‘If a festival’s worth celebrating, it’s worth celebrating thoroughly,” could be the motto of Bangkok Marriott Marquis Queen’s Park’s buzzing, still relatively new communal kitchen’s upcoming Christmas and New Year programs of exquisite excess.
Goji Kitchen & Bar, named for the tiny, red, sweet and sour superfood berries, couldn’t be more thoroughly prepared for its 1st Christmas and 2nd New Year virtuoso performances. Moreover, the festive buffets are either the same price as Sunday Brunch or just a tad dearer.
FAMILY FEASTS AND BOUNTIFUL BUFFETS
The seafood alone is rather special; not just the produce but the perfect poaching and a la minute serving. Ditto the condiments - from classic red wine vinaigrette to definitive Thai spicy seafood sauce.
Sunday Brunch buffets at Goji commonly feature four types of oyster; two European, two North American. So if you like them small and sweet or large and al dente, you’re catered. And make that five types on the Christmas Eve dinner, Christmas Day brunch, and New Year’s Eve dinner buffets.
Not to mention live Maine lobsters, wild-caught tiger prawns, Australian and French mussels, razor clams from Europe and enormous king crab legs from North America.
Those also enormous prawns are caught by honest fishermen in Trat aiming to replenish fish stocks, which they also hope will revitalize the dwindling dolphin population.
Sustainability is the watchword throughout Marriott, and they don’t mind paying a bit more to get it. “The other thing is our customers love them,” adds Michael Hogan the Bangkok veteran Executive Chef. His very name is a guarantee of authentic indulgences and at Goji he has the perfect partners in culinary intrigue in Le Cordon Bleu Paris graduate and Michelin-experienced Executive Sous Chef Itti ‘Aum’ Nitayaporn and Executive Pastry Chef Alfred Merkel.
The lobsters are hauled from Maine, precisely poached, then thrown on the ice in perfect condition every meal time.
As for the Christmas turkey, only the best US prime butterballs will do. After all, when butter-basted and roasted on a bed of onions, they emerge tender, moist and smelling like they must have to the Cratchit family a la “Christmas Carol”. Trimmings only begin with cranberry sauce, various gravies, and freshly-picked brussels sprouts. Sides include pumpkin mixed with pine nuts, roasted chestnuts, sweet potato mash, green peas and bacon, and on.
Not to mention honey-glazed ham and prime rib of beef.
Equally essential are various terrines, those irresistibly rich pâtés you slather over crispbreads and devour with piquant pickles, including foie gras terrine. And of course pumpkin soup with a pinch of cinnamon.
Guests will be greeted with a glass of traditional mulled wine – hot, spiced wine intended to keep out the chill of a northern Europe Christmas day but the air con will do.
Depending on your package you’ll also be enjoying free-flow eggnogs, the milky punch whipped with egg whites and egg yolks and finished with a dash of Baileys Irish Cream and sprinkle of cinnamon.
“This is our first Christmas here so we are making it really classic,” Michael summarises.
The scenery suits too. There’s a homely farmhouse feel to Goji with a sense of all the action taking place around the kitchen hearth. Chefs busily pull things out of ovens and lade things out of saucepans straight onto your plate. One is bound to feel waves of nostalgia.
All plus the usual flurries of Thai, Chinese and Indian sections etc.
PLUM PUDDINGS
Much passion and creativity also characterise the 30-something audacious desserts.
“Chef Alfred’s got the Christmas pudding hanging,” reveals Michael.
A little probing reveals that the process of making all the English-style plum puddings, to be served with brandy cream naturally, began September-October, as it should. But the hanging? It’s a custom Michael picked up from his mother in Australia, comprising double wrapping the “cake” mixture in calico bags, boiling it for hours, then hanging it outside overnight on the clothesline till morning dew, bringing them in before sun-up, hanging it in the kitchen till sundown and repeat for 2-3 weeks. It’s not advised to hang anything outside in Soi 22 Sukhumvit these days but a similar process is exercised in-situ.
Meanwhile, the homemade Dresdner stollen, that layered-flavours Germanic indulgence, is ripened in the cool of the chocolate room, the nearest thing here to a Bavarian larder.
Quizzing Alfred on what else he’s got in-store, I throw out “fudge” and am soon sinking my teeth into a velvety milk chocolate fudge embedded with pearls of crispy caramel. Awesome toffee too.
“We’ve got lots of old-time Christmas recipes,” Albert ventures. That goes for de-rigueur minced mixed fruit and nut pies. Also panettone, the buttery, cloud-soft Italian Christmas bread, here homemade despite the sensitive 70-hour dough-raising exercise, and served with a sugary crust adding another dimension of delectability.
The five different yule logs will include both classics and original flavours and shapes. There’s a streamlined dried prune and gingerbread mousse version that’s hyper-festive with fig compote, fresh vanilla ice cream, brandy-spiced sabayon, mandarin cream and fresh raspberries. There’s an Asia-inspired yule log with coconut and mango. And there’s a classic chocolate notched log with little elves upon it. Plus two.
Yet other decadent festive desserts include milk- and dark-chocolate topped Florentines in toffee-chewy hazelnut and macadamia nut permutations. Not to mention five cakes, lots of pralines and English sherry trifle… Leave room, however, for the expansive cheese selection supported with dried fruits, nuts and whatnot.
NEW YEAR OLD STORY
The New Year buffet banquets pull out similarly epicurean stops. There’s still turkey, ham, prime rib of beef and whole baked salt-crust fish, most likely giant seabass because the hotel is serious about its carbon footprint and as Michael says, “why fly salmon across the world when you can have superb sea bass driven up from the coast?” Nevertheless, there will also be finest smoked salmon and several selections of gravlax.
Again, the seafood will star meaty Maine lobsters, and the fish, prawn etc for the sushi and sashimi will be notched even higher than Christmas and customary.
The deserts will be “fun and festive – with a little smoked chocolate mousse and decorative desserts like croque bouche.” Plus live stations for crêpes, raspberry and chocolate soufflés, and etc.
As the dining winds down late into the evening, guests will adjourn to the beer terrace, hit the roof to watch the fireworks, or swarm the lobby for the balloon drop.
FESTIVE TAKE-AWAYS
You can also take away a complete Christmas dinner to have at home or share in the office.
GOJI Bangkok Marriott Marquis Queen’s Park. Sukhumvit 22. Tel. 02 059 5999. Email: restaurant-reservations.bkkqp@marriotthotels.com.
Unwind the winter with an al fresco barbecue and beer. Every day from 24th December to 3rd January, from 3pm to 8pm, chefs grill succulent slices of meat, seafood and veggies on Goji Terrace, washed down with cold craft or draft beers. A merry way to enter the festive spirit.
