Friday, August 6, 2010

Flavors of Thailand: The Marriott Hotel’s Thai Food Festival

Happening from August 1 to 31, this Thai Food Festival entitled Flavors of Thailand will showcase the outstanding culinary talent of Chef Thanathorn Krobsuay of JW Marriott Bangkok at Marriott Café.


Brought to us by Marriot Hotel Manila and in partnership with the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Embassy of Thailand and Thai Airways, they flew in one of Thailand’s best chefs to share with us Chef Thanathorn’s wonderful talent in cooking authentic Thai dishes and fill our tummies with nothing but Thailand’s best foods.


Price of this buffet is a little expensive, but one thing is for sure, from 6 p.m. to 10 p.m., you’ll get to indulge to the most appetizing and delectable dishes Marriott Café has to offer, in simplest form – eat all you can, and one I’m sure you’ll crave for is the Thai cuisine.

And last night, it was a pleasure to be one of the bloggers who got to attend Marriott’s Thai Food Fest.

As Marriott Café was addorned with some Thai artworks and as receptionist dressed in Thai outfits, we were treated to a sumptuous Thai feast that we will never forget.


So, enough with the teasing, here are the dishes that I tried last night.

First, we were asked what Thai drinks we wanted to have. The choices were:

Tea Treats Concoctions

I picked Strawberry and Mango Infusion, since I really wanna feel the “likely” tropical dishes of Thailand. I was nice, I really enjoyed it! The taste was kinda mild; the fusion of the sweetness of mango and the nice soury-sweet flavor of strawberry was refreshing.

Strawberry and Mango Infusion

And since, it’s raining outside and the temperature inside the café was cool, we were immediately asked for the soup that we wanna have. The choices were Vegetable Soup and Carrot Soup.

Carrot Soup

As you can see in the picture, I picked the Carrot Soup. And gladly, it was really, really good. The creaminess of this soup was really perfect to set your appetite for this oozing Thai food trip.

And now that I’m all set, I first hit the salad bar.

In the salad bar were these three featured Thai salads.

Mango Salad

Bean Sprout Salad

Glass Noodle Salad

I wasn’t that aware that Thais have an authentic salad. And all were spicy as expected!  Betcha-by golly wow!

I tried all three salads since it was my first time to experience them. I didn’t like their Mango Salad. The taste was not friendly to my palette. It seemed that the flavours were neutralized making it tasteless. And the pungent smell was unfriendly to my nose. Me not likey. As for the Bean Sprout Salad, this one, I liked! It was actually my favourite salad. The nice blend of spices gave me the feeling that I’m dining in one of Thailand’s home-grown organic restaurants. It was that good that I had to return to the salad bar to have more. Hehehe. And as for the Glass Noodle Salad, I’m speechless. I never thought that the one which looked tame and all was the spiciest one. I liked it, to be honest, it’s just that I had to sip my Mango Strawberry Infusion after every scoop of this dish. It was really spicy.

For the main Thai dishes, there were seven authentic Thai dishes that night, and I liked them all. Everything that Chef Thanathorn prepared was really delectable and feast to our eyes!

The colors, the presentation and the aroma, mouth-watering! Really, really nice!

First, I had the spiciest soup I ever had in my life. (Yes, I had soup again.) The Thai’s Tom Yam Goong.

Tom Yam Goong
(spicy prawn soup with lemongrass and galangal)

The hot and spicy flavour will surely flow up to your nostrils. It was like our very own Sinigang but instead of the sour flavour, this one was really spicy. I didn’t manage to finish it because I can’t tolerate the spiciness, really. But other than spiciness, the taste was really good. This was a good appetite setter for a Thai food trip like this one.

Beef Curry


Green Curry with Chicken

Now, these two dishes were exceptional. Though, at first, I find them so plain and typical, but when I tasted them, there’s this distinct taste that marked on you palette. The aroma, for instance, may give that Thailand feel, but once you had it, it was like giving you a real Thai adventure. I was amazed that I liked these two curries.


And to have a break from all these spicy dishes, they also offered Thailand’s national dish - Pad Thai (stir fried noodle with seafood) – and a tummy-filling Thai Rice.

Pad Thai


Thai Rice

I must say that their Pad Thai was my favourite dish last night. The flavouring was just perfect. The perfect blend of the spices and natural flavour of the noodles was so yummy! As for the Thai Rice, though, it was a little simple, it was delicious too! These are really perfect to balance the spiciness of the other viands that we had.

And to complete the Thai dishes that were served to us last night, there was the Spicy Wok Fried Seafood and the Deep Fried Pork Canapes – a soothing blend of hot chilli and sweet flavouring on pork and seafood dishes.

Spicy Wok Fried Seafood


Deep Fried Pork Canapes

The Spicy Wok Fried Seafood was like paella but without the rice. The nice blend of spice gave this dish a strong flavour that will please your sense of taste. While the Deep Fried Pork Canape, which was my second favourite dish last night, was the one that kids will surely love and can tolerate to eat. It wasn’t that spicy at all, but the Thai flavour was there. Really authentic Thai flavour.

And as we thought these delectable Thai dishes ended there, the humble Chef Thanathorn was so generous and nice to share two more Thai dishes to us, bloggers - The Som tum and the Spicy Fish Fillet.

Som tum
(spicy green papaya salad)

Spicy Fish Fillet

It was really great night, indeed! But there’s no other way to end one oozing Thai night by having Chef Thanathorn’s desserts! Wee! I love desserts so much!

Chef offered us three authentic Thai desserts, the Pumpkin with Thai Custard, the Sweet Banana with Coconut Milk and their homemade ice cream, the Lemon and Lime Ice Cream.

Pumpkin with Thai Custard


Sweet Banana with Coconut Milk


Lemon and Lime Ice Cream 
with Pistachio nuts

They are all good, but the Lemon and Lime Ice Cream really stood out among the rest! It was really, really good! If I have something that I can recommend you all that I’m sure you’ll never be disappointed, that’ll be the Lemon and Lime Ice Cream! It will cleanse you mouth from all the spicy Thai food that you had. It was really the best dessert that any one who visits Marriot Café should have, it’ll simply put a big face to you face.

According to the guys of Marriot Hotel Chef Thanathorn conducts a free cooking class on August 12 at 2:30pm. Slots to the class are free by simply reserving at the Marriott Café reception and presenting a receipt.

 
And also, diners who avail of the Flavors of Thailand buffet can get a chance to win a pair of roundtrip tickets to Thailand courtesy of the Thai Airways and Tourism Authority of Thailand. The prize trip includes a three-night stay with breakfast at the Rennaisance Koh Samui Resort and Spa Thailand.

The Flavors of Thailand lunch and dinner buffet starts at PHP1,350.00 for adults and PHP675.00 for children, while Sunday brunch is at PHP 1,650.00. Children below 12 get in for half the price and children below 6 get in for free!

Thank you, Marriott Hotel! Thanks also to Chef Thanathorn Krobsuay of Thailand for visiting our country and sharing his gift and expertise to us!

Marriott Café
Ground Floor, Marriott Hotel Manila.
(632)988-9999 or visit www.marriott.com/mnlap


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