smoky table at Sra Bua — Photo courtesy of courtesy of Siam Kempinski BangkokIt might be more like going to a magic show than a restaurant when you see what comes out of the kitchen at Sra Bua. Modeled on the award winning Kiin Kiin restaurant in Denmark, run by chef Henrik Yde-Andersen and Lertchai Treetawatchaiwong, a Thai engineer-cum- gastronomist, Sra Bua sets out to overwhelm its patrons with dishes of amazing taste, texture, and presentation.
One of the feature dishes is called the Harvest. What arrives at your table is a ceramic planter pot filled with dirt that had a carrot growing out of it. The dirt turns out to be cookie crumbs of baked wheat germ and underneath it is frozen kaeng kiaow waan spicy green curry, cool, refreshing, and whipped into a mousse! Another signature dish is frozen red curry with lobster, in which the red curry has been made into frozen ice cream and is served topped with lychee foam and comes on a plate that is smoked with liquid nitrogen. Dessert offers dishes as pistachio as cake with pandan ice cream and coconut foam, and while nothing in it is recognizable, the taste is heavenly.
pistachio cake with pandan ice cream and coconut foam — Photo courtesy of courtesy of Siam Kempinski Bangkok
Dinner doesn't come cheap at Sra Bua, costing over 2000 baht, but you certainly will witness something you've never expected before, and it might give the term Thai cooking a whole new meaning.