Cuisine Focus: Thai

How popular would you say Thai cuisine is in the region?

Yu Hing, executive chef, Busaba Eathai Dubai: Thai food is getting more and more popular every day in the region because it’s so tasty. Thai food delivers variety and pungent flavours and including — sweet, sour, bitter, spicy and salty.

Sangwon Konluk, head chef, Fuchsia: The increase in the number of Thai restaurants here is evidence of the popularity of the cuisine. We also get a really diverse cross section of guests coming to us. Generally speaking though, we are seeing Thai cuisine becoming more popular on a global scale.

Thira Khamwong, brand chef, Lemongrass: Thai cuisine is very popular in the region, as it is across the world. One of the clear factors that reflects how popular it is, is the number of Thai restaurants that are available in Dubai whether they’re casual and relatively cheap, very high-end and exclusive, or mid-range like Lemongrass.

Supattra Boonsrang, chef de cuisine, The Thai Kitchen: The local audience is very familiar with Thai cuisine as Thailand has emerged as an extremely popular tourist destination. The Thai concept of creating a sharing experience is a notion that people in Dubai are very fond of which further adds to the cuisine’s popularity.

Nguyen Thani, chef de cuisine, Thiptara: With the trend towards a more health-conscious society, people prefer Thai cuisine because it is lighter than most other Asian cuisines. The dishes are naturally enhanced with herbs and spices for distinct flavours. Coconut cream or coconut water is generally used as opposed to butter, mayonnaise or cream.

Anan Tumya, head chef, Wise Kwai: Thai cuisine is very popular throughout the region due to the richness of flavours and the variety of dishes. Also, Thailand is a very popular destination and a lot of GCC residents have travelled to the Far East.

Have you noticed any trends in Thai cuisine?

Hing: Clean and healthy food is a trend in Thai cuisine. Low in calories, fat, and cholesterol, goat is poised to become the next go-to protein in 2017. Also, vegan options and super foods sunch as avocado and seaweed are appearing on menus. Our new menu will feature these ingredients with a Thai twist.

Konluk: We are experiencing an ethnic street food revolution in terms of food trends and that’s definitely a big influence when it comes to Thai cuisine. Customers are looking for bold, creative flavours and new takes on classics like pad thai and curries.

Khamwong: One of the trends that I have noticed lately is how there’s a lot of fusion coming into Thai cuisine. I recently came across a green curry served with pasta!

Boonsrang: Tapas and small dishes is an emerging trend in Thai cuisine. Diners prefer the tapas concept, allowing many dishes and flavours to be sampled and shared together as opposed to larger portions and fuller meals.

Thani: Soy sauce has seen a change. At Thiptara in Palace Downtown, we season and flavour our dishes with white soy sauce, also known as shoyu. Secondly, different varieties of limes are being used to enhance the properties of the dish such as Buddha’s Hand which has more orange scents and lime caviar which gives an intense burst of flavour.

Tumya: Thai cuisine has moved from being called the royal cuisine because of the elaborately decorative dishes with extravagant fruit and vegetable carvings, flowers etc. to a more casual street food style and taste. Dishes from the North-Eastern Thai region, like som tam gai yang or green papaya salad with grilled marinated chicken as well as tom yum soup are some of the best-selling dishes at Wise Kwai.

What are some specific challenges you face when it comes to Thai cuisine?

Hing: The spice level of the food is the main challenge. In addition, I would say that many people still don’t have enough knowledge of Thai cuisine. We hear ‘I’ve been to Thailand and this was done differently in there’. Street food may be slightly different than the food served in restaurants.

Konluk: It’s a little difficult getting people to differentiate the approaches to Thai food. Most people think of heavy, rich, and royal Thai cuisine, however, when it comes to Fuchsia we have a totally different approach. Our dishes are light, fresh and healthy. They are taken from traditional Thai cuisine but with a modern twist.

Khamwong: In our case, at Lemongrass Thai Restaurant, the challenge is really to remain as authentic as possible, this has been our mission from the start in 2002, and I believe our customers recognise and appreciate that about us.

Boonsrang: The biggest challenge is to provide a menu that offers a variety of choices while maintaining the cuisine’s authenticity. I learned to cook from my father and stay true to his technique, using fresh ingredients and making dishes that are packed with well-balanced flavours.

Thani: To stay as authentic as possible! A lot of traditional Thai dishes are prepared by mixing a variety of fresh ingredients. I would argue that authenticity is key to Thai cuisine with the best produce coming from the country of origin.

Tumya: The level of spiciness is definitely a challenge to keep up with considering that Dubai is a mix of ethnicities and nationalities resulting in highly varied spice tolerance depending on the individual taste. Thai street food needs a basic level of spiciness, which can be perceived as very hot for a person with no tolerance for spices.

Is it easy to source the ingredients that you need?

Hing: We have had some sourcing problems back in the UK due to local regulations however, here in Dubai, we have only faced some minor problems which haven’t affected our operations.

Konluk: While we manage to source most of the ingredients that we want, they aren’t always available on a consistent basis. It’s tough because sometimes we’ll introduce something on our menu and have to remove it the next week.

Khamwong: Sourcing quality and authentic Thai products is not an easy task in Dubai. We need to comply with the local culture and cannot use non-halal products. All the Thai vegetables that we use are sourced straight from Thailand and are shipped by air freight.It is a challenge to balance high quality, with reasonable cost prices in order not to affect our customer's bill.

Boonsrang: I have not faced any challenges in doing so. I grow my own herbs in a small garden within the grounds of Park Hyatt Dubai while key produce is flown in from Thailand ensuring the ingredients remain as fresh and authentic as possible.

Thani: Sourcing the right quality of ingredients is not always easy, however we work with a number of Thai speciality suppliers who assist us in ensuring Thiptara remains as authentic and true as possible.

Tumya: We do have Thai suppliers who import all the authentic Thai ingredients that we need and we also grow some of Thai herbs in-house. However, as we are striving to use only the fresh ingredients in our kitchen every day, importing everything does become a challenge. Thanks to our very professional suppliers, we do not face that problem often.