Breakfast this morning was at the Italian-Thai fusion restaurant downstairs.
You know, since the night before I had been silently wondering whether breakfast here would be of the conservative, functional type, or the touristy, business-like elaborate type offering what they felt their guests (from various cultures and cuisines) might possibly like.
As it turned out, the offerings here were a lovely mix of both styles, and by that, I mean that they not only had local offerings that would delight any a local business traveler, there were also Western offerings that would suit the palate of an American or a European.
On one side of the buffet counter there was the egg station.
Then there were the breads and pastries close by, followed by a whole selection of cooked food right in the center, and at one end, right near the entrance, there were the salads, the yogurts, the juices and the fruits.
Somewhere in the middle of all these there were probably the cereals and the milks, but I didn't take notice this morning, going light as I had chosen to be.
It was impossible to resist the croissants- they were so huge- so I got one, with the butter, and then I took two hard boiled eggs along with Caesar salad sauce to dip the eggs in. My friend got a slice of toast, and an omelet.
Afterwards I headed upstairs to the pool (can't remember which floor) but here at Cape House they've got a rectangular workout pool, and a round jacuzzi type one.
The view's not so fantastic- surrounding you are other condominiums- but they've placed a lovely coconut palm tree there, there're shrubs of bougainvillea flowers around, and they've got some lovely garden seats.
Later we headed out for lunch at OKONOMI at Central Embassy.
Three weeks, and we found we were missing their food quite a bit.
But since we weren't really hungry, we ordered our usual of Salmon Spicy Rice, Salmon and Cheese Mazemen, and a bowl of the sweetish Pumpkin Soup with pumpkin seeds on top.
Lunch over, my friend brought me to this place called Little Farm over in Onnut.
Little Farm, together with its sister location a short walk away, is what we would call a pet cafe. It's gotten more popular these days, what with urbanized people like us yearning to be closer to nature and interact with animals without having to travel a long way off to the city's zoo where even the most domesticated of animals are in their cube, in their enclosure, or behind a glass in their pen.
The first thing that greeted us at the lobby/wait area was a hedgehog.
A big one.
Whom, by the way, didn't do anything but stay asleep in his little house the entire time.
There was no getting him awake, by the way.
I (kind of) tried.
But I didn't mind.
I liked watching him sleep.
Plus he looked so cute.
I didn't know hedgehogs looked this way when they slept.
I mean, I've never seen a hedgehog before, much less a sleeping one.
But if I'd thought the sight of this was good enough a surprise, well, guess what, I was in for more.
See, I had been told that this was a corgi cafe.
What I hadn't been told, however, was that this place was actually more.
One of the very first animal friends we saw after entering the playroom was a raccoon at the side of the room right by the window lounging away sleepily on his perch of a shelf.
He wasn't restless or mischievous or anything of the sort.
He was just snoozing there, literally ignoring the many hands that stretched out to pat him and only paying attention to the minder when she swung by to (playfully) poke him awake.
Afterwards we went into another room where there sat another much larger raccoon on some sort of a bench.
This raccoon seemed to own the place, not just the perch- mind, and to get near him you had to get some sort of tacit agreement from the minder seated nearby.
She didn't stop you or anything.
She just indicated if it were 'safe' enough to come close or pat his head.
Perhaps the only animal friend that got really, really close to the raccoon was a red fox who hung about nearby and climbed onto the perch above his head.
After this large (kind of fat) raccoon, we wandered to where the meerkats were.
There were two, and I was surprised by just how tame they were.
Neither of them scrabbled on top of you or clamped at your hair or anything of the sort.
What they did do, however, was fall in asleep in your arms as you reached out to stroke their fur, and hair.
I had one fall asleep right in the crook of my arm.
And there it stayed, ten minutes, fifteen minutes, I don't know.
I couldn't move.
I didn't want to move.
Not when it was such a privilege to have it choose me (of all people) to tuck itself over my forearm and fall asleep with its head snug in the crook of my elbow.
Motionless I stayed a while, watching it sleep, and just when I was wondering if I'd be spending my entire allocated time of an hour and half here cradling a meerkat, in came the staff (who had snacks inside the pocket of her overalls) and all at once the meerkat woke up, scrambling over to try dig out the snacks from her pocket.
We went out to the main play area after, and whilst my friend went around the room playing with the other dogs and cats in the room (yes, he went back to tease the raccoon), I settled down on the floor between two corgis who let me stroke their fur and take all manner of photos.
Words can't describe the quiet delight I felt to finally be able to pat and stroke one of my favorite dog breeds of all time.
I have liked corgis for a while now, but haven't had much of a chance to get up close, so to be on the floor now, with two right beside me, not minding whether I played with their ears or stroked their loaf-like bodies, it was like a dream come true.
To be able to watch them quietly as they lay about, to be able to look at their cute little faces staring curiously at me, I don't think I could have asked for a better birthday celebration.
When our hour and half came up, back out to the hedgehog house we went to collect our drinks, and cookies. I got an iced coffee, he got an iced chocolate, and we kept the cookies.
From here we took a short walk to their sister property called the Little Garden.
Here, instead of dogs and cats and raccoons and meerkats, there were the larger animal friends.
Rules here were the same, we got drinks each that were to be collected after, but here, instead of cookies (for the humans) we were given baskets of feed and plants to be given to the animal friends inside.
It was a very intimate sort of place.
On one side there was a bit of a pond near which a capybara was taking his afternoon snooze and snuggle.
What surprised me was just how large these capybaras were.
And they didn't seem perturbed by the noise these hoomans were making.
No, the fella just slept.
No sound, nothing made him awake, and I wasn't sure if it were the right thing to do, but later when he did wake up, it was to the happy sight of a fresh leaf snack dangling in front of his face.
By then I'd gotten acquainted with a very curious and friendly goat who'd butted his head into our baskets and gave you the most queer looks until you relented and gave him his afternoon snack of dried brown hay.
Come to think about it, I'm not sure if the goat ate the leaves or the hay.
Maybe he ate both.
Or maybe just the hay.
The staff know better (and they will advise you).
I spent most of my time watching the goats and the capybara, but at one side of the garden there were ducks waddling about, there was a mousedeer resting languidly in its fenced up pen, and nearer to the cafe there was a huge dormouse.
The mouse fascinated me.
I don't think I'd ever seen one this size ever before.
So intrigued was I by it that I forgot to take a picture.
I didn't get to take pictures of the ducks too.
A pity, I should have.
But I managed to take the picture of the mousedeer (in between pets from the other visitors), and nearer to the cafe, the tortoises.
So quiet were the tortoises that I didn't even realize they were there.
By this time I was feeling a little warm, and a little tired from the delight of being so close to animal friends that I would never have previously had that we decided to collect our drinks from the cafe and blow a bit of aircon.
My friend had iced roselle tea.
I chose an orange Americano.
I had thought we'd be heading back.
But no, there was still a special dinner celebration.
My friend had booked for us an omakase dinner at a restaurant called Hotaru 119.
I'm not sure if there are other outlets in Bangkok- I think there's another one on Rama 9- but this one here was located in The Seasons Mall in Phaya Thai.
Omakase is Japanese-based, and it is best described as a dining experience where the chef chooses the menu and prepares the meal based on the ingredients available.
It's the kind of meal that you go not knowing what you'll get, not knowing what you'll eat, not be able to choose what you want to eat, and your entire meal will be in accordance to whatever the chef decides to make for you.
For some people, it's a gamble.
For others, it makes for change and heightens the anticipation.
I was more for the latter.
Because even if it be but a little, I did find myself wondering what the first dish would be and how it would be served.
Not that I came for omakase without expectations.
There are standards to adhere to, like the element of innovation, the element of surprise, the element of artistic performance.
But, practically speaking, I was just going to eat whatever the chef introduced me to.
Here at Hotaru 119 this evening there were three other pairs besides us.
I'm not sure if all of took the same set- there were four to choose from- a 14 course set, a 15 course set, a 18 course set, and a 20 course set- but from the looks of it, I think all of us got the same.
Here's the thing.
I can't remember which dish is which dish.
I can't remember which fish is which fish.
And I can't remember which ingredient belongs to which dish.
So I have to refer to a translated post on Lemon8 app that, thankfully, features the 14 course set, and so describes most of the dishes that this evening I'd enjoyed here.
Starting off the meal we got a small glass of sour and sweet-tasting Aka Shiso Juice that certainly helped to open the palate and whet the appetite.
I had thought I might be able to sip it slowly through the course of the meal but you weren't supposed to do that, so I drank it all down the same way I saw the others do.
Following that I'm not sure whether the dish I got was the Ika Hachi Squid, but there was a bit of foamy bubble on top of the dish so I think possibly that bubble might have been the Yuzu Orange Bubble sitting on top of the squid.
After that came a variety of sushi that I know included the Madai- the Japanese red snapper, the Shima Aji and maybe the Aori Ika.
Honestly I'm not sure which fish is which fish is which fish, but I'm pretty sure there was the red snapper, because I've seen this breed of fish before but have never had it prepared in such a fresh, tender-flesh kind of way before.
I too don't know what the Aori Ika looks like, but the post on Lemon8 tells me it's got a fresh octopus texture.
Thing is, I don't know which of these sushi is the octopus.
I can only imagine it be the first one that's white in color... but then again I can't recall if there were any lemonade on it.
One dish that I'm very certain I got was the Hamachi, or yellowtail fish, because somewhere during the middle of the dinner, the chef had us all stretch out our hands and on top of each hand he carefully balanced the sushi before spraying some sort of a gold dust over it.
It felt glamorous.
Besides the sushi, there was a Chawanmushi Ebi Tempura.
And this was the tastiest chawanmushi which I'd ever tried.
All along I'd thought I had been having good chawanmushi.
Until this one.
It wasn't just the flavor of the egg.
It was the spoonful of soft, bouncy, perfectly-steamed egg that you placed inside your mouth and let its flavors burst out as you rolled it around.
It was the feel of its cozy warmth slowly going down your throat.
I loved it.
Somewhere after the chawanmushi, we got an Aka Ebi, which is a shrimp puff that had a shrimp head poking out of the puff, but shrimp heads frighten me and this one I dared not eat.
What I did take, instead, was the Honmaguro Don- a dish comprising of (precious) sea urchin and a bit of tuna laid on top of a piece of seaweed and some bits that I thought resembled rice krispies but I think was really fried flour.
After this, there was a fish bone soup.
Clear in color yet thick in texture, I loved how tasty and nourishing it was yet so clean and smooth on the tongue.
The second last dish we had at this omakase was a sando.
To be specific, it was an unagi eel sando that I'm not sure whether I ate the unagi or if I gave it to my friend, but no matter, the eel would have been fresh and thick and tasty, and the bread would have been filled with flavor.
We ended the dinner with a dessert of Tamago Egg Cake that, for some reason, I didn't manage to get a picture.
Nonetheless, it was a cake in the shape of a tamago and I honestly thought of it so cool.
When dinner finished, we hung around the mall a while then took the BTS from Sanam Pao back to Siam Square where we got a Thai massage at one of the outlets here (either Thai Thai or Moon) before heading back to Lang Suan and Chidlom.