Clouds may hide the moon, but, perched high above the city, Sirocco never fails to shine
Written by Writer on Friday, October 3rd, 2008
EATING Out
Dining with the stars
Clouds may hide the moon, but, perched high above the city, Sirocco never fails to shine
Mercifully, the rain held off. After two weeks of washed out evenings, the night we went to Sirocco on the 63rd floor of The Dome at State Tower was cloudy but dry.
Although I’d be happy with a martini at the adjoining Sky Bar in a rainproof hoodie and gumboots, the need did not arise. And anyway, when we descended the broad flight of steps from The Dome to Sirocco, the whole area around the Sky Bar was totally packed with customers happy to be out on a rain-free evening, so you couldn’t get close to the bar or even see the changing of the colours around it.
There is always a feeling of excitement about arriving at Sirocco; it’s akin to stepping onto the red carpet; maybe no one’s watching, but you feel you’re in the spotlight, and the service at Sirocco has as much to do with that as the spectacular, lost-in-the-stars setting.
Arriving early we were shown to a table on the edge of the elegant precipice looking out over the roofs of the city and the stream of lights below. Above us rose the cliff-like structure of the bandstand thrust out above the tables.
Menus were brought and we marked out our quarry - the new dishes that chef Stephen Dion had introduced for the coming season. The food style at Sirocco is Mediterranean and the accent is on healthy, fresh ingredients of a southern European nature, herbs, olive oil, wine, and a lot of imported fish, seafood and meat.
The speciality of all The Dome restaurants is to go for very specific products of the highest quality and treat them with respect but also with imagination. Our first starter was good example: Alaskan king crab tian with chilled green gazpacho and almond emulsion (610 baht).
A tian is a small earthenware dish of Mediterranean origin and whatever is cooked in it is also called a tian. Here, it was a small island of minced crabmeat surrounded by a sea of gazpacho whose verdant green colour came from its ingredients, snow peas, green peppers and other similarly coloured herbs. Flavoured with Galateao extra virgin olive oil it was smooth, light and refreshing.
A sturdier savoury starter followed with much more oomph: Carpaccio and tartar of wagyu beef with foie gras in porcini mushroom sauce (1,450 baht).
The wagyu beef tartar was sharply piquant with a touch of mustard in its flavour, the slim slices of carpaccio had a sweetish quality and the seared foie gras was rich and buttery, and all were brought together by the dark porcini sauce.
Coincidentally, both our main course choices were enhanced with foam, which in the past few years has become a favourite. Blue fin tuna with warm nicoise vegetables, grilled white asparagus and aged balsamico (1,600 baht) peered out from a tightly-knit gazpacho foam, which seemed slightly irrelevant to the main flavours. The chunky tuna and the aromatic mix of vegetables spiked with balsamico all got along very well together.
With this we ordered a glass of wine that was worth special mention: Guigal Cotes de Rhone blanc 2005. Guigal makes white Cotes de Rhone with 50 percent viognier and the presence of this highly-perfumed grape really gives the wine a lift. Quite full bodied, it is joyously fruity and yet dry, and with a nice long finish.
One of the meat dishes on Sirocco’s new menu is pork, but not by any means your average, everyday pork. It is Neiman ranch pork from the US, for which Sirocco has exclusivity. It comes from traditionally-raised, top-quality hogs who live contented lives in natural and humane conditions with purely vegetarian food and no added hormones.
Their meat is tender and well marbled just like steak, but before chef Stephen had explained this we had ordered another US special, Colorado lamb with speck, a savoy cabbage parcel, and sugarcane flavoured lamb jus (2,550 baht).
The first thing you notice about this dish is its size: two large lamb steaks. The next thing is the concentration of rich flavours, the sweetish lamb, the smoky, salty tang of speck cured bacon, and the aromatic parcel of tender savoy leaves enclosing finely chopped Parma ham, gruyere cheese and herbs. And over the lamb was a fine net of jus spun into a loose, open foam that looked and tasted absolutely right.
This called for a very special wine, and on the by-the-glass list there was a classic Rioja, Marques de Riscal Reserva 2003 (1,300 baht). Deep, smooth and velvety, with flavours of red and black fruit, leather, liquorice and cedar, it was a Spanish aristocrat of a wine.
After so much richness, then what? A dessert that was cool and light but not insubstantial, and a little bit aristocratic, too, blood orange and Earl Grey white chocolate cake with vanilla grapefruit sorbet (490 baht.)
It may be that in casting an eye over the prices of the new Sirocco menu that you find them rather high. And inevitably they are; but two things should be said about that. One is that to anyone who’s used to dining out in London, New York or Tokyo, they won’t seem at all exorbitant; and, more importantly, at Sirocco you can be sure of receiving the reward of value that comfortably matches the price.
