I’ve been to Thailand four times now. Aside from dining at Nahm, a Thai restaurant from an Australian Chef that originally opened in London, I have mostly stuck to street food, casual eateries, and cooking classes in Thailand.
This trip, we decided to try something different. After spending a few days in a fishing town outside of Bangkok, we traveled back to Bangkok to dine at a few places. One of the places we decided to try was Paste, recommended a food enthusiast friend.
Paste Bangkok has won its share of accolades. Chef Bongkoch ‘Bee’ Satongun won Best Female Chef in Asia by 50 Best in 2018. Paste is also listed No. 28 in Asia’s 50 Best. The restaurant holds one Michelin Star.
Chef Bee and her husband Jason Bailey cook what they call “heirloom cuisine.” Throughout many years of studying Thai cuisine, the couple came across old forgotten recipes and lost techniques that they decided to being back. Chef Bee continues to travel to rural parts of Thailand, constantly learning more about forgotten traditions, recipes, and cooking techniques. She then takes these ideas and researches and refines them in her own kitchen.
The final product of all that work culminates into a meal at Paste.
A Welcome Drink and Amuse Bouche
We started with a refreshing welcome drink of a beautiful chrysanthemum and butterfly pea flower soda served with a seaweed crisp with crab. It was a lovely start to the meal.
Paste Tasting Menu
We moved onto a refreshing course of watermelon topped with ground salmon “powder” with fried shallots, salmon roe, and roasted galangal powder. The ground salmon reminded me of Chinese pork floss (in texture), and had a sweetness to it.
Our next bite was a rice cracker topped with roasted duck, nutmeg and sawtooth coriander. I liked how the topping had a nice mixture of Thai flavors and textures, a complex mixture of herbs, crunch, spicy, salty, sweet, and sour.
Next we enjoyed crunchy cured deep fried rice balls with sour sausage, kaffir lime zest, red curry paste, pork cracklings, river weed and rose pepper leaf.
A watermelon rind and fish roe soup with sea bass and jicama dumplings came next, inspired by a recipe from Snidwongse Family Cookbook, 1968. The soup reminded me a bit of tom yum soup, but less sour.
Our next course was a chive root salad with Canadian live lobster from the tank, morel mushrooms, Asian citron, air-dried sea beans and white turmeric. This dish was excellent, and I especially loved the vibrant flavors that came from the mixture of herbs.
This next dish, a crab curry, was phenomenal. Made with Spanner crab, salted duck egg, fresh light coconut cream, hairy eggplant and lime leaves. Organic fruits and herbs were displayed ever so meticulously on the side of the bowl.
The tiny green chilis were a standout and added so much flavor to the dish.
‘Singhol curry’ slow roasted goat with a large array of dry spices, fragrant pandanus, som saa-Asian citron juice and young dill. This dish had a stronger coconut cream flavor and was less spicy. It was OK, but not one of our favorites. We much preferred the crab curry.
Dessert
Dessert consisted of coffee sorbet, coconut cream, cookie crumble, and palm sugar ice cream. I loved the cookie crumble and overall I enjoyed the dessert.
We ended with a fudgy, hazelnut chocolate bite.
General Thoughts and Additional Information – Paste Bangkok
We had a lovely meal. The service was pleasant (though I did have a difficult time understanding the server’s English accent), and the food was creative and fun.
There is an a la carte menu as well as several different tasting menus. Unfortunately, some of the tasting menu required four people, so we could not order those. We decided to order the two-person tasting menu, 3,100 baht / person (about USD $100), minimum 2 people required.
It seems like the prices have gone up since we dined there, and the 2-person meal is now 3400 Baht / person. You can see all of their menus at this link.
Paste Bangkok
3rd Floor, Gaysorn, 999 Ploenchit Rd.
Lumpini, Bangkok
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