MILLIE: Karla and I embarked on a royal food adventure in Bangkok with our constant food-tripping buddies Larry Mallari, Ramon Tan and the lady with a sweet tooth, Len Enrile. Mel Meer, who happened to be on the same flight, joined us for dinner and a few laughs. Guided by my nephew Vince Reyes, who works as the front office manager at The Peninsula in Bangkok, we discovered delightful restaurants to satisfy our gustatory cravings.
On our first evening, Vince took us to Issaya Siamese Club, where we not only savored remarkable, mouthwatering modern Thai dishes but also had the pleasure of meeting the owner, chef Ian Kittichai, who resembles Jon Santos.
KARLA: Chef Ian may look familiar to a lot of you. This is because he competed in the American TV series Iron Chef. Chef Ian also published a book entitled Chef Ian’s Kitchen Revealed. I would have bought the book but it was all in Thai; I definitely enjoyed the photos, however.
Chef Ian’s story reminds me of my Lolo Joe. Lolo would talk about how he would help Lola Asiang every morning. He recounts how he would go to school smelling like eggs because he had to make mayonnaise for the sandwiches Lola Asiang would sell during the day. In the case of chef Ian, he would get up at 3 a.m. every day to accompany his mother to buy ingredients. Right after school, he would come home and push a cart containing a dozen kinds of curry while shouting, “Khao geang ron ron ma leaw jaar!” which means “Hot curry coming!”
After finishing school in Bangkok, he moved to London to study English while working part-time at The Waldorf Hotel. It was there that he found his path to food again when the hotel decided to sponsor his culinary education. Lucky! He came back to Bangkok in 1993 and in 1998, became the first Thai national in the world to ever become the executive chef of a five-star hotel. His career definitely progressed from then on.
It took us a while to get to the restaurant because the taxi driver took us to the wrong place but boy, was the stress worth it. As soon as we entered the vicinity, we were greeted by a garden with a spread of beanbags and low tables. While waiting for the rest of the group, we decided to sit down and have a drink. I ordered one of the specialty drinks, Issaya Passion, which is a passion-fruit martini and it was a good mix of sweet and sour — just my kind of martini.
MILLIE: The dinner experience was quite unique with flavors so appetizing. For starters we tried the Yum Nuar, grilled imported tender beef salad with fresh herbs, organic vegetables, doused with charred bird’s-eye chili vinaigrette, which Vince ordered.
For the next course, we ordered the Mussamun Gea, boneless lamb shank simmered in mussamun curry and served with pickled cucumber. The curry sauce was exquisite and we poured it over the steamed jasmine rice. Len ordered the Gai Yuang, which was charcoal-grilled boneless sankaburee chicken rubbed in special Issaya spices. Larry has been crazy about Kurobuta pork, so it was quite predictable that he would order the Hung Lay Moo, slow-cooked Kurobuta pork belly cooked with Chiang Mai spices and fresh ginger. Vince had to-die-for chili-glazed baby back ribs called Kradook Moo Aob presented over live, flaming coals. Although it took a while to be served, it was definitely worth the wait.
KARLA: For dessert we all shared Thai milk tea crème brulee and the jasmine flower panna cotta. I almost ate the whole order of panna cotta but got guilty halfway through it. Haha! A number of these dishes aren’t the typical Thai dishes we are accustomed to and it was very refreshing to try new things. As soon as mom and I tried the Mussamun lamb curry, we exchanged looks of approval. Haha! It was so good that we were craving for it for days. I even said I could have the whole order to myself. In fact, I was so bitin with the curry that I ate the sauce with Tita Len’s chicken.
MILLIE: We spent five lovely days in Bangkok, eating Thai food every day, enjoying the unique flavors — especially the red, green, yellow and mussamun curries! But on our last day, Karla and I could not resist going back to chef Ian’s Issaya for a last taste of the Mussamun lamb shank!
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Issaya Siamese Club is located at 4 Soi Sri Aksorn, Chua Ploeng Road, Sathorn, Bangkok 10120, Thailand. For reservations and inquiries, call +66 (0)2 672 9040-1 or log on to http://www.issaya.com/. We recommend reserving ahead of time and printing out the map found on the website, or ask the concierge of the hotel you will be staying in to write out the name of the restaurant and the directions going there in Thai.
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Send e-mail to milliereyes.foodforthought@gmail.com and karla@swizzlemobilebar.com. Find us on Facebook and read articles you might have missed: Food for Thought by Millie & Karla Reyes.