GAGGAN -

Wherever we travel, we try to have some of the traditional and typical dishes of the region / city we’re in. Sometimes this turns into something completely different like when we were in Bangkok, where we visited an Indian restaurant, that has been named No 1 restaurant in Asia in 2018. No 5th in the world.

The restaurant is named after its owner and a mastermind behind the whole idea, an Indian chef Gaggan Anand, who moved to Thailand from India ten years ago. The restaurant in Bangkok was his ten-year plan, so this was a perfect opportunity before the magician moves on to another project.

Since Gaggan was working for the elBulli’s team that was under the guidance of Ferran Adrie, a Spanish chef who is considered the initiator and leader of molecular gastronomy and deconstructive gastro-movement, it didn’t take long for him to move into the same direction.

Cooking is science for Gaggan. The basics are classic Indian ingredients, which he uses in a playful and creative way moving the limits. Not just the limits of ingredients, colors, or flavors, but also the limits of our understanding what food is. All that we knew about certain ingredients, textures and taste, we left behind and we let ourselves enjoy with all the senses. Nothing was true; everything was permitted.

When it comes to serving the food and the outlook of the restaurant and its staff, Gaggan wanted to get rid of the traditional and pretentious ideas, so he encourages his waiters and sommeliers to be completely relaxed while working. This means the food is served in the perfect order, accompanied by an explanation (in a very bad English, but that’s another subject to discuss), but the waiters are having fun while doing it. They were laughing all evening, joking with the guests and dancing to the songs that followed each dish.

The ‘’down to earth’’ idea is seen as soon as the waiters brings you the tasting menu. The very famous emoji menu inspired by Gaggan’s life events that had a huge impact on him and that he remembers is often. With the food he creates, he tries to pass those memories to his guests.

Since Gaggan’s food concept is based on street food in India (where he was born) and Bangkok street food (where he now lives), all the dishes are recommended to be eaten in a bite or two. With fingers. No cutlery was provided. Only for couple of dishes like the soup and lamb meat. You don’t need it. Because, all of the traditional dishes you encounter daily are consisting of several ingredients and parts, like a stake with side dish, sauce and a salad. Gaggan wanted to combine ALL of that in ONE. Everything was pressed in a one single part with millions of flavors that exploded in your mouth. While Pink Floyd or Kiss are playing in the background. 🎵

*A little citrus bites made of yuzu lemon*

Cappuccino coconut lassi and tajito cocktail

Yoghurt explosion was one bite of milky soft pillows that explodes with all the flavors of India in your mouth: sweet, salty, sour, and spicy. The Indian umami, or chatpata as Gaggan calls this balance of the four S’s.

*Lick it up followed by the same Kiss’s song was onion chutney and three different types of curries that you had to – lick from the plate*

*Chili egg nest was a white chocolate and chili egg on a fried potato nest*

*Idly sambar breakfast or a microwaved sponge cake was Gaggan’s take on a traditional vegetable stew served with rice cake*

*Bombay bhel sandwich was ice puff sandiwch with tamarind and asparagus powder*

*Egg tart ghewar was a dessert inspired by Rajasthani region*

*The fifth of the small bites came on a plate that together with other four plates created a shape of India, with each of the dishes inspired by a specific region of Gaggan’s homeland*

*Charcoal pyaz kachorj was inspired by fried pastry filled with a spicy onion filling*

*White asparagus, no it’s cauliflower cigarettes were white chocolate cauliflower ice cream that melted if kept in between the fingers for too long 🙂*

*Cheese porcini pav was four cheese and porcini bao bun that came in a box with smoked hay*

*Pomegranates in a eggplant heart wrap creating eggplant pomegranate sundae*

Puchka liver with mulled wine was foie grass filled panipuri with mulled wine inspired by a typical Indian snack consisting of a round, hollow puri, fried crisp and filled with a mixture of flavored water, tamarind chutney, chili, chaat masala, potato, onion or chickpeas

*Sea Urchin Hay Ice Cream was smoke hay eggplant ice cream, pickled green apple wrap, Hokkaido sea urchin*

*Otoro Sushi tribute was dashi (a class of soup and cooking stock used in Japanese cuisine) merengue instead of rice, O-Toro tuna belly, yuzu and wasabi*

*Winter carrot pepper soup was a very spicy black carrot soup with tamarind, pepper and tomatoes*

*River prawn balchao or a tandoori baked prawn with balchao curry sauce*

There was no curry in scallops cold curry dish, but it tasted like one as there were raw scallops, cold curry (coconut milk, coconut ice cream and chili oils). The idea was to mix all the ingredients to get a full taste

*Tibetan momo pork vindaloo with black garlic momo, pickled coconut, chili and mango chutney*

*Lamb chop lemon chili was lamb marinated with yuzu lemon and chili chutney*

*Sea bass bengali paturi was sea bass with green masala in a banana leaf*

*Grandma’s egg spinach, My Death Star or aged basmanti rice with spinach curry and slow cooked egg followed with Star Wars intro music 🙂*

*First of the desserts was This rose has no thorns followed by the Seal’s Kiss from a rose song*

*Roses were made of daikon radish and beetroot petals atop a cookie*

*A type of fried Indian cookie or achu murukku strawberry yogurt or strawberry ice cream and jam*

Ying & Yang salt pepper popcorn was salted caramel pepper popcorn

*Final dessert or Dark Side of the Moon, paired with Pink Floyd’s song of the same name was ice cream and chocolate cake that we used for wiping the plate sprinkled with several types of jams*

Although first couple of dishes were served rather rapidly, we end up spending four hours in the restaurant. Four hours of pure pleasure! Pleasure for all senses and taste buds! Can’t wait for Gaggans next food vision. Apparently is going to be the ”world’s most inaccessible restaurant” 🙂

The final song, as we were handing the bank cards to pay 🙂

GAGGAN

Gdje god putujemo, Debeli i ja nastojimo probati tradicionalna i tipična jela zemlje ili grada kojeg posjećujemo. Ponekad se to otme kontroli pa kušamo i nešto netipično, kao kad smo boravili u Bangkoku, pa smo uz obilje ulične hrane posjetili i indijski restoran, koji je proglašen najboljim restoranom u Aziji 2018. godine. Na petom je mjestu ako se broje svi svjetski restorani. 🙂

Restoran Gaggan u Bangkoku nosi ime po svom glavnom kuharu i idejnom začetniku, Indijcu Gagganu Anandu koji se prije desetak godina doselio u Bangkok gdje je otvorio svoj restoran. Obzirom da mu je restoran koji smo posjetili bio desetogodišnji plan, ovo je bila savršena prilika prije no što Gaggan prijeđe na nekakav drugi koncept.

Budući je Gaggan jedno vrijeme radio u timu elBulli pod vodstvom Ferran Adrie, španjolskog kuhara kojeg se smatra začetnikom i predvodnikom molekularne gastronomije i dekonstruktivnog gastro pokreta, nije mu dugo trebalo da se otisne u eksperimentalne vode.

Kuhanje je za Gaggana znanost, a osnove su mu klasični indijski sastojci, kojima se igra i kojima pomiče granice. Ne samo granice kad su u pitanju sastojci, boje ili okusi nego i granice našeg poimanja što je hrana. Sve što znamo o pojedinim sastojcima, teksturama ili okusima ostavili smo iza sebe i prepustili se uživanju svim osjetilima.

Kad je u pitanju posluživanje hrane i izgled restorana te njegova posluga, Gaggan se htio riješiti tradicionalnih, uštogljenih okvira, pa je potaknuo svoje konobare i somelijere da budu skroz opušteni s gostima. To je značilo da, bez obzira što su jela dolazila u savršenom slijedu i svako od njih bilo je popraćeno objašnjenjem (na ne baš sjajnom engleskom, ali nećemo cjepidlačit), konobari su nas zabavljali šalama, plesom i odgovarajućom glazbenom numerom.

Hrana je Gagganu na prvom mjestu tako da su u restoran dobrodošli prvo oni koji žele uživati u tome, bez obzira radi se o dobrostojećim gostima ili samo ljubiteljima hrane. Dress code je smart casual, a nepretenciozna i ležerna strana Gagganovog restorana može se vidjeti odmah čim vam konobari donesu meni.

Emoji meni, po kojem je restoran zapravo postao planetarno popularan, inspiriran je nekim od događaja iz Gagganovoh života koji su u njemu ostavile neko bitno sjećanje ili emociju koje potom kroz jelo želi prenijeti na svoje goste.

Obzirom da se Gagganove osnovne postavke temelje na uličnoj hrani, kako tradicionalnoj indijskoj na kojoj je odrastao tako i na tajlandskoj, jela koja spravlja jedu se u dva tri zalogaja. Prstima. Beštek smo dobili valjda dva puta. Da posrčemo juhu i razrežemo meso. Osim toga, ništa. Ali zapravo nije nam bilo ni potrebno. Tradicionalna jela koja se inače sastoje od nekoliko (odvojenih) sastojaka, poput odreska s prilogom u umaku, ovdje dolazi u jednoj jedinoj stavki. Sve je sjedinjeno u jednom zalogaju i raspada se u milijun okusa u vašim ustima. Dok u pozadini trešti Pink Floyd ili Kiss jer svako jelo prati odgovarajuća pjesma 🎵

Putovanje Gagganovim čudnim laboratorijem započelo je malim zalogajem ledenog sladoleda od yuzu limuna…..hladno i slatko 🙂

*A little citrus ili mali citrusni zalogaji od yuzu limuna*

*Jogurt eksplozija bili su mali jastučići od jogurta koji su se raspuknuli u ustima ostavljajući iza sebe sve okuse Indije; od slatkog, slanog, kiselog i ljutog*

*Lick it up koji je pratila istoimena pjesma benda Kiss, bile su tri vrste curryja i chutney od luka koje smo, kako naziv kaže – polizali s tanjura*

*Chili egg nest bilo je bijelo čokoladno jaje s čilijem na gnijezdu od prženog krumpira*

*Idly sambar Gagganova je vizija tradicionalnog indijskog doručka rađenog od ostataka leće i riže*

*Bombay bhel sendvič od tamarinda i šparoga*

*Pet malih zalogaja došlo je na tanjurićima koji su na kraju tvorili oblik Indije. Pravi homaž domovini*

*Pyaz kachorj s pepelom bio je mali ljuti zalogaj inspiriran tradicionalnim indijskim pogačicama punjenim lukom*

*Bijele šparoge, ne to je cvjetača su bile ”cigarete” od cvjetače koje su se istopile među prsima ako bi ih držali predugo*

*Cheese porcini pav bili su mali kruščići sa sirom koji su došli u kutiji s dimljenom konopljom*

*Sladoled od nara obavijen koricom od patlidžana s morskim grožđem, vrstom morske trave koju smo sasvim slučajno probali dan prije na jednom od milijun uličnih štandova*

Pašteta od guščje jetrice s kuhanim vinom inspirirana tipičnim indijskim snekom rađenom od šupljeg purija i punjenog kombinacijom tamarind chutnija, chilija, chaat masale, luka, krumpira ili slanutka

*Sladoled od dimlenog sijena i patlidžana, omot od ukiseljene zelene jabuke i morski jež*

*Puslica od dashija (vrsta japanskog ribljeg temeljca), tuna, yuzu limun i wasabi*

*Riječni škamp pečen u tandoori peći s curry umakom*

*Jakobove kapice u umaku od currija koji nije bio umak od curryja već umak od kokosovog mlijeka, sladoleda od kokosa i čili ulja*

*Vindaloo svinjetina s crnim češnjakom, ukiseljenim kokosom, čilijem i mango chutnijem*

*Janjeći kotlet mariniran u chatniju od čilija i yuzu limuna bio je savršeno pečen i pakleno ljut*

*Brancin u banana listu sa zelenom masalom bio je izuzetno ukusan i sočan*

*Bakin tradicionalni špinat curry u Death star jajetu s meko kuhanim žumanjkom, popraćen uvodnom glazbenom numerom iz Ratova zvijezda*

*Ova ruža nema trnja bio je prvi od nekoliko slatkih sljedova popraćen Sealovom Kiss from a rose pjesmom*

*Ruža od daikon korjenastog povrća i latice od cikle na kolačiću*

*Desert od jagoda i sladoleda inspiriran tradicionalnom indijskom slasticom achu murukku, bio je lagano poškropljen zlatnim prahom kako desertu i priliči*

*Ying & Yang sol papar kokice bila je slastica od slanog karamela s paprom i kokicama posluženo na bijelom i crnom sezamu*

Poslednji od slijedova bila je slastica od sladoleda i čokolade kojom smo počistili tanjur premazan pekmezima od raznog vrsta voća. Desert nazvan The dark side of the moon, ispiriran je istoimenim Pink Floyd albumom, te popraćen istom pjesmom.

Dvadesetpet slijedova, na kraju, je oduzelo četiri sata našeg vremena u kojem smo uživali u nevjerojatno kreativnim idejama chefa Gaggana čiji novi pothvat u Japanu jedva čekamo. Al prvo zaradit neke novčiće 🙂

Posljednja pjesma prije nego gosti odu iz restorana, a nakon što zatraže račun, Floydova je Moneeeeeey!!!!!!!

GAGGAN

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