Then, when you go to the bar, you get to see the golden dome in all its glory. So, Sirocco is super hyped up, but honestly, other than the view, it is not worth it. The drinks were over-priced and not even very good. There is nowhere to sit, and nowhere to even put your drink. The service is only just acceptable for that level of hotel, and the place is overcrowded with abnoxious farang all of whom consider themselves to be the world's most important person.
So, my evaluation of Sirocco....don't go there...Vertigo at Banyan Tree is by far superior and costs about half the price...and it's located on the 61st floor, so the view is just as good! AND, Vertigo give you free bar snacks with your drink...something Sirocco forgot somewhere along the line....big cross for forgetting bar snacks:(
So, moving on to the next hi-so event for this week.....to many hi-so events this week....Thursday was Thanksgiving, and the University of California students have some organisation here which was putting on a Thanksgiving dinner for them. They all got to invite someone, and Nancy was kind enough to invite me! That's Nancy there- we teach English together for TU2U a volunteer english teaching program to teach kids from the community around Thammasat.
So I got to experience thanksgiving dinner for the first time! And what an opportune time it was as the organisation had hired out a French restaurant called La Grande Perle on the Chao Praya river. VERY NOICE. Here's some pictures of us looking spiffy by the river
And this is the view from the balcony on the river
Dinner was a sight to behold....this is the table and the very cool napkin and the menu..., and a picture of Nancy, Maei and Michi who were sitting at my table
Bread came really nicefully presented, and each bread basket got refilled frequently for each course, and there was always a variet of breads. I had a raisin bread, a garlic bread and a foccacia bread...all delicious and warm!
So, onto the meal. First course was not a course but was an amuse bouche, which was prawn with cucumber and some sauce which seemed like a classy form of thousand island dressing.
The first entree was then served, which was pan fried frois gras with salad greens and caramalized peaches. AMAZING AMAZING AMAZING....although most of the American's do not care for frois gras, so I indulged in a few plates of it....look at the size of that piece of frois gras...that's too much money sitting on a plate to send it back untouched!
Soup was then served and it was a cream of mushroom soup. The mushroom was actually shiitake mushroom which was really flavoursome, and the soup was served with frothed milk on top which lightened the whole soup a bit...very nice, good choice on the soup chef.
End of entrees, bring on the palate freshener, which was a tamarind sorbet. This time, the sorbet found dissaproval form the Japanese contingent at the dinner, but once again strong approval from the Australian contingent, the American contingent were mostly drunk by this stage and only wanted to drink and eat turkey so didnt even attempt this course. Poor effort team America, poor poor effort. BUT, that said, I did gladly help them out by sampling...emphasise the world sampling for experimental purposes only a few more mouthfuls of tamarind sorbet left unattended.
Turkey for mains was next. The university had the turkeys flown in from USA....do the world overly unnecessarily excessive spring to mind here??
So, the imported US turkeys were displayed much to the delight of team America who cheered these turkeys as though they were human. They then dissapeared to the kitchen, and came back out looking like this, and accompanied with a plate of wild rice
Turkey tasted great, and the stuffing was the first stuffing I have ever eaten all of. The cranberry sauce had a nice amount of sugar to take away the tarness but not enough to make it taste like sugar syrup. Again...good work kitchen. Wild rice....I want the recipe!
For dessert, we had pumpkin pie...apparently a very Thanksgiving dessert....BUT the Americans all assured me it tasted nothing like real pumpkin pie. But it tasted good to me and looked
amazing. Look at the artistry on the plate!
Then, here is a dessert shot resulting from attempts to be artistic....attempts is key here
So ended a wonderful first ever thanksgiving for me! And now, I think I am finally up to date with all exciting happenings throughout November. Other than these things, I have been busy with uni, teaching english with TU2U, sampling new foods, planning where to eat next, sussing out Christmas lunch venues, planning eating tours for those visitng BKK in December.
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