Gerassimos Fourlanos | Senior Legal Consultant | Thailand | Cambodia

Gerassimos Fourlanos | Senior Legal Consultant | Thailand | Cambodia

How did you end up in Thailand?

In Thailand I went with the UN. I worked in Bangkok from September 1999 to January 2003. Before that I was in Cambodia, again with the UN, from May 1996 to September 1999.

In both of these countries I participated in the opening of Greek restaurants, first in Cambodia, in 1998, and then in Bangkok, where we opened in 2001. Both restaurants were named ATHINA.

Notably, apart from Thailand and Cambodia, I also worked in Indonesia, Malaysia and Vietnam, with missions in the rest of the countries in the region, where I finally stayed for about 15 years, working sometimes in the UN and sometimes in European Union programs.

Tell us a little about the Athens restaurant in Bangkok and Phnom Penh. Its beginning, difficulties you faced, etc.

In those years, especially when I opened the first restaurant in Phnom Penh, there were no Greek restaurants at all in the entire region of Southeast Asia, despite the abundance of national and non-national restaurants. Of course, you could find some Greek dishes mainly in hotels, such as the Greek salad or the moussaka, but without even coming close to being authentic.

In Cambodia, we addressed the rather large community of diplomats, businessmen, employees of international organizations, etc., who came from Western countries, given that they already knew Greek cuisine. Cambodians had no interest in foreign cuisines in those years, given that we are in the era immediately after the country’s thirty-year civil war, during which the bourgeois and cosmopolitan class had been decimated. We were rarely visited by Cambodians, mainly those who had lived in Europe, such as some members of the royal family.

Our philosophy was to make a national restaurant that offers a sensational escape from reality. Both the flavors and the decor and the music were like leaving Cambodia behind that night and being transported to a completely different world, to Greece, whose atmosphere was both intense and sophisticated, an attractive version of Greece.

We brought a professional cook from Athens, who conquered the palates of all of us with the fantastic flavors he knew how to create, and we gave great importance to the authenticity of the recipes. We left out all the Greek recipes that we thought were difficult to execute or loved by our customers, but those we included were classic, without gimmicks and alchemy. And to get closer to authenticity, we made our own Greek strained yogurt and pie for skewers.

The problems we faced were mainly the incomplete infrastructure (permanent power outages, etc.) and the unstable political situation. There were frequent violent riots and incidents, sometimes shots were fired in front of the restaurant, and many times customers could not come or we were forced to close for security reasons.

In Bangkok the situation was much better in every way. It is worth noting, that in the 4 total years that I stayed in this city, I did not experience a single power outage! Our clientele was truly cosmopolitan, half Western and half Asian (Thai, Japanese and others) and our cuisine again was authentic, this time with a cook from Greece, who established homely flavors, while Thai staff of the kitchen established beautiful presentations. Also, the Thai staff, led by the restaurant manager, Mr. Nopparat Praisavan, organized a Greek feast every weekend with Greek dancing and dish breaking. Unforgettable evenings, with customers left speechless when Nopparat danced zeibekiko, sirtaki and other Greek dances better than 99% of Greeks!

Το ελληνικό εστιατόριο ΑΘΗΝΑ στην Μπανγκόκ της Ταϊλάνδης

One of the problems we faced in Bangkok, and partly also in Cambodia, was that I considered as authentic Greek cuisine what I wanted almost half a century ago, when I left Greece, and which had been captured in the books of Tselemende and Chryssa Paradeisi.

Many customers, however, had visited Greece recently and found, by now, another cuisine, something between McDonald’s and Nia de Paris, with wine quenches, mushroom and milk cream phloem, and a substantial elimination of all aromatics or spices, leave the fried potatoes that accompany even the soups. How, now, can I convince my customers, that this appearance of today’s Greek cuisine is not authentic, while what we were cooking in Thailand was the right one?

Especially in Bangkok we ate a war from an executive who intended to open a Greek restaurant, but we got ahead of her. When we closed ATHENA, in 2008, the lady in question opened her coveted store, which, however, did not walk at all, it turned out to be a real De Los Varatos De Los Migos. As far as I know, it no longer exists today.

It should be noted that when I left Cambodia I sold the ATHINA restaurant there to an American, who I think still owns it, under the same name, with some Greek dishes on the menu but also other, more international dishes.

What other places in the world have you traveled to, any that you liked the most?

Because of my work I have lived in many countries. In addition to all of Southeast Asia, I have done long stints in Africa (where I am now), Moldova, Skopje, Azerbaijan, Turkey, and short missions to many other countries. I would distinguish all these countries into two categories, those where I could stay forever, such as Thailand, Malaysia, Singapore or the Balkan countries (mainly because of the proximity and similarity to Greece) and those where I felt indifferent or that I wanted to leave. I also really liked Ethiopia, from Africa, because it has the best climate in the world, it is beautiful as a landscape, and it has music, dances and gastronomy that captivate you, but the infrastructure and practical problems are too big. Some Central Asian countries, like Kazakhstan or Afghanistan, made me feel like I wanted to leave ….

What do you miss about Greece while you were away from it?

I miss Greek yogurt, greens, green beans (everything else I can find wherever I am, even feta or olive oil). I also like the ever-changing Mediterranean landscape, Greek music and Greek beaches. I am perhaps one of the few who miss Athens as a city.

I don’t miss Greek bureaucracy, and modern Greek cuisine is a definite disappointment.

Jur Dr Gerassimos Fourlanos, Senior Legal Consultant

You will find the page of Mr. Furlanos at the following address http://www.fourlanos.se/