Step into The Residency’s Chin Chin restaurant and the warm glow of red lamps envelops you. Smiling Buddhas preside over meals eaten in electric candle light and instrumental Thai music plays in the background. The man behind the Thai food festival, chef Uttam Bomzone, joins us for dinner to decode the unpronounceable Thai dishes on the menu. He has flown in from The Residency Chennai where he is their speciality Thai chef.
We begin with Tom Yum soup, a wonderfully spicy concoction of roasted red chilli paste, lemongrass and galangal (Thai ginger), that hits the back of your throat. “These three ingredients are responsible for the distinctive flavours in most Thai food. They are sourced through Delhi, from Bangkok,” explains Uttam. The soup also contains stock made through a laborious four-hour process of boiling water with Thai herbs wrapped in a pouch. “The stock forms the base for many curries as well,” says S. Ashok Kumar, executive chef at The Residency.
A GOOD START
For starters, we’re served Satay Kai, grilled chicken, marinated with garlic, turmeric and coconut milk, and served with creamy peanut sauce. There’s also Tod Man Pla, deep fried patties filled with melt-in-the mouth fish. The vegetarian take uses a sweet corn kernel filling instead.
A must-have is the Goong Hom Pha, prawn flavoured with oyster sauce and black pepper, blanketed with its tail peeping out and deep fried. It comes with a tangy-sweet chilli dip.
But what’s a Thai food festival without red or green curry and steamed rice? And Uttam does not disappoint. His Kaeng Phed (red curry), has a velvety base of coconut milk and roasted red chili paste, flavoured with shallots, sundakkai and sweet basil leaf. Kaffir lime leaves add the perfect aroma. Salt in Thai food is traditionally drawn from fish sauces explains Uttam. To keep with vegetarian preferences, he’s used regular salt instead. The taste doesn’t differ much he assures us, except that the saltiness of fish sauces is more pronounced.
The festival also offers many stir-fried options of vegetables, chicken, beef or lamb for the main course. We check out the Phad Med Mamuang Kae, stir fried lamb punctuated with crunchy cashews, mushrooms and sweet peppers. Rice is central to Thai food and it often comes in unrecognisable forms, as in the Kuey Teow Pad - flat noodles made from rice. Its tomato paste texture is in great company with the lamb.
After a journey of sharp, strong and varied flavours, Uttam brings along the perfect conclusion with his Tub Tim Krob. It’s an unusual dessert made of water chestnuts soaked overnight with crushed strawberries, strained and boiled into a chewy pink jelly. Coconut milk and sugar syrup are poured over it with a pinch of salt and this is garnished with crushed ice. Absolutely fantastic!
As food festivals go, the Thai Food Festival at The Residency is uncompromising on authentic Thai flavours and bold in its decision to not dilute the menu with Indian offerings. During the festival, Chin Chin doesn’t even offer its regular Chinese menu. It leaves the diner entirely in Chef Uttam’s capable hands.
The Thai food festival is on at Chin Chin in The Residency for lunch and dinner till September 23. For reservations contact, 0422-2241414, 98430-71777
