6/27/10 (bangkok)

Bangkok 

We had two important things to do today…lunch with Chef McDang’s mom and aunt and dinner with his friend, Raymond. We were excited to meet his mom since we had heard so much about her. We arrived for lunch at the Peninsula Hotel in downtown Bangkok where we were greeted by the head executive chef of the hotel and the executive chef for Chinese cuisine. They were good friends of Chef McDang and came by constantly to see how we were enjoying our meal. I think it’s common in the Asian culture for moms to think that the boys are never eating enough. Chef McDang’s mom and aunt were constantly giving Jon more food to a point where his plate was always full. It was quite endearing and funny to witness. 

After lunch we went back to the compound to rest and relax before our next big meal. Over the last few days we spent some downtime with Chef McDang and got to know him beyond being a celebrity chef. He has a fascinating family story with him growing up in the palace to moving to the UK when he was twelve to study and later making his mark in the culinary world. Someone needs to write a book about his life. He shared with his dreams of what he hopes to accomplish over the next few years. Even though he has traveled all over the world and been in the culinary industry for a number of years, he continues to educate people everywhere about Thai cuisine, which is synonymous to its history and culture. His first English cookbook, Principles of Thai Cookery, is one of his biggest accomplishments in sharing in detail what Thai cuisine is all about with the world.

With all this talk about Thai food it was time for dinner with Raymond and his family. At dinner we also met Chef McDang’s nephew, Pai, and his friend, Hector, both works for the chef. Raymond owns several successful restaurants in Hong Kong and is a connoisseur on durian, the king of fruit. Every time he comes to Bangkok he gets together with Chef McDang who hooks him up with the best durians. After dinner two large plates of durian were brought out. Raymond was like a kid in a candy store. Both Jon and I had never tried one since durian has a very foul smell though the really good ones don’t stink as bad. We decided to give it a try. It was very very heavy and rich, so much that to me it was like drinking straight cream. I’m glad we got to try it though I don’t think we’ll be having any more, which is a good thing since they are the most expensive fruit in the world.

After dinner as we were heading home we found out that Pai was going to shoot a short clip of Chef McDang’s TV show tomorrow. He invited us to come along and since we didn’t have any solid plans for the next few days before we left for Cambodia we decided to take him up on his offer. We were going to Hua Hin, which is a beach town three to four hours away so we would spend the night there. For not doing much planning we always seem to have stuff lined up.