Oopened in Croix (North) in 2022, decorated with a Michelin star from 2023, Arborescence is a unique restaurant, driven by the mix of cultures of a couple in their thirties: Félix Robert prepares the dishes under the aegis of his wife, Nidta, originally from Thailand. In November he received the title of “Great of Tomorrow” from the Gault & Millau guide.
Nidta Robert: Lap is a salad common in Laos and northern Thailand. There are many different versions, but the base is ground meat with aromatic herbs and spices, bound by a roasted rice powder which gives a nutty taste, and a fish-soy-lime sauce. . It may be a very old recipe, but it has not evolved much over time: even in Sukhothai, the ancient capital – until the 13th century.e century -, in the north of the country, the lap has not been adapted to the tourist palate… because there are few of them!
Felix Robert: I discovered this dish in Nidta’s family, where her mother cooks it in a fairly rustic version, with pork offal: minced ears, poached liver and cut into strips. It was fatty, juicy, there was the crunch of the cartilage… But above all I was struck by the freshness of the dish. Freshness is really the common thread of my cuisine. Once back in Croix, I wanted to reproduce the lap on a fatty offal to find the contrast between the roundness of the meat and the strident side of the lemon associated with mint. I tested it with sweetbreads and it matched. Something crazy ! We validated it straight away.
NR: Two people create each plate. Félix imagines the dish, then I make suggestions to balance the tastes. As much as the choice of sweetbreads for the lap was obvious, it took a few weeks to find the right balance of seasoning between lemon juice, raw shallot, chopped mint, soy and fish sauces. Harmony in Thai cuisine is fundamental, as with wine in France.
FR : This is one of the things that scared me at the beginning: I like imbalances in dishes, that the elements are distinct and clash in the mouth. Thai cuisine is wonderful, but it’s difficult to touch, because all the ingredients blend together so cohesively and deliciously. As soon as you remove one, it no longer works. In our sweetbread lap, the harmony is based on an imbalance between the acidity of the sauce and the fat of the meat.
NR: Thai people who eat here are surprised by our lap. The flavors are familiar to them, but it doesn’t look like what they know.
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