Almost all of the dishes this time were different than my last visit 18 months back, except for this one. Always, except for this one. Some of the contours of Gaggan's famous Yogurt Explosion may change over the years (comparing it now to the 2019 one I had say), but the brilliance of it never does. The betel leaf also adds a nice crunch to it as well. Just a perfect start, as it always is.
2.) Chili Crackers
Nearly three weeks on (as I write this), I forget the specifics around this dish. I'm sure there was interesting story or what not. But it was a really interesting mix of flavors, it was spicy of Indian street food, and that little dollop of crab in it was brilliant. Another really nice bite.
3.) Aloo Gobi Cookies
The story behind the dish (a cookie made with zero normal cookie ingredients - say flour, eggs, etc.) is hit or miss. The bite itself, though, is a home run of a hit. This is one of my favorite Gaggan type dishes - where they put something like this in front of you, and say it is Aloo Gobi (a famous potato dish in India, which needless to say looks nothing like this) and you wonder how that can be, and then you eat it and it is just the strongest taste of Aloo Gobi. Will never get it, but will never not enjoy it.
4.) Scallop Curry in its Own Shell
I should've taken a picture after I took the shell top off, because underneath was this beautifully raw scallop with a brilliant South Indian, coconut milk curry, with great sharp spices as well. Wonderful dish, mixing temperatures (the scallop was cold, everything else hot) and flavors.
5.) Mushroom Milk Tart
I'm sure this was great, but probably one of the more forgettable dishes in the sense I don't have too much to say about it. That's fine, there are 25 after all to talk about.
6.) Bread Butter Cardamom Saffron
Now this one I do remember - much like the Aloo Gobi earlier, this ended up tasting like Idli Sambaar. Not sure how, other than the top bit I guess does have some sort of similarity in look, color and consistency to an Idli. Other than that, not sure how it worked. Just an awesome bit, probably my favorite of the "India", leaving that country with a bang.
7.) Pistachio Kabu Matcha
I annoyingly forget what this one was like. I'm not usually a matcha guy, but it worked well here, as did the nutty flavor. Totally forgot what is inside. Lesson to me: next time I do a trip to Gaggan and want to write about it, probably best to do it the next day.
8.) Cucumber 42-degree Trout
This I do remember, and this was brilliant - a Thai version of a sushi, with this beautiful leaf (I do forget the exact tree) as the seaweed, the trout was unreal, the cucumber so well pickled and bright, and that little hint of white underneath the trout was a squid gel - you know, for fun! This was an absolutely lovely bite, probably my favorite dish so far.
9.) Crab Rice Mistuba
This one may have topped it. I would probably go with the prior sushi, but this came close because of how inventive it was. It looks like a little mochi ball, and it mostly is, but somehow it has crab rice in it, and not some token shred of crab and grain of rice, but actual crab fried rice. The chewiness of the mochi worked so well with it. Would love to know the thinking that went into crafting this up.
10.) Uni Ika Gunkan
Uni with some fish I remember sashimi underneath, with I think a dehydrated woodyear mushroom wrap. I can imagine how this got crafted up, but who cares, it was still awesome. Particularly the uni (obviously), which normally I don't like, but when you serve it on top of a lovely little piece of sushi, it starts to work quite well I do say.
11.) Japanese Flowers
Underneath those flowers, that were made out of thin gels of real flowers and japanese melon, was sliced sashimi of a white fish, and then a gel of shrimp on top. All of was so jiggly - a rare taste of layering the same type of textrue somehow enhancing all of it rather than detracting. Wonderful dish. I think my favorite of the Japan section.
12.) Fruits Underground
Gaggan had done this type of dish before, when you pull something out of the ground, but it's usually a savory one. This was a dessert, with some sort of fruit and mushroom cold conconction on the end of that edible stick. This was a dish that reminded me of Borago.
13.) Foie Banana Curry Roti
Another desert as we hit th Thailand part, which was as sweet curry banana inside the "roti" of the top and bottom. It ate like a brilliant, tart, sweet, thai-flavored ice cream sandwhich, and if that isn't just the best combination of seven words, then I don't know what is.
14.) Coconut Soup Softserve
Tom Kha Gai in another ice cream like way! Ok, so maybe it was a bit repetitive, but Gaggan loves to serve some desserts mid-dinner (these being the 13th and 14th courses of 25), so I wasna't at all surrpised, but if anything this was another fairly forgettable one.
15.) Eggplants Chili Relish
This was forgettable, this was excellent, with that little bolinho having just perfectly roasted and then stewed eggplant inside. It's just consistently crazy how much flavor and depth Gaggan can pack into this little bites. It never gets old.
16.) Goat Brain Green Curry
Another classic is the one neon light inspired course to see things grow. In the past, tehre would be some elongated "you're eating rat brain" story on this, but now that type of weird pretense is gone. It's still brain in the sense it's goat brain mousse (it always was), but the green curry aspect was new and was an incredible addition to this dependably weird dish.
17.) River Fish Esan Herbs
Loved this - a brilliantly whole fish, just smoked right in front of you, with an incredibly rich, sweet rub on the fish and that dollop of herbs was so good as well. Honestly one of the best combination of flavors I've had on a tasting menu bite in a long time.
18.) Waffle Coconut Sesame Pandan
The last Thai dish is another dessert with that nice little plush pandan under the coconut crackers. Another great play on an ice cream sandwich, a really endless way to deliver some amazing savory or unexpected flavors in a dessert dish.
19.) Momo Green Peas Ricotta Tomatoes Fenugreek
Sometimes, the name of the dish just perfectly explains what it is - it is a green pea momo with ricotta cheese, and a fenugreek and tomato sauce. And all of those individual elements were nice, adn combined in that velvety sauce it all came together even better. Thank God really, though, for the fenugreek cutting the tomato flavor from the sauce. May have had some other opinions had that not been there.
20.) Not a Taco Buckwheat Tikka
Odd he did tikka, as Gaggan had in past said he didn't like doing the faux-Indian type curries (this or butter chicken), but he can still do it well. It was crab, adn such lovely crab at that. Crab must be the food of the moment for him, as it was everpresent throughout the meal, but rarely better than it was here.
21.) Charcoal Vindaloo
My single favorite dish. Everytime I've gone, there has been some Goan cuisine element in teh menu, but this might have been my favorite of those. Well, that's probably still the Sorpotel Taco in 2022, but this came close. The vindaloo was both the pure sauce underneath, and inside the black-as-charcoal kachori, there is stewed vindaloo meat. Just an insane dish, so perfectly crafted, and so perfectly tasty.
22.) Triple Cooked Goat Ribs
Not sure how much the littel green chili on teh side added, because the cabrito-style stewed, cooked goat was good enough anyway. It truly was brilliant, as was the darker green curry type sauce on the top of it. I had a similar dish years ago at Restaurant 99, and I say this with all due respect, this was a good deal better - and that was a classic dish for me.
23.) Rice Spinach Corn
I don't know why Gaggan has this proclivity to have his last main be a rice-based dish. The first time it was rice, a coriander curry and egg. This had the same spirit (and colors). Others had some meat components. I guess it is some sort of kaiseki type thing given Gaggan's Japan procilivities, but it was a bit of a comedown after the insane brilliance of the last two dishes.
24.) Spring Leaf
Hey, another ice cream sandwhich type thing! This focused on three different Thai melons, from teh two dusts on teh top, to the meringue in the middle. Great dessert - probably not my favorite of the three ice cream sandwich tpes dishes, but still a damn good one.
25.) Pineapple, Rhubarb, Bash
The classic lick it up, and while over the year's it's migrated from an early savory course (2019) to the final dessert course (every other trip), it's always slightly different, this time with this lovely Sunflower look. It's always such a nice, special, inventive way to end the meal, just like the yogurt explosion is a great way to start it.
