So Nahm Good

I fast forward 4 frenetic days, ignoring momentarily tuk tuk racing, dancing lady-boys and ping pong shows to tell you about something even more exciting: Nahm restaurant in Bangkok's Metropolitan Hotel. The surroundings are tranquil and the hotel impeccable. A retreat from the assault-on-the-senses that is Bangkok. Any other hotel restaurant in this setting would deliver either staid, pedestrian tourist food or high-calibre French-inspired cuisine with a desperate Monty Python-esque waiter about to commit suicide over the presence of a dirty fork. Here the decor is tasteful, maybe a little plain, but when the food arrives you know why. Like walking down Bangkok's notorious main drag, the senses are so whipped back and forth (this time by the layers of heightened flavour compounds) that the room's lack of excitement is necessary to calm the soul.

The meal itself does not start perfectly when the wine waiter brings us a tepid bottle of Grosset Watervale Riesling. On complaining about the warmth of the wine, the waiter enquires as to whether we want it warmer! Er, no thanks. However, at this temperature the wine shows it's strength, and there is not an ounce of residual sugar spoiling the crisp, appley, lemongrass and lime flavours on the palate and the touch of petrol and rubber on the nose. After a gentle chill in the ice bucket the wine is just right. Grosset is one of the shining lights of the Australian wine making industry and this is bench-mark Clare Valley Riesling.

An amuse bouche arrives, with compliments of the chef. This is often the time when you should get your coat and leave the restaurant because the amuse normally leaves one not amused. At Nahm this is just the beginning of a mouth-tingling food-trip that you find hard to come down from. A little triangle of pineapple with a caramelised onion and black pepper sauce (i'm guessing here) slaps you to attention and the lesson begins. David Thompson is the master, the teacher - you have to sit back, stop chewing gum and take some notes.

The wine, although great, can barely compete with the multitude of flavours in Thompson's food. Each course or even mouthful requires a different wine to compliment it! Next is a selection of appetisers: pomelo and grilled prawns with toasted coconut, peanuts, palm sugar sauce and betel leaves; southern grilled mussels; blue swimmer crab, peanuts and pickled garlic on rice cakes; smoky chiang mai chilli relish with pork scratchings and quail egg.

This is like Charlie and The Chocolate Factory without the chocolate. There could be chocolate! Heaven knows! Flavours explode, bounce around, fall away, pop back again. This is elevating stuff.

You can normally tell when a restaurant is amazing - the only conversation you hear is about the food. You can't even think about anything else. let alone talk about anything else.

Next comes the main course(s) and boy, is there a lot of food..... You get to choose 1 or 2 dishes from different sections of the menu;

Our salad choice is lemongrass salad of prawns, crispy squid and pork with toasted coconut and it is so fresh and invigorating.
We have 2 soups; clear soup of roast duck with Thai basil and young coconut & hot and sour soup of chicken with straw mushrooms, lemongrass, chilli and lime. Both are refreshing and vibrant and made with a lightness of touch.
A real stand-out is from the relish menu  (not sure exactly what that means);  yellow beans and crab meat dressed with ginger, kaffir lime and shallots served with crispy fish cakes. 3 plates arrive, 1 containing the crab meat, 1 with crispy fish skin and another with lettuce, coriander and cucumber. You assemble the ingredients, piling high the crab on top of the lettuce then topping off with the crispy skin. So good.

In addition we get to choose a curry (red curry of red claw crayfish with ginger, peanuts and holy basil) and 2 stir-frys (stir-fried bean curd with prawns and pork & spicy stir-fried frog with chillies, turmeric, holy basil and cumin leaves).

By now you could have sensory overload, but the movement back and forth between dishes means that you can take a breather from the flavour intensity by trying something else. I really do like frog's legs so it's great to see that they're a Thai delicacy too. The red curry leaves all the namby-pamby coconut-creamy imitations behind; it is so intense and concentrated, but still has that fresh, light touch.

Almost forgot... the dessert! What chef can take crispy onion and apply it to a dish with a soft crumble textured cake, milk and fruit and give you something entirely new in concept but entirely comforting in flavour?
We also have fruit dipped in spicy sugar which has the same effect as popping candy - great fun.

I was going to report back on all the other great dishes we had on Saturday & Sunday in Bangkok in much less refined places but there seems no point now! This is the pinnacle. If you've ever dined at Marcus Wareing's restaurant in London you'll know all about what a chef can do with flavour. Thompson has done this here and deserves the recognition he's got, not only through his Michelin star but also through the respect of the Thai-born chefs he teaches.

Nahm, Bangkok - worth the trip, as this is a journey