When someone says Thai food, the first thing you may think of is an aromatic and spicy bowl of Thai red curry. Hotel Sofitel Mumbai BKC brings such Thai curries as well as an assortment of other specialities from the country with a ten-day food festival starting 21 July. Chef Sirapong Pradit from hotel Pullman Bangkok King Power in Thailand is in Mumbai to showcase the diverse range of dishes eaten in his home country.
Pradit is from the bustling city of Bangkok in the central region of Thailand, which is the home of “tom yam goong (stir fried noodles with prawns) and the beloved Thai curry," he says in an email interview. “These are dishes I grew up eating and with this festival, I’m delighted to be able to present dishes from my childhood to the rest of the world.”
One of the signature curries Pradit has savoured since childhood was gaeng kiew wan gai, made with green chilli, garlic, shallot, galangal and lemongrass, giving the curry a signature green colour. The addition of coconut milk makes the dish creamy while retaining a spicy kick. The curry will be featured in the buffet at the festival, which has three different rotating menus to ensure that no two days are the same.
The dishes offered during the 10-day pop-up include favourites like pad thai goong (stir fried noodles with prawns) and tom kha gai (coconut milk soup with chicken) to lesser-known Thai foods like rad-na taley, consisting of rice noodles with a sweet gravy made from soybean and pla rad prik, which is a whole deep-fried fish topped with Thai red chilli sauce.
“We definitely have some unique dishes in this festival that people may not have heard of before, such as tod man khaopod, which are sweet corn fritters mixed with red curry paste and tom saab gai, a spicy chicken soup with aromatic herbs like basil which diners should try,” says Pradit.
To end the meal on a sweet note, a variety of Thai desserts like tab tim krob (water chestnuts in coconut syrup), kluay buat chi, or bananas in coconut milk, and bua loy which are glutinous rice balls in sweet coconut milk, are available.
The festival will end with a special brunch on 30 July, with exclusive dishes like gaeng panang gai, which is a Panang curry, mussamun kae, or lamb massaman curry and gai tod hat yai, which is fried chicken topped with crispy shallots.
Where: Sofitel Mumbai BKC
When: 21 July to 29 July with brunch on 30 July
Price: ₹3500 for one plus taxes
Contact: +91 9167391130 for reservations
