At the beginning of the year I wrote about my wonderful Christmas trip to eat in Hong Kong. During that trip I went with my friend’s family, Khun Visit Limprana and we were very honored to have a special tour guide for our eating adventure in Hong Kong in the person of Khun Alfred Lui whose restaurant C’est Bon I wrote about a while ago. I had no idea that his whole family had been in the restaurant business for over 30 years in Hong Kong and that Alfred actually has many restaurants in Asia. While we were in Hong Kong last Christmas I had learned that Lui had been a partner of a Chinese restaurant in Bangkok, which has been opened for 10 years! I told him that when we return to Bangkok he had to invite me to his restaurant if the food was as good as his family restaurant in Hong Kong. It turned out that the restaurant was very good and today I am going to write about it.

           The name of this Chinese restaurant in Bangkok is Jasmin. It first opened its doors about 10 years ago in then a brand new building called Time Square. This building is a shopping center with specialty stores, restaurants and offices. Jasmin is on the third floor of the building. When it first opened it boasted Hong Kong cuisine and people flocked to eat there. The food is still good but years have gone by and many new Chinese and other restaurants have opened up to compete with older ones.

           Hong Kong cuisine has also went through changes in the past 10 years and Chinese restaurants in Bangkok have been trying to keep up with it. Most gourmets in Thailand who like Chinese food will appreciate the sometimes subtle changes in the cuisine and religiously go to Hong Kong to try out new recipes or new “in” restaurants while I feel that most Thais who like Chinese food like to stick to the old standards. In recent years, Thailand has been blessed with products that we use to have to import in order to create authentic Hong Kong cuisine.

           This is especially true with vegetables such as Gai Lan or Chinese broccoli. Our raw materials, which we needed to cook with, have improved considerably.I went to eat at Jasmin and of course tried the old standard. We ordered shrimp, lightly dipped in batter and fried just cooked and dressed in a Chinese mayonnaise dressing

           served in a taro root basket. It was delicious, the shrimp was fresh and not over cooked and the mayonnaise was not too sweet, as usually is in most Chinese restaurants. Then came the two most fattening dishes, which I love so much. Peking duck and roast suckling pig. Well, what can I say about two of my most favorite dishes. The Peking duck skin was succulent and crispy. It was served with wafer thin Chinese pancakes, scallion sticks, cucumber sticks and two kinds of sweet sauce. One sauce is the kind that is used in Hong Kong and the other which is preferred by Thais.

           The Thai sauce is sweeter but both are Hoisin base. The suckling pig was just what the doctor ordered. He ordered that I should eat less fat but I could not resist. Smoky and crispy skin, served with steamed layered Chinese buns and all the usual accompanying sauces and vegetables, it was hit the spot. We had the meat from the duck made into “mieng”, ground up and stir-fried with herbs, spices and nuts. This Mieng is served with lots of iceberg lettuce. You make a cup out of the lettuce and fill it with this duck meat, top this cup with a little hoisin sauce, wrap it up and put it in your mouth. The combination of nutty and chewy duck meat and the crispy lettuce contrasted very well.

           There is a taste and texture sensation in your mouth. The meat from the suckling pig is made into two very different dishes. Half of the meat, which is truck to the ribs of the pig, is marinated and grilled. It is served simply as is, with no vegetables. It is Chinese charcoal barbecue at its simplest and best. The other half of the meat is cut up into bite sizes and stir-fried sweet and sour style with red, green and yellow peppers. The sweet and sour taste cleanses your palate for the next course to come. Next was fish, it was used to create three different dished.

           First, part of the meat of the fish is marinated in rice wine and a small amount of starch then deep-fried until tender and just cooked. It is then added to another wok which has celery and various herbs and sauces the lightly cover the fish pieces. Another part of the fish is simply steamed with wine scented soy dressing. The fish was fresh and its meat still very sweet. The last dish in this fish trio, was rice soup to finish the meat off. This was just a bowl if rice soup made from fish bones and fish meat. Lightly seasoned the soup complete the meal and at the same time cleansed your palate.

           We had desserts. Although my sugar levels have to be carefully watched. I had to try the black sesame dumpling in sweet ginger sauce. The filling was nutty, creamy and rich. The ginger sauce help to clear your mouth of the sticky richness, leaving you to smile after an enjoyable repast.

Restaurant Jasmin (Chinese Restaurant)
Address 246 Time Square Building, Sukhumvit Road
Telephone number 02 250-0501 to 3
Hours Lunch 11.00-14.00, Dinner 18.00-22.00