My Grand Tour Experience: A Taste of Thai by Joshua Pratama

Thailand is famous for its tasty and spicy cuisine. Follow Joshua’s journey of savouring the richness of Thai delicious dishes (in his spare time while preparing for assignmentsJ).

The Gastronomy 1: Bringing Thai Cuisine to the Next Level

Time flies. For me, this idiom is so true since I cannot believe it is halfway through my Grand Tour experience in Thailand. Of course, there are many things going on now, such as my final presentation and role-play in Spanish.

Anyway, although the preparation for these two assessments takes so much time and efforts, it does not stop me from what I truly like; FOOD TRAVELLING! Last Saturday (which apparently was International Women’s Day too), my friend and I embarked upon a gastronomic journey to the centre of “The Big Mango”, none other than Bangkok.

Voted as No. 28 of Asia’s Top 50 Restaurant 2014, Bo.lan Thai restaurant is wholeheartedly ready to serve you with an authentic Thai dining experience. Nestled in the bustling, vibrant Sukhumvit district, this restaurant is just superb in terms of quality, atmosphere as well as service.

Having decided for an a la carte menu, I ordered Bo.lan Nahm Mao as the aperitif. Mao, in Thai, literally means drunk. I was a little bit tipsy somehow even though the sweetness of palm nectar, warmness of ginger and aromatic of lemongrass balanced strong alcohol contained. A nice treat to start!

Are you ready for the full version of a mouth-watering experience? First up was a bowl of soup called dhom gati nua nong, which is coconut-based soup of salted “KU” beef shank and pickled bamboo shoot (THB 320++). It was muy delicioso (take some Spanish phrases that I have learnt ^_^) although it was a little bit too spicy for us. Perhaps, this was the lowest spiciness level for a typical Thai cuisine.

Main courses to be shared? Yes, we are not going Dutch, meaning that we did not order for individual dishes, but instead two main courses to be shared. Since we were in a Thai fine-dining restaurant, we embraced Thai’s collectivism culture in dining. Finally, we fell in with the same decision to order called pad pla muk kai kaem (THB 520++) and geang gai sai yuak guai (THB 620++). In translation, they refer to stir-fried Ranong squid with Chaiya salted duck egg and southern-style red curry of organic chicken from Phang-gna with banana heart respectively. They were not that spicy compared to the previous soup since we have said “mai ped” to the waiter, which means “not spicy”. Crafted lovingly in a chic plate presentation along with tasty flavours is probably the best balance of a proper dish for one to savour. Similar to Indonesian cuisine, what I can say about Thai food is its richness in spices and herbs that produce a lot of flavours, textures and aromas.

What else can you expect from a fine-dining restaurant? For me, it should have an awesome finishing touch to the whole dining experience, the desserts! Again, my friend and I agreed to the same thing, which is young lotus seed served with purple yam dumpling with young coconut simmered in coconut cream (THB 320++). It looked very simple as this warm dessert was mainly made from coconut. However, the taste was simply stunning combined with a soft texture of a creamy-like pure coconut pudding. This just made my day after such a long day trip! 

Overall, I would highly recommend this restaurant when you travel to Bangkok. It is worth to try! If I were given a chance to rate this restaurant, I would say 8 out of 10 by taking the three aspects of food quality, atmosphere and service into consideration. Make sure you make a reservation in advance (a couple days before your arrival is preferable) due to limited space and high demand especially from the tourists.

Lastly, wish me luck for my Spanish presentation and role-play this week! I really hope that I could pass with flying colours. Keep following my blog, as I will feature more food recommendations in the future!