Hello Friends,

On Thursday Annie and I both slept in. For once jet-lag didn’t wake us up too early. I showered and we wandered down to the breakfast cafe in our hotel where we both got the buffet. It was pretty amazing, I loved the fried egg and the hash browns, but the passionfruit sauce over fresh fruit was to die for. I will probably dream of it for weeks that’s how good it was.

We relaxed in our hotel room getting ready for the day. Finally we decided we would walk to a spa for a facial.  We took some fun photos with the statues outside the lobby. Then we took the water taxi down to the BTS station, but here is where we made our mistake. Annie asked me to look up directions to the spa. I willingly pulled it up on the map, but picked up a medicinal spa instead of a real spa. So we walked for about 20 minutes before realizing we were across the river in the totally wrong direction. Annie pulled it up on her phone and we walked back to basically where we had started and then had to walk even more. So we arrived to our facials basically a hot sweaty mess.

But the facials were amazing. I hadn’t had one in years (probably since my high school prom) and it was great. I felt so clean and refreshed afterwards. We slowly walked back to our hotel to get ready for our dinner reservations at Gaggan. I was hesitant for two reason, one it was indian (which isn’t my favorite) and two: 25 courses with the potential for a lot of raw fish/meat. But I decided to dive in with enthusiam (they say fake it ’til you make it!) as it was a once of a lifetime opportunity to dine at the #1 restaurant in all of Asia.  

Our uber driver takes us down this tiny little street and announces we are here. We hop out, and continue walking down the street to a little white house. We wandered in a few minutes early due to how crazy the traffic was the night before.

Gaggan was also featured on Chef’s Table on Netflix, which I had watched a while ago and had totally forgotten until Annie mentioned it during dinner. We had two sous chef’s in addition to our head chef. He mentioned that Gaggan travels often and gathers inspiration for the menu’s which change frequently, and was currently in Japan tasting new foods.

The restaurant was gorgeous inside, with diamond patterned black and white marble floors. We ate in the glass atrium upstairs with the chef’s table. The main walls were all glass, so we had great views of the city above us.

Here is all that we ate. The majority of our courses were eaten with our fingers, as a nod to the Japanese influence of flavors and style of dining. Our chef would create, then serve each of us in pairs, describe the food and then allow us to taste it.

Course 1: Pan leaf (deep friend) with a chili jam

Course 2: Yogurt explosion (with a molecular gastronomy form) with a curry flavor

Course 3: Shrimp mousse inside a fried prawn head

Course 4: Cookie made of eggplant

Course 5: White chocolate bonbon shell with a chili cream inside

Course 6: Goat brain curry with peas (Annie’s mom’s favorite)

Course 7: Idly with sambar

Course 8: Chicken liver mousse ball rolled in shaved coconut

Course 9: Kebab burger served on brioche bread (which was inspired the best NY burger Gaggan had ever eaten)

Course 10: Akami (fish) tacos

Course 11: Foi gras and yuzu marshmellows with a cornmeal cookie base (all torched in the moment) This was Annie’s favorite.

Course: 12 Fish cake: They told us some people thought it was a cheesecake and tasted cheesecake, some people thought it was fish and tasted fish. 🙂

Course 13: gin tonic uni (with a dill sheet wrapping with gin soaked  frozen cucumber topped with uni) Annie’s dad’s favorite. This was the only one that I didn’t like at all as I don’t like dill.

Course 14: Chutoro (tuna) Sushi on a rice meringue

Course 15: Cold Asparagus soup (it looked like matcha but really wasn’t) we tried to guess what it was but we weren’t able to. They told us later on in the evening.

Course 16: Iberian pork prepared in a vindaloo curry sauce

Course 17: Uncooked scallops in an oil curry, we had to mix it up to taste better

Course 18: Quail Chettinad

Course 19: Sea bass with mustard wrapped in banana leaf and sandwiched between cedar chips which were then torched (the fish was so buttery!)

Course 20: Asparagus charcoal (had a great texture!)

Course 21: Lobster dosai

Course 22: Beetroot rose: dried beet petals attached to a shortbread base with a citrus cream inside

Course 23: Curried mango chocolate custard roll

Course 24: Black forest cherries in a compote with a chocolate mouse topped with white crumbled ice cream

Course 25: Whipped mango and cream on a crispy cracker

Our menu was pictured with emoji’s, which described only one small element of each tasting.

We waddled back to our Uber and went home. This was the first night all 3 of us in the back didn’t fall asleep on the drive home. Success! It was a evening of new experiences!

Have you ever been to a fine dining place? Or tried many new foods?

Love,

-S