Nara All The Way

Thai cuisine has always been popular among the Indian gourmands, and Nara, already entrenched in BKC, Bombay’s high-end corporate hub, now comes closer home to South Bombay foodies with top-notch rendition of classic Thai dishes

Text : Javed Gaya

Thai cuisine is one of the more exciting cuisines in the world and one which we Indians have a particular fondness. This is not surprising as it is spicy, it has curries, rice is a staple and its ingredients are familiar but not used in the same way as in our cuisine, for example lemon grass and basil are widely used as are coriander stalks, but these are not used so much in Indian cuisine. It is also vegetarian friendly or can be made so if meat and seafood is avoided in the stocks and animal fat is substituted with oil when frying. It has also become popular because of the attraction of Bangkok which has become one of the more popular places for Indians to visit as it is a relatively close and reasonably priced holiday destination.

Bangkok’s culinary attractions lie in its street food, its Pad Tai noodles, its curries, its satays and, recently acknowledged by the Michelin Committee, the crab omelettes. These stalls and dhaba type eating places are frequented by locals and tourists alike and anyone who has been to Bangkok finds the whole street food experience utterly entrancing.

Given these factors what is surprising is the relative paucity of quality Thai restaurants in the city, the Thai Pavilion has been the most popular and frequented Thai restaurant and in a sense set the bar for quality Thai cooking. My only issue with the Thai Pavilion has been that Anand Solomon had some 10 years ago introduced the Royal Thai Cuisine from the Royal Kitchens, hence exotic dishes involving, for example, foie gras. I do not have a problem with that, save to say that it is not recognised as Thai cuisine people normally eat.

My own favourite was Ian Kittichai’s restaurant in the Intercontinental which survived three years and unfortunately had to close down. That was much more authentic Thai street food, as befits a Chef whose mother ran a food stall in Bangkok.

So the opening of a new Thai restaurant, Nara in Colaba adds much to the South Bombay restaurant scene. Nara is a Thai chain from Bangkok and has an interesting history. It was founded by a group of female entrepreneurs who basically concentrated on serving Thai comfort foods since as Pad Tai noodles and then evolved into making Thai classics such as the tom yum with shrimp, the Massaman curry, etc. What is evident is that this particular chain is not known for innovation but sticking to the classics, and is committed to quality ingredients including hand-made curry pastes and homemade sauces. It does not pretend to be fine dining, it has a presence in malls; what it does showcase is authentic Thai cuisine.

It is thanks to the enterprise of Kishore Bajaj that this particular chain has been brought to India to add to his stable of other trophy brands such as Hakkasan and Yauatcha. Nara already has a presence in BKC, albeit with a slightly limited menu. On my trip to the BKC restaurant I must confess to being underwhelmed but perhaps that may be because of what we ordered which was not particularly adventurous. It would be unfair to pass judgment on the restaurant for that experience and I was open-minded about the new Nara, which has opened in the magnificent Amarchand Mansions in Colaba. The Thai designer had taken full advantage of this heritage space to make the dining ambience completely charming and sophisticated, making it one of the most attractive restaurants in the city.

The menu is capacious, covering a variety of meats, seafood and vegetables, marked by an abundance of appetisers, which given the very generous portions, have the making of a meal by themselves. As we had gone at lunchtime on a working day, the preference was to be as light as possible so despite the temptations and siren voices, I avoided the Lamb Shanks in Massaman Curry which I am sure would have been exquisite. Alas for another time.

We started with salads in the appetisers and ordered the Pomelo Salad which had large chunks of pink pomelo, coated in tamarind paste, roasted palm sugar, roasted peanuts and shallots. Traditionally this is served with dry shrimp paste and even cooked prawns, but out of deference to vegetarians this was absent, the freshness, crunchiness and the sweet and sour flavour was sublime. Pomelo being a super food is great for dieters and supremely virtuous. It is a dish from Northern Thailand and for those who dislike pomelo it can be substituted with the classic green papaya and lemongrass, or even jackfruit.

Another revelatory dish was the Crispy Fried Lotus Root with Water Chestnuts, a combination made in heaven. Lotus roots or bhee I find strangely underrated, only the Sindhis here give it its due importance, but this dish is thoroughly recommended. I also ordered one of my all-time favourites which was the Thai Fish Cakes. Thai Fish Cakes are unlike western fish cakes not only because they are spicy– red curry paste is invariably used– but because they do not use potato as a binding agent.  It is the collagen of the fish which binds them and this may have the tendency to make them rubbery; so timing is all. Once fried, they should be served immediately, otherwise they toughen.  These fish cakes were perfect, well-spiced and with the right texture.

There were some Dim sums which were different, one particular beetroot coloured dumpling tasted as interesting as it looked. The Chicken in Pandan Leaves tasted as they should have, perhaps that was not such an inspired choice given the range of the menu.

For me the real revelation of the meal was the soup, the ubiquitous Tom Yum. A cultural facet of Thai eating is that soup is not like it is in West, served at the beginning of the meal; it is part of the meal and works as a balancing agent, for many Thai soups are too pungent. Not surprising considering that the Thais eat the soup with rice as a sort of alternate curry. But I digress. If any dish epitomises Thai food it is the Tom Yum as it packs a terrific punch on the basis of minimal ingredients. The Tom Yum at Nara has captured the flavour but it had something else which I had not encountered, a slightly creamy texture associated with coconut; apparently a little coconut powder was added to the soup. I enjoyed that and actually thought it was an improvement, but in a way it sort of detracted from traditional Thai eating practices.

As homage to the recent Michelin award, we ordered the crab omelette. For Westerners, the Asian omelette is an abomination. It is deep fried in searingly hot oil. It can be greasy, but this was not and it was stuffed with delicious crab meat. No fluffy French omelettes here, but a balance to the array of flavours otherwise prevailing.

The stellar dish of the day was the Stir-Fried Prawns with wild coriander, beautifully spiced with the coriander which has an unusually pungent flavour– a master class in how wok cooking should be conducted, with minimum oil and the maximum taste. Prawns or shrimps were serious, large, fresh and succulent. In a way it eclipsed the Steamed Chilean Sea Bass which was a classic, but somehow I prefer the sea bass at Hakkasan.

To accompany the dishes we ordered Jasmine Rice and my own favourite and the test of a serious Thai restaurant, the Pad Thai Noodles– thin rice noodles which give a creative chef a cornucopia of opportunity to vary spicing and ingredients to create something unique. The Pad Thai Noodles were near perfect and one important factor was that they were freshly-made by the restaurant, like in Italian pasta there is a definite premium to freshly made noodles. In fact what we are informed is that most of the vegetables including the lotus root are imported from Thailand as the quality is not to be found here. This is in line with the great emphasis the Nara chain pays on the best produce although the cost of procuring it must be substantial.

If the quality of cooking and the ambience could not be better, the only area for improvement is perhaps the wine list and the cocktails which could do with some expansion and perhaps a touch more sophistication. We enjoyed a delicious German Reisling with our meal, a wine which goes well with spicy cooking.

What was very welcome though given the sky-rocketing rents and the hassles of importing quality produce into India, were the prices which I thought were very reasonable. Most of the vegetarian starters were in the range of Rs.300-400 and the non-vegetarian items were in the range of Rs.500-600. Whether those prices will remain as the restaurant becomes more known or popular, I do not know but I think one should take advantage of the pricing and enjoy this latest and most welcome addition to the Bombay culinary scene.

Nara Thai
Amarchand Mansion, Madame Cama Road, Colaba, Mumbai - 400001