Aired (October 27, 2024): Chef JR Royol travels to Davao to immerse himself in Thai culture, particularly its cuisine, at Benjarong Bar & Restaurant. Joined by special guest Chef Piya Suthasiri, he explores the wonderful flavors that Thai food offers to Filipinos.
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00:00♪♪
00:07So, the benja rong, benja, is meaning five.
00:10Rong is used to call a China ware,
00:13and this is a unique China ware
00:15was created, invented in Thailand.
00:17And when we talk about this kind of unique ware,
00:20of course, food is come with it.
00:22So, benja rong is a name that's been selected by Dusit,
00:25and benja rong now become a unique restaurant
00:27for all the Dusit brand.
00:29Personally, I know Dusit since I was young,
00:31and it's an honor to be in Dusit
00:33and also to lead the benja rong kitchen.
00:36In our weekly journey
00:38to find a new place
00:40where there's a delicious food trip destination,
00:43we were brought to Davao by our own feet.
00:46And here, there's a food establishment
00:48that offers a legit Thai food experience
00:51using local ingredients.
00:53The Thai flavors are delicious
00:56because their chef is a Thai national.
00:59And his delicious food
01:01can be tasted in the benja rong bar and restaurant
01:04in Dusit Thani, Davao.
01:06When the young kids in Thailand,
01:08you know, you start with the drinking
01:10and you make this,
01:12and they said, I make better.
01:14So, I try out to learn it professionally.
01:18So, I put myself as a trainee,
01:20start as a steward,
01:22and become a cook.
01:24As a chef and come from Thailand,
01:26we want to be able to showcase our food.
01:29All right.
01:30And we want to influence people to know
01:32it's not just only the food that is supposed to be tasty.
01:35It also should be that it's good for your body.
01:38Okay.
01:39So, how to make other nationalities to eat our food,
01:43we have to adapt to wherever we go.
01:45And of course, if you talk about benja rong in Davao
01:48and benja rong in Manila,
01:49it's completely different.
01:51Yeah.
01:52Benja rong in Manila,
01:53she's a chef, she's doing a great job.
01:55And don't forget,
01:57there's already like 18 years of experience in the Philippines.
02:01And we are just a baby, elementary.
02:05So, a big gap.
02:06And of course, we need to understand
02:08what is the local looking for.
02:10So, basically, the vision here
02:12is to provide a Thai experience
02:16through your food.
02:17Yes.
02:18But not necessarily pushing with the authenticity part,
02:21especially when the purists would come after us
02:23saying that for you to say a cuisine is authentic,
02:25you have to source the ingredients
02:27where the cuisine is from.
02:29Yeah.
02:30So, that's basically where you tweak the idea.
02:33So, benja rong is a Thai experience
02:35with Filipino ingredients.
02:41In different places,
02:42it's different requirement for the customer.
02:44And here, my maturity of customer,
02:46I'm more family oriented.
02:48So, the table is quite big
02:49and the food should be good for sharing
02:52and the taste should be somehow authentic.
02:57With the flavors of Filipinos
02:59bringing in Thai cuisine,
03:01were there any challenges that you faced?
03:04The challenge would be the spicy level.
03:06They cannot take the spicy level,
03:08the same that we used to do.
03:10But that's not the big deal.
03:11The big deal is that sometimes the herbs
03:13that we put on the plate,
03:14except like coriander.
03:15Yeah.
03:16Not everyone is bringing.
03:18Or lemongrass that we eat raw,
03:20they will like cook.
03:21Or vegetable that we eat raw,
03:23they like it to be cooked.
03:24Okay.
03:25So, I have to try to think
03:27and stimulate which dish they would respond well.
03:31Like papaya salad.
03:32Papaya salad is...
03:33Everything is raw.
03:34There's three different regions.
03:36Here would be northeast of Thailand,
03:39the papaya salad.
03:40So, this will go along with papaya salad.
03:42With papaya salad.
03:43Yeah.
03:44Alright.
03:45And you will have the sauce here.
03:46These are common.
03:47It's made from tamarind and roasted rice.
03:49Okay.
03:50And herbs.
03:51And this one, I'm using the local mango,
03:53the ripe mango,
03:54to make a sweet and sour sauce.
03:56The tamarind sauce is...
03:58Yeah.
03:59The bomb, man.
04:00Another thing that is very common here in the Philippines,
04:03but we don't utilize it like this.
04:06Yeah.
04:07For tamarind, especially the ripe ones,
04:10we either just make it sweet
04:12so that we can snack on them.
04:14Yeah.
04:15We don't use it as condiment.
04:17Because that's one of the examples that I'm stressing out
04:20so that we can learn
04:21how to expound on the usage that we do
04:26and the available ingredients that we have.
04:28And even the mango dip that you have here,
04:32you don't do that as often.
04:34I'm just stressing out on points that
04:36we as Filipinos, especially myself,
04:38as a culinary artist,
04:39that we can adapt.
04:42The philosophy of your flavors, of your cuisine,
04:45is something that we can definitely also copy, in a way,
04:51so as to elevate or to transform
04:55the Filipino dining experience.
04:58While Chef Pia and I are enjoying our conversation,
05:01I can't help but taste
05:03the delicious dishes that he's cooking
05:06for the visitors here at Benjarong Bar & Restaurant.
05:10Similar to Laksa,
05:11most people here know Laksa.
05:13But Khao Soi Kai also has a very long history,
05:15and mostly in the north of Thailand.
05:17So Khao Soi means rice being cut.
05:21So we used to call this noodle as cut rice.
05:25And it comes similar to a curry
05:27with the crispy noodles with the chicken.
05:29And of course, there's a condiment of lime
05:31and chilies combined with it.
05:34The correct translation is shrimp,
05:37pad is stir-fry,
05:39krik is chili,
05:40klua is salt.
05:41So very straightforward.
05:43So shrimp stir-fry with chili and salt,
05:45and of course, with a little bit of seasoning.
05:48And you cannot go wrong with spring onion, coriander.
05:51So that's how basic ingredients of Thailand
05:53and fried garlic, of course.
05:56Different presentation, different key of ingredients,
05:59because me, also, I'm responsible,
06:01and actually I love everywhere I go.
06:03I like to support the local farmer.
06:05So there's a lot of good farmer
06:07who produce a heirloom vegetable,
06:09produce cheeses.
06:11And it would be weird for people to know the Thai food
06:14to collaborate with the cheeses,
06:16but that is going to happen soon.
06:37www.thelocal.com