Behind husband-and-wife team Jason Bailey and Bongkoch ‘Bee’ Satongun, Paste had a banner year in 2018. After capturing the elusive first Michelin star, Chef Bee was honored as Asia’s Best Female Chef of 2018 by Asia’s 50 Best Restaurants.
Paste is all about a study in Thailand's rich culinary history. The duo spent years studying and researching ancient royal Thai recipes and family cookbooks. During the process, they re-discovered century-old recipes and long forgotten techniques which they incorporated into the menu of their first Paste restaurant and refined it when they opened Paste at the top floor of luxury shopping mall Gaysorn Village.
Some of the restaurant's signature dishes include the roast duck rubbed with northern Thai mah kwan pepper and Tapioca dumplings of royal project smoked trout, toasted peanuts, mustard leaf and wild sesame. If you're into seafood like me, then its spanner crab dish served with salted duck egg, fresh coconut milk, hairy eggplant and lime leaf should not be missed.
(I swear that was Chef Gaggan Anand from Gaggan sitting behind me! But couldn't tell from this picture at all...)
It was 38 degrees out there so it was nice to have a welcome drink with butterfly pea flower and soda water to cool myself off a bit before the meal.
Next was a small canapé, fresh spanner crab on a crispy sheet of seaweed with toppings of lemon zest, ginger flower and dill. Very tasty.
I already wrote the restaurant before my arrival asking whether I could take the tasting menu on my own (the website said minimum of two persons). The answer was NO so I had my eyes on the a la carte menu all the way. But to my surprise, the restaurant manager came over after my amuse bouche and offered a special tasting menu which they could arrange for solo diner! That really crossed me up coz I had brunch with my family not long ago and then some sweets at Grand Hyatt Erawan. So, as much as I wanted to do this, I went with the a la carte menu as I originally planned instead.
Seared scallops - The scallops were lightly seared and tossed in a salad of fresh mangosteen, Peromia, lemongrass, and young coconut.
I have had a lot of seared scallops in my life and almost all of them were accompanied by clean (pea, cauliflower), sweet (sweetcorn) or acidic (capers) flavors. It's one of very few times I had it served with extra spiciness (There must be some curry paste there though not mentioned on the menu). This wasn't bad but in a hindsight, perhaps I should've gone with my server's recommendation of watermelon, ground salmon with fried shallot and roasted galangal powder. It would've given me a much refresher start.
(Interestingly, the scallop dish has already been taken off their a la carte menu when I finished the trip.)
12-hour braised Australian beef rib - A very popular dish here I was told. This was beautifully prepared with long pepper, roasted tomatoes in a special mushroom soy sauce. Not bad.
Mango Sticky Rice - Dessert was a decontructed version of arguably the most iconic dessert in Thailand, mango sticky rice. This came with a couple of Ok rong mango sticky rice rolls which have been filled with silky mango mousse, and wonderfully matched with mango compote, glutinous rice balls, golden threads and a scoop of jasmine sorbet.
Out of the three dishes, I liked this the most.
A Valrhona chocolate bon-bon helped to wrap things up.
The bill ended up costing almost the same as the 7-course tasting menu. That would've been a very good option for a solo diner like me but too bad I got crossed up and had too much to eat before my lunch here.
Food Rating: 6/10
Price: ฿฿฿฿
Address: 3/F, Gaysorn Village, 999 Ploenchit Rd., Lumpini, Bangkok, Thailand
Closest BTS Station: Chit Lom
Tel: +66 (0) 2656-1003
Website: www.pastebangkok.com
S. Pellegrino Asia's 50 Best Restaurants: 28th (2019)
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