This morning, as usual, we had breakfast in the room.
And, like how it had been these last couple of days, I didn't get to have a picture.
(Very silly, routine or not, I should be more excited)
After breakfast I headed to the downstairs area a bit, then went back to the room to get some work.
In the late morning we headed out to Ploenchit Center for a meeting.
What made it feel so interesting was the familiarity that came with it.
Was it only a few months ago that I was staying at Doubletree Hilton just down the road?
Was it only a few months ago that I came to this McDonalds for a weekend breakfast before heading off to Muang Thong, or that I had had to do an evening phone call here at this very same Starbucks that I was in?
It didn't seem so long ago that I was here at the Villa Market downstairs hunting about for water, or having lunch at the Bangkok Cafe before running off to Silom for a meeting.
Yet here I was, back again, at the Starbucks, meeting a gentleman who had been based in Thailand for a few decades or two.
It was pleasant to finally be able to meet a person whom we had first touched base with for a project done about seven years ago.
Not gonna lie, there were some memories.
When the meeting finished we decided we'd hang about the area, so instead of heading back down to Chidlom we went the opposite direction, going down towards the Nana area of Sukhumvit instead.
For some reason, out of the many restaurants there, it was Burger King that caught our eye, so we went in for a Mushroom Swiss burger lunch that came with a very large cup of drink, and a packet of tater tots (which, honestly, was what we were really after).
I don't have pictures of the food.
We were hungry.
But here's how it looks like outside Nana Square.
From here we headed over to Ekkamai where my friend had an appointment.
It's unlikely I went anywhere around the area this time.
Very likely all I did was to hide myself in the cool of Major Cineplex, in the quiet of the Starbucks outlet there.
In the early evening we went back to Chidlom.
Dinner at NAMA the other day had been so good we decided we'd come back for another round.
This time we were seated right close to the window looking out towards Siam Paragon on the other side.
The sight of the shopping mall on the other side of Wat Pathum Wanaram School made me feel somewhat pensive, yet quietly peaceful.
Was it the sight of the school with its roof so beautifully lit up?
Or perhaps it was the thought that at the beginning of the year I didn't know this place save in passing, and now I know it a little bit better?
Perhaps it was the thought that it was, after all, December, and it had been close to a year since I first came here, got introduced to all of this, and come to know this place, this space, a wee bit more.
It was something to be thankful for.
Like the meal too was something to be thankful for.
I had not thought, coming here to BKK, that I would be able to have, and appreciate such and such a meal.
NAMA here at Centara Grand is a place worth coming to, worth coming for.
Not only does it have a gorgeous view on all sides, the price is reasonable, and best of all, the food is amazing.
They aren't kidding when they tell you the seafood is premium and fresh.
I mean, just look at the sashimi.
One of the dishes we ordered was tuna.
Which is, by the way, a dish I am still learning to eat, although, admittedly I do fancy fatty tuna over the regular tuna. There's a softness to fatty tuna that I appreciate, and there's more oil, less chew, which I like.
Their salmon belly is not something to be underestimated either.
Best part about their salmon belly is that it's served cold.
That- I really love.
Because salmon (and salmon belly) if served lukewarm just doesn't hit well. Lukewarm sashimi makes you wonder just what you're paying your money for if they can't bother to put the fish on top of ice.
No, it has to be iced cold.
The highlight of their sashimi offering, however, is what I call the special box.
We had it the last time.
We were most certainly going to have it this time.
It is the kind of box that has everything of (popular) sashimi you want to try.
The best thing I love about this box is the aesthetics.
They arrange everything so prettily.
More often than not I don't know where to begin, so I start with the ones that I don't usually order ala carte, like the white (chewy) sotong cuttlefish, the abalone (which here at NAMA this evening seemed to be a little dry) and the sea urchin.
Let's just say I still gotta learn how to appreciate the sea urchin.
It's not that it isn't nice.
But is the texture usually dry or wet?
I never quite know.
What makes this box so lovely to me is, of course, all the seafood sashimi that I like, and it's a good time to have the salmon, the salmon belly, the tuna, the fatty tuna, and the scallops.
Their wasabi's quite power, by the way.
Just a pinch of this horseradish is more than enough to send me into a brain-fire gasp and tears coming uncontrollably out of my eyes.
Of course we aren't here just for the sashimi.
Not when they have an amazing selection of sushi and cooked food as well.
This evening we ordered a plate of beef sushi.
I'm trying to remember just what sort of sushi they call this- is it gunkan, is it something else- but for the life of me I can't tell what it is, and so I'll just say that it's a round of sushi rice with a strip of lightly grilled beef wrapped around it, and other ingredients (more beef?) in it plus a sprinkling of ikura.
Yes, I'm the kind who just eats and doesn't always know, or care, what she's eating just so long as it's good.
This evening, from the salad bar, I took a big dish of ikura (for my friend) and a slice of fresh pineapple.
For what reason I took the pineapple, I don't know, except maybe that I thought I hadn't been eating enough of tropical fruits even though I were here in BKK and felt I should be integrating some fruits together with the mains.
Maybe I thought it might help with digestion.
You know, I'm glad for the plate of lightly-fried salmon belly, and the filet of beef fried rice that came perfectly grilled Western style to our table.
The charm of the salmon belly wasn't just the soft soft fish, nor the oil that burst out from each piece when you took a bite, but the fish skin that was warm and crisp when you ate it on its own.
There wasn't even much of a fishy fishy aftertaste.
Speaks volumes about the spirit and attitude they take towards preparing their dishes, whether small or big.
Looking at the little filet of beef now now makes me think how perfectly sliced it was that I didn't even need to eat it with my fork. I could use back the same pair of chopsticks that I had already been using a while before.
What's more, the rice, marinated with what I think included the beef jus and beef fat, tasted so good with the raw egg yolk balancing delicately on top. It was a myriad of flavors, earthy and meaty all at the same time. The texture too, was interesting- smooth, slightly sticky, so the rice didn't fall apart.
From the meat I tasted black pepper mixed inside the slight hint of burnt.
Somewhere along the way we ordered a tray of tiger prawns that came to us raw and which we had to grill by ourselves on top of the portable charcoal stove.
Then there was a serving of chawanmushi topped with the rich, creamy, thick crab broth.
It's easy to dismiss the steamed egg chawanmushi like any ordinary one that you can have at sushi chains or other Japanese buffets, but the crab broth, plus the bits of crab sticks immersed within the egg make a whole lot of difference, one which I hadn't realized, until now.
Perhaps I haven't had much of a chance to have chanwanmushi with soup on top of it.
There're a lot of foods, I've come to gradually realize, that I thought I knew, but in fact, don't.
Like grilled tiger prawns.
It doesn't come natural to me that there can be prawns this size.
Neither does it come natural to me that prawns grilled this way can actually taste this good.
I've been so used to the chilled ones and the steamed ones and boiled ones.
But grilled ones, with that little bit of burnt burnt taste, are better.
I don't need any sort of dip with grilled prawns.
They're naturally sweet.
We ended dinner this evening with dessert.
And can I say I've never been any less impressed by their selections of dessert ever?
I think I took ice cream (but I can't remember)
I also think I took cake (but I also cannot remember)
Instead what I do have are pictures of these- and (coincidence or no) they happen to be all green.
The cantaloupes (or honeydew melons) were especially loved by my friend whom, already being a fan of the fruit, fell in love with the perfectly chilled fruit even more, whilst I, on the other hand, took special delight with the matcha mochi and the matcha pudding because, after all, there had been a season where I really loved matcha but didn't have a chance to experiment and try.
Wasn't going to miss up on the opportunity this time.
You know, I'm so thankful for this buffet.
Really.
There's so much about this buffet here at NAMA that I appreciate, not just the food, or the quality and quantity of the food itself, but the hospitality, the service, and the crowd.
I never tire of being amongst the crowd.
I never tire too of hoping I have enough stomach space to help myself to the fried oysters and ebi tempuras that I see there.
But as always, we're limited by tummy space, and I hope- always- that there'll be another time.
This evening we finished off dinner in a most lovely and charming way.
And later that evening just before heading back, down it was 20 plus floors to TOPS at Central World where we got protein shakes to chuck in the fridge before packing them back into the luggage and bring home.
Ekkamai then back to Centara Grand for dinner at the Japanese buffet restaurant. Bought protein shakes.