Benjarong!!

Posted by Jay-talking!

Given a chance to choose a good eatout in Chennai for exotic fare (exotic being Chinese veg, Thai veg or continental veg - in that order) I must confess to being slightly stumped. The idea was to have a good time over lunch with a friend and the easiest one to decide on was “Mainland China” (too predictable, wot? And of course a peck on the chef’s forehead with words like “the best Chinese I have tasted …..” was hardly my idea of breaking bread with a friend).

Then I remembered having passed by this Thai restaurant several times on my way to office . Seemed correctly discreet and refined in terms of location and ambience from the outside.

“Benjarong” - with such an exotic sounding name conjuring up images of some Oriental getaway, I got cracking on the good ol’ net across the “burrps” and “smacks” of the virtual world and learned that the joint’s got an enviable reputation to boot. Talking to friends who raved about the place, we decided that Benjarong – it must be.

As I entered the place with just that wee bit of hesitation, I noticed that the place looked quite smallish to me in terms of space and also a bit shorn of lighting (not sure if it helps the ambience). But then I was also greeted by a beautiful reclining Buddha statue and some other Thai curios in the waiting room. With some time to go before my friend arrived, I gleaned more of the Thai couple that runs the place.

The main course started off with their customary Thai appetizer – an array of side dishes with the main attraction being the spinach leaves (as explained by our attendant) stuffed with peanuts, jaggery pasted and dry coconut crumbs. Though I had heard of this speciality, I wasn’t too sure – me being of the “if grass is for cows, leaves are for the orangutans” fame. Ditto for my partner. But then it wasn’t all that bad and we quite liked it. So on we moved to the next course – weren’t helped by the fact that the waiters seemed just a little preoccupied with themselves – they seemed almost relieved to learn that we could converse in Hindi – but of course that didn’t help improve communication either. Of course, we ordered the customary Thai curries with some fried rice – time teases my memory but I think we ordered the Tom Yum Soup as well. But then again, as luck would have it, I couldn’t quite finish the dish by itself. Tasted all too familiar to me and not the mouth watering, tongue smacking, palate tickling fare that I had settled in for. Maybe some other time – with a better setting and a better ambience, it would be right. But for now, it was so Benja-“wrong”!!