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DINING OUT - ENTERTAINMENT

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Dining Out

Nightmarch

Dining Out: Chrysanthemum Palace - a rare opportunity for a royal experience

by Miss Terry Diner

Miss Terry Diner has always claimed she was a foundling. Her humble background is foreign to her innate being, undoubtedly genetically programmed for the finer things in life. If you too suffer from this problem, there is an answer. It is called The Imperial Delights promotion at the Chrysanthemum Palace in the Royal Cliff Grand.

The Dining Out team was met for dinner by the GM of the Royal Cliff Beach Resort, Andrew Wood. To set the tone of the evening, over a bottle of Veuve Cliquot French champagne, we discussed the menu with Andrew for this special promotion, which by the way only goes to the 31st of this month. It was a royal beginning.

The dishes on offer have been selected not only for their rarity, but to also produce some new and exciting tastes for the discerning gourmand. For example, the Monk Jumps Over The Wall soup has ten ingredients including abalone, black chicken and Yunan ham. This is a famous soup from the Fujian Province, whose aroma was said to be so alluring that a meditating monk would abandon contemplating his navel and jump over the wall to indulge! It also takes several hours to prepare and is commensurately expensive!

The other items in this promotion include a Szechuan style Fried Giant Crab Claw (B. 400), Sauteed King Lobster “Hong Te” (B. 180 per 100 grams), Steamed Snow Fish with Chinese White Crispy Mushrooms (B. 450) and a Fried Stuffed Sea Scallops in Shao-Xin Wine Sauce (B. 600). As you can see, these are no ordinary “Chinese banquet” items, but are rare opportunities.

To go with the Imperial Delights there is also a special wine list with wines at reduced prices during the period of the promotion. Our Veuve Cliquot, for example, was only B. 3,450, and while I say “only” look at what this quality French champagne costs at other times! Much more!

But we had come to partake, and we were ushered into the Chrysanthemum Palace to be met by smiling waiters in red mandarin coats and waitresses in the same brightly coloured cheong-sams. You can transport yourself to being the guest of honour of a Chinese emperor without stretching the imagination too much at all.

After being seated we were given Chinese tea and a small container of soy sauce each. Shortly afterwards the Monk Jumps Over The Wall arrived - and indeed it is an aromatic soup, crammed full of meats, fish and vegetables. The taste is superb, with no hint of oiliness. Andrew said that during the five hours of preparation, the oils are continually scooped from the top, leaving the broth clean and piquant.

As we were reviewing the items in this promotion, we were given each one to try, and next up was the Szechuan style crab claw. This was not a dissect and eat dish, but the crab meat had already been extracted and the crab was surrounded by prawn meat and then fried. My notes taken at the time simply say “Spicy and wonderful.” Just believe me - it was!

The lobster was rich, juicy, flavoursome and sensational, and my pick of the evening, but it was difficult with these dishes all of such high standard. The snow fish just fell apart, with no hint of oil and the white jelly mushrooms were crunchy and amazing! Finally, the Australian sea scallops were wrapped in chopped king prawns and I scooped up even the last drops of the sauce.

Quite frankly, this was an “over the top” evening. Simply the best Chinese food I have ever had. Superb examples of different Chinese cuisines along with impeccable service. Madame summed it up as, “An experience that will live with me for the rest of my life.” Not cheap, but the best never is. Even if you only have a “blow out” once a year, make it between now and the 31st of August. The highest recommendation possible!

The Chrysanthemum Palace, Royal Cliff Grand, Royal Cliff Beach Resort, 353 Phra Tumnak Road, Pattaya. Tel 038 250 421, closed Thursdays.

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Nightmarch

Although I mentioned recently that this low season looked like being particularly grim, some operators of beer boozers, ogling dens and dine and dash establishments have told me that July was actually quite reasonable, in some cases topping their takings for months like April and May.

According to the figures of the Tourism Authority of Thailand, the country had just over nine and a half million tourists during 2000, nearly 60% of them male. Of these, almost three and a half million came from Europe, North and South America and Oceania (Australia/New Zealand) and seats on flights, particularly back to Europe, are currently difficult to obtain.

As far as specific nations are concerned, tourists from the United Kingdom numbered nearly 290,000 while from Germany the figure was around 237,000. The French and the Swedish were the next most prominent of the European countries with, respectively, about 147,000 and 117,000 visitors to Thailand.

In case you were wondering, Bangkok Airport is ranked as the 26th busiest in the world with Atlanta and Chicago at the top of the busy tree in terms of passenger traffic.

Taking the Mickey: One thing that’s difficult to find here in Fun Town is a good bar manager. Quite a number have been running places for so long they’ve become jaded and tend to collect together in little cliques of long-term associates and regular visitors. In some ways, I can’t really blame them. After all, having to be upbeat and friendly to every punter who glides through the portals of your playhouse night after night takes a lot of effort, and over the months and years it’s easy to become jaundiced.

Anyway, the Spicy Girls Too ogling den (Pattayaland Soi 1) seems to have come alive in recent weeks following the appointment of an English version of Mickey Mouse as the new talking and drinking head. I don’t quite know what kind of medication he’s taking but he generally cavorts around the chrome pole palace like a man suffering St Vitus’s Dance.

Considering that during Happy Hour, from 7:30pm until 9:00pm, draught beer is just 40 baht, it’s worth dropping in just to watch the Mouse bounce around.

Remember The Alamo: Towards the Beach Road end of Soi 8 is an average-sized beer boozer named The Alamo, which has attracted a pretty regular crowd of expats and regular visitors to Fun Town. In many ways it’s a similar style to the popular Coral Reef beer boozer located up the road.

The original Alamo was a fortified mission in San Antonio, Texas and was the scene of a famous 13-day siege in 1836 between colonists seeking Texan independence from Mexico. Among the defenders was Davy Crockett, a man famous, among other things, for wearing a raccoon skin as a hat. I must say that any bloke silly enough to go around wearing a dead animal on his head probably deserves to get topped by a musket-toting nachos muncher.

Anyway, the famous event (the battle, not Davy Crockett getting whacked) is now commemorated here in Fun Town, but what’s really weird is that although the owner is a Yank (as you’d expect), the manager is Welsh.

A dose of VCD: The new trend in marketing for some ogling dens is to purchase a couple or three televisions and a VCD player and give guzzlers a taste of synchronised music.

The Tim ogling den (Second Road) has had the VCD setup for a little while now and the place is well worth a visit. The music is great, the dancing maidens are a friendly lot and not too pushy when it comes to hustling lady drinks and the happy hour prices of 55 baht for the amber fluid and just 60 baht for liver wasters like gin, vodka and whisky between 8:00 and 9:00pm makes it easy on the pocket.

My only real complaint is that the den is a little on the dark side, you think you’re walking into a cave and expect to be mugged at any moment by a grizzly bear.

I’ll have a slice of Perry Como and the fish and chips: The Sportsman’s Grill noshery (Soi 13) does a weekly special on Monday evenings of fish and chips at the value price of 99 baht. If you decide to sit in the air-conditioned area of the munching house, you’re liable to hear background music not heard in public since about 1938. Still, it makes a change from the constant assault of techno heads and rappers with names like LL Cool J and Puff Daddy, even if the music is the sort listened to by people who keep their teeth in a glass of water beside the bed. The service in the Sportsman’s Grill (and its parent the Sportsman’s Inn in Soi 6) is efficient and friendly and it is rumoured that the nosh house will soon be undergoing extensive renovations.

Update: A couple of months ago I mentioned the fact that construction was well under way at a couple of Fun Town sites that hadn’t seen the ebb and flow of business for a number of years.

The first site, that of the old Green House near the corner of Second Road and Pattaya Central Road is now...wait for it...a set of beer boozers with the grand title of the Green House Center.

The second site, just around the corner from Central Pattaya Road in Beach Road is now a large seafood noshery, with entertainment, called Shrimps.

My e-mail address is: [email protected]

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