[Rated: 4.0/5]
The Songkran festival is a derivative of the Sanskrit word sankrānti,. It is celebrated in Thailand as the traditional New Year’s Day from 13 to 16 April. Songkran has traditionally been celebrated as the New Year for many centuries, and is believed to have been adapted from our own festival of holi. The celebration has a lot of splashing of water, but mercifully no colour is used.
I am here at Red Zen, the hotel’s Pan Asian restaurant to try out its Songkran set menu which is going to be available at Rs 1350 + taxes from 12th April until 28th April 2013. I am greeted at the entrance by expat chef Piyawat who enthusiastically explains the New Year celebrations and its rituals. While there is no special cuisine that goes with this festival, the chef promises to give his guests a unique food experience.
Soon the feast starts. To begin, I am served some Thai tea, which is tea leaves cooked with condensed milk and kaffir lime. It is a taste very different to what I am used to but refreshing nevertheless. This is followed by an array of starters. The first to be served is Ka nom Pang Na Kung (crispy shrimp toast with plum sauce) which is pleasant and crispy. Tung Thong (deep fried Thai mix vegetable money bags) delights with its aromatic herbs, but the Kai Sod Si (grilled chicken wrap with rice paper serve with spicy dip) is disappointing since the wrap has gone all dry and crumbly. Satay Jay (grilled mushrooms, babycorn, capsicum skewered Thai style and served with a sweet spicy sauce) is different from its Indonesian cousin by being extra spicy. The star starter is Som Tam Rum Mid (raw papaya and mix fruit salad) which tastes wonderful with its fruity, crispy and spicy medley of tastes.
The Pho Teak Talay (spicy seafood soup with herb and hot basil) is a light and fragrant clear soup with pronounced Vietnamese influences, and has an exciting taste. The soup and the starters are well selected because they get the palate excited for more and set the stage for the main course.
Thai cuisine is not really known for its desserts, and what is served here illustrates it. Ruam Mid (water chestnut, corn, sweet potato and rambutan in sweet coconut cream) is somewhat listless and has a unidimensional taste.
The highlight of the meal is served right at the end. Miam khan, the Thai paan is normally served at the beginning of the meal, and is the counter-point of our own kalkatta meetha paan. The chef kindly becomes the paanwallah for me and makes my paan exactly the way any Thai local will have it. I get a paan with green chillies, two kinds of ginger, two kinds of coconut, dried shrimp, chopped onions and palm jiggery syrup. The bite is truly mind blowing. Here is a paan leaf with sweet tones….but alongside that are all kinds of flavours bursting into the mouth. The end result is the same…..a tingly, fresh taste in the mouth.
The Songkran food festival provides a unique opportunity to sample some real taste of Thailand…..and not to miss, the Thai paan!
Rating out of 5
Food: 3.5 | Ambience: 4.0 | Service: 4.0 | Overall: 4.0
Meal for two: Rs. 3000| Alcohol: Yes | Credit Card: Yes | Timings: 7PM – 11.30PM
Address: Courtyard By Marriott, 27, B Block, Sushant Lok 1, Gurgaon | Telephone: 0124 4888444, 0124 4888245
Disclaimer: This review was done upon the invitation of the restaurant. However, care has been taken to ensure that it is objective.
