Sands Lifestyle Macao's Culinary Bridges Arrives at Nusara Bangkok

Sands Lifestyle Macao brought its five-city Michelin journey, Culinary Bridges, to Bangkok on 13 August 2026. Hosted at Nusara, the dinner featured "Harmony of Royal Heritage & Refined Tradition", the restaurant's fifth menu, shaped by royal Thai heritage, regional flavours, family memories and contemporary interpretations of familiar dishes.

Travelling through Seoul, Beijing, Bangkok, Hangzhou and Taipei ahead of The Parisian Macao's tenth anniversary celebration, Culinary Bridges allows the cuisine and cultural identity of each city to contribute to a broader conversation about heritage and craftsmanship. In Bangkok, that conversation took place through Nusara's own culinary narrative and the fifth chapter of its evolving menu.

Nusara occupies a restored building in Tha Tien, one of the capital's oldest neighbourhoods, where temples, markets and preserved architecture sit alongside a new generation of restaurants, cafés and creative spaces. From its upper floors, Wat Pho remained visible through the windows as evening settled over the old city, giving the dinner a setting in which Bangkok's history was not merely referenced but physically present.

Guests began with a welcome reception on the upper floor, where Royal Cristal Caviar from Royal Caviar Club was served alongside a choice of two cocktails. The Pomelo Margarita combined Thai Vietnamese coriander spirit, tequila, dry vermouth, clarified pomelo juice and citric cordial. At the same time, the Sato Americano brought together red sato, pisco, bianco vermouth, pickled stink bean and tonic water. With views across the illuminated temple roofs, the reception established an appropriately relaxed beginning before the evening continued through Nusara's different dining spaces.

Although Chef Thitid "Ton" Tassanakajohn was unable to attend, his brother and Nusara co-founder Chaisiri "Tam" Tassanakajohn delivered the welcome speech. Tam's presence was more than a substitute for the evening. The two brothers founded Nusara in memory of their grandmother, Nusara, and his role as the restaurant's maître d' and sommelier has always been central to its expression of hospitality. His welcome placed the event within that family story while introducing a menu intended to demonstrate how Thai culinary heritage can be preserved without becoming static.

The restaurant describes its cooking as "colourful Thai cuisine", neither wholly traditional nor conventionally modern. Its foundations lie in family recipes, regional dishes and references drawn from Thailand's royal kitchens, yet those foundations are approached through contemporary technique and an assured understanding of presentation. Nusara's fifth menu offered a clear interpretation of its title: refinement did not replace tradition but gave it another language.

• 

• 

• 

• 

• 

The dinner itself began with Varieties of Lotus, a selection of amuse-bouches that included a skewer, Northern Thai beef tartare, stuffed longan, a wonton topped with caviar, soup and scallop, paired with ArkadDeeBorTorWa Sato.

Spicy Tropical Fruit Salad with Fish moved the menu towards Southern Thailand. Fish sashimi sourced from local fisherfolk was served with tropical fruit and a bright, spicy dressing, accompanied by GranMonte The Orient Viognier 2023.

Blue Swimming Crab Gaeng with Crispy Garuda Leaves provided a richer expression of Southern Thai cooking. The crab's natural sweetness was set against the concentration of the aromatic gaeng, while the crisp leaves added contrasting texture. It was paired with Day Drinker Collective Honey Pet-Nat.

• 

• 

Tom Kha with Crustaceans and Poached Mushroom offered another reconsideration of an established Thai preparation. The coconut broth carried the fragrance of galangal, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves before being poured over tender prawn and crab sausage and mushroom. Creamy without becoming excessively heavy, the dish let its aromatics and gentle acidity cut through the richness of the coconut. Replacing the more familiar chicken with crustaceans also returned attention to a fish long embedded in everyday Thai food culture. To highten the intensity, the dish was paired with Crab Hormok.

Gaeng Ngao Ngod with Thai Ocean Fish continued the seafood progression through another regional preparation. The gaeng placed the flavour and texture of the fish at its centre while maintaining the menu's broader interest in aromatic pastes, herbs and the complex relationship between heat, savouriness and acidity. Rather than presenting the fish as an isolated principal ingredient, the dish allowed it to become part of a more layered Thai composition.

Thai Seablite with Crispy Whitebait continued the coastal theme through a direct study of salinity and texture. The greens carried their natural brininess, while the small fried fish brought savoury depth and a brittle crunch. Its appeal came from letting two comparatively modest ingredients express their characters clearly, showing that refinement does not always require embellishment.

The menu then moved towards the communal rhythm of a Thai meal with Bitter Melon Relish and Ceylon Olive Relish, served with Thai local greens. Although Nusara's regular menu features Nam Phrik See Pak, a selection of four regional relishes, only these two were showcased during the Culinary Bridges dinner. Their bitterness, acidity, spice and savoury depth were balanced by the freshness and texture of the accompanying vegetables and paired with GranMonte Durif 2024.

Sour Leaves Soup followed, bringing a lighter and more cleansing character before the final savoury course. Its tartness refreshed the palate while maintaining the menu's recurring interest in acidity as more than a supporting note. Across the dinner, sourness appeared in several forms, from tropical fruit and citrus to leaves and relishes, with each producing a distinct effect.

Thai Wagyu with Holy Basil brought the savoury progression to its most substantial point. A glazed cut of beef was served alongside a robust minced-beef preparation with holy basil, combining careful cooking with the immediacy of one of Thailand's most familiar flavour pairings. The polished surface and precise presentation gave the plate the formality expected of its setting, while the assertive seasoning prevented it from becoming overly mannered. It was food intended to be eaten with rice rather than admired from a distance.

The desserts continued the menu's examination of familiar Thai ingredients through multiple textures and forms. Varieties of Kaffir Lime explored the fruit's aromatic sharpness beyond its usual supporting role, allowing its fragrance and acidity to reset the palate after the richer savoury courses.

Sago with Young Coconut followed with a gentler expression. The soft chew of the sago and delicate sweetness of young coconut created a dessert grounded in familiarity, paired with Y&C Yeast and Co. Red Sato. Rather than ending the menu with excessive sweetness, the course offered comfort through texture and the clean flavour of coconut.

The dinner concluded with seasonal fruit and a line-up of petit fours built around recognisable Thai sweets and flavour combinations. A Thai Tea Ice Cream Sandwich reworked the familiar drink as a frozen bite, while Dark Chocolate with Fish Sauce Caramel placed bitterness, sweetness and salinity in direct conversation. Pandan Layered Custard drew from the colours and textures of traditional layered sweets, followed by Passion Fruit and Coconut Rolled Candy. Guava with Sweet Fish Sauce completed the selection with a playful reference to the Thai habit of pairing fresh fruit with savoury-sweet dipping sauces.

Together, the courses demonstrated that Nusara's engagement with heritage is not limited to reproducing old recipes. Each began with an identifiable Thai flavour structure or ingredient, whether a Southern fruit salad, crab gaeng, Tom Kha, relishes or holy basil. Contemporary technique was then used to sharpen the details, adjust the textures and reconsider the presentation without disconnecting the food from its origins.

The progression towards relishes, soup, meat and rice was where Nusara's refinement felt most convincing. The format recalled a traditional Thai table, where several preparations are eaten in relation to one another. Herbs, vegetables, seafood, meat and gaeng did not function as entirely isolated compositions; each adjusted the flavour of the next, with heat moderated by sweetness, richness lifted by acidity and softer textures interrupted by something crisp.

Across the evening, Nusara's vertical progression—from the welcome reception overlooking Wat Pho to the more intimate dining spaces—echoed Culinary Bridges' movement between places and perspectives. The restaurant was a meaningful choice for the Bangkok stop because its relationship with heritage is personal rather than abstract. Named after Chef Ton and Tam's grandmother, Nusara draws upon family memories and older Thai recipes without depending on nostalgia, allowing tradition to be refined and rearranged while its essential flavours remain intact.

By placing Nusara's fifth menu within the Bangkok stop of Culinary Bridges, Sands Lifestyle Macao presented the city through the relationship between royal culinary history, domestic memory and contemporary expression. "Harmony of Royal Heritage & Refined Tradition" showed Thai cuisine as a living inheritance, capable of carrying regional traditions and family recipes into new settings. Culinary Bridges may have been travelling towards The Parisian Macao's tenth anniversary, but at Nusara its most persuasive connection was between generations, memory and reinvention. Credits

Article: Wariya Intreyonk Photos: Wariya Intreyonk and courtesy