Easy cheesy

The opening of Dream Hotel late last year added one more cool place to hang out in Bangkok. The place is colourfully and stylishly decorated, particularly with lots of blue.

The main attraction is Flava, a restaurant on the second floor that offers myriad international and Thai dishes. A highlight is the authentic Swiss raclette.

Daniel Meier, the hotel's Swiss food and beverage manager, explains that raclette is a typical Swiss meal. It is particularly well enjoyed during winter weekends when people usually gather at home and enjoy lengthy meals together.

At Flava, raclette consists of plain and peppered sliced cheeses, a dish of assorted pickles (pearl onions, baby corn and gherkins), fresh Phuket pineapple, marinated meats (Angus beef tenderloin, duck breasts, Chipolata sausages, prawns, and chicken), broiled and boiled potatoes and fresh vegetables. Savoury green pepper, cocktail and tartar sauces are also served.

"Eating raclette is something we do very often," says Meier. "In the past, we only had the cheese with potatoes and pickles, but now that we have a new raclette broiler with a grill for meats on top, we can enjoy meats and other veggies as well."

We put the sliced cheese into the broiler's dish and meats on top of the grill. After the cheese has melted, we put it on top of the pickles or potato. Raclette is a mild cheese and you can add nutmeg or paprika to spice it up. The cheese complements the strong tastes of the pickles and the pineapple.

Meier says that Swiss people usually enjoy grilled meats by themselves or with the dipping sauces, but not with the cheese. A full set of raclette is Bt950 per person. A cheese-only set is Bt850 per person and a meats and vegetable set is Bt650 per person.

Flava also serves Thai dishes. A Thai meal there begins with a complimentary dish of banana blossom tempura served with sweet sauce. This is a creative way to make this dish because banana blossom is usually tannic in taste but when fried in tempura batter, it is mild and pleasant.

We ordered hor mok salmon (grilled spiced salmon and lemongrass skewer with green papaya salad, Bt365), gai yang kor lae (Southern Thai-style barbecued chicken with Asian spicy sauce and papaya noodles salad, Bt245) and gaeng kiew wan poo nim (green curry with soft shell crab, roasted apple eggplants and young coconut flesh, Bt415). The dishes are tasty and well done, especially the curry, which is rich and creamy with chunky crabs meat and coconut flesh.

Then we tried their Khon Khan black sticky rice pudding topped with sweet tamarind sauce and home-made mango ice cream (Bt185). This dessert tastes marvellous - the sour tamarind sauce goes very well with the ice cream and the sticky rice adds to the texture of the otherwise soft and simply spongy pudding cake. The look might be all Western, but the ingredients are all Thai. Flava also offers a three-course Thai and Western set business lunch for Bt490.

Flava

Dream Hotel

10 Sukhumvit Soi 15

BTS: Asok

6.30am to 1.30am daily

(02) 254 8500-1

Sirin P Wongpanit  

The writer can be reached saleewong@gmail.com.