BEAUTY AND THE FEAST

The stakes are high when a Westerner opens a Thai restaurant in Bangkok, says PAUL EHRLICH. And if one has the culinary chutzpah, it had better be good – very good

LESS THAN A year old, the Bangkok restaurant nahm is run by Australian-born chef David Thompson. In 2002, his London nahm became the first Thai restaurant to win a Michelin star in Europe and, for his first venture in Asia, Thompson says the goals are more ambitious and authentic.

“I learned a lot since opening in London, developed more as cook,” he says. “I wanted to create dishes faithful to my understanding of the cuisine; to make food that is more traditional, less tailored to Western tastes. It’s mainly for locals and the expat community, the more discerning and knowledgeable diners in Thailand that I’m looking for.

“I can use recipes I couldn’t use elsewhere. With greater access to more ingredients than I did before, I have a larger canvas on which I can paint, scribble and doodle.”

As with many of the best things in life, Thompson’s attraction to Thai cooking happened by accident. “I visited Thailand many years ago. It wasn’t planned, but I immediately fell in love with the place. The culture, the people, the food,” says Thompson, who speaks and reads Thai fairly well. “It’s a remarkable cuisine, one that I’ve been enthralled with for 30 years and, in that time, I learned quite a lot.”

Another difference between the Bangkok and London ventures is the ambience. “Thailand is the kingdom of saabi [relaxed]. So this place doesn’t have the properness of London. It’s more relaxed, and so is the food.”

Housed in the Metropolitan Bangkok hotel, the restaurant is laid out with stylish simplicity. If the decor were a dress code, it would be casually smart, with teak tables, pearl-grey leather chairs and long chocolate-coloured leather sofas, black marble floors, elegant bouquets of purple orchids against the walls, rustic red brick pillars and latticed screens for privacy.

But there’s nothing minimalist about the food. It’s a richly flavoured fusion of Thai ingredients and spices, prepared in a very seasonal and traditional cooking style, yet with Thompson’s innovative twist. The mix works. The cooking is both inspired and very Thai, without any sense of cultural crossovers, over-brooding or expectations getting lost in the recipe’s translation. And the presentation of the extremely colourful cuisine in the white ceramic plates and bowls is quite beautiful.

On a recent Sunday, the place was pretty full without seeming crowded. At one table three young Asian women – each with an expensive camera – photographed every dish they ordered, including their lime-green cocktails. At another table a Westerner snapped his selections with an iPhone.

Dishes range from mild to very spicy. There are no stars or rows of little cartoon chillies on the menu telling you which is hot or not. The waiters will helpfully, patiently guide you through the choices and provide recommendations. There’s also a set menu that can be customised to preferences.

The clear soup with thin slices of tender roast duck, Thai basil and young coconut to start was a nice mild counterpoint to the rest of the courses. A generous portion of stir-fried squid in its ink with sugar-snap peas was a standout – the tender, smoky, inky taste of the succulent squid worth in itself a return. Also wonderful, the lemongrass salad of prawns, crispy squid and pork with roasted coconut was a mildly spiced fusion of textures and tastes.

There are several curry dishes, including a thick, creamy coconut and turmeric curry with blue swimmer crab and calamansi, and the very spicy jungle curry with plaa chorn, Thai basil, apple eggplants and green peppercorns. Let your spice monitor decide; both are delicious. Another crab dish not to be missed is the deep-fried soft-shell crab – perfectly crunchy and simply sensational – accompanied by a bowl of a thickish soup of shrimp paste, pieces of grilled catfish simmered in coconut cream and fresh vegetables. There wasn’t room for spicy stir-fried frog legs with chillies, turmeric, basil and cumin leaves, but the couple at the next table volunteered, without asking, “Next time you must try this.”

Most of the desserts are gooey, fattening or extremely sweet. The jackfruit simmered in coconut cream with steamed sugar palm pudding was all three.

www.nahm.como.bz