A few years ago, a friend had been trying to convince me into trying Thai food over a number of weeks. Defeated, I agreed and asked her pick one out. London, Thai Silk was the decision. As Saturday evening rolled by, we met outside the restaurant.
As we walked in, we were approached by a smiling hostess outfitted in an ivory coloured Thai dress. As were shown to our table and sat down, we were introduced to our waitress for the night. As the waitress fetched for the menu's, I took a chance to look and admire the fabulous decor. Once our waitress arrived, we had chosen our drinks and asked her kindly to give us a few minutes to decide our meals.
Most of the restaurant I've been to usually have approximately 4 to 6 pages for their menu. Thai Silk's was only a few pages shorter that the bible and the writing was as fine. As I scanned the pages within, I hadn't found anything that I had ever eaten before. Their descriptions hadn't helped either. I was surprised that my friend already knew what she had wanted, this clearly was sounding like a setup.
When the waitress arrived again, my friend picked out her meal. As I was having difficulty, I kindly mentioned to the waitress that is was my first time trying Thai food and that the menu was over whealming. "Do you have anything simple?" I asked. "Sir, would you like bread and water?" she replied humorously. My friend laughing didn't much help me in picking a meal either. The waitress almost spent 5 mins with me going through the menu, but unfortunately we failed to pick anything out.
She asked me that she can ask the chef to prepare a special dish. "How special is special?" I quizzed. "Sir, it's going to be many small dishes where you can try everything without having only one dish" she reassured. "Ok, that sounds good, thanks" I agreed. As the waitress went away, my friend was in hysteria. "You looked like you had a teacher helping you out with your school work" she laughed out. I ignored her.
When the meals had arrived, I had a large metallic brace-like frame with mini dishes hanging off. The waitress placed a portion of rice at the centre of the table of which she served a portion onto my plate.
I didn't know where or how to start. My eyes were caught by a dish of what looked like plain spaghetti. As I tasted it, it was very cold, very fishy and certainly not spaghetti. Another dish looked like steamed vegetables but was sweet. Sadly, I decided not to try anymore but stick to my white rice. Two spoons later, the waitress asked if everything was ok. "I'm sorry but I cannot eat this," I expressed. "Whats wrong sir?" she asked. "Everything is either cold, spicy, sweet or fishy, I can't take it anymore" I cried. She went away to decided to call the manger. My friend was far to busy eating and laughing.
The manager was well dressed man who kindly asked if anything was the matter. I explained that it was my first time that I had tried Thai. He kindly understood my point and agreed that Thai food is very different from anything else. Surprisingly, he kindly decided not to bill my meal and offered a free dessert. I declined but opted for the lemon tea instead, I needed to detox the flavours out of my mouth.
I have since have tried Thai three more times at the Blue Elephant at Fulham Broadway, London; and my experiances have bettered each visit. It's the most impressive restaurant I have ever been to. Within the building, there is a bridge stretching over a pond with live fishes, there are plants growing everywhere too.
I have always known not to mess with my taste buds. I think it's smarter to be simple and plain rather than adventures and then dead.
K
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