Thai food is known for unique harmony of 5 tastes: sweet, sour, bitter, salty, and spicy. The cuisine is a marriage of centuries old Eastern and Western cultures. Thai cuisine reflects the characteristics of waterborne lifestyle. Aquatic animals, plants and herbs forms major ingredients. Thai people are very adaptive, which reflects in their cuisine. Culinary influences from Portugal, Holland, France, Japan, and China were ‘Siamesed’ to suite palates of local people.
Over the years, Thai food has gained popularity in India. After Chinese, it is the most popular Asian cuisine in the country. The so called Chinese restaurants have begun serving Thai dishes to enhance their appeal and offer variety to the consumers. My first brush with as Thai food was during my stay in Dubai a decade back where, for the first time, I came across the words like, ‘lemon grass’, galangal, ‘sriracha sauce’, etc. Not only the names but the intriguing smell of the ingredients made me curios enough to give it a shot. So, one evening I landed at my Filipino friend Annette’s home for the dinner to get the first hand experience of the South East Asian cuisines where these ingredients were prominently used. This dinner was epic not only in terms of exposure to SE Asian food but also because I came back empty stomach. My taste buds could not accept the taste and flavours. But over the years, my taste buds have started liking these flavours.
During last few months, I have experienced varied cuisines from all over the world. But somehow I could not have full fledged Thai affair. So it was a great opportunity to experience Thai Food at the destination for Pan-Asian flavours – Chew. The festival was organized to showcase the Thai flavours available in the menu to the bloggers. A proper Thai meal generally consists of soup, a spicy salad, a curry dish with condiments, a dip with accompanying fish and vegetables. The assortment of dishes at the festival were placed keeping the Thai food harmony in mind. There were two types of soup, three types of salad, eight types of entrées and five types of curries. Along with these, there was couple of surprise elements which sounded pretty interesting – Thai Sushi Rollsand Thai Sangria. Both these items are yet to be introduced into the main menu. Thai Sangria, made with Thai herbs and fruits infused in Red Wine, had a very peculiar smell, which could have been because of stale wine. Thai Sushi Rolls, both the veg and the chicken one tasted good but we could not decipher Thai flavours. The salads – Som Tam, Thai Mixed and Steamed Prawns & Green Papaya, were done with aplomb and all the bloggers loved it. Among entrées, we loved Thai Style Crispy Chicken which had intriguing flavours of lemon grass, galangal and Thai basil. With curries, Chicken Pad Thai Noodles and Thai Style Veg Fried Rice were served. While the noodles were too saucy, we could not decipher Thai flavours in fried rice.
The afternoon ended with delectable desserts. I had Mangofie Pie, which was my favorite from my last visit. The Thai flavours at Chew are intune with Indian palate and will be cherished by Asian food lovers.
