Sweet, sour, salty, spicy. Thai street eats have enchanted many a traveller – including one David Thompson who was so seduced that he now calls Thailand his second home.
At Long Chim, the chef’s newest restaurant in Marina Bay Sands, the menu offers as wide a variety of food as the streets of Bangkok. However, Thompson has refined the fare by using high quality ingredients, such as wagyu for a dish of charred rice noodles and specially sourced authentic hot sauce from Si Racha (the Thai town that inspired the creation of Huy Fong Foods’ sriracha sauce sporting the rooster logo) to accompany many items.
While Thompson tries to stay true to authentic flavours, he alters many recipes to deepen the flavours and make them more rounded. Similarly at Nara Thai, a popular Bangkok restaurant with an outlet at Ion Orchard, the sauces are “adjusted to be less acidic and salty to suit the more sensitive palates of Singaporeans”, says a representative. “Other than that, we try to stay as true to our Thai recipes as possible.”
Indeed, the sophistication of Thai street food allows it to transcend dining formats without losing authenticity. After all, with something as perfect as miang kham – dried prawns, ginger, peanuts and toasted coconut wrapped in betel leaves, each mouthful an explosion of many layers of flavours – what is there to do but enjoy it as it is?