Bangkok’s Breakfasts of Champions

I consider myself a relatively experienced breakfast eater. I’ve eaten the first meal of the day in many different towns and types of places as well cooked more variations of it than I can even count. I’m happy sticking with the usual or going down a different path when the fancy strikes me.

But I have never…let me repeat that…I HAVE NEVER seen anything like the breakfast offered at the Peninsula Hotel in Bangkok. It was like 7 (maybe more?) separate restaurants in one. The displays were lavish. The offerings were appealing and everything – from the crusty, crispy uber-FRESH croissants to the fried noodles and baos - was perfect.  Honestly, it was every superlative you could throw at breakfast. 

In the center of the main inside area, there was a huge table with magnificent fruit in a museum-quality display.

There was a salad section, but not just some simple salad, but with the freshest, greenest, most perfect leaves of different kinds of lettuce and many other salad vegetables and enough oils and vinegars to make you go wild, plus nuts, seeds and other minutiae to make it the best salad of your life.

There were the aforementioned croissants, with pains au chocolat and fresh baked muffins (different flavors of course), doughnuts, rolls, baquettes and breads for toast. 

THEN in an adjoining outside area were two huge sections of hot cooked foods.

One was Asian foods, with fried noodles (my fav) dim sum - at least 3 varieties (also my fav), fried rice, a saucy curry type dish or two, naan, samosas, sambals, sauces. In the center section was an omelet and other egg dish station. THEN there was a counter with cast iron pots of scrambled eggs, several casserole-y things, different sausages, bacons, frittatas, tortilla wraps, broiled tomatoes, gravy(?).  

Let’s not forget the different varieties of egg custard tarts, which are super popular in Asia, introduced by the Portuguese. Wait! I haven’t even mentioned the cereals, yogurt things, smoked salmon and chorizo platters. OH! French toast, waffles and pancakes made a daily appearance. And any pickled thing you could think of – carrots, beetroot, olives, radishes, cucumbers, baby onions.

I could absolutely have lived my life there. These were the most lavish, well-executed, incredibly wonderfully delicious mornings I've ever had.