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Book Review: Thailand’s Best Restaurants 2006
by Lang Reid
This annual publication has just hit the streets, and has
continued to expand its ambit from just Bangkok to now also include Chiang
Mai, Pattaya, Hua Hin, Phuket and Koh Samui.
Thailand’s Best Restaurants 2006 is published by Thailand Tatler (ISBN
974-93913-7-3) and has over 300 pages of information on not just the
restaurants, but also articles on wine, wines, more wines and general tips
on being an epicure. At the beginning of each featured region there is an
interesting section on the trends in the areas, and all without exception
very up-beat on the future of the better restaurants.
Stylish new restaurants are appearing every day in Thailand, with the
FarangSes restaurant in the Mandarin Oriental Dhara Dhevi Resort in Chiang
Mai being one of the few in Thailand to receive 10 out of 10 for both its
food and its service. You do pay for the pleasure, however, but when only
the best will do!
Another restaurant to gain a 10 rating is in Pattaya, with the Grill Room’s
wine cellar with its 825 labels and 36,000 bottles getting the accolades it
deserves. The Normandie and the D’Sens in Bangkok also received a 10 for
their cellars, but neither has the breadth or scope of the Grill Room.
It is also very interesting to see just what bargains there are to be had in
the country regions, compared to Bangkok, and whilst the Bangkok restaurants
do take the major slice of the listings, the up-country restaurants would
appear to give the better value. For example, at The House in Chiang Mai, or
Casa Pascal in Pattaya, you can have dinner for two for 2,000 baht
(excluding wines), in a restaurant scoring significantly higher in the food,
wine and service categories than the same price range generally found in the
capital. However, it is always fun trying them out!
In addition to the very readable articles in the front of the book
(including one of which advises the reader to tip the Maitre d’hotel $US20,
“Fold it into a square, held between your thumb and palm, and pass it while
gently shaking hands”). Fortunately I looked and saw the writer was from New
York’s Astoria Waldorf Hotel, and I relaxed, happy in the knowledge that we
are truly pampered in Thailand as far as dining is concerned. We have some
world class restaurants, for which we do not have to pay world class prices.
If you wish to impress the ‘folks back home’, send them a copy of this
restaurant guide.
The book continues to expand, and if it has a down-side, I would like to see
even more of the regional listings getting in to the publication. When a
certain percentage of listings must be “new”, this does mean that some well
established ones may have to be dropped, but the publishers have my
sympathy. A line must be drawn somewhere.
At B. 395, this publication will probably pay for itself many times over if
you dine wisely, especially if using the American Express discount offers
being given by many of the listed restaurants.
You can buy a copy of Thailand’s Best Restaurants 2006
by Nick Hornby from Amazon.com.
Mott’s CD review: Mott The Hoople Live
30th Anniversary Edition
Mott the Dog
 5
Stars *****
At last; a proper release for this masterpiece of a live album in
tribute to one of the great rock ‘n’ roll bands of the mid-seventies.
Mott the Hoople “Live” was originally released in 1974, but because of
time restraints, only part of two concerts were put out as the first
vinyl bound release. This consisted of five songs from a concert of
their week long residency at the Uris theatre Broadway May 1974, and
three songs from their end of tour Christmas gigs 1973, at London’s
Hammersmith Odeon; hardly satisfactory.
As none of the songs ran in order, there were two songs midway through
each side, “Rose” and “Rest In Peace”, which were used in the sets to
give the members of the band a bit of a breather from all the leaping
about, neither side had an opening number, and side one ended with a
truncated version of the final encore, whilst side two closed with the
end of the set proper, so although there were plenty of flashes of
excitement, nothing like the full thing.
Here you get both concerts in their proper running order. Unfortunately
there were recording glitches at Hammersmith and we lose “Hymn For The
Dudes” and “All The Way From Memphis”; time constraints meant one song
had to be culled from the Broadway show, and Ariel Bender’s solo track
“Here Comes The Queen’’ was left off which is a shame, but not really a
Mott The Hoople number anyway. But the results are simply devastating.
At this time (late ‘73 to early ‘74) Mott The Hoople was probably the
number one live act in the world. Led Zeppelin was having their
troubles, the Beatles had long gone, the Rolling Stones were going
through their “Black and Blue” period, Black Sabbath was doing their Los
Angeles thing, David Bowie had split up the Spiders from Mars, Deep
Purple were not sure who was in the band and who wasn’t. So the field
was wide open and Mott grabbed it with both hands.
Touring both the Britain and America with a fledgling Queen in support,
they took no prisoners. Their last album ,”The Hoople”, had just smashed
its way into the top twenty on both sides of the Atlantic, whilst their
fifth hit single, “The Golden Age Of Rock ‘n’ Roll”, was firmly
entrenched in the top ten of the singles charts worldwide.
They looked “The Business” - they were obviously it, seemingly without
trying. They appeared as an agglomeration of bright colours, bizarre
shapes, scarves, leather, sunglasses, velvet, huge boots, strange felt
hats, blending seamlessly into masses of hair, beer bottles, battered
guitar cases covered with stickers and that added something: swagger.
They exuded attitude, easy humour and the utter confidence borne of
knowing you’re the best.
They had within the last year acquired the services of one of the
greatest rock ‘n’ roll guitarists to ever draw breath, the marvellously
monikered Ariel Bender (previously known as Luther Grosvenor of Spooky
Tooth fame) who could not only play the guitar like a ringin’ the bell,
but also threw the most magnificent shapes, throwing his guitar behind
his back, or in the air, as he did it, being the perfect foil for the
menacing leader of the band, Ian Hunter, who stood centre stage glaring
out at the audience behind his shades, daring them not to get out of
their seats and cause a riot.
Also in the line-up was the originator of all the weird and wonderful
clothes worn by all those people who followed in glam rock, bass player
Overend (Pete) Watts. Overend used to daily spray paint his long hair
silver and virtually be winched onto stage, such was the height of his
platform boots.
Behind the drums was the mercurial Dale (Buffin) Griffin, who when he
wasn’t hitting his chosen instruments as hard as he could, would be
scattering them across the stage with well aimed kicks.
In total contrast on the piano forte was Mr Morgan Fisher, rockin’ his
heart out, wearing a white piano keyboard suit, with a floppy bow tie,
tifter on his head, and a perfectly groomed handlebar moustache adorning
his upper lip.
Then there was the music. Even with Queen as support there was never any
doubt who the headline act was. Mott would swing relentlessly on stage
and go unstoppably into their show every night. The intro from Holtz’s
Jupiter from “The Planets” was the intro theme to prelude the
celebration of rock ‘n’ roll that was to follow. On Broadway they did a
clever little opening with Ian Hunter singing the opening bars of Don
MacLean’s American Pie, backed only by Morgan Fisher’s tinkling piano,
but when it gets to the line “The day that music died” Overend Watts
steps up to ask the crowd “Or did it?” whereupon the whole band breaks
into a thundering version of “The Golden Age Of Rock ‘n’ Roll” complete
with over the top sonic guitar solo from Ariel Bender.
Over both concerts there are too many highlights to mention them all,
but “Hymn for the Dudes’’ and Hunter’s mini Rock Opera about the music
business with the immortal lines “These wires are tight”, “Marionette”
are particular highlights from the Broadway shows, and the final Rock
‘n’ Roll medley from the Hammersmith Odeon with its pieces of Mott
classics alongside snippets from the Beatles, Jerry Lee Lewis and David
Bowie are unforgettable, with Ariel Bender laying down some volcanic
guitar over every song, and Ian Hunter playing ringmaster to the crowd
throughout the concerts.
This two CD package comes beautifully encased in a cardboard and plastic
Digi-pack with all the original sleeve notes, plus a new booklet and an
eight hundred word essay by Brian May of Queen, which is worth the price
of the package on its own. If you want to hear how rock ‘n’ roll should
be played, buy this package.
My only regret is that nobody had the sense to film either of these
events, so we could have a visual record of Mott The Hoople live, at the
peak of their powers.
Mott the Hoople
Ian Hunter: Vocals, Rhythm guitar
Overend Watts: Bass Guitar, Vocals
Ariel Bender: Lead Guitar, Vocals
Morgan Fisher: Piano, Vocals
Dale Griffin: Drums, Vocals
Blue Weaver: Organ (Broadway)
Mick Bolton: (Hammersmith)
Stan Tippins: Vocals (All The Young Dudes)
CD 1 Broadway
Intro - Jupiter from The Planets
The Golden Age Of Rock ‘n’ Roll
Sucker
Roll Away The Stone / Sweet Jane
Rest In Peace
All The Way From Memphis
Born Late ’58
One Of The Boys
Hymn For The Dudes
Marionette
Drivin’ Sister / Crash Street Kids / Violence
All The Young Dudes
Walking With A Mountain
CD 2 Hammersmith Odeon
Intro - Jupiter from The Planets
Drivin’ Sister
Sucker
Sweet Jane
Sweet Angeline
Rose
Roll Away The Stone
All The Young Dudes
Rock ‘n’ Roll Medley: Jerkin Crocus / One Of the Boys / Rock ‘n’ Roll
Queen / Get Back / Whole Lotta’ Shakin’ Goin’ On / Violence
Walking With A Mountain
To contact Mott the
Dog email: [email protected]
Website: http://www.mott-the-dog.com
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