Holiday Time

Under the midday sun, the view from Trader Vic's multi-ethnic cuisine restaurant is of a broad reach of river flowing fast to the sea such as inspired Joseph Conrad's tales of hapless expats getting lost in translation. The Chao Phraya - River of Kings, if you will - feels steeped in history and continues to evoke an age of romance. Forgetting the condos rising along its edge and focusing instead on high-gloss rice barges turned gin palaces moored closer by, just the sight of it makes you feel like rowing out to a schooner moored midstream and setting sale for the fictional Vic's spiritual home in Polynesia. One might also imagine the legendary bon vivant stepping ashore and emerging between a riot of waxen foliage with his mates, like an earlier age Anthony Bourdain in search of exotic culinary sensations with which to treat his compadres on his eventual return home. The welcome, a Thai-style orchid garland hung around your neck in a thin rendition of the Hawaiian custom, adds more to the atmosphere.

Indeed, there can't be many more poetic spots than this to while away some quality time over fine food and drink and imagine oneself footloose and fancy free, if only for a few fleeting moments. It's a case of right restaurant, right place because travel, the kind that broadens the mind (and in this case, the girth), is what Trader Vic's is all about. Only you don't have to up anchor or hop a flight yourself. A world of flavours comes to you instead.

Thumbing down the a la carte restaurant reveals a blur of exotic influences, from East, West, North and South, often in the same dish.

As Executive Sous Chef Ivan explained, the Trader Vic's ethos is striking out in search of great cuisine wherever it is to be found and however exotic it may be and then bringing it back home to present in ways that are no longer strange to the point of being intimidating but just plain intriguing, not to mention exquisite.

The predominant influences are Pacific-Rim, though that does not satisfactorily describe the cuisine. It's more about anything you might find being cooked and consumed by gourmands around these parts, from Zanzibar to the Gold Coast and Tongo to Shanghai, which in turn could be anything from anywhere. Call it fusion cuisine if you like, but it's not really of that school either.

The piece de resistance is a wood-fired Chinese oven from the Han Dynasty (206 BC - 20 AD) big enough for cannibals to boil missionaries, although it in fact produces possibly the tenderest meats on the planet by virtue of an indirect heat technique.

But that's not how it is on Sunday brunch times. The oven is inactive and instead you get a multi-continental culinary journey taking things as they are where they come from, rather than deconstructing and reconstructing them the Trader Vic's way.

Anantara Bangkok Riverside Resort & Spa has Japanese, Italian and Asian restaurants - Benihana, Brio, Riverside Terrace and The Market respectively - besides the eclectic Trader Vic's, and does storming trades in Chinese and Indian wedding banquets. Plus a whole other pastry entity spun around Numero Uno Cafe.

Every Sunday, each of the aforementioned makes a stand at Trader Vic's with things that need to be kept chilled, like salads, cheeses and desserts, inside and live cooking stands outside.

There's a definite maritime accent to the ambience indoors with a lot of shipshape hardwood blended with Polynesian colour palettes, textures, lighting and furnishings. Amidst all this are vivid artistic accents from the Pacific, featuring antique tribal masks and tiki carvings joined by exotic tapa cloth, in addition to indigenous artifacts such as woven fish traps and hand-hewn canoes. A glass walled garden adds a natural element for the diners furthest from the window.

The terrace that runs along the length of the restaurant is bounded by well-kept tropical garden that gives a feeling of being hidden and safe in case a marauding pirate should drift past.

Add to this an excellent band playing soft core covers, from mariachi numbers to Elvis, and a whale of a bar and overall, it could also pass as an exclusive sailing club.

The main idea is certainly to have a good time and the fun starts with Trader Vic's famous mai tais, indeed the original mai tai, a cocktail of rum, Curaao liqueur, and lime juice usually served in a tumbler that is particularly refreshing. Other cocktails, such as Tikinis, the restaurant's takes on martinis, are also available.

The Sunday brunch tariff includes free-flow mai tais and other cocktails. If you opt for the wine package you also get free-flow items from the well stocked international walk-in wine cave. On the other hand, there are some delicious healthy soft drinks offered on the buffet, including herbal drinks, fresh beetroot, passion fruit, pandanus and chlorophyll, lemongrass and wild honey.

Appetizer sections include seafood on ice, freshly shucked oysters, caviar with blinis, home smoked salmon and gravlax and Caesar salad. Benihana offers some of its hand rolled sushis and Californian rolls along with salmon, tuna, mackerel, octopus and Himachi kingfish sashimis.

There is also a stand making tartares, the raw flesh salads, here done with beef, salmon or tuna, the latter a signature dish of the restaurant known as Ahi Poke.

Not to mention cold cuts and bruschetta stations. And those are not even the main appetizer event which are set on a large round wooden table with a barrel in the middle of the kind that might dispense rum rations. Here you find very fine antipastos courtesy of Brio and this being a globetrotting kind of place, there are influences from beyond Italy in the mix, including a deft Middle Eastern corner with creamy babaganouch, homos and couscous.

Across the way is an exceptionally large array of some 12-15 artisanal cheeses, from Savoire to Mancino to Camembert, which are specially imported from France for the Sunday brunch. And beyond those are the desserts, but more about them later. Crispy fresh breads and butter complete the very tasty picture.

AROUND THE WORLD IN 80 WAYS

The festival of food continues outside with teppanyaki scallops and fish and fresh-fried tempura. There's also foie gras served with toasted brioche, mango, tomato and pear chutneys, Peking duck, roast ham and Beef Wellington. Plus Chinese curry with crab, squid and fish and an international grill with lamb, beef, homemade sausages, prawns, crayfish, mussels, potatoes in their jackets, corn on the cob and more.

My personal favourite is the risotto stand offering a choice of pancetta and porcini mushroom, asparagus and parmesan, or pumpkin with crab and herbs.

There's also a Thai corner with khanom chine, papaya salad and such. Along with shark's fin soup, sattes and whatnot.

It's certainly a full-on feast but you would be well advised to hold back a bit if you're also a bit of a dessert fiend because when Ivan says, "there is no Sunday brunch in the whole Bangkok like this" he is particularly referring to the desserts station which is amazingly comprehensive, thanks to the excellent Numero Uno Cafe{aac}.

A couple of desserts from Trader Vic's public school days in England include apple crumble and bread and butter pudding are particularly excellent. The ice creams are homemade, as are the chocolates, including chocolate caviar, the glorious fresh berries, the chocolate fountain and literally a shop full of sublime gateaux and pies.

Trader Vics Sunday Brunch is priced at THB 1,400++ per person include displayed juices; or THB 2,199++ per person inclusive of displayed juices, soft drinks, cocktails, draught beer, house wines and sparkling wine.

Opening hours:

Dinner 6:00pm - 11:00pm Mai Tai Bar 6:00pm - 1:00am Happy hour 21:30pm - 22:30pm Sunday Brunch 11:30am - 3:00pm Closed every Monday Christmas Specials at Trader Vic's Foie grass terrine Green apple, smoked eel, confit onion and toasted brioche

Three services of lobster

1. Lobster bisque Essence of lemon grass

2. Lobster salad Avocado, tomato vinaigrette and soya pearls

3. Lobster curry Garnished with vanilla and mange tout

Sea Bass

Sea bass with champagne sabayon prawns and panadera potatoes with onion and parsley

Christmas Turkey

Tender slow baked turkey sliced table side With black truffle sauce and your choice of side dishes

Mash potato, wok fried vegetables, gratin potato, stir fried mushrooms with garlic

Dessert

Traditional Christmas pudding with brandy Anglaise

New Year set menu By Chef Bernd

Alaskan King Crab Timbale with avocado-mushroom tartar, thyme and lemon mayo, soya pearls

Foie Gras Cream Ceps ragout and hazelnut air

King Prawn Ravioli "Pasta free" with ajo blanco and black olives

Pan Seared Scallops Bacon, dates, cauliflower textures and parsley cappuccino

Berkshire Suckling Pig Confit and crispy, with prunes, mascarpone cheese and port wine

Or

Jacks Creek 400 day Grain Fed Angus Tenderloin

Gratin with green butter mustard, potato, bacon and cheese terrine, rocket salad

Or

Saltbush Lamb Loin Smoked eggplant, baby carrots with orange glaze and green herbs persille