Food Mood – Benjarong

On Sunday evening, a couple of friends and I decided to get adventurous and try some Thai food. The one place synonymous with good Thai cuisine in Bangalore is Benjarong. 

To quench our thirst, we ordered the Tangy Watermelon (basically watermelon juice with a slight citrus twist to it) and a Summer Cooler. The Summer Cooler was a lovely drink made of tender coconut water, but more intriguing was the presentation which was worthy of any A-star beach resort. Do give this a try.

Summer Cooler

Tangy Watermelon

While we waited for our starter to arrive, we were presented with an appetizer of Miang Kum. This is a traditional Thai snack which involves wrapping various ingredients (ginger,peanut, red chili,onion and more in a sweet sauce) in a leaf. Almost like the Indian Paan, Miang Kum was a wonderful appetizer that left us craving more. The only reason we probably stopped was because we didn't want to stuff ourselves.

Miang Kum

The starter we order was Gai Hor Baitaey – a signature dish of Benjarong which made by wrapping marinated chicken in Pandanus leaves. The outer layer has a nice herbal taste of the leaves while the inside has a nice tender chicken. While the chicken was simply brilliant all by itself, it was made much better by the honey based dip that was served along with it. I definitely recommend this to anyone heading to Benjarong.

Gai Hor Baitaey

We had 3 dishes in the main course. The first was Phad Keemao Woonsen, which was glass noodles mixed with scrambled eggs, bok choy and soya sauce. I don’t recollect trying glass noodles before; I wasn't particularly thrilled with the texture. I don’t believe I would try this again.

Phad Keemao Woonsen

The second dish in the main course was Khao Phad Bai Graprou. This was spicy fried rice topped with hot basil and wrapped in a really thin layer of egg. The rice was quintessentially Thai with spice hitting all the right places. This is probably the type of rice that could go with almost any Thai gravy.

Khao Phad Bai Graprou

No Thai meal is complete without a red sauce curry. The final dish was Phad Prik Khing Chicken. It was a superb spicy red gravy chicken that supplemented the rice very well and even made up for the lack of enthusiasm I had with the glass noodles.

Phad Prik Khing Chicken

We were too full to eat any more, but no respectable meal is complete without dessert. We chose to share a single serving of Sankhaya Fakthong which was coconut pumpkin custard topped with a scoop of coconut ice cream. Sadly, the dessert was a bit of a letdown for the evening. I wouldn't recommend you try it.

Sankhaya Fakthong

Benjarong is a nice place for the occasional Thai outing. The reason I say occasional is that the price is on the higher side for me, but I guess that’s the cost of a genuine Thai meal. The highlights of the evening were the Gai Hor Baitaey starter and the Miang Kum appetizer. A shout out to the waiters who were very knowledgeable about all the dishes; and waited patiently to serve us while I took pictures of the food.