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Wednesday, September 28, 2011

Sra Bua


377
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Deconstruction cuisine

In Thailand, there is never a problem to enjoy a meal of good Thai cuisine (of course); they are just around any corner, at a decade-old pochana (small local restaurant), or in a Thai household. But when the cuisine comes to luxurious banquet versions it is rather sad; most five-star hotel's versions of Thai cuisine are quite disappointing; the food is pale and bland without bright ambition or effort. I feel they are just repacking mediocre food, serving them on porcelain tableware in the comfort of exquisite ambiance and impeccable service. So boring!

Sra Bua by Kiin Kiin, the Bangkok branch of the Copenhagen based Kiin Kiin Thai Restaurant, wearing one-star Michelin recognition, opened almost two years ago in the Siam Kempinski Hotel Bangkok and has added spice to the local gastronomy scene. Sra Bua offers molecular gastronomy Thai dishes, the first in the Kingdom; so grandma's recipe gaeng bark (firey hot jungle curry), a backpacker's love phad Thai (stir-fried sen-chan noodle) and a tourist's favorite chicken pieces wrapped in pandan leaf may not appear on the menu; even if they do, they may appear in another costume, like the very common red curry there is presented in a form of iced cream, served with frozen fog.

My friend took me to Sra Bua for lunch, to see if our taste-buds appreciated the first Thai molecular gastronomy cuisine. There are likes and dis-likes for Sra Bua's modern Thai cuisine, using cutting-edge culinary technique and molecular gastronomy, and I enjoyed the meal so much, as long as I opened my mind, and treated that as haute cuisine with a Thai twist.








Sra Bua by Kiin Kiin ***
Siam Kempinski Hotel Bangkok
991/9 Rama I Road
Pathumwan, Bangkok 10330
Tel.: 02.162.9000
Sra Bua

Open daily : lunch 12 am - 3 pm, dinner 6 - 11 pm
Pay : lunch set THB 1,500++, dinner set THB 2,400++




10 comments:

Stella said...

I hope the grass like thing in the photo was not what you ate though.

in the sea said...

Happy Birthday!

Anonymous said...

This is the same one that Vivien tried too.
Once in a while is quite fun but I still prefer the "real" food with "real" shape.

Tommy Leung said...

Awaiting for the photos TC.

Stella said...

Funny that when I made the comment yesterday I didn't see Sea's comment yet.

in the sea said...

Mmh.. strange on the chrono. order. I saw Stella's message first. Now it's in a reverse order. Not sure if it's related to the time posted as the CA time is 16 hours behind HK.

Stella said...

Smart to think of the time zone as the reason SEA.
The dishes are creative and look like coming from a lab.
Good experience for something new.

in the sea said...

I thought their food presentation would have been even in a more stylish presentation. The dishes look not very oily though.

Stella said...

Looks like food from magic show or from lab. Especially the photo with the steam.

Fillet-O Fish said...

You are right, just treated that a haute cuisine in Thai accent, it doesn't look like that molecular and deconstruction enough. It is still quite interesting though the price is too high!