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SCMP Reporter

Mandarin Oriental Macau 956-1110 Avenida de Amizade, Macau

Tel: (853) 793 4818

Opening hours: noon-3pm, 6.30pm-10.30pm.

Everyone has a favourite restaurant in Macau. But if you put aside the temptation to revisit your old haunts you might unearth a hot new hangout.

The city's culinary scene is fast diversifying, with French, Italian, Indian, Vietnamese, Mexican and Japanese options giving Macau a more metropolitan feel. Thai food, too, is spicing up the mix, nowhere more so than at ultra-chic Naam, the Mandarin Oriental hotel's newest venture. Despite the Sars tourism meltdown, Naam has been packing them in since it opened in January. A recent visit revealed why: the authentic cuisine, relaxing ambience and stylish interior belong very much to the new Macau.

Situated inside the Mandarin's spa and resort, Naam has comfortable seats, plenty of space and an elegant minimalist design. The menu offers both traditional and contemporary Thai dishes created by a team of chefs from Bangkok and Chiang Mai, under the guidance of manager Rapeeporn Onsuratoom from the Thai capital's famed Oriental hotel.

The mildness of the appetisers misled us into thinking the rest of the meal would be as tame. The rice cakes with minced pork and crabmeat topping (45 patacas/HK$44) and the crispy pancakes with minced seafood and sweet plum sauce (45 patacas) served only to prickle the tongue. The subsequent dishes had more kick than a dancer at the Crazy Paris show.

The spicy seafood salad (70 patacas) - rated two chillies on the three-chilli scale of spiciness - looked harmless enough. But beneath the mix of juicy scallops, fish, squid and prawns was a fiery mix of chillies, shallots and coriander that hurriedly ordered lime sodas couldn't extinguish. The one-chilli-flagged herbed coconut soup with soft-shell crab and sliced shallots (60 patacas) kept the heat on.

The yellow lamb curry (70 patacas) was milder than the menu suggested, and the traditionally spicy red duck curry (70 patacas) was tame by comparison. Both curries were, however, packed with fresh ingredients and fragrant spices, and came with a huge clay pot of rice.

If you like your Thai food with less sting, the chefs can tailor the dishes to suit individual tastes.

Desserts proved the perfect antidote for singed tongues. The sweet pumpkin custard (35 patacas) brought four firm wedges with a light, fluffy filling, while the tapioca with water chestnuts in sweetened coconut milk (35 patacas) tasted as good as it looked.

With two Thaijito cocktails (think Mojito with Mekong whiskey instead of rum), two lime sodas, a longan juice and a lemongrass tea with honey, the bill came to 754 patacas, including 10 per cent service charge. All prices quoted are for single servings. Servings for two, three or four people are available priced less per person.



NAAM