Phai’s Kitchen Thai Supper Club
When: 15th February 2020
Where: The Terrace Café
Phai started her food business 9 months ago sharing her passion for Thai cooking at private events and pop up nights – those of you who are regular DEYA goers may also have had a chance to sample her delicious Thai sausage lettuce wraps. This evening we were treated to a four course Thai feast including unique recipes showcasing Phai’s innovative style.
The menu
We knew we were in for a good evening when the canapes arrived, we enjoyed marinated soy butternut squash and pork toasts, the latter being one of my favourite dishes on the menu as the pork mince was bursting with flavour and hints of spice.
For the starter, we were treated to a platter of delights. Phai noted that she couldn’t decide what starter to prepare for the supper club so went with all three – fine with us!
The crispy pork spring rolls generously filled with a rich pork filling that was perfectly accompanied by the sweet chilli sauce. The chicken in the satay was falling off the skewer and formed a great tool for scooping up the huge helping of peanut sauce. It was the arancini balls however that really stole the show, sticky and sweet and served with a Kaffir and Thai basil mayo which tasted like a deliciously creamy green Thai curry. Phai noted that there is always left-over sticky rice after dinner and so thought that this would be the perfect thing to make arancini with- why has no-one thought of this before!!!!
Next came the spicy Penang salmon, many may have had a Penang curry before, but I guarantee you not like this. It is Phai’s mix of Thai tradition and invention that really adds a special edge to her cooking. In this dish, for example, we enjoyed a perfect accompaniment of spring onion omelette which is traditionally served in Thailand and something we had not tried before. Usually Penang is served with peanuts but in this case Phai decided to use cashews that she had brought back from her family home in Thailand – it is personal touches like these that you will not find in regular restaurants. The huge salmon fillet was perfectly cooked and the dish was just on the right side of spicy that provided a comfortable heat without you reaching for the water jug.
Lemongrass from her grandfather’s garden went into our posset dessert, a subtle but delicious flavour that perfectly complemented the almost clotted cream like pudding. I don’t usually like papaya but alongside this rich dessert it was a welcomely refreshing. Even though we were so full from the previous courses we piled it in on top of crunchy ginger shortbread biscuits.
Finally we enjoyed tea and Thai sweets. Now foreign sweets can always be a gamble and highlight the stark differences in palate between countries. These, for the most part, were lovely, though the texture of the strawberry rice cakes does take some getting used to, and it was great to have the opportunity to try something new, even if we may not be rushing online to buy in bulk.
The atmosphere
The wonderful thing about a supper club is that you really get to know your hosts and understand their vision and business in a more intimate way. We learnt about Phai’s childhood in Bangkok, how she came to Cheltenham in 1993 and her transition from senior manager in logistics to private catering. The welcome was friendly and warm, which was particularly delightful given the weather, and although we were sitting the Terrace café (where Phai occasionally works in the week) it felt more like we were in her home. Another lovely element about the supper club was that the guests all had a shared interest in food and the little café was buzzing with conversation across the tables.
Overall, we had a fantastic night at Phai’s supper club and went home thinking about our next Phai experience…though maybe after a few hours as we were so unbelievably full after clearing everything that was put in front of us. We would definitely recommend following Phai’s blossoming business and giving one of her pop-ups or supper clubs a try.
A little more about Phai’s kitchen
Price of supper club: £35pp (BYOB)
Services: Private catering, supper clubs and cookery workshops
Website address: https://phaiskitchen.co.uk/
Next events:
29th February and 27th March- Take out service: Forest of Dean
Friday 6th March- Northleach pop up
Saturday 25th April- Supper Club – Miserden
