Japanese aesthetics and the bold tastes of Mongolia come together at Shan to create Bangkok’s best Chinese hotpot. It’s a funny place, though, featuring a mix-mash of often incongruous elements. It looks like a piano bar, and indeed there’s a piano on one end of the dining room. There is modern blue lighting but also a couple of chandeliers. You have white tablecloths, servers wearing bowties, a full bar and a wheeled cart stocked with spirits; there is also a corner decorated to look like a traditional Chinese herb shop. But the food is terrific, a huge step above the chain suki restaurants. You can order a la carte off the tri-lingual menu (Japanese, Thai and English, in that order), but sets for two are the thing here: B500 at lunch and B990 at dinner. First comes an appetizer, a rectangular plate holding three tasty bite-sized morsels, one each of tofu, shrimp and mushroom. Next the raw ingredients—the stuff you dump

in the soup—beautiful vegetables and meats artfully displayed on an assortment of pretty plates and baskets in different shapes and colors. (The utensils and even the chopsticks are out of the ordinary, as well). Portions are small but they add up: beef, lamb, pork, shrimp, meatballs, tofu, mushrooms, vegetables and, interestingly, dry egg noodles straight out of the packet. The electric hotpot on your table with the cord running over the side isn’t the most elegant setup, but the incredible soups more than

make up for it. In a divided pot, two stocks bubble away, both said to be made with black chicken and 20 different kinds of herbs. Like the yin and yang of liquids, one is slightly cloudy and studded with leaves, roots and pods, the other spicy red from a hefty infusion of dried chilis. Don’t ask for sauce at Shan. You won’t need it—the soup is that good. Both dessert (ours was hilariously bouncy cone of berry panna cotta) and coffee or tea are included in the price. Tea is another special treat at Shan; we counted at least 20 different kinds on the slick tea menu. Served in nice cups, of course.