Brunch at the Royal Century Hotel

Brunch at the Royal Century Hotel coffee shop.

After an exhausting night running around all the hotels to join their Loy Krathong Parties, I went with a friend to the Royal Century Hotel Coffee Shop to pamper myself with an excellent brunch. Well, we were not alone with this idea. We met quite an assortment of well known locals who were doing the same.
We received a very warm welcome from the staff, and as soon as we placed ourselves in our seats, we had a glass of very good champagne in front of us. Coffee was served and after the first cup we went to look at the brunch buffet. There was a wide range of bread together with wafers, French toast, home fries, Rösti’s, hash browns topped with poached eggs, ham, bacon, party sausages and freshly prepared eggs any style someone could think off. Every week the hot meal changes, and this week it was a mix of German Sausages with Röstis. They also served a whole Red Snapper marnier, roast beef, double boiled beef, and pork chops. Fried noodles, boiling hot soups, fried bananas, and lots of desserts and fruits were waiting to be tried. And we tried it all! We only ate a small bit of everything, but it was still enough to make us feel very “fulfilled”. All in all everything was very tasty, and after asking we found out that the Chef of the Royal Century Hotel, Khun Somchai, is the President of the Chef Association Pattaya Chapter. No wonder the brunch was so delicious.
While eating breakfast we had time to look at the interior of the coffee shop. It has a quite elegant, but still cozy, atmosphere, thanks to the roof and walls being made out of wood. The green carpet and white and green table clothes added a nice touch. Many flower arrangements were placed around the well set up buffet. And if that wasn’t enough, every week they have some traditional Thai handicrafts made during brunch, using only natural materials, to entertain the customers. This time pretty girls prepared Krathong’s.
The General Manager of Royal Century Hotel, Mr. Patrice Larroque, joined us for a while, as he did with all the other customers to give them the feeling of being genuinely welcome. Since the customers at brunch time are mostly either guests of the hotel or some of the many expats living in and around Pattaya, it is very convenient that Mr. Patrice speaks fluent French, English and German.
Many of Pattaya’s people do know him very well and appreciate his good natured and humorous character and therefore always keep coming back. That’s one reason. The second is definitely the wide range of well prepared, and I repeat again, very tasty food. A third reason might be the price. Where else can you get a big brunch, including a glass of champagne, for only 160 baht?

Recipe

This is actually not a recipe for chocolate but for the spices one may add to it to get an idea how our ancestors drank their chocolate milk. It is my secret recipe and I do wish you keep it to yourself. These spices are also good mixed with brown sugar and sprinkled over chocolate or coffee ice cream.
First I have to tell you about a shop where you can get most of the spices you need for your curries and other uses. It is called Malik’s Spices or Malik’s Spice Shop and about half way on the left side on Soi Yamato coming from Second Road. At the moment he has green cardamom seeds from India which are superior to white local ones and needed for our aromatic powder. Another excellent place to buy spices is on New Road in Bangkok opposite the end of Silom Road. It is called “Gold Spices”.

Pound in a mortar or ground in a coffee mill the following spices:
five pods of green cardamom;
three cloves;
half a teaspoon of powdered cinnamon or a cm piece of cinnamon bark;
two star anise pod (Poi Kak);
a pinch of nutmeg;
a teaspoon of coriander seeds.
(You may also add a teaspoon of ginger powder)

Pound this until fine and put it through a fine sieve. What is left in the sieve you may pound again and repeat the process. Discard what is left after the second time. If not immediately used, store in a tightly closed glass jar. Add a little of this wonderful fragrant powder to the sugar (preferably brown sugar) you use to sweeten you chocolate milk or coffee, or add it to your pastries.