Scorching Bangkok day 1: an evening by the river

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I checked-in to my gorgeous room at the Four Seasons Bangkok at Chao Praya River and took in the refreshments before deciding it was best to nap and catch up on some much-needed sleep. The resort feel of the hotel put my mind in a very relaxed mode so it was lights out for me pretty quickly.

The sun was setting when I got up, and it was time to freshen up for the event tonight. The main reason why I made the trip to Bangkok was to celebrate the rebranding of the the French brasserie within Four Seasons Bangkok as Palmier by Guillaume Galliot. Hairy Legs now takes over responsibility for the menu, and has also placed Keith Cheung from his team at Caprice in charge as chef de cuisine.

Among the invitees for the cocktail tonight were local chefs, foodies, KOLs, as well as Hairy Legs' fans from around the region. I ran into a few people I know, including my old friend Vincent Thierry.

We were offered a drink upon entry, and I chose a glass of Pol Roger Brut Reserve. The other stall at the back of the room was, not surprisingly, the caviar station... with big tins of Kaviari on ice. I don't go ga-ga over caviar, so I chose to focus elsewhere.

This being a brasserie and all, there were different oysters on offer at the bar, so I went and grabbed a few - starting with the Gillardeau No°4 and Ostra Regal N°4.

They also had Kys N°3 and Fine de Clair N°3 from David Hervé.

I was pretty surprised when someone I had never met recognized me at the event. Turns out we have quite a few mutual friends, and I ended up chatting with him and another gentleman for a while. Meanwhile, I was getting kinda hungry and started grabbing the finger food that was going around...

Lobster and avocado roll - finger size.

Crème brûlée tart

Croque Monsieur - bite-sized...

...and some lobster and ravioli dish.

I was thinking about where I could go to grab some local eats when Munching Dentist and Hungry Pea invited me to join them for dinner at Riva del Fiume Ristorante, the Italian restaurant in the hotel. So... I flew in to Bangkok and was just nibbling on some French food, and now Imma have me some pizza?

Our amuse bouche was made with scallops and asparagus.

Fried sardine - this was actually pretty decent, but we were surprised that each order consisted of just one sardine... so we had to order up another one.

Then came three pizzas which, together with the carbonara that I didn't touch, was perhaps too much food for the four of us...

Bufala - no surprises here in terms of flavor, but the combination of passata and cherry tomatoes meant that the pizza became very soggy pretty quickly.

Mortadella and pistacchio di Bronte - we all love mortadella so this was right up our alley. The white pizza came with some pistachio cream, and together with the small sundried tomatoes, provided some sweetness which worked very well with the cold cut. This was, by far, our favorite of the trio.

Bianca - this was pretty tasty, too... with culatello and arugula on top.

The ladies were surprised that I declined their offer of La Spinetta Barbaresco, but as I was still nursing my cough and I had already drunk some alcohol earlier in the evening, I decided not to make things worse.

It's been a pretty long day for me, so the thing to do was to go back to my room and crashed while the others partied on with Hairy Legs...