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About 160 Scandinavians, their spouses and people employed by Scandinavian companies in Thailand gathered for an impressive feast at this year’s Crayfish Party in Bangkok.
Beside the 85kg of crayfish flown in from Sweden, an abundance of imported goods made it possible to eat and drink away any sentimental longing for Scandinavia this Saturday the 20th of September.
Scandinavian Society Siam’s Crayfish Party started in a heavy-carpeted and flowery lobby at Rembrandt hotel. The sparkling wine was plentiful and apart from the standard beer-nuts and grissinis, small bites of dark bread with pickled herring were distributed by waiters who were circling the lobby while arriving guests were catching up with old friends and mingling with new ones.
Even though the night was dominated by an experienced clientele, most age groups, starting in the twenties, were represented and taking part in the festivities. The guests were led from the lobby into a lantern lit dining hall through a thematic arch that was sided by a foam statue of an enlarged crayfish.
A party for well-dressed Vikings
The 16 large round tables in the dining hall were packed with food and crayfish eating attire consisting of pointy hats and paper bibs. The sight of grey haired business people in decorated hats and bibs lightened the already friendly mood and matched the joy and silliness of traditional Scandinavian drinking songs and the escalating consumption of aquavit quite well.
The voice of Swedish conférencier, Lars Anderson, welcoming the guests quickly drowned in the presence of the Scandinavian delicacies. Even though the food could easily have made up a 3 meal course, salmon, bread baskets, cheeses, salads and crayfish were all served from the beginning as a one-table-buffet the guests could dive into.
To flush down the food, every table was equipped with an aquavit bottle in an ice bucket, when someone emptied a bottle there was 4 different varieties of Scandinavian aquavit to replace it.
Dance the night away
As tradition has it, the Crayfish Party features a lucky draw. The luckiest guests could go home with a voucher for a two nights stay at a beach resort. Other winners could go home with a vouchers for restaurants a weekend at a golf course or even beer, if they could keep themselves from drinking the bottles at the party.
After the last plates were vacuumed the band Peter Driscoll and The Cruisers played hits from the 50’s and 60’s and the dance floor came alive. After a few whirls and twirls the first guests started heading home while the most eager dancers stayed on the parquet floor till the very end of the evening.
All photographs by: Disraporn Yatprom
