Met some of my KL foodie friends for a fab Thai dinner at the home of Piyanat Yowabut aka Chef Gugs, one of the founding chefs at David Thompsonโs ๐๐ผ๐ป๐ด ๐๐ต๐ถ๐บ at Marina Bay Sands, Singapore.
Chef Gugsโ reservations-only private supper club in Section 17 PJ is called ๐๐ผ๐บ๐บ ๐๐ผ๐๐๐ฒ ๐ก๐ผ. ๐ด. Here, the Wizard of Isaan conjured up a magical spread of regional Thai dishes with 100% authenticity, unlike the โMalaysian-isedโ fare one usually gets in most Thai restaurants in the Klang Valley.
Our dinner spread:
- We started with a trio of amuse bouche, all artisanal, using the freshest ingredients available from the markets on that very day, and mind-blowingly big on flavours: raw mango with ๐ฏ๐ข๐ฎ ๐ฑ๐ณ๐ช๐ฌ ๐ฑ๐ญ๐ข ๐ธ๐ข๐ข๐ฏ (spicy dip with palm sugar, shrimp paste, fish sauce, chopped chilies, shallots, dried shrimp, and dried chili flakes), ๐ฎ๐ช๐ฆ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฎ๐ข๐ฏ๐จ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ฐ๐ต (mangosteen with miang sauce), ๐ฎ๐ถ๐ฆ ๐บ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฏ๐ข๐ฎ๐ญ๐ช๐ช๐ข๐ฑ (grilled pork belly with black olive paste).
- ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ฐ ๐ฌ๐ข๐บ๐ข๐ฎ ๐ฃ๐ฑ๐ถ๐ถ (seasoned rice with lump crabmeat, crispy egg-threads and cured quailโs egg), served with pickled cucumbers.
This deceptively plain-looking dish practically explodes in oneโs mouth: the spicy-hot prik kee noo (Thai habaneros) gave a sharp stab of heat which cuts through the sweetness of the fresh crab meat.
The crisp, golden fried egg-threads provided the textural crunch, whilst the slivers of pickled cucumbers provided little sweet-sour bursts of flavour within the rice salad.
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๐๐ญ๐ข ๐จ๐ถ๐ฏ๐จ ๐ฃ๐ข๐ช ๐ญ๐ช๐ข๐ฏ๐จ - salad of raw prawns, cured in the juice of calamansi limes, tossed with Melinjo leaves charred in prawn oil.
The raw prawns were โcookedโ by the calamansi lime juice, much like Hawaiian poke fish. But the addition of chilis and aromatic herbs elevated this dish to another level of sensory experience altogether. It had the typical Thai interplay of flavours: sweet, spicy, sour, all perfectly balanced.
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๐๐ญ๐ข ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฆ๐ฏ๐จ - deep-fried smoked fish.
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๐๐ฉ๐ถ๐ข ๐ฌ๐ญ๐ช๐ฏ๐จ ๐จ๐ข๐ช - Southern Thai dry curry with minced chicken. This dish was devilishly spicy. As the dishes were all served communal-style: there were 6 of us in our party, divided into two tables and Chef Gugs served each group of three diners large sharing platters, I left most of the dry curry to my fellow diners.
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๐๐ฐ๐ฏ ๐ฏ๐ข๐ฆ๐ฎ - Thai cured pork sausage, simmered in coconut cream, with galangal and shallots. This was my favourite dish for the evening - the creamy gravy, redolent of galangal, sweet onions and coconut milk, was ambrosial: I simply could not stop eating.
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๐๐ถ๐ฆ ๐ฉ๐ฐ๐ถ๐ฏ๐จ - glossy, sweet, sticky Hokkien-style braised pork belly from Phuket, served with boiled eggs with molten centre. This dish was a favourite amongst my fellow diners - itโs a Southern Thai dish, and a close cousin to Penangโs โtau yu bakโ dish. Since Penangโs Hokkien merchants dominated the trade in Phuket back in the 19th-century onwards, I think itโs actually tau yu bak, given a Thai label, and made sweeter to suit the Thai palate.
Desserts:
8) ๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ฎ๐ฐ ๐ฌ๐ข๐ฆ๐ฏ๐จ - steamed sweet taro pudding, covered with a caramelized sugar coating, and topped with golden-fried shallots.
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๐๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฏ๐จ - Thai crisp-edged mini-crepes, topped with ๐ด๐ข๐ฏ๐จ๐ฌ๐ข๐บ๐ข (Thai egg jam) and longan slices.
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Mangosteen ice-cream.
Weโre requested to pair the mangosteen ice-cream with the crisp ๐ฌ๐ฉ๐ข๐ฏ๐ฐ๐ฎ ๐ฃ๐ถ๐ฆ๐ข๐ฏ๐จ mini-crepes - they worked beautifully together.
That was one good meal, and a total contrast to the much-localised Thai dinner I had the previous evening at Kompassion, that terrifically popular Thai restaurant which serves Thai food that looked Thai but actually tasted Chinese (90% of its clientele are KL Chinese-Malaysians).
Chef Gugsโ one-man-show proves that 100% authentic Thai food does appeal to KLโs more discerning diners.
Address
Homm House No. 8
8, Jalan 17/4, 46400 Petaling Jaya, Malaysia
Mobile/WhatsApp: +60 16-789 5602
Operating times: By appointment only
