Gaa: A Fusion of Indian and Thai Flavors

Gaa restaurant in Bangkok opened last March 2017. It is owned by Gaggan Anand, the chef and owner of Gaggan restaurant, which holds the number 1 spot  in Asia’s Best Restaurants List for 2018.

Gaa restaurant

Gaa  restaurant is located in a bright yellow
building across its sister restaurant, Gaggan.

My friend tried to get us a reservation at Gaggan but the restaurant was fully booked on the date that we are available so we ended up trying the sister restaurant, which was just a stone’s throw away from Gaggan, called Gaa.

Gaggan restaurant 

Gaggan restaurant, which offers progressive Indian cuisine degustacion style,
 is located across Gaa.

Gaa is in a bright yellow building across Gaggan restaurant. Gaggan’s former sous chef, Garima Arora, an Indian chef who trained at the well-known Noma restaurant in Coppenhagen, is the one who leads the kitchen at Gaa. The dishes offered is a fusion of Indian and Thai flavors.

We were given a table at the first floor that gave us a good view of Gaggan restaurant and it is also a spot where we were able to see everyone coming into the restaurant.

The interiors of the restaurant include a mixture of dark wood, mirrors and bricks. The dining area features mid-century modern style furniture which blends well with the cozy and dimly lit restaurant.

The interiors in Gaa's first floor dining area features a
big dark wood center table where  big fresh flowers,
wine botttles and glasses are placed.

The dining area features mid-century modern style furniture.

Currently, the restaurant offers a 10-course at THB 2,200(around USD 70.00) and a 14-course menu at THB 2,800(around USD 90.00) and they also offer wine pairing.

We had dinner at Gaa and chose the 10-course menu.  Below are the dishes that we had:

(    The first dish served was the chilled soup of Marian plums which was placed in a soup bowl on top of shaved ice. The chef who served it informed us that the cheese was made fresh and homemade at Gaa.

Chilled soup of Marian plums and fresh cheese curd

The next dish that was served to us looked like a Takoyaki ball. We were quite surprised that it was a Filipina chef at Gaa who served the dish to us and she told us that it is a duck doughnut.

Duck doughnut

The next dish was a combination of savory and sweet since they served shavings of chicken liver on top of a longan fruit.

Chicken liver with longan fruit

(   The next dish they served is a bowl of grilled young corn with corn milk dip on the side. This one is quite simple yet we found it very tasty since the dip was really creamy and had some butter in it.

Young corn (sharing portion) with
corn milk dip

The grilled young corn can easily be pulled out from the husk
and dipped in the corn milk dip 

They also served us Cauliflower bread with home made butter, which was not what we expected since we thought that it is similar to how zucchini bread is made by other restaurants. Gaa's version of the cauliflower bread is a bread which had the same consistency similar to a moon cake and the pieces of spiced cauliflower are stuffed inside it.

Cauliflower bread with homemade butter on top

(    The sixth dish they served was crayfish with khakra(a thin cracker common in western India).

Crayfish with Khakra

(     The next one is something that we never had before. It is a vegetable called Bottle Gourd(which is similar to zucchini in terms of taste) and was served with caramelized whey.

Bottle gourd with caramelized whey

(    The eighth dish was quite a different way of serving pork rib. The grilled pork rib was very tender and was served with some relish on top.

Pork rib topped with chopped spring onions, shallots and
pomegranate

Out of the ten dishes the last two are both desserts. The first dessert was a soft-serve Burnt Coconut Sugar Ice Cream in organic red rice cone with pork floss topping.  This was certainly a mixture of sweet and salty flavors.

(   The last dish they served was quite unique. It is a betel leaf that was half dipped in dark chocolate and the other half was dusted with Indian spices. We were told by the chef to place fold the leaf in half and then eat it in order to have a mix of the flavors together.

Out of all the 10 dishes that we tried, we all agreed that we liked 3 dishes and these are:  the young corn with corn milk dip, the pork rib and the chocolate betel leaf.  

If you are a type of person who wants to have a more filling type of dinner then Gaa is probably not the type of place that you should go to since their servings are quite small since the dishes served is mostly just one piece  per person. Also, their menu is not the type that kids would find appealing since we noticed during our dinner a foreign couple with their two young kids(below 10 years old) ended up ordering a noodle type of dish in a bowl for their kids.

Since the location of the restaurant is not near the malls or a mainstream area, it is best to go there via an Uber or Grab car in case you are not going there with a local who is familiar with the area.

To know more about Gaa restaurant, you may visit their website: www.gaabkk.com

Open House at Central Embassy Bangkok

I visited Bangkok recently with my brother and a friend and we were certainly impressed with the Open House, which is located on the 6^th level of the Central Embassy mall.

The Open House in Central Embassy in Bangkok  has a ceiling
with more than 9,000 hand painted leaves which serves as
 an artwork to the well-designed retail space.

The interiors of Open House was designed by Klein Dytham Architecture, a Tokyo-based company, who also designed T-site, a well-designed retail space in Daikanyama area in Tokyo which offers well-curated merchandise and books  on art, architecture, cooking, cars, design, history, and literature.

The restaurants in the Open House were designed in such a way that each one is visible from a distance since the designers used a tower style design and also combined form and function since the use of natural wood with fretwork patterns add an interesting visual element and also provides the function of hiding the kitchen hoods and ventilation ducts.

The Open House is a place where everyone can hangout and enjoy since it features a bookstore with a wide collection of books, different restaurants and cafes, a co-thinking space, an art tower, a design shop and playground for kids.

It is a nice place where you can meet-up with friends or hangout with family members. The ambience is quite relaxing since the whole space has a high ceiling, a main roof light where natural light comes, plants are aptly placed in the space and it also has a sweeping city view of Bangkok.

The bi-level library style set-up of the book collection
shows the various book categories that one may
choose from. 

The Art Tower is located under the main roof light
and features a small gallery and greenery as
the top of the tower is filled with trees 

The Open House has lounge areas where you
 can read a book and have a wonderful
 city view of Bangkok too.

It is a place where you can unwind and have
a meal and get good books and magazines.

Brocolli Revolution is one of the restaurants in Open House
which offers healthy meals and organic food.

The co-thinking space or co-working space features a
cafe where customers can have some drinks and order 
food from any of the restaurant and it is conveniently
 delivered to their table.

The co-thinking space is a quiet space with relaxing interiors
since the space also has a lot of plants.

The Open House is certainly a good place to visit in Bangkok. It is definitely the kind of

place that you can look forward to going to in order to unwind. With the comfortable space and cozy lounge areas, you will certainly feel that the homey feel is certainly apt for catching up on some reading. Plus, it is also a nice place to go to at night since they also have an acoustic band that plays easy listening music that makes the experience of dining in the area more enjoyable.