Noah’s Ark now boarding

THE LOCKHEED L-1011 TriStar jet dry-docked at creative space ChangChui in Thonburi is in final preparations flights of culinary adventure – in a restaurant on board the aircraft stuffed with stuffed animals.
There’s already a fascinating place to eat on the grounds – Insects in the Backyard, specialising in edible creepy-crawlies.
But on Valentine’s Day, the restaurant part of the Na-Oh Museum and Restaurant takes wing on the jetliner, deriving its name from Noah of biblical ark fame. 

The former passenger jet at ChangChui is ready to take adventurous passengers on an educational and culinary adventure.

The museum itself opens on Children’s Day, January 13, with a menagerie of 50 critters that have been given professional-quality taxidermy treatment. Among others, there are polar bears, an eland, a baboon and a wildcat, all collected by ChangChui founder Somchai Songwatana, the celebrated clothing designer of fashion label FlyNow.

The taxidermy on display in the Na-Oh Museum and Restaurant opening next month is only part of Somchai Songwatana’s collection.

Somchai – a committed non-conformist – wants to give the animals who “missed the boat” another chance on his ark – and another chance to “FlyNow”.
“This is museum-quality taxidermy,” says ChangChui general manager Chanokporn Thinphangnga. “The animals are certified legal and ‘ethical’ – which mean they died of natural causes.
“Somchai wanted to show the public the art that’s involved in preserving the bodies of these rarely seen animals alongside his collection of antique furniture and vintage decorative items.”

 

 

Come February 14, the 80-seat, by-reservation-only restaurant will begin offering set-course menus prepared by guest chefs taking turns in the kitchen, three months at a time. 
It’s an odd concept – fine dining among stuffed animals – but Somchai sees it as an educational experience. The whole ChangChui project is his way of “doing something good for society before I die”. 
The compound is a jumble of galleries, a bookstore and stationery shop, a cinema, bars and craft stores built mainly of rusty corrugated zinc, old wooden windows and doors – another Somchai collection that he cherishes for its historical value. Recycling is part of his “Nothing is useless” philosophy.

This jetliner has taken on all sorts of functions.

The 55-metre jet, formerly in the service of Thai Sky Airlines, was also about to be shredded for scrap. Somchai had it hauled in 20 segments from Don Mueang Airport and painstakingly reassembled on site.
The taxidermy museum is initially expected to draw 200 people a day, with 30 visitors at a time allowed in for half-hour tours from 4 to 8pm. Then the museum becomes part of the restaurant. 
“Before boarding,” says Chanokporn, “visitors will assemble in our old-time theatre, Dujit Arai Kor Chang, to learn about the jet’s history and how it’s being given a new lease on life, and they’ll get a brief explanation about Noah’s Ark.”
Next it’s into an antique cage elevator, which carries them into the aircraft fuselage. As soon as the elevator door opens, they’ll see a glass cabinet containing a stuffed mature and juvenile polar bear. 
In place of passenger seats on board, there are vintage Art Deco sofas and chairs under fancy chandeliers and amid framed prints of Noah’s adventure. Old steamer trunks serve as tables. Classical music plays.

Mind the polar bears at the entrance. 

Stuffed birds perch on a counter bar fashioned from perfume bottles (Somchai owns more than 30,000 of these bottles). More glass cabinets hold an eland and a baboon, preserved and quite life-like.
The cockpit is a private dining room with a vintage chesterfield. The tail has been fitted with a large window affording views of the grounds. 
The baggage compartment is a 10-seat lounge with high-backed maroon sofas and a huge display cabinet of beasts escaping Noah’s flood – white lions, black bear, warthog, caribou, lesser kudu, impala, oryx, a mandrill, a big-eared caracal cat and more birds.

The luggage compartment is a 10-seat lounge.

Chanokporn says they’re keeping the restaurant’s debut menu a secret for now, but the first chef in the kitchen will be Thitiwat Tantragarn, the bug wrangler at Insects in the Backyard. The restaurant took its name from that of the long-banned gay-theme Thai film.
Insects in the Backyard has its own array of stuffed birds on display – and preserved bugs too – but they’re nowhere near as intriguing as the menu.

Seared scallops with bamboo caterpillars

Here you can have a seared scallop topped with pan-fried rot duan (bamboo caterpillar), ravioli stuffed with female malaeng da (giant water beetle), and risotto with fried tak kataen (grasshopper). 
Thitiwat isn’t really saying anything new when he points out that insects as food are low in calories and rich in protein and nutrients. If more people ate bugs, he notes, the exploding population of humans wouldn’t have to worry so much about other food resources. 

Green salad with crickets

His strategy to get more people to eat bugs is to present them as part of a fine-dining experience. “If you find the insects in your backyard disgusting or scary, our approach is to demonstrate ChangChui’s concept that nothing is useless.”
A sizeable portion of the Thai population eats insects routinely, of course, usually deep-fried and seasoned with soy sauce or in a spicy salad. Bangkok street hawkers can set you up with various edible bugs. 

Nachos with mixed insects

Thitiwat consults with Associate Professor Yupa Hanboonsong, an entomologist at Khon Kaen University, about just how nutritious different bugs are and how they’re farmed. Attentive to hygiene, he uses only insects from farms certified by the Department of Livestock Develop- ment.
The bamboo caterpillar comes from Chiang Mai and costs more than Bt1,000 per kilogram, hefty compared to the Bt200-Bt300 price of ant eggs. 
“This is the first time I’ve cooked insects as fine dining,” says Thitiwat. “They all have their own unique tastes, so I do a lot of testing to find the right combinations with other ingredients.”
He’s done all right with the green salad starter with balsamic dressing and crickets (maeng sading) and the watermelon salad with creme fraiche, chorizo sausage, bonito and those expensive bamboo caterpillars. 

Seafood risotto with grasshoppers

“Pan-fried bamboo caterpillar tastes like squid and goes well with sour cream,” says the chef, who previously worked at D’Sen at the Dusit Thani and Sirocco at Lebua. “Cricket has a unique taste and a crispy texture, so it can substitute for bacon.”
Grilled sea bass arrives topped with mae peng (a large tree ant) and its eggs in beurre blanc. 

Grilled sea bass topped with large tree ants and their eggs 

The bug in the dessert is silkworm – the meat of chrysalises in vanilla ice cream, topped with the worms’ dehydrated bodies.
“I’m testing duang sago next,” says Thitiwat, referring to the high-protein red palm weevil.

Vanilla ice cream with silkworm chrysalises

 

A FLY IN YOUR SOUP?
ChangChui is on Sirindhorn Road near the Bang Bamru Railway Station in Bangkok’s Bang Phlat district. 
The Green Zone is open daily except Wednesday from 11am to 9pm and the Night Zone from 4 to 11. Call (081) 817 2888 or visit www.ChangChuiBangkok.com.
Insects in the Backyard is open the same days from 2pm to 11pm. Call (02) 035 7000 or visit www.InsectsInTheBackyard.com.