La Maison de la Nature Goh is a restaurant in Fukuoka included in the list of Asia’s 50 Best restaurants and awarded one star in the 2019 Michelin Guide to Fukuoka, Nagasaki, and Saga. Goh is the name of the chef. As I will show, defining it a French restaurant, as some guides do, is reductive. Goh created his own cuisine blending French techniques with Japanese style and making use of the best ingredients sourced around Kyushu.
The visit
I contacted the restaurant by email during my summer 2019 trip to Japan. They always answered quickly and politely. Initially it was a no-go, since the restaurant, unsurprisingly, was fully booked. However while I was in Fukuoka I checked if there was any last-minute cancellation and they were able to accommodate me in the end. I am so glad I kept insisting because the pay-off was one the best meals of the year.
The restaurant is located in a neighborhood full of eateries and clubs. It has been operating for the past 17 years, even before the area became popular. The magic door is at the end of an alley. There are just 6 counter seats and 2 tables (each seating 6 people). If you sit at the counter, like I did, some of the cooking takes place in front of you. Goh was in the kitchen, but he was working on the other side of the counter. My cover was taken care by one of the chefs, Andy, and by Ana. They were wonderful in explaining the dishes and speaking in English with me. Service was uncompromisingly good.
There was no menu. It was an omakase course that the chef changes and tweaks frequently.
The opening dish was eel with kobayashi, balsamic vinegar, beef stock sauce, and wine on a piece of cucumber soaked in dashi. On the side there was a green gazpacho made with tomato and cucumber, some chili inside. The composition was inspired by a Japanese dish called uzako, with vinegar eel and cucumber. As this first dish shows, Goh’s cuisine defies labeling. Dishes like these are like small works of art, a sculpture or a painting.
The second dish was even more mind-blowing. It was a platter (it could have been a painting!) with four snacks: Top right: a monaka topped with a iburigakko pickle from Akita, filled with foi gras, and sprinkled with cooked soy beans Bottom right: quiche with bacon from Kumamoto. Top left: shungiku (crown daisy) on a secret white paste. Bottom left: hirame sashimi wrapped in crispy green tea leaves looking like seaweed.
At this point I received some warm ciabatta bread.
The third dish was a colorful cold soup with grilled eggplant, jelly-like beef stock broth, topped by uni, shiso flower, water-shield.
Next was a risotto with spinach and abalone liver, pieces of abalone and Japanese mushrooms (visually they look very similar!), brown butter and mushroom sauce. Eaten mixed together. I was told that this was one of Goh’s signature dishes.
Next was a piece of lobster with chicken sauce, sprinkled with five spices powder and Chinese spinach. An unusual and interesting flavor for this dish.
The big-ticket item of the course menu was wagyu from Kagoshima (very prized!) cooked at low temperature, with vinegar sauce from Yame, onion cooked for 2 hours from Saga, celery puree. Indeed excellent.
The next two dishes were desserts. The first was a homemade yogurt with milk from Hanno enclosing shiso paste and a dill flower on top, plus a Wagayama plum.
Then the dish was completed adding ice bits sprinkled with Yamazaki whiskey.
Finally, from the picture above you can see the green shiso paste hidden by the yogurt.
At this point I was offered a glass of cold green tea from Yame. What was remarkable was that I could smell the aroma of the tea, even if it was a cold brew. Yame green tea is particularly sought-after in Japan. During the dinner I just had still water.
The last dessert was caramel ice cream sprinkled with grated soy sauce on a base of miso, with Sumomo peach. All of this on top of a layer of catalana cream, kept separate from the glazed top. It was like a double bottom. Very clever.
At this point I was shown two miniature statues of Goh and his friend Gaggan. It is well-known that the two like to collaborate together and may even start a restaurant together in the not-so-distant future. Now you know where Gaggan gets his onions…
The check
Now, this incredible meal was 7,257 yen (I did not have wine, I believe water was included) or 68 USD. That’s an amazing price for this kind of culinary experience. They also had a higher-priced menu with basically the same dishes, but an additional palate-cleanser and a more expensive cut of beef for around 9,500 yen. I regret I did not choose this menu as they had a chocolate dessert I would have certainly liked, perhaps next time!
In conclusion, this was not just a meal, it was quiet display of culinary art. Every dish was the result of the combination and balancing of so many details and quality ingredients. All the dishes were also delicious and I was fully satisfied by the end of the meal. I also liked the intimate environment and the counter seat.
The Michelin Guide gives Goh one star. Travesty. This is the kind of restaurant that, using the Michelin’s lingo, is well worth a detour if not a special journey.
Where in Fukuoka: 2-26 Nishinakasu, Chuo Ward, Website: www.gohfukuoka.com.
Quince Saigon is the Vietnamese outpost of a Quince Eatery in Bangkok, managed by Farandole group. It has been a very hyped restaurant and you can find tons of positive reviews online. Certainly a sign of Saigon’s evolving food scene.
I tried Quince for the first time in summer 2018 and I thought that it would not have been fair to write a review on the basis of just a single visit. So I came back again in my summer 2019 trip to get a better idea.
The visit(s)
Located in the outskirts of district 1 in a rapidly developing area famous for its hardware stores and a military surplus market, the interior of the restaurant exudes modernity and class. As a solo diner, I find the long counter a very nice feature (and I sat there on both of my visits). Let’s start with my 2019 visit.
I started with an octopus casserole. The octopus was tender and all the condiments right. Really enjoyed the dish.
Then I was craving for chicken (this was the beginning of my summer 2019 chicken quest that culminated in Chiang Mai…) and I was attracted by a roast French cockerel (coquelet) on the menu. It was ok, but there was really little meat (which is normal for this kind of chicken, in fact I was expecting a whole one, the menu did not help).
The chicken came with some potatoes and greens.
I had also ordered a dish of greens with an homemade anchovy sauce that was brilliant (the flavor reminded me of Japanese sauces) but I was a bit upset because nobody told me that the chicken was already coming with some greens. It was not clear at all from the menu that, using a modern style, only indicated the main ingredients of the dish without more details. If I knew about it, I would have ordered something else.
While I was eating the salad I was abruptly interrupted by the waitress that wanted to clean the table from the chicken plate. She literally interrupted me while I was chewing. This kind of things make me upset not with the service staff, but with the management that should have trained them in a better way.
No dessert, but the check was accompanied by some jellies.
And now a look at my 2018 visit.
My first dish was an interesting beef tartare. It was not your usual tartare. It was copiously sprinkled with dried egg yolk and rich of ingredients (I appreciated the capers). Overall a very good creative dish.
My main was a veal cheek with mash and cherry tomatoes. There was a good balancing of flavors among the three main ingredients of the dish. However the veal was quite dry contrary to my expectations.
The cauliflower with cream that I ordered as a side was full of flavor and simply great.
I also enjoyed a Vietnamese red tea.
Finally I had some room for a dessert: a scoop of Ralf’s chocolate gelato. Good of them that found the best in town.
The final complimentary jellies were already there.
The check(s)
The 2019 visit cost me 1,218,525 VND (52 USD), including a super expensive bottle of water!
The previous visit cost me basically the same (the tea was much less expensive than the water).
By international standards, it was quite reasonable. Being in Saigon, the cost opportunity is not negligible.
After these visits and after speaking with F&B professionals in Saigon I realized one thing: Quince has been and is great for the development of Saigon’s restaurant community. The head chef, Julien Perraudin, has an amazing curriculum and is a true creative force. The creativity is reflected in his dishes and the menu changes frequently depending on the quality ingredients available. Do not expect to find the dishes I described. All of this creative power is trickling down to the wider community and is helping in modernizing Saigon’s food scene. Great.
What left me with mixed feelings, especially after the second visit, was the lack of clarity on the menu. I hope I could have had a more in-depth conversation about the food to order with the chef (but he was, rightfully so, busy) or some knowledgeable staff. This would have made the experience more streamlined. I would gladly go back if chef Perraudin was to offer a tasting menu or to try some specific dishes.
Where in Ho Chi Minh City: 37bis Ký Con Street, District 1 Follow their Facebook page.
I have already described Anan Saigon, the brainchild of chef Peter Cuong Franklin in Ho Chi Minh City, in another review. My first experience was a bit atypical as I ate their famous 100-USD banh mi. I do not think the extravagant banh mi was a good representation of what the restaurant has to offer so I was keen to go back and I was not disappointed.
The visit
I booked using the form on their website and they were quick to answer. When I showed up they offered me a bar seat on the third floor. This was not suitable for me and luckily they found a table on the ground/first floor for me. Remember that they have normal tables on the ground floor and on the second floor. Next time I will make sure to specify my preference.
I decided to order the chef’s tasting menu. Normally set menus are for at least two people, but they were kind enough to let me have the menu as a solo diner.
The first dish was an amuse bouche. Specifically a quail egg topped by salmon roe. While I am not the kind of diner easily impressed by some smoke, I must acknowledge that it was beautifully presented. Much better than your run-of-the-mill amuse bouche.
The next dish featured Vietnamese caviar (I believe Caviar de Duc, it was indicated just as Da Lat caviar on the menu) in a sort of congee with an onsen egg, rice foam and smoked sturgeon. It was a nice fusion dish that highlighted what was believed to be impossible: Caviar made in Vietnam.
Then there was a crab dish enriched with salmon roe, pomelo, and local herbs (not to mention the rice cracker). Again, all amazingly presented and combined together.
Next was an homage to the Vietnamese pancake, the banh xeo, a very popular street food. However the banh xeo was crispier than usual and was actually a fusion between a banh and a taco. Quality ingredients were chosen for the filling, but quite close to the original: pork, peanut sauce, herbs.
Then there was a very interesting water buffalo carpaccio combined with many herbs, lemongrass, lime, peanuts, and a quail egg. I am quite a fan of raw meat and I enjoyed the dish. I believe this was an homage to bò tái chanh (rare beef in lime juice salad), a dish from Da Nang, but the meat was thinly sliced (like in carpaccio) instead of being minced. Raw buffalo meat is common in Northern Thailand (laap), by the way.
Then there was what on the menu was called foie gras imperial roll with pork meat, foie gras, topped with black truffle. This was clearly a homage to Vietnamese rolls in the shape of a suoi mai dumpling. It came with nuoc cham, a dipping sauce mixing fish sauce, lime, pepper, and garlic.
In this tour de force across Vietnamese cuisine, beef in betel leaves was to be there and it was. The beef was delicious brisket.
The next dish was a small masterpiece. A bite of deconstructed pho. The small jelly-like ball in the spoon did taste like pho. It was clearly an homage to Bo Innovation’s molecular xia long bao. And a successful one.
By this time I was already full, but there was still a big ticket item to go: a bowl of pho (and not a small bowl…). It was pho dac biet, that indicates a combination of beef parts. This bountiful bowl had slices of wagyu beef, a 24-hour slowly cooked beef rib, marrow, tendon, a quail egg, and of course noodles. It was a perfect example of modern cuisine, revitalizing a classic dish with top-shelf ingredients.
Now time for dessert. The beautiful lime in the picture above was actually a sweet, with lime vanilla mousse inside.
Finally there was a stick with cotton candy. I guess the chef wanted to be sure to satisfy the guest’s inner child.
The check
The tasting menu was 1,200,000 VND before service charge and taxes. With a coconut drink, I spent 1,437,500 VND (62 USD). By the way, this was the most expensive tasting menu, you can dine in this world-class restaurant for much less.
I am so glad that I went for this tasting menu. It was absolutely amazing. Every dish was not only delicious, but also well presented and, most importantly, well-designed on the basis of a philosophy aimed at elevating traditional dishes to creative high cuisine. The experience was on par with some of the best restaurants in Asia where I dined like Bo Innovation in Hong Kong, Labyrinth in Singapore, Blackitch in Chiang Mai, all restaurants that share the same commitment to their respective homeland cuisines while pushing the envelope in terms of creativity and flavor (but never for just creativity’s sake, like in celebrated places like the now-gone Gaggan).
Where in Ho Chi Minh City: 89 Tôn Thất Đạm (inside Cho Cu market, a taxi won’t be able to leave you in front of the restaurant, but around 100 meters on the main street). Website: http://anansaigon.com/ Tip: make a reservation using the website form.
Bo Innovation is the award winning restaurant of Alvin Leung in Hong Kong (three Michelin stars). I had already tried Bo Innovation in Shanghai and found it impressive. But I was not ready for a twenty-something tasting menu that characterize the dinner experience. Luckily the restaurant offered an abridged tasting menu for lunch that looked ideal. So by email I made a reservation for my June 2019 trip to Hong Kong.
The visit
The restaurant is located in Wan Chai (incidentally, above Five Guys) and the dining room was spacious with a modern touch.
The professional waiter pointed out that the dishes were antiques collected by the chef.
There was a spectacular welcome dish: an egglet pancake filled with spring onions and other herbs. As you may know, egglet pancakes are a fixture in Hong Kong street food. This was the right start.
The first dish featured a corn mousse and crackers, Japanese cauliflower, pinenut, and Pat Chun sweetened vinegar. Pat Chun was founded in 1932 by Mr Ng Wai Sum. The words Pat Chun「八珍」refers to a phrase in the ancient Chinese Book of Rites that described precious ingredients used in concocting hundreds of sauces with different flavors. The sweetened vinegar is their flagship product and a quintessential Hong Kong ingredient. The waiter proudly showed me the bottle of the vinegar that helped to fuse the dish elements together. Most of the dishes to come would feature such ingredients linked to the history of Hong Kong.
The second dish featured a lobster tartare, black truffle, and the signature ingredient, an oil called har mi (dried baby shrimps). It is obtained infusing the dried baby shrimps in the oil for 3 days before distilling it. It is Alvin’s invention once again using a popular Hong Kong ingredient. I was even offered a couple of jars of the juice to add to the dish at my discretion.
The third dish consisted of a meaty Hokkaido scallop, Shanghainese jolo sauce (a type of red rice fermented vinegar), sugar snap peas, and some “woba” (the name the crispy burnt rice that was the leftover in rice pots in olden days before the invention of rice-cooker). Bonus: here you can find the recipe. This was one of my favorite dishes.
The next dish was the celebrated molecular xiao long bao (soup dumpling). To be eaten all at once, it did recreate the flavor of a soup dumpling on the palate.
It was now time for the foie gras that came with bamboo shoots.
The foie gras was sprayed (literally, using a perfume dispenser) with Chu Yen Ching liquor. I do not like liquor and this was not a great add on form me.
The foie gras was accompanied by a charcoal mantou.
The palate cleanser was a green concoction with the prized Chinese wine Moutai (its bottle looks like a detergent, doesn’t it?), calamansi, and butterfly pea flower. It was offered on an imperial Chinese implement. Sorry, maybe it is me that does not like alcohol, but it tasted like a detergent. I just had a sip.
For main I could choose among suckling pig leg, cod, or beef. I went for the suckling leg with crispy skin and it was great. The plate was sprinkled with Pat Chun vinaigrette, some Sichuan peppercorns and a piece of pineapple. There were also some baby greens on the side.
To finish up, I was offered a bowl of Bo’s signature fried rice.
What made it special, was that the waiter shaved on it sun-dried abalone (very Hong Kong) and dried foie gras (made by Alvin). Delicious.
The final dish was Alvin’s “no shark fin”. Alvin is opposed to the use of shark fin in Chinese cuisine (it is still commonplace I can tell you) given the detrimental effects on the shark population. The dish is meant to resemble a shark fin bowl and is presented in a traditional implement specifically used for shark fin dishes in wedding and ceremonies. I once had a shark fin soup and it is just another of those Chinese delicacies like bird’s nest and sea cucumbers that my palate cannot understand: it is mostly tasteless. This dish was not tasteless at all. It was a refreshing dessert made with yuzu, osmanthus, peach resin, and dried persimmon.
The check
After adding a bottle of water, the check was 1,078 HKD (or 137 USD). The full degustation menu served for dinner was around twice as much. There were also some lighter lunch options. Overall, I found this ten course menu the perfect size and very satisfying. There was a little bit too much alcohol for my taste, but I enjoyed all the references to traditional Hong Kong dishes throughout the meal. I could really see that the chef loves his city and has used his creativity to celebrate it.
Where in Hong Kong: 60 Johnston Rd, 60, Shop 8, J Senses. Entrance on Ship Street J Residence. Website: http://www.boinnovation.com.
What to say about a pastry chef’s that has her own Wikipedia entry? Janice Wong made a splash in the culinary world with her artistic desserts and culinary happenings. She is a well-known professional in Asia and Singapore is her home. During my Singapore trip in July 2019, it was natural to pay a visit to her 2am: dessert bar in Holland Village.
The visit
The dessert bar was located on the second floor of a building at the end of a cul-de-sac.
I arrived shortly after their opening at 2pm (this is the opening time at Weekends; usually they open at 3pm and keep open till 2am as the name suggests). There was only a couple. I had a reservation made through their website but at that time it was not really necessary. At least on that day.
I was temped to order their dessert degustation, but I resisted and I settled for a single item.
It was their Chocolate H20, one of Janice’s classics. Her imprint was visible from the dish presentation, with splashes of color all around the plate. It was a technically-complex creation. This is how it is described on Janice’s website:
A signature of 2am:dessertbar, this dessert has stayed in the menu since its creation in 2009. Inspired by the beauty of dead corals at the San Sebastian coast, the dessert features an aerated frozen chocolate with water mousse sprayed in grey to give the look of dead corals. It is sat over a heap of chocolate soil. Over the year, this dessert had undergone several changes, and the current version is served with Kochi Yuzu Sorbet to give it a light and refreshing balance to the dessert.
I agree that it was a small masterpiece. But even more important, it was also delicious with all the flavors going along in a perfect way.
The check
I spent 25.89 SGP (18.50 USD) for a single dessert. Expensive certainly, but the price was commensurate with the excellent service and the location. I would certainly go back. She also has a store in Tokyo that I might well visit.
At City Link (an underground mall near City Hall) i captured this picture of a Janice Wong kiosk. There are a few in Singapore.
The paint jar set captured my attention. I think I am in love.
Corner House is a Michelin-starred restaurant located inside Singapore Botanic Garden. It is the apt location of a restaurant promoting a Gastro Botanica style of cuisine, an approach emphasizing refinement and quality, giving equivalent weight on the plate to protein and botanical elements. It is the creation of Chef Jason Tan inspired by curious travel, a French classic culinary ground and a devotion to provenance, terroir and seasonality.
The visit
The Corner House is a colonial style bungalow inside the Botanic Gardens. It is not in a corner… “Corner” was the surname of one of the early assistant director of the institution (1929-1945) and the bungalow is where he lived.
It was easy to book via Chope, but not so easy to reach. You have two options. The first is to get to the Botanic Garden metro station then to walk for around 900 meters. This is how I arrived. It was a pleasant walk (but not really passing next to any botanic landmark) and there were plenty of signs. The second option is to get a taxi Nassim Gate of the Gardens and then walk around 200 meters. That’s how I left and there was some waiting for a taxi to show up.
They only operate with set menus. I was there on a Sunday for brunch and they had the brunch menu available which was fine with me.
The bread was a croissant with five spices, raisins bread, unsalted butter and yuzu flavored butter (yuzu everywhere nowadays).
The first course was a set of appetizers. The spread included (from the left) honeydew (a tropical fruit) with watermelon radish, king fish tartare with seaweed (ichiki), foie gras with orange marmalade (with some tasted bread), mushroom tempura with Parmesan cheese emulsion for dipping (the dish on the back). All delicious, but not a lot of food.
The first main dish was an egg Benedict (one…) with burnt oranges, iberico ham, and topped with tobiko.
Then there was a piece of New Zealand blue cod with fried scale in a chili and butterscotch sauce, with some salmon roe.
Finally the desert was emulsion of durian enclosing coffee ice cream on a scone pastry. The ice cream flavor helped to tame the durian and was overall good.
From start to finish, the brunch took exactly 1 hour.
The check
Brunch and a bottle of water was 127.10 SGD (92 USD). It should be noted that the brunch menu is one of their most affordable menus (dinner set are much more expensive).
I had the impression that the brunch did not help them to display the gastro-botanic style in full. Certainly the dishes were impressively presented and all very good. However, I found the value proposition a bit defective.
One bonus: the restaurant is 200 meters from the famous Orchid Garden (entrance fee required, while the rest of the Gardens is free of charge) that is worth a visit.
Where in Singapore: 1 Cluny Road, E J H Corner House Singapore Botanic Gardens (Nassim Gate Entrance) Website: https://cornerhouse.com.sg.
On my way out, chef Black, that had spent some time chatting with me at the end of the meal, pointed to a mural on the dining room’s wall reading (in English and Japanese): “Even rotten sea bream is sea bream”.
Then he continued explaining that this means that the sea bream has an identity and this identity is not lost through superficial changes.
And a search for identity is a center of Black’s cuisine fully manifested in his multi-course chef’s table experience at Blackitch (a portmanteau for Black’s nickname and “kitchen”). No matter how innovative the dish are, there is always something that keep them well anchored into their Thai identity.
The visit
I learnt about the restaurant in 2018 in my online searches, but only in my July 2019 trip to Chiang Mai I contacted them through their Facebook page and secured a spot. They were very quick in responding.
I arrived at 6pm and I was accommodated in the intimate dining room with only 3 tables. It felt like being invited into the chef’s private home. On the wall a mural with a tuna was reminiscent of the chef’s time in Japan. I left shortly before 8pm when other guests started to arrive, so basically I dined alone.
All dishes were fully explained by the chef or his partner. Every dish would feature an impressive number of ingredients and several cooking techniques. In my notes I only captured the gist of them. What was particularly interesting was their search for unique and quality ingredients from all over Thailand (with a focus, of course, on the Northern provinces where they are based). Everything was handmade, including all the sauces and pickles, as Black is also know as the “fermentation king” as he develops all the fermented ingredients in his kitchen.
The water was complimentary and came from Chiang Dao, a district in Chiang Mai’s province famous for its wines. They had a succinct and attractive selection of beverages and I opted for a juice from coconut flowers.
The opening was a rice dish: the rice came from from a mountain community that uses sustainable cultivation techniques and it was mixed with egg yolk, yuzu, pickled beauty fish and salted tuna sashimi. It was recommended to be eaten wrapped with river seaweed, which I did. It was a hearty and delicious start.
The second dish consisted of steamed local zucchini with roasted herbs (shallot, chili, lemongrass) and a catfish rice cracker.
The third dish featured crab paste and meat with seasonal fruits (mangosteen), lotus root, and Thai style seasoning including fish sauce and lemongrass. The chili flavor was quite prominent, but not too spicy.
The fourth dish showed some influences from Chinese cuisine: local duck meat on a pie, fried duck skin, pickled raspberry, pumpkin puree on bottom with apple jelly and finally a touch of persimmon.
The fifth dish was a Thai river fish rolled on bamboo shoots (cured 2 nights), with its fermented liver. Eggplant and fried pork on the side.
The sixth dish was a piece of chuck flank from a Thai cattle breed called Himawari grown to 36 months and fed organic sunflowers. It went on a typical Southern-style yellow curry with turmeric and coconut sauce, coming with delicious fried seasonal vegetables. I wish the beef was more tender, but it was as hormone-free natural beef is supposed to be.
The seventh dish was a soup: chicken and duck bone broth with Northern spices, Himawari beef stripes, local mushrooms and black goji berry foraged by a local community. All great together.
The eight dish was the big protein buddy: jasmine rice with tiny grains fried in Xo Thai–style sauce (prawn based) and a nice piece of oyster blade beef (again the prized Himawari) with homemade pickled bamboo. Now, it may sound silly, but the fermented bamboo pickles were really delicious, I would have eaten a jar.
The ninth dish was the dessert: it included pineapple and young ginger with a mango granita in addition to a cream made with coconut, egg yolk and a bit of cream cheese. There were also two chocolate bites made from Thai cacao that is characterized by a fruity backtaste.
The check
The check after tax and a drink was 2,011.6 THB (or 65 USD). Considering the amount of care and creativity embedded into each dish, it was very good value (and the drinks were also priced very reasonably). By the way, at the time of my visit, they had two menus with the main difference being more use of the Thai beef in the most expensive menu (for 2,000 THB before tax), while the other would cost 1,800. For some reason, they gave me a discount and I ended up being charged 1,800 THB instead of 2,000 (before tax). It is a small detail, the difference is not that important, I just report it for sake of clarity.
This was a fantastic dining experience featuring boundless creativity always faithful to its Thai roots in terms of terroir and choice of quality ingredients. Blackitch is on par with some of the best restaurants in Asia like Goh in Fukuoka, Labyrinth in Singapore, or Leputing in Taipei. Given the seasonal nature of the menu, I would like to visit again in future trips to Chiang Mai.
Where in Chiang Mai: 27/1 Nimmanhemin Soi 7, Suthep Subdistrict. Check their Facebook page for more details.
I was passing through Bangkok in August 2019 and I was able to book a seat at Gaggan, the iconic restaurant that for many years topped the Asia’s 50 Best restaurant list (to slide to number 2 in 2019). What prompted me to try the venue was my experience with Goh in Fukuoka: apparently Gaggan (the chef) will close his Bangkok restaurant by the end of the year and relocate in Fukuoka starting a collaboration with Goh. This was Gaggan’s last menu and, according to the them, the most challenging to date. Here’s how it went.
UPDATE: The restaurant ended operations on 24 August 2019 earlier than expected, not without some drama. Future plans are still unclear.
The visit
Booking took some back and forth via email. They wanted me to prepay via a bank transfer (no way!). We settled eventually for a Paypal payment.
They have two turns per night, one at 5.30pm and one at 9.30pm. I was offered the second turn that worked very well with my schedule.
A bit early, at 9.10pm, I was the first to be accommodated in the dining room, friendly nicknamed the Lab. It was a true chef’s table experience with all the diners sitting around a horseshoe-shaped counter circling the open kitchen. All 14 seats were taken, but a couple disappeared maybe preferring the privacy of a private room. We were asked our nationality (I overheard some Italians, Spanish, and Americans, definitely a crowd made of travelers) and presented the wine options by a flamboyant sommelier (I had to kill his spirit by only asking water; surprisingly they did not have a non-alcoholic pairing).
Gaggan was not there and the head chef was a young professional from Costa Rica. He did most of the interaction with the guests and opened the dinner with a short oration about Gaggan’s philosophy centered around perception and seasonality. He also indicated that we were about to experience the last iteration of their menu in Bangkok as the restaurant was about to shut down (but he did not mention the future projects) and that this was the most challenging menu to date. Behind the kitchen there was a team of half dozen young chefs from all over the world. Someone mentioned that over 20 nationalities were represented in the kitchen staff, sometimes hired just through emails. Gaggan was certainly a big school for many young chefs. At this point it was 9.50pm and we had yet to start with the food.
The menu was made only with emojis. This was actually a clever idea catering to an international audience. In the past they had tried other innovative approaches such as using poems, but this turned out to be the sleeker. I will try to incorporate the emoji for each dish (it may or may not be visualized depending on your system. To be very precise, the menu used the Apple emojis, while in this page you will see visualized the official ones from Unicode).
Once the food started to come, it was very well timed and there was no wasted time. We received our checks at 10 minutes after Midnight. It was “just” a little over 2 hours for 25 dishes.
1. 🏺 We started with what in another restaurant would be called a welcome drink (here summer pitcher): it was a mocktail based on seasonal fruits, lemon juice, and mint infusion. It had a refreshing taste with small bits of fruit pulp.
2. 💥 The next dish was a fixture on Gaggan’s menus called yogurt explosion. It was a sort of molecular lassi to be eaten in one bite from the spoon.
3. 👅 The third opening dish highlighted the attempt to play with perception and with the guests. From what I understand it was another fixture on the menu, with the content of the plate changing but the way to eat it remaining the same: licking it up. It was funny to see 12 grown up men and women licking the plate. A gentlemen did a particularly good job and was praised with an applause as the winner of the context for the cleanest plate (I guess his wife must be a happy woman). Meantime, loud music was underscoring our deeds. Music tended to be too loud for my taste during the dinner. There were four pastes on the plate with tomato, some berry, something I could not identify (the green), and mango flavors. Appropriately, Lick It Up by the Kiss was used as a soundtrack for this segment.
4. 🥚 Starting with this dish, the appetizers were inspired by various Indian regions, highlighting the roots of the cuisine (Gaggan is from India). The first dish in this series was called Chili nest and had a quail egg resting on a nest of fried noodles. It was inspired by the panipuri from UP/Bihar and the egg was filled with flavored water.
5. ❄️ The next dish called khandvi snow was inspired by khandvi, a savory snack in Maharashtrian as well as in Gujarati cuisines of India. It was a cold appetizer based on a yellow fried curry that is one of the key ingredients in Gaggan’s kitchen. It was very fresh.
6. 🌾 Then, we had a kachori (a type of Indian fried dumplings) topped with mashed peas.
7. 🍪 The journey across India continued with a cookie inspired by Kolkata Jhalmuri, a type of street snack made using puffed rice. We were told that this was a childhood favorite for Gaggan. Our cookie was flour-less with some sort of marmalade in the middle. I would have called it an Indian macaroon.
8. 🥔 This series of dishes was ended by a special aloo bonda, an Indian fritter that can be found with different fillings. Ours was pitch black, thanks to a homemade batter, as a homage to the use of charcoal by street vendors. It was filled mainly with yellow curry.
These initial snacks were meant to display the Indian roots of the restaurant. The plates came together to form a silhouette of India. I must admit that I liked this gimmick, it was very clever and gave a sense of structure to this part of the meal.
9. 🧠 With the new dish, we were back to test our perceptions. We were offered a blindfold and we were given the next dish on our hand while blindfolded. It was something gummy, tender, a bit spicy.
After taking off the blindfold, all it was left of the dish was a skull.
Apparently, we just had eaten a brain made with tumeric, tofu, and peppers. The “brain” was shown to us after the fact. It was an interesting commentary about the role of our brain in determining perception, I guess.
10. 🍄 The new dish was called fake truffle and came in the form of a dim sum dish. It was not said, but clearly the buns were meant to replicate the famous Hong Kong pineapple buns (that is a fake pineapple by the way). The filling was foie gras and a hint of truffle (I think).
11. 🍅 Next was a “tomato sundae”. The main ingredient was salmon roe squeezed in a roll made of pastry. Another nice refreshing bite.
12 🌽 The dinner continued with what the chef defined a “love letter to fast food”. It was a fried corn dog filled with foie gras.
13. 🍊 The next dish was a snack where the shell was made with orange candy. Inside there was a piece of smoked eel.
14. 🤤 The drooling face was quite a fitting for the next dish called “uni and onion orgasm”. It was probably my favorite dish of the evening. It consisted of a handmade Monaka base filled with onion ice cream and topped by uni. The onion was not just any onion, but onion from Awaji island in Japan (we were informed that they cost 10USD a pop). The union of the flavors was perfect.
15. 🍣 The next dish was a tribute to sushi. It was a superb piece of fatty tuna on an original base of nori (seaweed), rice, and dashi. The base was a bit too hard for my taste, but the tuna, which was blowtorched, was phenomenal. No soy sauce, but only citrus and salt.
16. 🌱 We then had an interesting mushroom soup that was poured on a tea-infused egg custard on the bottom.
17. 🦐 The next dish brought us to Goa, an Indian state whose cuisine has been influenced by the Portuguese. We had a big prawn inspired by the Prawn Balchão, that is a spicy shrimp based masala pickle in Goa. Interestingly enough, this was the first “main” dish (or “protein rich dish” as the chef put it). And it was dish number 17!
18. 🍜 The second main was a dish of curry noodles. But not the Thai type. This was a kind of idiyappam (string hoppers) with vindaloo sauce. The idiyappams are steamed Indian noodles. Again, it was a dish popular in Goa. I felt that the noodles were stuck together, the curry was great.
19. 💨 Then we had a lamb chop with Indian spices. Man, this was a delicious lamb chop, I would have eaten many… The official name of the dish was “A hater called it as a fart…”. Apparently 15 year ago or so, Gaggan got a bad review for this dish and it was kept on the menu with the idea to make it perfect (or maybe it was already perfect…). This dish was a subtle commentary about the tricky relation between chefs and reviewers.
20. 🦀 The crab dish was made with dashi stock from a fried crab shell, sesame paste (to me, reminding the crab roe) and a couple of microscopic crab pieces. Nice flavor, but the dish left me unsatisfied.
21. 🔥 The next dish was much more satisfying. It was a kind of fish paturi, where the fish was a piece of prized kinmedai from Japan. It was cooked using blowtorches wrapped in banana leaves. The chefs worked at the rhythm of heavy metal music.
22. 🍈 The 22nd dish opened the dessert streak. The first dessert was called “pebbles in the water”. We were challenged to find the edible pebble in the mix (it was, of course, the white one on top). The stone was filled with melon flavored water.
23 🥭 Time for more games with the next dessert: a mango shake. The trick was that the shake was presented in a feeding bottle. We all sucked it up.
24. 🌳 The second last dessert was a beautiful bonsai standing on a jasmine tea mousse. Bonsai are mainly Japanese and Japanese music was playing. But jasmine tea is Chinese. And this was by design.
25. 🕹️ Final dish was a tribute to a popular culture icon: Pac-Man. Eating the eating-video-game character was funny enough. Pac-Man was I believe yuzu, the mini-ghost was chocolate and then there was a raspberry ball. Pac-Man Fever song was playing in the background.
Before closing there was an additional dish for people with birthdays and for couples. Too bad if you were there as a single.
At the end they were also supposed to handout a celebratory t-shirt, but for some reason they forgot.
The check
Cost? The total cost for the experience after taxes was 9,816 THB (or 318 USD). No charge for still water (and non alcoholic drinks were reasonably priced, but I did not have any). There were 400 THB that I paid to cover Paypal charges not shown on the check.
Was it worth it? I will use two emojis: 🤯 😦.
The first emoji is the exploding head. Yes, it was a mind-blowing experience. So much creativity and twists. They challenged the diners, but in an acceptable way. It was fun and the food was excellent.
The second emoji is the frowning face with open mouth. Because here and there I also got the impression that the ratio between food and showmanship was skewed too much toward the latter.
On balance, I think it was a worthwhile experience, I do not regret the final check and I enjoyed the creativity in both the dishes and their presentation.
PS: Speaking of emojis, did they really make a movie about them? That’s mind-blowing.
Where in Bangkok: 68/1 Soi Langsuan Ploenchit Road Lumpini, Bangkok 10330 Website: http://eatatgaggan.com. Closed.
This is going to be a posthumous review of the now closed Bo Shanghai at Five on the Bund (an announcement suggests that the restaurant may be relocating). The restaurant is part of my Shanghai Michelin Scramble as it got a star in the 2018 and 2019 editions. I dined at Bo Shanghai with two friends in May 2017, before starting this blog and before the restaurant got its Michelin star. The photos have been made available to me by one of the friends at the dinner.
The restaurant was run by two close collaborators of Alvin Leung, the chef at the helm of the original Bo Innovation in Hong Kong: Simon Wong and Tam DeAille, both of whom were born in Hong Kong but raised in Canada where they met Alvin.
The visit
I met my two friends on the sixth floor of Bund 5. Bo Shanghai was concealed behind a hidden door accessible through Daimon Bistro, a eatery also set up by Alvin that was also closed.
The menu was not a replica of the Hong Kong’s menu. The chef had their freedom to create an original menu whose main idea was a culinary journey across China, but, of course, with a twist. Chinese traditional dishes were re-created using Western cooking techniques and ingredients. From what I can see online, the chefs would change the menu quite often.
Since it was a long time ago, I am not going to pretend to remember how the dishes tasted. They were all explained by the waitress. It was fun, there was a lot of creativity. My favorite was probably the “stinky tofu” that was not real stinky tofu, but blue cheese wrapped in fried tofu. You got the idea. Below the pics from the evening, I left the caption blank for some dishes that I was not sure how to cross-reference with the menu.
Fujian: Duck egg, caviar, lime. Jiangsu: duck, with chestnuts, mandarin, and mustard seeds. Anhui: lobster with Gu Jing Gong (a liquor) soup, Japanese mushroom, and capsella.Sichuan – Foie de Canard Anhui: Wagyu with “stinky tofu” (on the right with a bamboo shoot).Shandong – Risotto with yellow chicken, abalone, and seaweed. Hunan: panna cotta with orange blossom, blood orange, and almonds
The check
The cost per person was 1848 RMB after service charge (around 275 USD). Wine pairings were available at a steep price (825 RMB for three glasses and 1045 RMB for five glasses). Wow, that was a handsome amount of cash. Once was enough, while I might consider visiting the original Bo Innovation in Hong Kong.
“A Vietnamese snack consisting of a baguette (traditionally baked with both rice and wheat flour) filled with a variety of ingredients, typically including meat, pickled vegetables, and chilli.”
This is the definition of banh mi from the Oxford English Dictionary that in 2011 included the word in the English canon. A powerful indication of the popularity of this Vietnamese sandwich.
In Vietnam, you can find it everywhere and won’t cost you more than 1 USD. In Ho Chi Minh City there is a restaurant now serving a 100 USD banh mi: it is Anan Saigon, the braichild of chef Peter Cuong Franklin.
The visit
To get to Anan you will need to walk through a traditional Saigon’s market, Cho Cu Old Market, where a little bit of everything, from t-shirts to imported biscuits, is for sale. It is not a large market, but a mostly authentic one. It is worth a quick tour.
In the middle of the market you will notice the Anan sign on a traditional narrow building. This is where the eatery is located with the main dining room downstairs.
They also have some tables on the terrace upstairs.
Finally they have an area for cocktails on the roof top. The banh mi show took place on the ground floor.
I had made a reservation via email and pre-ordered the special banh mi. No deposit was required.
They were pretty quick in delivering the gargantuan sandwich that came cut in four parts with truffle fries, truffle oil mayonnaise, and a portion of caviar. Also a glass of prosecco was included, but I opted for a bottle of water that was not charged.
So, what is special about this banh mi? According to an interview to Franklin published on the website Munchies, this is how they go about:
We start out with a mayonnaise that has truffle inside of it and spread a layer on both sides of the bread and plop it on the grill… Then, we add a layer of pâté. We’re using pâté made by a French charcuterie guy based in Da Lat… We use a cut [of pork belly] that has a good amount of fat-to-meat ratio… It’s almost a whole pork chop inside [that has been slowly cooked and finally char grilled]… For this sandwich, we do about four pieces [of fois gras]. Each one is about 40 grams… We sauté it so when the fat comes out as it’s cooked… we’ll then use it to make the sauce. We season it and drip it on all of the sandwich afterwards.
Definitely, it not your regular banh mi where the ingredients are sliced inside the baguette in a few seconds…
Apart from the pork, the fois gras, etc, the Anan’s banh mi also has its share of vegetables.
How is it? Eating it was a nice sensation as each bite revealed a crunchy texture, both from the bread and from the pork. It held itself pretty well bite after bite. I finished it alone. But this should really be shared among a group of 2-4 people.
The caviar was a nice touch especially because it is a local brand: Caviar de Duc. The story of this caviar is quite remarkable as nobody believed that sturgeons could be farmed in the warm waters of Vietnam. It is also an affordable caviar. 10 grams should be around 15 USD.
The check
The final check was, as expected, exactly 100 USD at the exchange rate of 23,000 VND for 1 USD.
What to say? This was clearly a splurge. In a way I do not think it is a good illustration of Anan Saigon’s menu that actually seems to offer a lot of reasonably priced and interesting dishes which I shall try next time I am in town.
Is this decadence or a metaphor of modern Vietnam? Probably just a good marketing gimmick for the restaurant (that also has a 100 USD pho, the Vietnamese noodles).
I would recommend it only if you are in a group of four people and very hungry. Or if you are a food blogger/vlogger.
Where in Saigon: 89 Tôn Thất Đạm Website: http://anansaigon.com/ Tip: make a reservation.
