i have been a big fan of chinese cuisine since i was child and the earliest memories of dining out are at a chinese restaurant in new york city with my family. as often as we could we would go. i was constantly amazed at the the cuisine and the culture. my dad would tell us stories of when he was with the 4th combat cargo squadron providing logistical support for the flying tigers in the CBI (china-burma-india theater) during ww2, which is how i got the bug to come to asia 30 something years later. he spent a lot of time in canton where they have the best sea food and the qing ping market. possibly the largest fresh food market on the planet.
when i say i was overseeing the bali hai restaurants that is exactly what i did, and no more. basically if they needed something, i got it for them, my domain was the western kitchens. the chefs that run the kitchens at the siam city hotels and resorts are some of the best in thailand, and the city property has one of the most outstanding chinese dinning rooms you will ever see, lin fa.
one thing i did get to do was write the buffet menus for the holidays and festivals, something i truly miss to this day. typically we would serve between 300 to 500 guests depending on the event and season. this leaves a lot of room for a lot of food. the smaller buffets would be set on the hotel balcony that over looks the gulf of siam but the larger affairs were out on the terrace, which overlooks their private beach. watching the spectacular sun sets from this perspective was another perk of that job.
buffets at siam city resorts require the cooperation of every department in the hotel. housekeeping provides all the linen, event specific uniforms, flowers, plants, trees (yes trees) and all the table decorations. engineering provides the stage, music, lighting and special effects. front desk took care of all the reservations and of course the food and beverage department provided all the rest.
every buffet had demonstration cooking as well. this is when chefs prepare the food right on the buffet line. huge bbq pits with whole pigs on a spit was a typical center piece, with smaller grills for skewers of meats and seafood, as well as giant woks filled with all the savory chinese and thai foods one would expect.
this is the menu i wrote for the 1999 chinese new year celebration, which as it turned out, was my last time for doing that. the following year i left to open a place of my own in the neighboring beach side village of jomtien. (menu will follow in a subsequent post.)
when you read through this menu keep in mind that this is for an international clientele and there will always be other foods (not chinese) to make certain everyone has something they like. also, you will see notations about certain dishes. this was a working menu used as a proposal submitted to the general manager a few weeks prior to service.
click image to view enlarged version.
my dad: decorated captain in the cbi
click image to view enlarged version.
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2 comments:
you do look like your dad :))
that's odd, most people have said i look like my mom. so does that mean my mom and dad are twins?
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