THIS year, with COVID-19 making it almost impossible to escape to some distant tropical island on the lazy summer days when you don’t really want to work, you can at least indulge your taste buds and take them on a journey to Southeast Asia. Most people would agree that Southeast Asian cuisine is perhaps the best match for summer.

Starting July until the end of September, the Seasons restaurant at five-star Kempinski Hotel Shenzhen is offering a buffet dinner featuring Southeast Asian food, distinctive with strong aromatic flavors. Cooked with seafood and lots of natural plants, the specialties will be served each and every day during this time.

The Thai-style seafood salad is refreshing with a rich texture and taste, and those who are health-minded can choose the sour and spicy avocado and crab salad.

Sometimes you just don’t have a good appetite during the scorching summer days. The classical Thai-style squid cooked in red curry or curry-flavored chicken with bamboo shoots will get exactly to the point.

Chilli crab is one of the iconic “national dishes” of Singapore, characterized by its sweet, spicy and savory sauce. The chefs at Kempinski have found the right balance of keeping the spiciness level manageable for international guests, while not losing its flavors of sweet and tangy.

The Singaporean Laksa broth offers the right balance of spice and coconut milk, a distinctive noodle soup that will tickle the taste buds. Shrimp and other seasonal ingredients are cooked with noodles in the broth, providing a nutritious and refreshing dish.

Hot pot fans can try choice lamb and beef slices dipped in Laksa broth or tom yam gong soup. There are also crawfish cooked in every kind of sauce.

Whether it’s originated in Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore, Vietnam, Laos or Myanmar, you can try the dishes this summer at Kempinski, whose chefs also promise to use only the best-quality ingredients to cook them.(Debra Li)