A timely repast

• Published date: 10 February 2023
• Publication title: Bangkok Post

Speaking of palatability, there's no reason why Time Kaan does not deserve an accolade.

While the two-month-old Thai restaurant may need more time to learn, endure and mature, its future is promising.

Nonetheless, before arriving at Time Kaan I had qualms about trusting a fresh-faced aspirant trying to "revive bygone recipes", let alone expecting to like the results.

Bangkok currently has several would-be saviours of age-old Thai cuisine. Only a few of them, however, are genuinely authoritative. Among the rest, some are overconfident.

I doubted Time Kaan was one of the latter but still had qualms.

During my dinner visit there last week, it was the subtlety of flavours, revealed in the dishes one after another as a part of a well-balanced tasting menu, that turned me into a profound admirer.

All other points were just trivial.

The name Time Kaan, or tam kan in Thai, has double meaning. Usually, I would disregard the story behind a restaurant's moniker especially when it involves wordplay.

But this one may be worth explaining.

Time Kaan can mean "king of time", as khan is a title of Central Asia ruler. Meanwhile, in Thai, the word tam means "according to" and kan is "time".

So the name that reads "according to time" aptly matches the culinary concept "Time travelling through the chronicle of Thai repast".

Set in a lovely two-storey house 200m into Sukhumvit 8, the 53-seat restaurant is the work of new-generation entrepreneurs and chefs whose years of experience include world-famous Michelin-starred restaurants.

The cuisine here is built around historically documented dishes of the Suva??abhumi region.

A fine-dining degustation dinner is priced at 3,500 baht per person, with wine pairing available at an additional 1,700 baht.

The inaugural 14-course menu, which will run until April, revisits ancient recipes that date back as far as 1,200 years ago.

The meal kicked off with a complimentary sesame biscuit, which was so good I wished they sold them as takeaway goodies.

The first course is presented in the form of an aperitif. It features a sweet, spicy and aromatic fermented rice drink inspired by a 700-year-old manuscript of a Chinese consul to Siam. It was one of the best palate-enlivening drinks I've ever had.

Dish number two: the crispy rice noodles with crab was described as a popular food served to guests at aristocratic households in the 19th century.

Various textures and flavour depths were achieved through delicious layers of chives, red ginger jelly, deep-fried rice...