When we were in Sydney last month, I was trying to find a reasonably priced "High tea" to visit- unfortunately, high tea in Australia is ridiculously expensive. I really didn't want to spend $70- $100 for a couple of hours of snacking! But if we were going to spend that kind of money, I at least wanted to find a high tea with a lot- a LOT- of chocolate. So I googled "Chocolate high tea" and found something way closer to home: the Sukhothai Hotel in Bangkok has a weekly "Afternoon Tea and Chocolate Buffet". And $30 seemed much more reasonable price than $70!
Despite the 90 degree (F) heat, we dressed up a bit. The Salon has a dress code- no tank tops, shorts or flip-flops. Considering that both Nick and I are usually wearing shorts and flip-flops, we had to take care to pack extra nice clothes.
The "Afternoon Tea and Chocolate Buffet" runs from 2pm to 5pm on Fridays, Saturdays and Sundays, and we made reservations online a couple days ahead of time. We set our time for 2:30pm out of consideration for the other people- I figured I would be eating a LOT of chocolate.
The tea included a pot of tea/ coffee, and the food was divided into two rooms:
One "Savory room", which included both Asian foods (like chicken satay and sushi) and traditional high tea savory treats like sandwiches and cheese. It was delicious, but I didn't come to the "Chocolate Buffet" for the smoked salmon. (Nick and Griffin both spent more time in this room than I did)
One "Chocolate room". An enormous table, covered in desserts, particularly of the chocolate variety. There was chocolate fondant cake, chocolate beignets, chocolate-covered mango, chocolate truffles, scones, tartlets... it went on and on.
Plus, there was this guy:
At Chef Laurent's table, we could go and order "liquid chocolate" (or "drinking chocolate") whichever way we wanted, from the 22 varieties of chocolates available. The first one I had was made with two different kinds of chocolate, plus a bit of sea salt and black pepper, and it was heavenly. (I may have had multiple drinking chocolates)
Whipping cream on drinking chocolate
Marshmallows in chocolate fondue
For a chocolaholic like me, the "Chocolate Buffet" was better than Disneyland and Christmas combined.
After we walked out of the hotel into a heavy rainstorm and took a cab back to our hotel, my body CRASHED. I was sleepy and in need of a nap from all the food, but at the same time hopped up on all the sugar.
It was like a 24 hour period before my stomach recovered from the chocolate overload.
No regreats!
