Over the past 12 months, new gastronomic phenomena have surged in popularity throughout Thailand's capital.
Other than the recent arrival of the Michelin Guide, whose ratings have created both delight and argument, there are other home-grown sensations that helped shape a new culinary landscape for the Big Mango.
FOOD DELIVERY FROM AROUND THE WORLD
It might not be a new thrill that consumers in Bangkok can order food online or by phone and have it delivered to their door, but there's an astoundingly wide range of delivery services on offer today, creating a significant shift in the dining lifestyle of millennials and others.
More than 2,000 eateries, including time-honoured restaurants and street-food vendors, from all over town are now turning to the internet and phone delivery agents for their alternative (or perhaps major) distribution channel.
Complementing the retail revolution is a good number of delivery service providers, which operate round-the-clock across the city. Prices start from 40 baht per trip and can be paid through cash or credit cards. And with a phone app, customers can even track their food in real time from the purchase point.
Thus, with just a few clicks, diners can conveniently have their favourite dishes within an hour, everything from ice-cold pickled crab and steamed assorted seafood to piping-hot pork rib soup and stir-fried vegetables, rice congee and grilled banana.
CULINARY COLLABORATION
It's an era when Chef A may collaborate with Pâtissier B who belongs to a company of Chef C, who's a consulting chef to a café founded by Barista D, who's a partner of Restaurant E. And on it goes.
Such favourable dynamism has lately had a strong presence in Bangkok, where practically everyone in the food service industry seems to be friends and business partners -- and not competitors -- with one another.
It can be seen in a number of new establishments launched in 2017.
For example, Supanniga X Roots is a café project between Supanniga Eating Room and Roots coffee roaster. And the Supanniga Dining Cruise features a cocktail collection by Vesper, a well-established bar by the husband-and-wife team Choti and Debby Leenutaphong.
Choti and Debby a few weeks ago opened Via Maris, a trans-Mediterranean cuisine restaurant where they work also with Italian chef Luca Appino of La Bottega di Luca and Pizza Massilia.
The pizzeria, whose latest branch opened this year in Sukhumvit 23, was founded by French restaurateur Fred Meyer, who with Thailand's celebrity chef Ian Kittichai co-founded the Issaya Siamese Club and Namsaah Bottling Trust. Chef Ian is now working with a 5-star hotel owner in opening a fine-dining restaurant in Phuket next year.
Another new joint, the Kika tapas bar, which opened in November, is a joint venture between a group of the French chefs and restaurateurs behind Oskar Bar and Sanya Souvanna Phouma of Quince and Sing Sing Theatre.
And opening soon in 2018 is an evolutionary restaurant project, of which the world-celebrated Bangkok-based kitchen wizard Gaggan Anand collaborates with the low-key owner of a well-loved Thai restaurant.
PURPLE IS THE NEW BLACK
Gone are the days when dessert-lovers in Bangkok were queuing up for American doughnuts and Japanese cheese tarts.
A long line of enthusiastic customers is more likely to be spotted now in front of street-side pushcarts selling nothing but deep-fried goodies made with purple yam.
The size of a quail egg but with a round shape, the piping-hot, mildly-sweet treat, commonly called khanom khai nok kratha, is typically made with yellow-hued sweet potatoes and has long been a favourite snack among Thais.
It wasn't until this year, perhaps following the popularity of purple potatoes from Japan, that anything prepared with purple yam became popular.
Purple yam, which is widely grown in Thailand, is rich in vitamins A and C as well as Anthocyanin, an antioxidant. However, it isn't the nutrients but the bold colour that made it a much-celebrated ingredient of 2017.
Other than the deep-fried purple yam balls, you can also find in market today purple yam ice cream, French fries, bread, cream buns and mash.
