If you were to ask me what the highlight of today (in Bangkok) was, I'll tell you.
It was food.
There was- for some reason I don't understand- a lot of food today.
It began with breakfast, of course, and today since at the buffet offering there was a huge pan of stir-fried flat rice noodles of the white and dry kind that I particularly like- I helped myself to a plate.
Okay, half a plate.
And I had it with cherry tomatoes- because they looked really fresh and all of us can do with some fresh tomato juice bursting out of our mouths whenever we fill our palates and bellies with stuff that's fried.
It was difficult for me to skip out on the omelets at the egg station- they do it so well- so I got one- with everything in it- and added some papaya chunks for the juice and the color.
The morning was spent getting things done, and then off it was to lunch at this place called the Evergarden Chinese restaurant at Evergreen Laurel Hotel.
You'd be badly mistaken if you assumed that a Chinese restaurant named Evergarden would be millennial driven in terms of presentation, decor and gourmet style.
It wasn't.
This was in fact one of those strong family-oriented type of Chinese restaurants where you could celebrate a wedding, a patriarch's birthday or Chinese New Year dinner with patriarch and matriarch and sons and daughters and grandchildren and great-grandchildren in tow.
It was the kind of place where the parquet floors were well-shone, where the bronze-colored tablecloths shone, where there were little sprigs of flowers on each table, and where the chairs, whilst not carved of dark wood, were cushioned, sturdy and a comfortable looking pale brown.
I felt nostalgic at the sight of paper napkins folded so neatly in the little glass at the side of the table.
No one seems to do that nowadays.
The highlight of this place was, of course, the dim sum buffet, which we had specially come here for, and yes, out of all the dishes on the menu we made sure our table had a good many.
Fish maw soup was one of the very first dishes that got served to our table.
Because you cannot come to a Chinese place in Bangkok and skip out on a piping hot bowl of fish maw soup.
You must have it.
So we ordered one, and besides the thick rings of fish maw there were also mushrooms, fish (maybe- it might well have been crab) and bits and pieces of vegetable.
The soup was heartwarming enough, but the (traditional) offerings of dim sum favorites did not lose out in terms of comfort either.
I loved the steamed xiao long bao, I loved the steamed siew mais and I loved the steamed cheong fun.
Then there was the steamed bean curd rolls which were one of the largest, and chonkiest ever, and whilst I'm not usually a huge fan of this dish, I actually fell in love.
Also, they don't stinge when it comes to anything rice related, it seems. The flour of the rice sheets in the cheong fun was chewy and thick, the skin of the xiao long bao was well-folded and chewy and thick, and it was so good nibbling on it all.
If the steamed stuff were good, the fried stuff were even better.
Forget about the oil.
That's not important when it comes to dim sum.
The crispy fried edges of the radish cake are.
And so are the fried flour worms of the yew kok yam puffs which I absolutely love.
You know, it's a little strange, and why it is I do not know, but this was my second time eating dim sum in Thailand, and it does seem to be of a diffferent calibre altogether.
Maybe there's less pressure in terms of cost or something, but the dishes here truly do live up to the significance of the cuisine's name (and sad to say, there aren't many places of equivalence back here on the island)
Lunch being over, I was introduced to a head massage at this place called Suvarnaveda in one of the most unusual places on Sukhumvit Road 12.
See, most of the spas and massages that I'd had thus far were either in single-storey houses, houses or commercial buildings.
This one, however, was on the 4th storey of an apartment building called Rama Mansion, and not only was it in what looked like a private property apartment building- there was security at the gate- it was in a unit amongst other units that looked like to be homes.
It was a bit startling, I had to admit, but here was a rare opportunity to see what an apartment in Bangkok looked like, and just let me say that it greatly interested me.
First of all there was the living space, which here in this unit was close to the very spacious balcony and which had a long coffee table and a sofa and a carpet on the floor.
The reception table, which really was a simple desk with a file and computer and receipt book and menu, was right by the dining area, which, in this unit, held a solid wooden table large enough for six.
I didn't get to see the kitchen.
And some of the rooms had their doors closed.
But the room in which I had the massage was as basic, and as functional as one could imagine it to be.
Partitioned into two with a plainly painted plaster wall (which meant I only got half of the aircon) it could well have been converted from someone's old room a long time ago.
Strangely enough the room really did feel like it had been used by someone before.
Not an adult, but a child, a teenager, whom at the very desk upon which now an induction cooker (to heat the oil) stood on, might have had his or her school books opened up whilst he or she did their exercises on a worksheet or an exercise book.
All this came only later.
In the meantime I turned mindful and let the feeling of warm oil flowing down my hair wash over me.
Not sure whether I fell asleep- maybe I did, maybe I didn't- but after it was finished, I decided to use the restroom, and again there was that sense of intrusiveness mixed with a wee bit of familiarity, as if I were in a friend's house and had borrowed her bathroom.
The only thing about this head massage that got me a little uncomfortable was that I couldn't wash my hair.
Suvarnaveda didn't recommend it.
But I was glad to have the chance to visit an apartment.
Didn't matter if the place was now being used to welcome clients for massages, therapy and meditation.
The place, with the cabinets, the dining table, the plants on the balcony, even the carpet, felt homely just the same.
Off it was to this shop in Thong Lor where we got bags of organic snacks and some sort of powders to be mixed in smoothies.
I got quite fascinated by these fruit bars that had come from Chiangmai in Northern Thailand.
Then it was dinner.
This evening we were having Peking Duck- at Mott 32 in The Standard Bangkok.
I don't know if this building is a mixed purpose of retail and hotel or simply hotel, but The Standard Bangkok was located in King Power Mahanakorn (the duty free guys, I think) and Mott 32 was inside The Standard.
I kind of wish we had had the time to walk around.
But we were hitting the hour and so went straight up to the restaurant where tonight we settled for an Apple Wood Roasted Peking Duck, a Crispy Roasted Pork Belly and Hot and Sour Shanghainese Soup Dumplings, or Xiao Long Bao.
I've had Mott 32's duck in Marina Bay Sands before, so I knew what to expect especially for the flavors, the vegetable accompaniments and the sauce, but one always tends to wonder if different restaurants will have differing standards.
Thankfully then that the one here at The Standard was just as good.
It's a little hard to describe just how the Apple Wood Roasted Peking Duck tasted like, but let's just say that there was a distinct aromatic fragrance to the skin of the duck, making the flavors somewhat delicate and light, very unlike some of the other Peking Ducks which tend to be smokier and heavier on the palate (and the stomach).
You didn't actually need to wrap the duck skin together with the pancakes, scallions and cucumbers.
It was good enough on its own.
But I like the burst of green juice that comes with every bite of the scallion- I like how gives a lovely contrast to the meaty, rounded smoky taste of the skin, and I like how it balances out the oil that warms up in your mouth as soon as you bite into the layer of fat underneath the duck skin.
The Xiao Long Baos too were just as good.
Where at some places the skin tends to stick together and you have to chew your way through it to get a proper taste of the meat, these here stood out for their thin texture. I didn't have to chew too much.
Instead I got to savor more of the soup, which, by the way, would have been a great appetizer had we begun to eat it first before working our way through the duck.
As it was, I got a blend of flavors.
Add to both these dishes there was still the crisp of the Roasted Pork Belly, which, I have to say, they do very well.
My friend, in particular, is always on the hunt for any roast pork belly (or siew yok as the Cantonese call it) that's got a crispy skin. It's the best, I'm told, and please don't eat it separately from the rest of the meat so that you get the best textures there are in every slice.
He isn't wrong.
I tend to separate the skin from the pork fat and the pork meat- all this while I've preferred to eat the crisp on its own- but today I tried having the whole piece together, all at once, and yes, there was the chew of the meat solid in my mouth, there was the wobble of the pork fat, and there was the satisfying crunch of the well-roasted skin wrapped up all in this little bite sized piece in my mouth.
There aren't that many places where one can relish the perfection of flavors all at one time. Neither are there many places where the dish is so well prepared that you don't get the lingering taste of oil after you've finished.
This Crispy Roasted Pork Belly here at Mott 32 is one of them.
It would have been lovely to try their Braised Fish Maw with Oyster Sauce, or their Signature Phuket Lobster, Ma Po Tofu, or even their Wok Fried Morning Glory with Fermented Bean Curd and Chili.
These are, after all, distinctive foods in the country, and I can't remember if I've ever had Wok Fried Morning Glory before.
But perhaps one day we might go there again, Peking Duck is not a one time thing with my friend, and this time- if we do go to Mott 32, I'll consider having a dessert of Sweetened Guava Soup with Sago and Pomelo.
A very "Thai" way it would be to end a Chinese cuisine meal.