Date: 1 – 10 December 2017
Venue: Pullman New Delhi Areocity

Thai food fans – this one is for you. Honk Pullman New Delhi Aerocity is hosting a Thai food festival curated by Chef Pook who is here from Bangkok. She has apparently got with her 10 varieties of chillis and is doing most of the cooking herself.

We had  a taste of this recently when we tried the festival soon after its inauguration. Among the salads we chose Pomello that was garnished with boiled eggs and had a hint of coconut milk. And how could we forget the chilies. This was one hot salad that we have had. Although it doesn’t come with a spice alert, it may not be suitable for people who don’t like spicy.  It is of course heaven for people who generally avoid salad for being bland.

From the starters, we had fish cakes that were somewhat like Pakora but not quite. The fish filling in this was unique and a great fusion between Indian style fried cuisine and seafood richness so popular in Thailand and other South-East Asian cuisines. The other seafood dish that we had was Grilled Salmon in Dried Gravy from the main course section. The salmon slice was firm, yet soft, and the sweet gravy on this balanced the texture of this dish. While this went well with jasmine rise, we liked it on its own. This dish is a must try.

The other main course dishes that we had included Green Curry with Prawn. We are always biased towards this dish and this time, the fresh fleshy prawns were a welcome break from chicken. A bowl of rice came with it. The Pad Thai with chicken was the side that we ordered but tasted better on it’s own.

The dessert section had Water chestnut and banana pumpkin in coconut milk. It is a little plain when compared with the richness of the other sections of the menu and may not excite a strong sweet-tooth. Given the heavy dinner otherwise, we didn’t mind going easy on the dessert section.

We also had the green teas Gunpowder and our favourite from last time Rise and Shine to wind up the experience.

The Thai menu is actually short and crisp and doesn’t blow the head. Brownie points from us for that. What doesn’t work here is the delay in service – at times 35 minutes between dishes.  This spoils the pace of the meal and confuses the appetite. The great taste of the dishes is some compensation.

We have been to Pullman before like to greet the Indian cricket team. It has always been calming experience. Something to do with time on hand.  So if you are not in a rush and need a break from Indian wedding food so all around everybody this season – the Thai Food festival at Honk, Pullman New Delhi Aerocity could be a Fun-Do.