Flavours of the Orient

They say that all girl children are the apple of their daddy’s eye and all guys are mamma’s boys. In my case though, it is exactly the opposite. I’m my mother’s daughter and can safely say that whatever I am today - good, bad, ugly, the credit/discredit should go directly to her. My mother was a rebel in college and organized one morcha after the other; I spent a majority of my time outside class, playing marbles with the watchman and protesting parking ticket fee hike.

While my dad and brother would much prefer their ubiquitous north Indian, south Indian, East Indian (basically all things Indian) cuisine, mom and I are the experimental foodies in the family. So when Benjarong opened ten years back on TTK road, about two streets away from my house, the radar immediately went up. Off we trudged, cheerily, my mother and I, to discover the ‘Lingering taste of Thailand.’ There has been no looking back since.

I fell in love with the delicate, fiery, subtle, spicy and sensual experience that Benjarong embodies to me and can say with full gusto that it is a love affair that has continued over a decade; perhaps my most long-lasting one. I always try, and fail miserably every time when I try to point out that one special feature that makes this Thai restaurant a magical experience for me.  

Maybe it’s the décor…nah can’t be; sure it is nice, but that’s not what lends this place the midas touch. I could argue that it is possibly the amazing staff that makes you feel like you belong, but then again, no place survived on good service alone right?

Benjarong to me is special because it is unpretentious. It is simple, plain, sometimes rustic even when it comes to the food, but I guarantee you one thing – the chefs here do no cook because they have to, they cook because they want to; because if they if they did not serve you that perfect thick, creamy red curry with succulent pink prawns, or a bowl of glistening stir-fried greens just right, they would not be able to forgive themselves. The passion shows, the loves overpowers that.

So when I came to know that Benjarong had completed ten long years in the fine-dine business, my mother and I set off to be part of the celebrations, this time with me at the wheel (I was 15 then so I did not have a driving license) and promised to relive our first meal, only this time, we swore that it would be chopsticks all the way.

Did we use chopsticks? No. Did we eat the same meal that we have ten years back? No. But what we did have was some of the best, if the not the best Thai cuisine ever, with the stewards egging us on to try some new dishes on the menu. Well, there may be additions and a few subtractions from the menu, but like my mom said, “The heart and soul that goes into the food still remains the same.” And who am I to disagree? After all, ‘Thai’ (read: mother in Tamil) knows best right?