It
has been some time since the Dining Out team dined with Swiss restaurateur Hans
Banzinger. 10 years ago, Hans started the Paradise Restaurant on Second Road
becoming very well known in Pattaya as the place for exotic meats, with Hans
preparing emu, kangaroo, crocodile and ostrich. However, a couple of years ago,
Hans took over a small garden restaurant and resort on Soi 16/2 Pattaya-Naklua
Road, winding down the Second Road address as the lease began to run out.
The new venue is very easy to find. Soi 16/2 is on the left coming from the
Dolphin roundabout and there is an illuminated sign for the new Swiss Paradise
Resort (formerly Villa Lamai) and Paradise Garden restaurant on the corner.
Hans’ resort and restaurant are around 500 meters down Soi 16/2 from the corner
and again clearly marked. On-street parking, but it is a quiet soi.
It is very much a garden restaurant, with an additional two sections under
cover; however, the garden looks so inviting, with fairy lights everywhere, that
we immediately plumped for one of the rustic settings. We had also enlarged the
Dining Out team to four, with a four year old and a two and a half year old
ready to see if this was really a place where families could eat.
The first test was, “Do you have plastic glasses?” “Of course! It’s a family
restaurant,” said Hans. And there is a children’s menu with such gourmet
delicacies as cocktail sausages and french-fries, all served on children’s style
plates. The junior half of the team voiced their approval.
The (adult) menu is one carried over from the Second Road venue, with all the
favorites as before and very little upward movement of prices. Hans has always
been one to give value for money. The exotic meats, for example, are still
around B. 395-445, while the other dishes are generally well under B. 300.
However, we had come to try items from the Swiss Food Promotion and as usual,
Hans had illustrated the menu with photographs, so the diner knows what he or
she can expect. (I just wish more restaurants would do this - after all, we are
in a major tourist destination, and not everyone reads English.)
There are many items, with most under B. 200, such as Roesti Bern style with
onion, bacon and fried eggs at B. 159. However, Hans suggested we try one of his
Roesti-pizzas before we went into a fondue, which are cooked like pizzas, but
instead of a dough base, it is made with a potato (Roesti) base. We tried both
the salami (B. 209) and smoked salmon (B. 239) versions and both were excellent
(and flavorsome).
There are four versions of fondue style cooking at the table - Cheese, Raclette,
Bourguignonne (with a choice of meats) and a very interesting Fondue Chinoise
(similar to a sukiyaki). In the menu, Hans has also provided historical notes
covering each fondue, including the fact that the oil-based meat fondues
resulted from a lazy monk Johann du Putsxe eating on the run, with the private
supplies of his abbot.
We decided on the cheese fondue, with the molten cheese traditionally 50 percent
Emmenthal and 50 percent Gruyere and eaten on bread dipped into the cheese.
Tradition also has that if a man loses his bread in the cheese he must buy a
bottle of wine for the table, whilst a woman has to kiss the man next to her!
The fondue was both fun and filling at only B. 395 per head.
But Hans had not finished with us, as a chocolate fondue was presented as
dessert. Sheer indulgence, but what a way to finish the evening.
It was a very pleasant return to Hans Banziger’s Paradise Garden restaurant. The
Swiss promotion should not be missed, and the fondue was superb. Such a
convivial way to dine and such a change from the usual European food. The
chocolate fondue was pure gluttony and the most junior member of the team was
probably wearing more chocolate than he ate, but we all enjoyed it. Highly
recommended.
Paradise Garden restaurant, 16/2 Pattaya-Naklua Road, telephone 038 422 871,
open seven days 1 p.m. until 10 p.m. (last orders from the kitchen), plenty of
on street parking.
Korean BBQ
Korean BBQ restaurants are very popular all over the
world, but you can have a Korean BBQ just as well at home. The conical
shaped BBQ plate is the traditional way to do this, but the more usual
western BBQ plate works fine. The important factors are slicing the meat
thinly and allowing enough time to absorb the flavors from the marinade.
Finally, do not overcook the meat.
Cooking Method:
Cut the beef and chicken into thin bite-sized slices (5x2.5 cm) and dry with
absorbent paper.
In a dish, mix the soy sauces, spring onion, garlic, ginger pepper and sesame
oil then place the meats in the mixture and leave for around 15-30 minutes to
marinade.
Heat the BBQ plate and brush with sunflower oil and quickly cook the meat for
about one minute each side and serve immediately on a warmed plate.
Ingredients
Serves 6
Beef sliced and pounded thin
300 gm
Chicken breast pounded thin 300 gm
Dark soy sauce
2 tbspns
Light soy sauce
2 tbspns
Spring onion finely chopped
1
Garlic crushed
2 cloves
Grated ginger root
1 tspn
Sesame oil
1 tspn
Sunflower oil
2 tspns
Ground black pepper
1 pinch
