Saturday, April 08, 2006

Kaeng Phet Curry and Jyothika

Went to the Lotus restaurant in The Park yesterday. A friend was treating us and we chose this since I have never been to The Park. We were in early, 8.00 PM, so there wasn't much crowd. My friend had ordered the Lotus Cooler cocktail for me, even before I reached there. He was probably influenced by the description - Bacardi, Vodka, Triplesec and tropical fruits. The drink tasted like Lime Soda, couldn't find the vodka or the bacardi. Total failure.

The starter was a better choice. Fried Pomfret for the non vegetarians and stir fried potatoes in Garlic Sauce for the vegetarian me. The potatoes were heavenly, fried to the right degree, soft on the inside and crunchy outside. So, the meal wasn't going to be bad I thought. The Pomfret had an appealing look and the carnivores suggested that it was good. I chose vegetable fried rice and Kaeng Phet curry for the main course. The description was vegetable curry with coconut milk. My wife suggested a non coconut milk dish, so I chose this. Should listen to wife more often. The rice was good, but the Kaeng Phet was totally unpalatable. It was like they had poured in a tin of coconut oil in it. One spoon and it was discarded by all. Ate the vegetable rice with the various sauces kept in the table. The non vegetarians had better luck with their chicken dish. It must have been good since they didn't have much time to commisserate with me.

All of us decided to go for Fried Ice Cream for dessert, it is one of the world's heavenly dishes. The menu card had it, but the restaurant didn't. So we chose various desserts - I went with chestnut in jasmine water or something like that. It was like Paal Paayasam with chestnuts, good but not great. This time my wife was the unlucky one as she had chosen Icecream and Sticky rice. It might be bad pun, but the only thing I can say is the sticky rice was yucky.

At the end of the meal, couldn't resist comparing the Lotus with Benjarong, Chennai's premier Thai restaurant. Benjarong definitely wins hands down.

The consolation was having Jyothika seated in the next table. She looks far more cuter in person than in films. No, Surya wasn't there.

5 comments:

Anonymous said...

I had left a feedback after eating at shiok sometime soon after it had opened suggesting Madhu to check out Benjarong as i felt the thai i had at his restaurant was not as good.

I did not receive any reply...

Maybe you can get him to come to chennai post summer and take him there.

-Fire eater

Anonymous said...

you are not the first one who was disappointed that the hotel didn't have fried ice cream...

this has happened to me twice

Anonymous said...

main matter 2 lines - food description few paras. Ponga Sir !

Anonymous said...

i felt the thai i had at his restaurant was not as good

Hmmm... maybe we had an off day in the kitchen. It happens once in a while. I don't recall seeing your mail.

BTW, Chentil, "Kaeng Phet" is what is popularly known as "Red Curry".

Chenthil said...

I knew that Madman, just wanted to sound exotic :-)