In the beautiful depths of La Mer

A culinary expedition with Ambrosia

La Mer Grill Restaurant, located inside the Montien Hotel (turn right at the main entrance and enter through the lounge), has already existed for ten years. At the time of its beginning, there weren’t very many French restaurants in town and the former owner took the opportunity to spoil lovers of French cuisine.

A cozy atmosphere will welcome you as you enter. The interior is set in warm wood and the furniture, carpets and table decorations are in soft color tones.

Immediately you’ll relax in the ambiance of the mellow sounds of the excellent piano player who will entertain with his skills on the piano and with his scintillating voice.

Khun Vichit, the Food & Beverage Manager, and Khun Mon, the PR of the Montien Hotel, joined our party and helped to make this dining-out a remarkable one. Excellent wines were served preceding our difficult choice of ordering our meal from a large, wide ranging menu in which everything sounded interesting.

While choosing, we nibbled on carrots, spring-onions and leeks dipped in different sauces.

With Khun Vichit’s help we finally decided on Mussels with Garlic and Cilantro, a classic French Onion Soup with an impressive puff-paste crust on top, a creamy Lobster Bisque, cold Poached Mussels with Salmon Caviar, a Cream of Pumpkin Soup, a Smoked Salmon and Halibut and a Smoked Salmon Crepe for entrees. I couldn’t say what tasted the best. It was all excellent. Fresh bread and rolls of all kinds were served together with butter.

For the main course we chose Beef Tenderloin Steak Flambe, a fresh Salmon Steak Flambe, roasted Breast of Duck, Wasabi Crust Baked Salmon Fillet, and Beef Sirloin Steak. Fresh garden vegetables, baked potatoes, buttered rice and french-fries came with it, according to the special wishes. The tenderloin and the salmon were prepared at our table by Khun Sanya, a captain at the restaurant who recently won the gold-medal at the Queen Sirikit Center in the Food-Flambe-Competition, which is ranked as a Thai-Championship. As you can imagine, it was done with great skill and perfection, as well as all the other dishes prepared by chef Daniel Althaus.

Eating so much, we had to rest for a while, enjoying our wine and an interesting discussion with Khun Vichit and Khun Mon. Finally we, especially me, the one with the terrible sweet tooth, asked for dessert. Chef Daniel, coming from Switzerland, which is well-known for its desserts, suggested a cherry flambe, frozen white chocolate mousse with fruit sauce, a classical parfait Grand Marnier and apple cobblers with vanilla ice-cream. Everyone of us were still licking our lips even after all was already gone.

The service was amongst the best we’ve ever received. Khun Vichit told me that sometime in August they will change the food-concept into something new. Just as good, but a little different in style and price. Apropos price: even though it’s a first class restaurant, the prices are still mostly medium and definitely worth what you get. For example, the most expensive dish will cost you 450 baht.

A selection of the finest wines from all over the world is waiting for you to chose. La Mer is one of the finest restaurants in town with reasonable prices, fantastic service and just great to have a romantic dinner with your loved ones, your best friends, or important business partners.

Recipe

I believe that Vichyssoise, a cold mashed potato and leek soup, has lost some of its glitter now more than twenty years later. At the time it was considered “tr่s, tr่s chic” to start your dinner with an iced bowl of cold potato soup. Although easy to prepare, Vichyssoise when properly made can be quite delicious. It can also taste like leftover mashed potatoes thinned with dishwater. It all depends on the cook.

VICHISSOISE WITH GREEN ASPARAGUS.

Vichyssoise is not, as most people think, a French soup but an invention of the Chef de Cuisine, Louis Diat, of the Ritz Carlton Hotel in New York. It was first served at the occasion of the opening of the hotel and immediately acquired great fame. To me it is just cold potato soup but this does not mean that it isn’t good. As a delicious variation, I add country ham and green asparagus.

Recipe

Slice the white of four to six leeks and saut้ this in two tablespoons of butter until they become limp and transparent but not brown.

Peel half a kilo of potatoes, dice in small pieces. Scrape, clean and cut into small pieces, half a kilo of green asparagus. Add these two vegetables to the leeks and enough chicken stock to cover it all. Place it back on the fire and add a few pieces of mace. Let this cook until the potatoes are thoroughly done. I happen to have a pressure cooker which is ideal for this kind of preparation as it keeps all the flavours in the pot.

If you do not have a blender, mash the potatoes and the leeks through a sieve, discarding the mace. Otherwise use the blender, but still pour the soup and the broth through a sieve to make it a real smooth and creamy mixture. Now add two cups of thick double cream and bring it to a boil again. Add a plate of finely chopped smoked country ham or smoked beef and after a minute adjust the flavour with salt and ground, white pepper. Serve garnished with chopped chives. If not available, finely cut greens of the spring onion (Ton Hom) will do very well.

You may serve this soup cold, in iced cups or little glass bowls on crushed ice and, if you wish, call it “Vichyssoise Verte”. You may also call it “Iced Green Potato and Asparagus Soup”. Incidentally, you do pronounce the last “se” in Vichyssoise.