A sad day indeed

Well, I am devastated.

10 years ago, I discovered the most perfect dessert ever to be created. The most perfect food ever to grace this planet.

And today, as I was in the general vicinity of this food of the Gods, I found that... the restaurant that serves it has CLOSED!

How can this be possible?! How could anyone close down the place that has been the keeper of my dream food, the one dish that I always cite in that 'What would you eat if you could only choose one thing to eat for the rest of your life?' situation...?!!!!!

I cannot believe it.

In case you were wondering, 'that' dessert was Banana Sticky Pudding from Thai Basil in Pacific Place. Here is a review I did for a local mag:

"Thai Basil
LG/F, Pacific Place, 88 Queensway, Admiralty – Tel: 2537 4682

Eating in Pacific Place’s Thai Basil is like sitting down for a meal in the middle of an airport concourse, but never mind the ambiance – here, your mouth is where the party’s at, and everyone’s invited.

The portions, the menu stresses, are meant to be shared, so you can bring your friends along to enjoy the explosion of taste, or if you're feeling greedy you can just keep it all to yourself and scoff it down with a grin. First stop on the list, traditional Thai prawn cakes with a quirky plum and coconut dip. The presentation is impeccable, the dip with a twist is just sweet enough and although the cakes are not easy to eat they are expertly fried, surprisingly delicate and not at all heavy or oily. And at least they actually taste of prawn, unlike the prawn rice paper rolls with miso and peanut sauce - the first bite is pleasing as the creamy mayo binds the cornucopia of shredded cucumber and mint leaf, but however soft, sweet and fresh the package might be there just isn’t enough prawn to justify its title.

But there’s no room for complaints, because in the space of just two dishes, the night’s festivities have already been savoury, sweet, crispy, soft and refreshing – so far so good. Then come the sautéed baby bok choy. Just looking at them makes you feel good inside and the crunch of the first bite doesn’t disappoint. The crispy garlic sprinkled on top gives interesting texture and the bok choy has retained all of its flavour during cooking. The yellow prawn curry with spinach and okra follows with just enough spice and the most pleasing amount of creaminess. Six giant juicy prawns are also on the curry’s guest list and, topped up with some coconut rice and jasmine tea, it feels like there just couldn’t be a better mix of flavours.

But the best combination of tastes is kept until dessert; the layers of the sticky banana pudding build up from a creamy puddle in which sits a spongy banana pudding to a perfect scoop of vanilla ice cream and crumbled honeycomb on top. Crispy, cool, cakey, creamy, this truly is a dessert to travel from far and away for...

For that and all of the other flavours attending that night, this is definitely a meal worth putting up with an airport atmosphere for. Now get yourself to Thai Basil's boarding gate, pronto."

However lame you think the review is, the dessert was exactly that - crispy, cool, cakey, creamy. Just. Perfect.

And now it is no more.

I just wish I had asked them for the recipe before they left forever. I don't know if I will ever get over this.