Exhilarating: Plaza Khao Gaeng
(Picture: Adrian Lourie)“So how are you with heat?” said our yellow-aproned server with a little smile, in the striplit glow of Plaza Khao Gaeng at Arcade Food Hall. It is the sort of question that is often answered optimistically rather than truthfully; simultaneously a red rag to daredevil diners and the culinary equivalent of a liability waiver before a particularly hardcore theme park attraction. In this instance, it was both necessary and revealing. And not just because almost all the dishes at this opening really are marked by the kind of searing, almost psychoactive heat that should be approached with extreme caution and light, breathable fabrics.
But also because it tells you something of the surrender necessary to get the most out of your experience here. An uncompromising southern Thai curry joint that is the brainchild of chef Luke Farrell, and the flagship of JKS’s shiny reimagining of this ill-starred food court, Plaza Khao Gaeng makes almost no concessions to Western palates and sensibilities (controversially, there’s basically nothing suitable for vegetarians).
It is not for everyone. But in being so singular, in forensically recreating the brusque funk, fragrance and fire of an oft-mistranslated food culture, it bursts through into new stratospheres of pleasure. In every sense, it may just be the hottest new place in town.
The feeling of transportive specificity begins right away. Set upstairs at mezzanine level and away from the vibey main floor of Arcade, Farrell’s creation really does feel like its own distinct world. Cocooned by blinds and dazzlingly bright beneath those industrial lights, it is all blue and white vinyl table cloths, Buddha figurines and Thai pop on the stereo. Among the menu’s curries and sides (khao gaeng loosely translates as “curry over rice”), Miang Phuket was our official boarding pass to this new land of punch and freshness: strikingly verdant betel leaves, cupped around a dry-fried mix of cashew, coconut and heady wisps of lemongrass, glimmering with fresh chillies and lighting up the palate like a prolonged fireworks display.
Muu hong (braised pork belly), meanwhile, brought luscious meat splashing in a brooding sticky-sweet glaze. If you know the likes of Singburi, Kiln, The Begging Bowl and Smoking Goat (the latter three of which Farrell has supplied with delicate south-east Asian ingredients from the Ryewater Nurseries “living library” that also powers this place) then you will recognise these surging, rough-edged flavours.
But, here — whether it is the hypnotic perfume of pad phed pla krapong (sea bass with chillies, makrut lime leaves and shreds of ginger) or even just the unreasonably good, puffed and crisp-skirted fried eggs — everything seems to register in a sort of richly detailed surround sound.
We should talk about the heat again. It is hard to ignore its intensity, especially when considering the klua kling muu: an unassuming-looking but utterly ferocious heap of dry-fried pork mince that is best spooned with the trembling, careful hand of someone handling plutonium. But the chilli level never hits the blunt, masochistic burn that strips away everything else. And if it does all get too much then there is a capable coolant in the form of shots of condensed milk. Turned pink by a dribble of sugary Thai snake fruit syrup and faintly redolent of a tiny measure of strawberry Nesquik, it is served — in lieu of pudding — as a fittingly trippy end to a dining experience that has the sort of messy, overwhelming brilliance that leaves you feeling you may have partly hallucinated. Other very good establishments will open this year. More still will be in jaw-dropping, beautiful rooms. But I don’t imagine many will be quite as exhilarating as Plaza Khao Gaeng.
Glamour can wait. This is food to quicken the pulse, dampen the brow and leave you gasping for more.
