Like i mentioned earlier, Blue Elephant has their own range of grocery line, which includes pre-mixs for people, so you can get authentic Thai food at home without having to go through the hassle to cook a good meal. This includes the popular dishes of the Thai cuisine like Thai Basil Stir-fry Paste, Tom Yam and Green Curry. They also have their own Blue Elephant Cookbook, with full recipes of their popular dishes.
The brains and hard work behind the culinary empire, Blue Elephant - Mrs Noor Somany Steppe. She has travelled around the world as a Celebrity Chef to promote Thai cuisine on the world stage and have been awarded several awards for her success. A chef by profession, she still cooks (and teaches sometimes), and she spends the rest of her time traveling the world for inspiration because she feels the need to keep changing, which also explains her menu, which i was honestly very impressed with.
At Blue Elephant, there is a menu, and in that menu, you find 3 different menus. The menus are labelled - Thai Cooking of the Past, Thai Cuisine of Today and Thai Kitchen of Tomorrow. One look and you will know what those refer to, the past refers to traditional dishes, today represents the modern day dishes and tomorrow are dishes that are a fusion of Thai cuisine.
From Thai Cooking from the Past, we started off with the Rice Field Catfish and Prawns Salad. It was one of my favorite dishes. My partner disagreed and found it a bit too oily but i thought it was perfectly fine since you really cannot expect anything deep fried to be "oil-less". The whole dish was full of texture from the crispy fried minced cat fish, shallots, lemongrass, chili and ginger.
We also tried the Massaman Lamb Curry, which was served in a claypot (they serve using claypots in the past). The curry wasn't as spicy as i expected to be, and i liked it very much. The lamb was cooked till it was extremely tender and there were chunks of potato inside it as well.
For Thai Cuisine of Today, we had Tom Yam Koong because it is always a staple at Thai restaurants. However, this one fell a bit short. It was very spicy so i could not exactly get the sourness, and the prawns were overcooked. Also, it wasn't as flavorful as i expected it to be.
The Black Chicken Green Curry however, made up for it. I love green curry because it is probably the least spicy of all curry. The bits of black chicken meat in it soaked up all the goodness of the curry and wasn't overcooked so it was still tender. Served with crispy roti bread (which is some sort of like prata), i found myself soaking it in the delicious thick green curry as if it i was addicted.
Leaving one of the best for last was the Crab Curry with Betel Leaves. My partner and i attacked this dish because it was fantastically good. In fact, i don't think my photo does any justice to this dish. There was a massive load of fresh wholesome crab meat in the pot of yellow curry. And because the curry was so good, i ended up asking for an extra serving of rice.
Thai Kitchen of Tomorrow serves up fusion dishes, or rather more modern dishes. The Foie Gras Tamarind Sauce was extremely delectable because nothing can possibly go wrong with foie gras seared perfectly. My partner found the sauce a bit too tangy for the liking but i still gave this the thumbs up given i am quite a sucker for foie gras done right.
The Spicy Prawn Salad with Herbs and Avocado however, didn't quite make the mark. The prawns were slightly overcooked but the serving of avocado was quite a lot and the salad dressing was refreshingly sour, but yet a bit sweet. If the prawns were done perfectly, this dish would also have been one of my favorites.
To make things easier, there is a separate menu for dessert. Just like most meals, i am always most excited for dessert. The Chestnut Jasmine Cake is a traditional Thai dessert. It was moist and topped off with fried shallots, which gave it a bit of a savory taste. It was a bit like dessert, but not dessert.
My favorite among the desserts was the Ginger Creme Brulee topped with fresh ginger boiled with palm sugar. It was very light despite it was ginger (we tend to associate ginger to hot and strong) and it had bits of fresh coconut flesh in it, that gave it that x-factor.
Out of the ordinary was the Durian Cheesecake served with vanilla ice cream. It was unique, but i kind of prefer my cheesecake plain or with blueberry. Still, thumbs up for innovation. And if you were to ask me, it felt like the Chestnut Jasmine cake came from the past, the Ginger Creme Brulee from today and the Durian Cheesecake from tomorrow.
So the next time you are in Bangkok, you know where you need to go, whether you need to pick up Thai food condiments, go for a Thai cooking class, or to experience Thai food from the past, today and tomorrow. One stop for all, Blue Elephant is a must visit in Bangkok, or in this case, all over the world.
Blue Elephant Restaurant Bangkok
233 Sathorn Road
Yannawa, Sathorn
Bangkok 10120
+66 2 673 9353 8
This was an invited media tasting.
why all the restaurant dun serve pumpkin soup but all other soup.
ReplyDeletedahling i want pumpkin soup nom nom nom