Supawan, 38 Caledonian Street, London N1 9DT (020 7278 2888). Small plates £9-£11.50, mains £15.50-£24.50, desserts £5.50-£9.50, wines from £26.50
My late father, Des, had many skills. Early on he was an actor, a part of Anthony Quayle’s authentic firm at Stratford, the precursor to the RSC. He additionally labored on the very first TV collection of Hancock’s Half Hour. He was a gifted artist who was exhibited in all the nice locations and he was blessed with the sharpest of business brains. He was a natty dresser. However boy, was he a awful cook dinner. Substances would beg to be taken to a spot of security when he approached. Greens would audibly begin praying. I don’t suppose it was a scarcity of potential. He merely wasn’t . If he was left to feed us youngsters, his default dish – I exploit the time period loosely – was worsht and eggs: a bouncy, dry, draught excluder of an omelette alongside slices of a blunt, salty kosher beef salami, dyed a worrying shade of pink, which stained every thing it touched pink together with, I think about, the decrease gut. It was the style of parental abandonment, at the very least the place meal time was involved.
Chef Wichet Khongphoon of Supawan, in London’s King’s Cross, was in another way blessed. For in the midst of his menu headed “Southern Thai Meals”, is a dish entitled Dad’s Beef Curry. I actually wouldn’t have traded my previous man for anybody, however maybe I will be forgiven for fantasising about a bit of mild fostering by Khongphoon’s father, if it meant I might have been handled often to this thrillingly intense stew of long-braised meat in a thick coconut sauce the color of newly turned London clay. It each soothes and playfully slaps. There may be warmth, emphasised by vivid slices of contemporary pink chilli, however all of it’s tempered by candy caramel tones. There may be the depth and perfume of roasted spice. It’s all sorts of fabulous. I can see why the recipe, a loving name again to the home, made the lower.
‘Tempered by candy caramel tones’: Dad’s Beef Curry. {Photograph}: Sophia Evans/The Observer
The inside of Supawan is a vivid, candy-coloured house, its partitions hung with cheery slabs of latest artwork. There’s no stage-set of ornate Thai wooden carvings right here. They let the cooking inform you the place you might be. From the surface, nonetheless, it’s an unassuming-looking spot; the kind an harmless traveller would possibly tumble into contemporary off the practice, when attempting to find one thing to eat, solely to have their mouth taken on the trip of its life. It was beneficial to me by a reader. They stated it served Thai dishes that they had not encountered earlier than and that I would prefer it. With practice strikes making out-of-London journey tough, I made a decision to observe my reader’s recommendation. My reader was smart. They typically are.
We’ve a bowl of candy, sticky cashew nuts crusted with chilli and black pepper and served nonetheless heat, to choose at whereas we research the comparatively brief menu. Sure, it features a acquainted pad Thai and a inexperienced curry. Order as an alternative the issues you haven’t stumbled throughout earlier than. For those who’re a meat eater, begin with the rooster wings. Blink at what’s laid earlier than you. They’re battered and crispy within the southern-fried type and severely chunky. Chunk in to find they’re boned out and full of a briskly spiced forcemeat of minced rooster, prawns, mushrooms and, for texture, glass noodles. Drag them by means of the lake of the lip-spanking tamarind and chilli sauce that lies beneath. For those who’re with a buddy, mourn the truth that good manners demand you allow them to have the opposite one. Or weigh up whether or not the friendship actually implies that a lot to you. Conclude it doesn’t within the face of this rooster wing, and nick it.
‘A knotty lawn-green tangle’: stir-fried morning glory. {Photograph}: Sophia Evans/The Observer
From the non-meat aspect of the ledger, order the laab aubergine, an enormous multilayered extravaganza of texture, and of candy and bitter and sizzling and salty. It’s a dish not merely to be eaten, however to be explored. The aubergine has been roasted till mushy and nearly creamy. It has then been piled below drifts of contemporary mint, floor crunchy rice, dried chillies and shallots, each contemporary and crispy. All of that is dressed with a tamarind and palm sugar sauce. Clean up after that increase and conflict with a knotty tangle of lawn-green morning glory stir-fried with chillies and garlic.
To at least one aspect of the menu there’s the provide of “aspect salads”. These are aspect salads, a lot as Barbra Streisand is a backing singer; in the way in which Laurence Olivier was a spear provider. Our Yum Hoa Plee banana flower salad faucet dances out into the limelight. The substances are stacked into the canoe embrace of a purple and white petal. We by no means fairly get to it, enthralled as we’re by the tumbled filling of prawns, roasted coconut, shallots, cashew nuts and mint dressed with coconut milk and extra tamarind. They do like their tamarind right here.
‘Intense, seafood candy and restorative’: seafood stir-fry. {Photograph}: Sophia Evans/The Observer
Our desk is accomplished by a stir-fry of prawns, squid and mussels, with wild ginger, inexperienced peppercorns, chillies, inexperienced beans and Thai holy basil. After we’ve sucked the final mussels from the final shells, we take to spooning away the broth, which is intense and seafood candy and restorative. A phrase of recommendation: be aware of the menu’s dot system for chilli warmth. Nothing is as fierce and uncompromising as Thai meals when it’s bought its huge boots on. The “three dot” dishes right here actually will make the sweat pool beneath your eyes and your tongue vibrate. Each this seafood stir-fry and the meat curry carry three dots. It’s good to be warned. Soothe all that with a scoop of their salted coconut caramel ice-cream with peanut brittle or maybe their citrus-sharp makrut lime sorbet (listed on the menu as Kaffir lime, a time period which, for good motive, is more and more frowned upon).
Supawan feels to me like a discover, although on this Friday night it has undoubtedly very a lot been discovered. In a metropolis the place the pursuit of the subsequent new eating expertise can really feel overheated and performative, it was joyous to be in a loud room full of individuals simply, y’know, having dinner with their mates, maybe on the shiny communal desk to 1 aspect, as a result of that’s a pleasant technique to finish the week. With nearly all dishes topping out within the mid-teens they comprehend it is not going to spoil them. Begin with a cocktail of galangal-infused gin, lemongrass syrup, Cointreau and chicken’s eye chillies, accordingly marked by three warmth dots. End with a Thai iced milk tea, which actually isn’t. Elevate both glass to Chef Wichet Khongphoon. And, in fact, to his previous dad.
New bites
The Israeli bakery and café group Roladin has opened what it says is London’s first “Donutelier”. Or, as individuals who don’t really feel the necessity to invent irritating phrases would name it, a donut store. It’s situated on London’s Charing Cross Street and sells donuts in quite a lot of flavours together with chocolate pretzel, dulcey peanut caramel and fervour coconut (donutelier.co.uk).
Chef Mark Poynton of The Shepherds in Cambridge is to open a brand new enterprise inside Caistor Corridor, a rustic home resort simply outdoors Norwich. Mark Poynton at Caistor Corridor might be open for lunch and dinner from Wednesday to Saturday solely and can provide a five- and nine-course tasting menu, with solely the £90 longer model obtainable at night time. Apparently, the dishes might be “flavour pushed”, which is clearly much better than dishes pushed by one thing aside from flavour. The pinnacle chef might be Byron Franklin, presently at The Shepherd’s (mjpatcaistorhall.co.uk).
Pasta supply firm Pasta Evangelists has introduced plans for 800 takeaway models throughout the UK, with the intention to cowl all main UK cities by the center of this 12 months. The corporate, which was bought to Barilla in 2021, has beforehand partnered with Deliveroo, however now has its personal supply operation providing a collection of dishes together with beef shin and Barolo ragu, salmon carbonara and truffle mac and cheese. There are actually 30 takeaway models in London, with others in Manchester, Nottingham, Birmingham, Leeds and Bristol (pastaevangelists.com).
Electronic mail Jay at jay.rayner@observer.co.uk or observe him on Twitter @jayrayner1
