On Day 2 of 2019, we sat at a kitchen table, housed in a quiet soi in Ekkamai in Bangkok, Thailand. The director of this beef-heavy box office runaway hit, was the young and friendly Chef Mario Malvaez from Mexico, who handled all the dishes he served us , with ample ease and dexterity.
Recently, while in Bangkok, we experienced food cooked by an Italian culinary artist, at a restaurant called La Bottega. The restaurant has won a number of awards, including Bangkok’s best Italian restaurant, however the food we experienced that evening reached out to borders beyond Thailand and represented the best seasonal Italian produce we had ever tasted in Asia.
There is no doubt that the city of Bangkok is at the top of its food game. In fact, in our opinion, the city now ranks in the top 5 of the world’s finest gourmet destinations along with New York, Paris, Rome and Barcelona. And helping Bangkok get to the top of the world’s Top 5 charts, are Chefs like the legendary Gaggan Anand and the Suhring twins, Mathias and Thomas.
Earlier this week, Laveena and I dined at Mihara Tofuten, a collaboration between Chef Mihara, Gaggan and Chef Gou. We watched in wonder as Chef Satoshi and his team expertly and precisely used their chopsticks and tweezers, to create a menu which seduced our tastebuds with their different nuances and textures, presenting us with a cross pollination of magical flavours at one of Bangkok’s boldest and most unique new restaurants.
Last evening we walked through the large wooden doors of a Haveli and into the colourful home of Ms Mohini Singh. It was like stepping into an enchanting, Indian culinary storybook and even though the fairytale had only just begun, it had all of our attention, as Ms Singh, mistress of the mansion, grand-daughter of a Bollywood actress, well-travelled, young and beautiful, welcomed us into her home.
We spent Laveena’s birthday in the beautiful Austrian city of Vienna, voted by the annual Mercer Quality of Living Survey, as the best place to live in, in the world. Vienna has won this coveted title, for the ninth year in a row and we wanted to experience first hand what the hype was all about. We could not have chosen a better occasion or a better time of the year to visit, as birthday’s are always special and we are both in love with the colours and temperatures of autumn. Our chosen luxury hotel property for this celebratory vacation was The Ritz-Carlton, Vienna, a sophisticated landmark in the city, made up of four historical buildings and strategically located on the famous Ringstrasse, directly across from Stadtpark.