Showing 11 - 20 of 21
ZOOM with a view
Holiday Time, Gary Boyle, Published on 25/12/2015
» If 2015 has been a year of difficult decisions -- which organic, artisanal single origin coffee to buy, which hipster burger truck to chase, which empty new mall to haunt -- then solace is to be found in the realisation that only one decision remains. The choice of where to spend the last hours of the year is, however, often fraught with an abundance of options.
Prime Time
Holiday Time, Gary Boyle, Published on 11/12/2015
» Steak lovers are spoilt for choice in Bangkok these days. Cattle are being pampered around the world and their best chunks of beef are flying in daily, landing on plates across the capital. But for the true beef fiend, only the best will do.
Truffle Hound Heaven
News, Gary Boyle, Published on 30/12/2014
» It's odd how we ascribe value these days. We're happy to spend several hundred baht daily for a couple of coffees and a stale bun, but baulk at rewarding a musician's soulful outpourings by actually paying the same amount for an album. Food, however, in its stubborn refusal to be digitised, has avoided devaluation and Bangkokians are seeking ever higher and more expensive culinary experiences. Michelin-trained chefs used to be enough but now we crave an actual multi-Michelin-star celebrity in the kitchen. Decadent treats like foie gras perennially pop up on every festive menu whether people actually enjoy them or not. But this month Centara Grand at CentralWorld has trumped them all with its truffle menu.
Northern Explorations
News, Gary Boyle, Published on 26/12/2014
» Famed explorer Sir Edmund Hillary racked up a fair amount of frequent flyer miles in his life of adventuring. He was the first man to stand atop Mount Everest, and the first to score the hat-trick of doing Everest and both the North and South Poles. His 1953 expedition to conquer the world's highest mountain was done wearing just a thin cotton and nylon jacket and carrying a scant 20 kilograms of supplies.
Every firework at once
News, Gary Boyle, Published on 22/12/2014
» Question: where's the best place to watch Bangkok's countdown fireworks? Is it in the city centre, craning your neck trying to see them all? Or from the rooftop of a glitzy downtown hotel, trying to glimpse them as they explode behind the neighbouring, slightly taller glitzy hotel?
Head to Hank's
Life, Gary Boyle, Published on 23/12/2013
» You'll hear Christmas songs, you'll hear classic party music, you might even hear some Elvis but one sound that's definitely absent is the rumbling of tummies. No one goes hungry here. Henry J. Beans is a classic American diner, which means everything is big: huge plates of wings, 750g T-bones, two-hander tacos and giant glasses of margarhita. Go alone if you dare, but it's best to share.
A touch of Michelin magic
Life, Gary Boyle, Published on 19/12/2013
» Who are the heavyweights of cooking right now: Heston Blumenthal and his avant-garde creations? Bellowing TV bully Gordon Ramsey? The woman who wrote 'Cooking with Poo'? Yes and no. Yes, they get plenty of column inches and television moments, but the real powerhouses of cooking are Michelin magnets like Ferran Adria, Alain Ducasse and, for Thai cuisine, David Thompson.
Lights, Camera, Cuisine!
Life, Gary Boyle, Published on 16/12/2013
» It begins, like a good movie, with a great opening sequence. You enter the lift in the Landmark Bangkok lobby, hit the highest button, and the glass cage slowly ascends 31 floors of the hotel's facade as Bangkok's inverted constellation of night time neon reveals itself, extending out to the horizon. You emerge from the lift into a plush bar fitted with deep seats and a wall of spirit bottles flanked by two wine cellars. To the right is the restaurant, bathed in red light...but is it the red of sensuality or danger?
Ring in the new
Life, Gary Boyle, Published on 16/12/2013
» Bangkok was different in February 1970, back when Dusit Thani first opened her doors onto the junction of Silom and Rama IV. Beer was ten baht, gas one baht a litre, a good hotel room eight dollars. Siam Centre was a copse of trees by a dusty roundabout. An original print ad for the hotel boasted of 'a wide choice of sophisticated supper clubs, Continental and Siamese restaurants, coffee shops and cocktail lounges.' The photo shows the building looking much as it does today, minus the towering downtown skyscrapers, which is precisely the appeal of this grand dame of Bangkok hospitality.
Christmas Eve Cravings
Life, Gary Boyle, Published on 17/12/2012
» Sukhumvit Soi 11 has been cool for some time. Spaceship supperclub Bed landed on 11 ten years ago, and Q Bar opened its party doors as far back as 1999. The less well-heeled have been propping up the scrapyard bar at Cheap Charlie's since the early eighties. In between Charlie's and Q Bar, physically and fiscally, was a mish-mash of massage parlours, tailor touts, street food stalls and a handful of dodgy hostess bars.