Hey everyone, hope you're having an amazing day.
It's Mark Wiens.
I'm in Bangkok Thailand, and today we're going to a restaurant that's called Si Ananda Bawan, which is one of the best South Indian food restaurants in Bangkok.
We're specifically going to eat the giant banana leaf thali, which I think includes something around 19 different dishes on a banana leaf, And so we're gonna have a chance to see some of the cooking, and then I'm gonna share this entire South Indian food thali feast with you right now.
And so the restaurant that we're going to is located just a couple buildings down from the Si Mahamaryaman Hindu Temple, which is one of the main Hindu temples in Bangkok.
We're right in the heart of Bangkok, right in downtown Silom, Bangkok.
And here we are.
It's right on the corner of Silom Soy 15.
Love their slogan already.
Our food, you love it.
That's exactly what I'm here for.
Ratchan, very nice to meet you.
Nice to meet you.
What type of South Indian food are you serving here?
Sri Ananda Bhavan here in Bangkok.
Actually, there's many Sri Ananda Bhavan in the world.
We are actually unique from.
We are not.
We are not part of any chain.
We are standalone here, unique restaurant and we are Chettinad cuisine, Tamil Nadu.
Ah okay, specifically Chettinad.
Chettinad food yes, so it'll be spicy peppery uh, a lot of flavors in terms of coconut and use of coconut.
And are you from Chettinad?
I'm from Tamil Nadu.
Tamil Nadu, okay.
Very excited to be here.
Thank you for being here.
Thank you, okay.
So we're gonna go into the kitchen to see some of the cooking.
Yes, yes.
So we met up with Ratchan, who is the owner of the restaurant, and he just briefly explained to me that this is a restaurant that serves Chettinad food, which is in the state of Tamil Nadu in South India.
And I believe it's in kind of even the south part of Tamil Nadu, so it's really really far south at the tip of India.
You can already smell the spices, the dry spices.
I know they're famous for Chetanad crab curry, but we're gonna have fried fish.
We're gonna have the full thali food mix meal experience.
And the chefs are about to get started cooking right now.
What are you cooking first?
Oh, masala fish, okay.
Oh, I love it.
Oh, this will get griddle fried.
Chef, what are you making here?
This is chopped curry.
Oh, I see curry leaves.
Oh, that's amazing.
It smells so good.
What is that, Chef?
Chettinad masala.
Chettinad masala.
Chettinad masala, okay.
Wow, if you could smell this Chetanad crab curry, it's just insane.
The aroma of those spices, both the dry spices, the chutney.
Oh man, the herbs, the curry leaves in there.
He just tossed in a handful of coriander, the aroma. is just absolutely sensational.
My mouth is watering through the mask that finishes off that Chetanad crab curry with a splash of coconut milk.
And that's just simmering away.
Oh man, that smells just literally unbelievable.
Chicken 65.
Oh, it's one of the signature dishes here.
Oh breadcrumbs, okay.
Breadcrumbs, awesome.
I just absolutely love how they handle spices, just tossing them around.
You gotta feel the spices.
There's no measurement, there's no pure recipe, but it's about just feeling digging into those spices, feeling it with your fingers, mixing it into the food.
That's experience, that's expertise.
This one will be cooked in the tandoor?
Okay.
Now things are really just getting out of control.
The chefs are just flying around the kitchen cooking so many dishes.
And there's a whole tandoor oven over in this corner, marinated the fish on the skewer.
This is a Kerala person.
Oh, this is a Kerala person.
I hope you're already loving this video and enjoying the food.
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Man, so much respect to the chefs, just like darting from one side of the kitchen to the other side of the kitchen, cooking multiple dishes at a time.
Just remembering which dish they're cooking is something commendable.
And then, on top of that, doing everything with so much speed and preparing ingredients, deep frying things, stir frying things, tossing in spices.
Spices are just flying everywhere.
Respect to the chefs.
The aroma of tempering spices and curry leaves sizzling in oil.
It's an aroma your nose will never get tired of.
Squid.
Okay.
Squid curry.
How about that?
Okay, I'm just seeing now, that's the list, 19 dishes.
We're eating 19 South Indian dishes for lunch today on a list that is the ultimate thali.
And literally, they made 19 dishes in like 30 minutes.
Wow, it smells unbelievable.
They're so, chefs are so good.
Thank you.
So it includes 19 dishes, right?
Wow.
Oh wow, that was, that was a thrilling experience in the kitchen.
This is the full tally?
The full tally, 19 items.
19 items.
And South Indian food is some of my favorite food in the entire world.
Although I've never been to Chettinad.
So this will actually be my first meal of really regional Chettinad food.
Although I've been to other parts of South India, I've never been to Chettinad.
And I think this is straight up like transporting yourself to the heart of Chettinad.
Oh, here comes the dosa.
Wow.
Plain dosa with the sambars on the side?
Oh, look at that dosa.
Oh, dosa is another... one of the greatest food items, food groups on earth.
Is there a common way dish to start with or you just dig in?
The actual thali system is you have to open the stomach by eating the sweet first.
So you take that a little bit.
So the stomach gets used to some kind of light food, the sweet, and move into the spicier curry.
So this is actually to be eaten first, the dessert.
There's cashews in here.
Kind of fluffy and spongy.
You've got the flavor of the toasted cashews and some I think raisins.
And there, is it semolina?
Yes, and it's rice flour and carrot.
Ah, rice flour and carrot okay okay, you taste the ghee yeah, and the spices, like cardamom raisins and cashews.
And now i'm, i'm ready, my stomach is prepared, to move on to the spicier dishes.
I'm just going to go ahead and start with this right here, which is the oh, this is the squid, the squid curry.
That amount of spice in there, the onions in there, the curry leaves oh man, oh wow, the harmony of spices, the curry leaves, the.
You really can taste the dry chili in there.
And then that sprinkle of fresh coriander which you just sprinkled on top at the very end, so it just wilts, but all the flavor is intact.
Okay, next up, I'm gonna try the rasam, and I remember this from South India, from Kerala, where you can actually you can put it on your rice, but you can actually.
It's almost like a broth or a soup, right.
You can put it in your...
And you can put this into your palm.
That immediate burst, an explosion of sourness and fruitiness, and then, contrasted by the coriander, The sourness is what stands out.
There's three different 65 dishes.
The fish 65, prawn 65, chicken 65.
I'll begin with the fish 65.
It just kind of melts in your mouth, and what you really taste in the 65 is the dried chili powder.
Okay, Prawn 65, I'll put this onto the rice, and Rashaun said to try it with some of the sambar.
It's so crispy.
And then again, the dry chili powder is what stands out about the 65 dish.
I think I'll just finish with the 65s.
This one is the chicken 65.
Yeah, like a popcorn chicken.
Just straight up like chili fried chicken.
Before continuing around the banana leaf, I'm gonna go ahead and dig into the Chetanad crab curry which is sitting right in front of me.
This looks unbelievable.
Look at that sauce and the curry leaves.
Let me add on one more scoop of the sauce and the chutney.
The curry leaves the coriander in there.
Oh, there we go.
Although I might have destroyed it a little bit, but that's okay.
We got to the crab on the inside.
I'm gonna go ahead and just kinda scoop out that crab from the claw there.
Look at that amount of sauce, that amount of gravy.
Mix the crab with the rice, with the gravy.
Wow, the thick richness of the gravy, a layer upon layer of spice.
You taste the black pepper in there, for sure.
Again, you taste the dry chili, the coriander and the curry leaves, all just Saturated into sweet crab.
Okay, masala fish next, Which he griddle fried in a masala mixture of spices, and Yeah, that's just wonderful.
A different texture.
It's crispy.
All of that spice mixture, the flour is just caked up onto the fish as it's been griddle fried.
Okay, next dish is the mutton pepper fry.
So mutton, I believe, it's goat, right?
It's goat, okay.
That just melts in your mouth.
You do taste the pepper, the onions and the tomatoes that are just simmered down and just melt in your mouth.
It's so tender.
Oh man.
Another prawn dish with coconut and turmeric and mustard seed.
And I think he said this one is almost a, I believe this one is a Kerala recipe.
Oh, yeah.
It's a total change of taste.
You don't taste the cumin or the coriander so much.
You taste the shredded coconut in there, the mustard seed, turmeric, and curry leaves.
And then other than that, it's just the shrimp have a really muscular texture.
Almost a bouncy texture to them.
Oh yeah, that's incredible.
This one I think is, is it potato?
Potato or pumpkin masala.
Okay, put this into there.
The rice mop up all of the gravies, all of the sauces, all of the curry.
I think it's pumpkin.
I think we might be on dish about number 10, maybe 11.
But this is the final dish that's on the banana leaf.
And it looks like a vegetarian dish.
I'm not sure if that's okra.
Could it be okra or could it be some type of a gourd?
But you can see onions in there.
Mmm.
That's also a totally different taste.
What is it?
It might be a luffa.
Melts in your mouth, almost eggplant-y, and again with a light blend of spices, but rich.
Okay, we still have more dishes to try.
I think I need a refill on rice.
Can I have some rice, please?
Okay, thank you.
I almost forgot one more dish that's on the banana leaf that got hidden behind the crab claw is the gobi manchurian.
Or chicken manchurian.
I think it's chicken.
Like a Chinese.
Gobi manchurian, right?
Okay.
It is like a Indian, South Indian Chinese.
So deep fried chicken with a sauce with coriander.
Oh, it smells so good.
Immediately you could smell the vinegar in it.
Yeah.
Oh man, straight up fried crispy chicken with this kind of salty, sweet and sour actually more salty and sour sauce.
And the flavor of the coriander, I've always been a huge fan of Indian Chinese food too.
Next up, this is a shrimp, a prawns curry.
Oh yeah, that one is awesome.
Dish after dish, and that one is another totally different flavor.
Rich with coconut milk.
Not too heavy on the dry spice mixture.
But you taste the curry leaves, you taste an umami of tomato coming through.
And these are just the overflow dishes.
This one, Is this one mutton also?
Mutton Chetanad, okay.
Mutton Chetanad.
Oh, this one is bone on.
Bone on.
Oh, and the dried chili's in there?
Okay, I'll just pick it up and gnaw it off that bone.
Mmm.
Oh immediately the flavor of like clove and cardamom comes out of that.
The mutton just melts in your mouth.
It's so tender.
It's stewed down.
The flavor of black pepper in there.
Mmm, I got a whole pot of cardamom on that bite.
Oh man, it's just straight up like cardamom and black pepper.
Had a collision, had a run in with some mutton and met in the pan.
Oh man, it's so good.
Need a little lean back.
Okay, there's still more dishes to try, and I believe that this curry has been hiding from me.
Oh, okra, wonderful, or ladyfingers.
Yeah, this one is really rich, from the coconut milk for sure.
Absolutely outstanding and literally just will transport you back to south india.
Chicken balu kagari okay, that's the name of this dish.
Oh, and immediately again, that spice mixture.
You smell it the, the cardamom, the coriander, the black pepper mmm, something that I'm just noticing.
Tasting every one of these dishes is there's 19 items.
A lot of them have a similar spice mixture and similar ingredients, but at the same time, every single dish is its own unique dish.
It's distinguishable from all the other dishes and it has a totally different flavor and mixture combination.
And so, even though you have some dishes and some might even look similar, I can guarantee they each have their own identity, complete different flavors.
And that's part of what makes a meal like this, a Tali, so exciting, and because, at the same time, they all blend together so well in a perfect culinary south indian symphony.
Okay, i think this might be the last thing on the tally that i totally forgot about the fish tikka.
Wow, did you try the fish tikka yet?
The lime I think they must have sprinkled it with some lime juice at the end.
There's an immediate citrusiness, the smokiness from the fire tandoor.
That's incredible.
And the fish juice, it melts in your mouth, it's so tender.
Okay, now might be an appropriate time to dig into the, take a sip of that lassi. and it's a salty lassi, not a sweet lassi, but sour, a little bit salty, just creamy, refreshing, and foamy.
Oh, that's awesome.
Okay, let's try the dosa.
I'm going straight for this sambar, or is this maybe a chutney?
Oh wow, yeah.
And you cannot go wrong with the dosa here either.
Paper thin, crispy, with the sambar, with the chutneys to go with it.
And I think on that note, That's all 19 dishes that we've tried.
Let's do it again.
Let's repeat again and again until everything is gone.
But really, absolutely outstanding foods.
Authentic, the real deal flavors of Chetanad.
Okay, I'm gonna get a little bit more of this, the crab curry sauce for the final bites.
That crab curry sauce is just unbelievable.
And it, because it's on the candle, it stays flaming hot your entire meal.
Yeah.
I have to say I am regretting the fact that I wore a belt today.
That was a terrible decision on my part.
I should have known.
I should have worn elastic.
But that was a lot of food.
And I did manage to clean my banana leaf, plus had a couple pots of rice.
But definitely the overflow section of the thali we got to get for takeaway.
Oh yeah, I'm pretty full.
And very happy.
Just an amazing range of flavors, so many spices.
I love the black pepper, the dry chili, and such a variety, such a massive variety.
I wanna say a huge thank you to Ratchan and all of the staff and the chefs for taking such good care of us.
A couple of quick things, number one is that the restaurant, it's halal, so they serve halal food.
And then number two is that that giant thali, which includes 19 different dishes, is 3000 baht, but it's for four people serves, feeds four people.
And then additionally, they have an entire menu, an assortment of different dishes.
You can get the vegetarian thali, you can get a simpler thali, or you can go for the deluxe, ultimate gigantic thali, like we just ate.
Going to be it for this video.
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