956-1110 Avenida da Amizade
Macau
+853 8793 4818
Mandarinoriental.com/grandlapa
The recent return to tranquil resort restaurant NAAM of chef Uemporn Yuayaipong, the opening chef a decade ago, is great news. Her cooking is refined, added to which she's the arbiter of balance, perfectly assembling dishes where salty and sweet, hot and sour seamlessly interact. Her tom yum goong exudes elegance, with lime leaves and lemon grass so finely sliced they can be eaten, their flavours informing the hot and sour - but not too hot - soup base.
She makes a "relaxation" chicken soup based on a unique paste made by a family friend, where the spiciness is present, but not from chilli. All the usual Thai curries are listed, but more interesting are dishes like her snapper served beneath its deep-fried backbone, with a highly textural sauce; pig thigh cooked on the bone for eight hours; and whole lobster on a bed of onion, mushroom and green beans in a sauce spiked with sprigs of fresh green peppercorns.
And if there was a reason to dine here, it would be to sample the feted northern Thai khao soi (the chef is from Chiang Mai) - a thrilling curried chicken noodle soup topped with crispy, deep-fried noodles, with little sides of fresh lime, smoky chilli sauce, finely diced shallots and demon pickled vegetables. Annabel Jackson
