60 WORLD’S BEST RESTAURANTS SEPTEMBER 2019
WHERE TO STAY
|^
The Taj Mahal Palace hotel in Mumbai is a grand, historic thing of beauty with exceptional service and a legendary breakfast buffet.
(From $226; tajhotels.com)
A
S
I
A
&
A
U
S
T
R
A
L
I
A
YOU DON’T REALLY NEED to seek out great food in Thailand; all you
have to do is step out onto the street and there it is. The food I ate
while walking from one Bangkok restaurant to another was
universally more interesting, satisfying, and delicious than the
(much more expensive) things I found inside those restaurants.
This may be a cliché, but it is also true.
It is impossible for me to single out just one of those street stalls,
but I can direct you to the marketplace with the most history,
charm, and variety, and that is Nang Loeng Market.
Nang Loeng was officially opened in 1900, and aside from a recent
structural update to its central food court, it has barely changed.
When it was built, most of the trading in Bangkok was done from
floating markets, but the king, inspired by marketplaces he’d seen
in Europe, asked the department of public works to build a walkable
covered market in the part of the city that was becoming more
residential. Because of that, Nang Loeng now sits in the midst of a
fascinating historical section of town, and the food in the market is
influenced by the many different ethnic groups that settled nearby.
NANG LOENG MARKET
BANGKOK, THAILAND
Laundry, and Noma, and you can see
those influences (particularly that of
Noma) in the style of cooking and ser-
vice at Masque. But the flavors here are
decidedly Indian. Sadhu often focuses
on his native Kashmir, which he visits
frequently to seek inspiration while
foraging and shopping for ingredients.
Although the tasting menu format
(snacks, then increasingly richer larger
courses, then dessert) will seem famil-
iar at first glance, the food is entirely
distinctive.
Ingredients like smoked buttermilk
and pickled jackfruit are elegantly
paired with seasonal greens, meat, and
seafood. Katlam, a delicious Kashmiri
bread as flaky as any croissant and yet
denser, richer, is paired with a small
bottle of ketchup made from jamun,
otherwise known as black plum (and
purported to have a wealth of health
benefits). Sticky smoked pork neck
is brightened by local mango, which
also appears alongside a dessert of
black rice ice cream.
There’s a level of passion from the
staff here, from the servers to the im-
pressively mustachioed sommelier
to the cooks who usher you into the
kitchen for one pre-dessert course, that
is almost unnerving in its enthusiasm.
But give in to it, and you might find
yourself with a fervor for Masque that
mirrors the immense amount of effort
it takes to create an experience like
this one.
PHOTOGRAPHY (FROM LEFT): ATHUL PRASAD, CHRISTOPHER WISE
