Dinner last month at Haoma in Bangkok. Here chef Deepanker Khosla, or DK, has created an oasis in the heart of this vast metropolis and Bangkok’s first urban farm restaurant. The food is ‘Neo Indian’, so new or revived dishes that are close to DK’s heart. This might include a course that is 100% sustainable with zero carbon footprint and entirely made up from ingredients grown within a few feet of your table or a dish that is a very personal tribute to a special person in DK’s life or a modern interpretation of some street food that he ate as a child. So it is definitely cooking from the heart and you can feel DK’s passion and soul in every mouthful.
To achieve what he has in a city like Bangkok is remarkable really and I have nothing but admiration for him. He basically built the place with his bare hands and as we were shown around the property towards the end of the meal we were amazed at the extent of his efforts to push for sustainability and grow as much as he can on site including the fish that you eat during the meal.
This includes 140 metres of vertical farm made from reclaimed gutters which is hydrated using a rain water harvesting system, a tomato farm using old paint buckets that were used to build the house, young plants are nurtured in composted material in old styrofoam boxes so as to strive for zero waste. He built his own tilapia fish farm from a YouTube video and uses the fish excreted waste to then feed the plants that are then served as part of the fish dishes. The fish are fed pellets made from waste from the kitchen and the water that feeds the plants is harvested rain water so he has created a 100% sustainable eco system in his back garden, mind blowing stuff really. He has 30,000 litres of water in his well/tank (that he built himself of course) where around 1000 tilapia swim. In the above ground tanks he stores around 70 fish per tank so as to adhere to the Nordic fishing standards that say that every fish requires 5 litres of water in order to live freely and healthily. Oh, and the food is really tasty to!
I urge you to jump on the BTS and get off at Asok or Phrom Phong and take a wander up Soi 31 where you will find another world waiting for you, a world that will hopefully be the future for a lot more restaurants, homes and businesses.
Thank you Deepanker Khosla for an incredible evening that really opened my eyes ??