Nahm round 2

As well as eating the street in Bangkok, I also treated myself to one top-end meal at Nahm, David Thompson’s restaurant. Thompson is an Australian chef who has earned himself a reputation as one of the world’s leading experts on Thai cuisine. His book Thai Food is referred to in my family as the ‘Thai Bible’, an encyclopaedic tomb on Thai food, history and culture, including over 300 recipes.

I went to his restaurant in London several years ago and was disappointed, but my experience at Nahm, Bangkok could not have been more different. I wonder whether this is because I left the chefs in charge of the menu choices.

The tasting menu at Nahm comes in three parts, canapés followed by the main meal – a dish from each section of the main menu served ‘family-style’ for the whole table – and then dessert. In this instance I was the whole table and, as before, I found myself wishing that they would westernise this part of the meal and serve it in stages. I do understand though that Thompson’s aim is to educate diners about authentic Thai cuisine and one part of that is the custom of sharing dishes.

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La Cuchara de San Telmo

Last week I spent a glorious week in San Sebastian gorging and sunning myself in that order daily: breakfast, beach, lunch, beach, dinner, drinks, snacks. My friend Jenny asked me whether I went on any nice walks. “I mainly walked to restaurants. That was nice.”  

I was with my parents, who are foodies but not into fine dining so I skipped all the big names and went with recommendations from Spanish friends instead. As my friend Iván pointed out, when you can eat so well wherever you go in a city, it’s not really worth bothering with fine dining.

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Radio, Copenhagen

Can Danish people please feed me everyday? I mean look at this:

It’s not even a DSLR shot, I took it on my iPhone and I haven't even bothered with post-production.

New Nordic cuisine might just be my favourite thing to eat right now. And not because it’s trendy or was last year and I’ve just caught on. Because it’s brilliant.

It tends to sound and look deceptively simple. When you taste it, you might be fooled, because the flavours work so well together that it is as though you have always eaten them that way. But don’t be deceived - there is an incredible amount of care, attention and precision behind the combinations, the cooking and the presentation.

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Short & Sweet: The River Café

Style: High-end Italian

Budget: Very expensive, considering this is simple cooking, but the ingredients are top quality and the portions are generous. 

Venue and atmosphere: More casual and relaxed than you might expect. Go for lunch on a sunny day and book a table outside.

Service: Friendly, knowledgeable and efficient. 

Food: At The River Café ingredients reign supreme. The focus is on seasonal, Italian and locally sourced produce, simply cooked to showcase their pure, intrinsic qualities.

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Test Kitchen Tuesday at Craft London

My friend Mark is a fussy eater. He favours crunchy, dry or well-cooked foods. He is repelled by rare meats and goo. There are three rules to follow when cooking for Mark: no blood, no egg and not too spicy. One look at the menu at Test Kitchen Tuesdays and I could see that this was going to be a test in more ways than one.

Test Kitchen Tuesdays is a fun concept by Craft London to get customer feedback on dishes that are in development, giving the chefs a chance to experiment with new techniques or ingredients and the customers a unique opportunity to be a part of the creative process.

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