of Thailand Food Tours. “Doing a food tour on your own, or independently as a small group without a guide means much more flexibility to set your own pace and detour if you wish along the way.”

The experience is fully inclusive with information about the route, background on the food that will be served. Users can plan their experience according to their own timetable and vendor opening times as noted within the app. The company plans to launch two more tours this year in Bangkok’s Bang Rak and Chinatown areas with an expansion to include new Thai markets planned within early 2019.

The Bitemojo platform, in particular, echoes consumers’ behaviours in a digital age, serving as a form of digital currency to allow food lovers who fill up before completing the experience, the flexibility to use their remaining bite credit at any time on a later date. For participating vendors along the routes, this flexibility and seamless approach of the bitemojo currency, coupled with customer demand for Taste of Thailand Food Tours’ experiences, provides a new form of business with reduced administration.

“We are excited to enter the Bangkok food scene with such a leading partner, such as Taste of Thailand Food Tours,” said Michael Weiss, co-founder of Bitemojo. “Following our inaugural launch in Asia via Singapore earlier this year, we are elated to bring Bitemojo to the culinary hub of Bangkok where some of the globe’s best food can be found.”

Bitemojo currently offers tours in Barcelona, Berlin, Budapest, Ljubljana, Rome, Singapore and Tel Aviv.

Taste of Thailand is currently offering the Best of Vegan Bangkok at 40-per-cent off with the promo code “VeganTest” until June 30.

Those ready to eat their way through Bangkok can download the fully inclusive experience via the Bitemojo app on iTunes for iOS (https://bit.ly/2xJAYzt) or Google Play for Android (https://bit.ly/2rH1CTc).

Find out more at http://www.TasteofThailand.org.

Run by chef Massimo Bottura, the restaurant in Modena, Italy pipped last year’s winner, New York’s “Eleven Madison Park,” in the World’s 50 Best Restaurants awards, after first taking the honour in 2016. It is the only Italian establishment to have won the annual accolade.

“This is amazing, this is something we built all together,” Bottura told the awards ceremony held in Bilbao in Spain’s northern Basque Country, famous for its avant-garde haute cuisine.

“I am going to use this spotlight to show that chefs in 2018 are much more than the sum of their recipes.”

The top restaurants list’s organisers praised “Bottura’s contemporary cuisine, which challenges and reinvents Italian culinary tradition while make use of the finest produce from the Emilia-Romagna region.”

His father wanted him to become a lawyer but when he was 23-years-old Bottura, who was famous for rustling up culinary delights for his friends, dropped his law studies to open a Trattoria in Campazzo, in the countryside around Modena in the Po River Valley.

On his days off, he would study with French chef Georges Cogny, who had a restaurant two hours away.

“He said to me: ‘always follow your palate, because you have a great palate which will make Modena known around the world’,” Bottura said during an interview with AFP in 2016.

He opened Osteria Francescana in 1995 after spending time in New York and Monaco.

Two Peruvians in top 10

Spain’s El Celler de Can Roca, which took the top honour in 2013 and 2015, came in second while third place went to Mirazur in southern France.

Restaurant magazine, owned by William Reed Media, launched the awards in 2002 and they are now as coveted by restaurants as Michelin stars, although the methodology used to select the best restaurants has faced criticism, especially from several French chefs who say it remains unclear.

There are no criteria for putting a restaurant on the list, which is based on an anonymous poll of more than 1,000 chefs, restaurant owners, food critics and other industry insiders from around the world.

Each member gets 10 votes and at least four of those votes have to go to restaurants outside their region.

The top 10 included two Peruvian restaurants, “Central” which slipped to number six from fifth place last year, and “Maido” which climbed to number seven from eighth place.

The only Asian restaurant in the top 10 was Bangkok’s “Gaggan”, whose owner-chef Gaggan Anand has won praise for his modern spin on his native Indian cuisine.

Half in Europe

Spain continued to dominate the line-up with three restaurants in the top 10, including El Celler de Can Roca, while France had two including Mirazur.

The 2018 list of 50 best restaurants included eateries in 22 countries — but over half were in Europe. Six are in the United States, six in Latin America and six in Asia.

Tuesday’s ceremony also handed out individual chef awards.

Britain’s Clare Smyth, who catered the dinner at the royal wedding of Prince Harry and Meghan Markle last month, was named best female chef and France’s Cedric Grolet best pastry chef.

Peru’s celebrity chef Gaston Acurio, who is known for combining classic European techniques with typical ingredients from the Andean country, was given a lifetime achievement award.

The top restaurant award has gone to Spain seven times, the most of any country. In addition to El Celler de Can Roca’s two wins, ground-breaking Spanish chef Ferran Adria’s El Bulli, which he closed in 2011, took the prize a record five times.

This year was the first time the ceremony was held in Spain. The event has been held before in London, New York and Melbourne.

American Michael Ellis said that he was joining the Dubai-based luxury hotel chain Jumeirah after seven years with the red guides.

The soft-spoken Ellis, who previously worked for the French tyre maker’s motorcycle division, has expanded the guides to 31 editions in 30 countries.

But there has been controversy about Michelin’s decision to allow governments to commission new guides, with new ones for Seoul, Macau, Hong Kong, Bangkok and Singapore all reportedly paid for.

Ellis said he will leave in September when he will become head of gastronomy for Jumeirah, which has hotels in the Gulf, China and Europe.

“Long live the Michelin guide,” Ellis declared as he announced his departure. “The inspectors are the beating heart… their passion and their expertise are without question and I was very honoured to be with them during these seven years.”

Ellis, who was born in Colorado, made his first trip to France as a teenager and decided he wanted to become a chef.

He returned to work in Paris as a commis chef at a Michelin one-star restaurant before realising “that I was probably more cut out to be a client of a restaurant.”

LIFE BEGINS at sundown at Ciao Terrazza, a much-loved restaurant that’s part of the five-star hotel Mandarin Oriental Bangkok. Offering a breathtaking view out over the Chao Phraya River, the classic Italian restaurant is today focusing on the cuisine of Naples, with a range of gourmet dishes prepared by its Chef de Cuisine, Marcello Scognamiglio, a native of Italy’s southern metropolis that lies at the very foot of Vesuvius.

Scognamiglio recalls waking up as a boy to the mouth-watering aroma of Neapolitan street food, like pizza fritta made with buffalo mozzarella, fresh Vesuvian basil and ripe cherry tomatoes and it is these memories that he shares with hungry diners.

Sunset ambience at the alfresco Ciao Terrazza

“I’d like to bring to my guests my favourite Italian food traditions as well as my love for the produce,” says Scognamiglio, who earned his stripes working alongside a number of Michelin stars chefs.

He describes his cooking style as “elegant, traditional and attentive to detail.”

“It looks easy to make but when you start eating, you are immediately amazed at the explosion of flavours. People love the tastes because of the great produce and beautiful recipes, which are full of different influences from around Europe,” he adds.

Chef Marcello Scognamiglio prepares famous Neapolitan dishes in the open kitchen. 

The oven is at the very heart of the restaurant and is used to create artisanal pizzas as well as home-made pastas and risottos, all of which will delight even the most discerning of palates.

Menu highlights includes the surprise appetiser “Crunchy Egg” served with Pecorino foam, spinach and truffle pesto (Bt613). Cut into the poached egg, and savour the perfect softness of the yolk and the crunch that follows. The flavour is well-balanced – a little salty from the cheese but offset by the sweet aroma of the truffle. It’s elegantly presented too with gold leaf providing the decoration.

Crunchy egg, Pecorino foam, spinach and truffle pesto

Truffles also take a star turn in Italian Ravioli stuffed with truffle and burrata cheese (Bt824). Rich but not too heavy, the crispy black olive cracker on top of the ravioli gives it an unusual twist.

Steamed seabass fillet in mushroom and asparagus broth, Taggiasca olive, fennel and orange salad

We sample as our main dish Steamed Seabass Fillet in mushroom and asparagus broth served with Taggiasca olive, thin slices of fennel, and orange salad (Bt1,001). This dish is truly delightful thanks to the clear broth, which makes it seem light and balanced, particularly after the two rich and creamy dishes that have gone before. The fish is freshly imported from Italy and the tangy taste of salad pairs well with the anise flavours of the fennel.

 Slow-cooked pork belly, red wine sauce, steamed swiss chard and apple puree

Another highlight is Slow-cooked Pork Belly, red wine sauce, steamed swiss chard, and apple puree (Bt1,154) and the portion is just small enough to ensure you can finish the entire plate. The pork belly has a slightly sweet taste but is so tender that it melts in the mouth. There is, as you’d expect, a little fat but diners concerned about their figures can always trim it off.

Ravioli stuffed with truffle and burrata cheese

Other popular dishes at Ciao include Tuna Tartar with zucchini, bell pepper and eggplant Caponata; Spaghetti Gragnano with Piennolo cherry tomatoes from Mount Vesuvius and fresh basil leaves; Rosemary Crusted Rack of Lamb with eggplant custard, crispy polenta and green asparagus tips; and Aged Acquerello Rice Risotto with seasonal white asparagus.

Lemon sorbet

Our five-course Napoli-style meal ends with the traditional sweet-and-sour “Sgroppino”, lemon sorbet with latte gelato, grappa limoncello, and prosecco (Bt495).

Dinner over, guests are urged to enjoy the rest of the night at the hotel’s famous Bamboo Bar, recently ranked No 9 by Asia’s 50 Best Bars 2018 and the only bar in the kingdom to have reached the top ten.

Jamie Rhind, operations manager at The Bamboo Bar

The latest iteration of the signature cocktail menu created by Jamie Rhind, bar operations manager, attests to the Bamboo Bar team’s tireless efforts and innovative use of Thai ingredients.

Some of the creative new signature cocktails draw their inspiration from the five regions of Thailand. Listed under the title “Compass”, the menu celebrates the unique attributes of these regions, each of which has its own distinctive tastes in food, drink and lifestyle.

“This is like taking guests on a journey around Thailand while they enjoy the country’s finest live jazz,” Rhind says.

 The southern region inspired the Cashew Down South cocktail

Well-worth trying is “Get the Mortar”, a homage to som tum, Thailand’s ubiquitous papaya salad. Inspired by Thailand’s northeast, it blends Barrelhouse 53 Vodka, clarified tomato juice, papaya compote, lime juice, sugar and chilli. The mortar is typically used to mash the ingredients together and children throughout Isaan are always delighted to hear the words: ‘Get the mortar!’

The Hawker cocktail

“Hawker” is inspired by tom kha gai, Central Thailand much-loved coconut cream dish made with kaffir lime and lemongrass. The cocktail gets much the same treatment with coconut juice mixed with tequila, lemongrass, kaffir lime and ginger for a sharp refreshing kick.

Specially created alcohol-free drinks are also available and patrons can while away the hours by listening to guest jazz diva Nikki Kidd.

SMART AND SAVVY

Ciao adheres to a smart dress code and proper footwear for all guests, including children.

The restaurant welcomes smokers at the bar counter the whole night.

It’s open nightly from 5pm with last orders accepted at 10.30.

Book a table at (02) 659 9000.

The Bamboo Bar is open Sunday to Thursday from 5 to 1am and until 2am on Friday and Saturday. The live music starts at 9.

Ramirez is an award-winning mixologist and F&B professional whose experience spans the Asian continent, from the exclusive clubs of Dubai to the luxury hotels of Southeast Asia. He developed the bar concept for Shangri-La’s luxury resort in the Maldives and has worked with such Michelin-starred chefs as Gary Rhodes of Rhodes Twenty Four in London.

He has also wowed guests at some of Asia’s top rooftop venues, including The Dome at Lebua, the iconic sky bar in Bangkok. Last year, he launched his own private consultancy company, Glass of Art and Science.

Perched on the 27th floor of the new hotel, 110 metres above the ground, Vana Nava Sky Bar was designed by Ashley Sutton – the mastermind behind some of Asia’s most famous bars, including Maggie Choo’s and Iron Fairies in Bangkok and Ophelia in Hong Kong. With its stylish interior design, glass-floored outdoor observation deck and dramatic 360-degree views, the bar is becoming one of the most desirable destinations on Thailand’s Gulf coast.

In this spectacular setting, guests can sample cool and creative cocktails devised by Joseph Boroski, former global head of mixology for W Hotels. These include creations that take advantage of Thailand’s tropical ingredients, such as the Fresh Pina Colada, Mai Tai Done the Right Way and his very own My Favorite Mojito.

Vana Nava Sky Bar’s Sky Kitchen also features a diverse menu of light snacks, sharing platters and main meals, while a private function space for up to 100 people creates a unique option for events and parties.

“I have worked in many of the world’s leading bars and venues, but Vana Nava Sky Bar is certainly one of the most impressive,” Ramirez says “With its perfect position, this is a destination that will attract guests from far and wide.”

Vana Nava Sky Bar forms part of the brand new Holiday Inn Vana Nava Hua Hin, which became Asia’s first Holiday Inn water park resort when it opened earlier this year. Right next door, opposite the gulf, is the Vana Nava Water Jungle Park, filled with adventure rides and huge slides that guests can enjoy for free as many times as they like. Non-guests pay for admission, but everyone staying at the resort has unlimited access.

Find out more at http://www.Holidayinn.com.

For each order from any restaurant through GrabFood from Friday (June 15) to June 30, Grab will donate Bt10 to provide lunch to the tens of thousands of underprivileged children from three foundations. The foundations are the Camillian Home for Children Living with Disabilities, Baan Nokkamin Foundation, and The Foundation for Slum Child Care.

In addition to donating to children foundations through GrabFood orders, customers will receive a colourful “GrabFood for Good” placemat with every order. By simply taking a photo of themselves with the placemat or inviting friends and publicly posting on social media (Facebook & Instagram) using the hashtag #EveryDishMakesaDifference #GrabFoodTH, Grab will automatically donate an additional Bt10 to the three foundations.

“Grab is committed to improving the livelihoods of people, including these underprivileged children. This is the reason we have launched the ‘GrabFood for Good’ initiative to fund nourishing meals for children from these three foundations,” says Tarin Thaniyavarn, Country Head of Grab Thailand.

For more information about GrabFood and its exclusive promotions, check out the GrabFoodTH Facebook page.

 Executive chef Adam Tanner presents six enticing menus, inspired by dishes served at the hotel’s Michelin-starred Chinese restaurant Ya Ge and Michelin-recommended Italian restaurant Bencotto.

“Mandarin Oriental, Taipei’s reputation for providing high levels of service is reflected in the growing number of international accolades it receives, including a Michelin Star for Ya Ge and mention for Bencotto in the Michelin Guide Taipei 2018,” says Frances Tsai, hotel manager at Mandarin Oriental, Taipei.

“Through our passion for sharing good food with others, the hotel’s experienced and talented chefs have created an exclusive in-flight dining experience for Thai Airways passengers, to give them a taste of the hotel’s enchanting, versatile and refined culinary scene.”

Using the freshest ingredients, Tanner creates contemporary dishes inspired by French, Italian, Southeast Asian and progressive American fare, his knowledge of international cuisine accumulated over years of working in luxury five-star hotels and Michelin-starred restaurants around the world.

The fifth annual Hotelier Awards, hosted by Singapore, recognises outstanding professional excellence across Asia’s hospitality sector. Attended by more than 350 hoteliers and industry professionals, the event celebrated award winners who shone amongst stiff competition, decided by a panel of expert industry judges in a two-round process, based on applications, interviews and testimonials.

The award showcases the region’s most talented and hardworking hoteliers who create the most meaningful guest experiences, deliver the best financial results and make a positive impact on team members. Hospitality professionals were shortlisted from 70 international hotel brands.

Malaysian-born chef Aziz has a stellar reputation for skilful creativity and culinary art. Hailed as the best young chef in Malaysia, he played a vital role in Anantara Lawana Koh Samui’s recent awards, including Thailand Tatler Best Restaurant 2017, the TripAdvisor Winner of the 2017 Top 10 Fine Dining Restaurants Thailand, The 2017 World Luxury Restaurant Awards – Luxury Unique Experience: Continent Winner, The 2017 World Luxury Restaurant Awards – Fine Dining Cuisine: Country Winner, and the Award of Excellence 2017 by Wine Spectator.

In the past year, chef Aziz has exceeded expectations by developing his HACCP skills, volunteering to train kitchen staff at a new sister resort on Koh Samui, and participating in an animal rescue charity initiative. Renowned for his great working relationship with other hotel departments, he keenly shared his best practices and concepts with Housekeeping, Spa and Front Office to raise service and operation standards across the hotel.

In 2017 he organised highly successful wine dinner events in collaboration with other top Koh Samui chefs and also volunteered for a task force team at the first Anantara in Europe, Anantara Vilamoura Resort in Portugal, where he was congratulated for his outstanding work in sharing his knowledge and experience with more than 70 team members at six high quality outlets.

Diners can discover his cuisine by calling (077) 960 333, or visiting http://www.Anantara.com/en/lawana-koh-samui

KEN CHAN has come a long way since he started out wheeling a trolley in a dim sum restaurant, becoming the first chef in his adopted home of Taiwan to win three Michelin stars.

Hong Kong-born Chan, 53, worked through tough apprenticeships back home before rising through the ranks on Taiwan’s culinary scene over the past three decades to become executive chef at luxury five-star hotel restaurant Le Palais in Taipei.

Serving mainly Cantonese cuisine as well as Sichuan, Fuzhou and Taiwanese dishes, Le Palais became the first and only restaurant in Taiwan to receive three stars when Michelin launched its Taipei guide earlier this year, describing the food as “truly outstanding”.

Ken Chan, the executive chef at the fivestar hotel restaurant Le Palais in Taipei, demonstrates his cooking. /AFP

Chan’s menu is relatively affordable compared with three-star restaurants in the rest of the world, with dishes ranging from steamed prawn dumplings and baked barbecue pork buns, priced from Tw$250 (Bt270) to an eight-course set including lobster salad, bird’s nest soup, braised abalone with goose foot and steamed tiger grouper at Tw$6,980.

Taiwan’s most-recognised chef, Andre Chiang, famously gave up the two Michelin stars attached to his eponymous Restaurant Andre in Singapore, closing it in February to focus on other projects, including his Taipei restaurant RAW.

But Chan says he believes receiving the stars will boost the island’s burgeoning foodie credentials.

“It inspires everybody to aim higher and higher,” he comments.

The Michelin Guide has launched the inaugural Michelin Guide Taipei, giving the highest rating  three stars  to Le Palais for its Cantonese food, service and dining environment. / EPA-EFE

Chan attributes his accolade to “luck”, but it is also testament to perseverance.

After dropping out of school in Hong Kong aged 12, Chan began working in a restaurant in the city, pushing a dim sum trolley around the tables from which customers would choose dishes.

He already had a love of cooking passed down from his mother and remembers how she would give him two Hong Kong dollars to buy ingredients in the market to feed the family, as she was working full-time to make ends meet.

Having to carefully think how to spend the money to create the best meal has influenced his approach in the kitchen now, says Chan.

“I told my staff ‘You shouldn’t just aim to finish the job but should do it well, as if you were cooking for your parents,’” he explains.

Life in the Hong Kong restaurant business was far from glamorous.

Chan was tasked with washing the underwear of a chef he worked under and recalls being hit on the head with a spatula when his “master” was in a bad mood, even being thrown into a river for making mistakes.

“Back then if you wanted to learn something, you had to beg the master to teach you,” he says.

“I had to buy drinks and fruit to treat my masters so they would casually teach me one or two steps.”

Ken Chan /AFP

Chan believes young people now are too pampered and unable to handle pressure.

“I have to ask them to learn,” he laments.

With just HK$270 (Bt1,100) in his pocket, Chan began a new chapter in Taiwan 30 years ago at the age of 23, after his mother died and his girlfriend dumped him.

His first job was as a chef in a vegetarian restaurant and he recalls feeling isolated because he only spoke Cantonese, the dominant language in Hong Kong, not Mandarin which is spoken in Taiwan.

But he says a sense of pride made him stay and he began to build a reputation for his Cantonese cuisine.

Chan worked up to becoming head chef at another five-star hotel restaurant in Taipei, before taking the executive chef position at Le Palais in 2010.

At the time, the restaurant had only been open for a few months and Chan was despondent over the lack of customers on his first day.

“I didn’t go home that night and locked myself in the office to ponder over how to run the restaurant,” he remembers. He came up with a new menu of 27 dishes and replaced around a third of the staff as part of a major overhaul.

Chan worries that traditional skills in Cantonese and Taiwanese cooking will eventually be lost as the old masters age and young chefs struggle to create the same flavours.

But for now, he says his own goal is to keep reinventing himself.

“I don’t see myself as a veteran chef,” he says.

“My mentality is that I am like a child just learning to walk and I have to constantly learn new things.”

THE THAI-OWNED Dusit Thani Bangkok will shut its doors on January 5 next year as the downtown site on which it has proudly stood for 48 years will be developed for a mixed-use project. While patrons will be sad to see it go, they can at least revel in the opportunities being offered to spend the next few months enjoying both its legendary services and its farewell gifts.

Among these is a long and lazy “Beyond Boundaries” brunch, which allows diners to savour a diverse range of foods and desserts over five-and-a-half hours. A further two hours can be added to this Epicurean episode should they decide to avail themselves of an evening of unlimited canapes and a choice of drinks.

Dusit Thani Bangkok offers the longest hours of weekend brunch with an array of dishes cooked to order.

Diners can set themselves free from late morning to sunset every Saturday and Sunday. The brunch is served from 11.30am to 5pm at Thai restaurant Benjarong as well as at the laid-back waterfall garden at the Terrace.

It’s reasonably priced too, coming in at Bt2,900-plus per person including free-flow soft drinks and juices, or Bt3,600-plus with beer, wine and sparkling. Champagne lovers can enjoy free flow Taittinger at Bt4,900-plus.

The BBQ station at the waterfall garden is an ideal place for seafood lovers.

Seafood lovers will be in heaven as they attempt to choose from the wide selection of premium fare. Outside at the Terrace is the BBQ section brimming over with fresh lobster, river prawn, crab, scallop, squid, cod, salmon, razor clams and mussels that can be handed to the chefs to charcoal-grill.

A chilled seafood station is available indoors with Canadian lobster, Alaskan king crab, Thai mud crab and mussels with French, Australian and American oysters on an adjacent table just waiting to be shucked. Octopus, conch and sea urchin sit on ice next to salmon and tuna in both sashimi and sushi styles.

 Seafood is char-grilled to order.

The long culinary journey is best commenced at Benjarong restaurant, which has a fresh salad corner, a cheese and bread trolley, and a carvery station offering pork leg cooked with salted dough, and salt crusted Norwegian salmon – all to be enjoyed with seed mustard, apple sauce, lemon butter, mushroom sauce, black pepper or ketchup.

Amuse bouche of salmon on hot stone

In addition to the all-you-can-eat food stations, each guest is treated to an amuse bouche. Served at the table, this involves salted salmon being slid onto a hot stone with a little water poured over it then covered and gently steamed. Diners get to choose how well cooked they would like this tasty morsel.

 An assortment of dim sum

A selection of dim sum from the hotel’s famous Cantonese restaurant Mayflower can also deliver to the brunch on request. They include steamed scallop dumpling, shrimp wrapped with seaweed, deep-fried crabmeat with minced pork and salt egg, as well as steamed minced pork dumpling.

Seven dishes from the main courses at Benjarong, Hamilton’s Steak House and the Pavilion are cooked to order and can be endlessly replenished.

Lobster Thermidor

“We understand that during the weekend break, people want to spend quality time with family and friends so our brunch breaks free from the usual limitations on time and format, combining a buffet with a fine-dining experience. Guests can relax and enjoy a whole day of leisurely eating and drinking over seven-and-a-half hours,” says the hotel’s food and beverage manager Sakdipat Nilango.

Oysters sit next to sushi and sashimi counter.

“We carefully select only prime quality and large sized Canadian lobster, Alaskan king crab, Scottish scallop, New Zealand mussels, French oysters and river prawns from Ayutthaya. The main dishes are selected from the signature items of our dining outlets. The all-you-can-eat Lobster Thermidor alone is value for money.”

Rack of lamb with mustard and mashed potato

The main dishes include Pan-fried Duck Liver with fig chutney and raisin sauce, Pan-fried New Zealand Rack of Lamb with mustard and mashed potato, Grilled US Rib Eye with red wine sauce, Deep-fried River Prawn with pepper and garlic sauce and Oven-baked Lobster Thermidor, plus two Thai dishes of Duck in red curry and Slow-cooked Beef Short Ribs in green curry.

Beef short ribs in green curry

Dessert lovers are spoilt too with an array of sweet offerings that dominate an entire room. Cleanse the palate with white wine jelly and mixed berry before piling a plate with Black Forest dome cake, pistachio mousse cake, Japanese cheesecake with blueberry compote, matcha tiramisu, creme brulee, strawberry tart and the classic Thai favourite mango and sticky rice.

A room of desserts

Other Thai-style desserts, shaved ice assortments and an array of fresh fruits are also available.

The brunch is complemented by a live band performing from noon to 4pm.

Though the brunch ends at 5pm, the merriment continues at the Terrace and the Lobby with free-flow canapes and a choice of drinks and DJ spins. The canapes include three Western-style bites of smoked salmon, parma ham and melon, and vegetarian caviar cream cheese while the Thai nibbles boast spicy salmon salad, spicy fruit salad and prawn satay.

Canapes, cucumber cocktail and peach mocktail

For drinks, customers can choose between a glass of red or white wine and the cocktail and mocktail of the month. This month, the cocktail is Cool as Cucumber and is a mixture of gin, lime juice, finely sliced cucumber, mint leaves, elderflower syrup and soda, while the mocktail Summer Peach blends apple and lime juices, elderflower syrup, soda and fresh peach slices.

JUST BRING YOUR APPETITE

Beyond Boundaries brunch at Dusit Thani Bangkok is available every Saturday and Sunday, from 11.30am to 5pm, and can be extended to 7pm with free-flow canapes and a choice of drinks. It continues throughout this year.

From now until July 31, diners can enjoy a come three, pay two promotion dubbed the Triple Double.

Book your table at (02) 200 9000 extension 2345 or visit http://www.Dusit.com/dtbk.