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Article |
Nation |
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The nation 143 |
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House of Gurame, Authentic Indonesian
Restaurant. |
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About one year ago, the lower ground
floor of the Grand Hyatt which was
once Sogo store was renovated and
replaced with a very chic food court
containing many restaurants with their
own seating areas. There are about 5
restaurants surrounding the central
escalator and fountain that leads to
the upper floors. These restaurants
offer very different types of cuisines
and definitely represent the very
international flavors of the location
of The Urban Kitchen.
One restaurant, The House of Gurame,
have brought authentic Indonesian to
Bangkok. I am quite familiar with
Indonesian food since my returned to
Thailand 12 years ago. In particular,
while I was consultant to Thai Airways
International for 3 years. On many
occasions I had the opportunity to
visit Indonesia and sample and learn
about Indonesian cuisine. Not too many
Thais are familiar with Indonesian
food. There are not too many
Indonesian Restaurants in Bangkok and
I am delighted that House of Gurame
has been opened at the Urban Kitchen
to give the area another choice of
cuisine for Thais and foreign visitors
alike. |
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Thais take it for granted that
our food is always good. We
therefore, are not too
adventurous in trying
something different. This is
especially true with Malaysian
and Indonesian food. Most of
my friends that I invited to
try Indonesian food associated
Indonesian food with highly
spiced cuisine of India. They
claimed that it was too highly
spiced and the aroma was too
over powering.
Obviously, this was a
misconception. In order to
appreciate the any cuisine we
have to first understand the
food culture of that country
and they way they eat food.
Compared to Thai cuisine,
Indonesian food is more
similar to Indian food but not
as heavy as most people
imagined. To Thai taste bud,
Indonesian food is probably
too bland for us but if you
were to understand their
eating culture and the
selection of ingredients that
they use in their cooking you
would be able to appreciate
their cuisine much more.
Their Satay is definitely much
better their ours. Each stick
of Satay is full of juicy and
thick pieces of beef and
chicken. It is spiced and
seasoned perfectly. You can
certainly wrap your lips
around each piece of meat and
savor the aroma and juiciness.
Thai Satay tends to be thin
slices of meat, marinated,
skewered and grilled. The
resultant product is most
times chewy and rather dry. To
my surprise Gurames satays
juicy and not too sweet like
most Thai Satays. Their sauce
is also similar to the Thai
version but not as sweet
although thicker. Two
vegetarian dishes which I
tried were very tasty. Sambal
Terong or fried eggplant with
spicy Sambal chili paste on
top, was delicious. You need
to eat it with rice though,
for I found that the fried
eggplant was oily and quite
rich. |
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Their Kang Kung Cah or
stir-fry morning glory
with shrimp paste, was
similar to a Chinese dish.
The smell of the shrimp
paste lends this dish a
special aroma and flavor.
You can see the influences
of Malay, Indian and
Chinese food cultures in
Indonesian food. Ikan
Bakar or grilled marinated
fish represents Chinese
and Indian influences. The
fish is marinated in a
special soy sauce that the
Indonesian use in their
cuisine which does not
have the scent of the
fermented soy beans. Brown
sugar is used to give the
marinade a more mellow
sweetness to the BBQ fish.
Gurame Goreng is very
Chinese. Here they use
fresh water fish and
filleted the meat and
retaining the bones, deep
fry it and serve with
spicy soy dipping sauce.
But here again the dipping
sauce is more mellow and
not what most Thais would
serve with fried fish. I
am sure they would prefer
a spicy salty and sour
chili garlic dipping sauce
instead but I was quite
content with the sauce
that came with the fish.
Most of the curries
especially curry fish head
with okra, Gu Lai Ikan,
has Indian influence but
is definitely spiced much
lighter than the Southern
Indian fish head curry. I
loved it because it was
quite light and the fish
head was very fresh.
Rendang Daging, similar to
Thai beef mussamun curry
was richers and heavier
and does not have that
hint of sourness as in the
Thai Mussamun but it was
not sweet either. |
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The flavor and
texture is more Indian
than Thai Mussamun but not
as rich and heavy as the
Indian curries.
Unfortunately, there were
not many people when I had
dinner at House of Gurame
so I was only able to
taste a few dishes but I
found that their food to
be quite representative of
the food Thai I had tried
and tasted in Indonesia.
I think many of you who
read my column are
familiar with Indonesian
food and even some of you
like it. I hope that my
writing about this new
eatery will entice you to
take the sky train to the
Urban Kitchen. And for my
fellow Thais who would
like to try Indian food
but are afraid of the
heavy spices will find
that Indonesian food is a
very pleasant blend of
Indian, Chinese and Malay
flavors that is quite
pleasant for your palate. |
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House of Gurame Urban Kitchen, Lower
Ground Floor,
Erawan Bangkok,
494 Plernchit Road, Bangkok 10330
Telephone: 0 2250 7688 |
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