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Published on October 21, 2007

Opened just over a year ago, Breeze, in lebua at State Tower, continues to expand. The elite nightclub Ocean 52 was opened recently as part of Breeze, and - good news for diners - the restaurant is now open for lunch.

To celebrate all the lunching opportunities, Dim Sum Chef Peh Teik Hok ("Chef Paul") has launched his "Dim Sum Set Lunch", offering a range of dim sums you won't find in any other restaurant, Chinese or not, in Bangkok.

The ingredients, he assures, are traditional Chinese, but combined to offer a "new style, new design and new taste."

You understand his point the minute the sauces arrive. Instead of the traditional little shallow bowls you've seen elsewhere, these sauces arrive in shooter glasses all protected in their very own, non-spill basket.

Paul combines traditional with some very fine variations. The sauces range from red chilli and ginger to the traditional white vinegar and chilli to Chinese black vinegar, to Chinese-Szechuan to a very popular Assam-Malaysia-style curry sauce.

If you're a dipping fanatic, you'll love all these sauces.

Paul's dim sum creations are very beautiful. His "South Pacific seafood basket" is full of prawns, lobster and other seafood from all over the Pacific Rim. Some are topped with caviar, others with roe.

Call his dim sum elegant, from Siew mai, dumplings filled with prawns, pork and taro, to the lovely mooli puffs. These pear-shaped puffs, shells of deep-fried sticky rice filled with dried scallops and prawns, may not be to everyone's taste, he admits, but if you love a good "punch" with your seafood, you'll enjoy the combination of tastes.

The dim sum set lunch includes a very lovely (and very filling) bamboo soup with a huge seabass and scallop dumpling, and a choice of dim sum baskets. The noodle and vegetable dishes vary from week to week. The sweet is your choice of a kumquat puff or sago cantaloupe.

The tariff is Bt750, or Bt950 if you order Chinese tea.

You can also order dim sum a la carte. Any of the dim sum in the set menu are available. You should try Paul's cha siew pork buns (Bt140).

These he stuffs with pork and oolong tea, steams and then pan fries very lightly.

Vegetarians will be pleased to learn that he's created some very special dim sum just for the non-carnivores in our midst.

In addition to dim sum (divided into "steamed" and "fried" sections, Breeze offers, on its a la carte menu, a range of main dishes, as well as vegetable dishes.

For lunch, you can eat as much (or as little) as your appetite dictates.

In the evenings, dim sum are also available, but not as many as for lunch.

In November, Paul is expanding his dim sum menu to include many traditional dim sum.

Born near Ibo, Malaysia, 35 years ago, Paul has been with Breeze for about a year, having completed three years in London. He has no plans to expand into other areas of the Chinese culinary arts. "These dim sum," he says, "are my heart, my life."

Laurie Rosenthal

The Nation