JP/Tifa Asrianti

Songkran, Thai New Year, which falls on April 13 to 15, is a time for renewal and cleansing and it is usually celebrated by communal water fights and by cleaning images of Buddha, as well as making resolutions.

You might get a rude reaction if you try and splash people in Jakarta with water, but you can get a taste of Songkran at JW Marriott’s Sailendra restaurant.

To celebrate the astrological event, marked by the beginning of the sun’s journey northward, the restaurant is hosting the “Thailand Food Festival” from April 10 to April 19, as part of its “Wonderful Thailand” promotion, organized by the Royal Thai Embassy in Jakarta.

Opened with a traditional Thai dance, the food festival also features Thai arts and crafts.

Guests have a chance to win a stay at the JW Marriott Bangkok or the JW Marriott Phuket by dining at the hotel during the festival and entering their business card into the draw.

During the food festival, guests can not only try the widely recognized Tom Yam Kung (seafood soup), but also get to know other Thai cuisine such as Som Tam Thai (Thai salad) and Tom Kha Gai (chicken soup).

Som Tam Thai is similar to West Java’s raw karedok salad and consists of grated raw papaya, long beans and tomato pounded together with a mortar and pestle and mixed with peanuts, chili, palm sugar, dried shrimp and lime juice.   

Tom Kha Gai is as soothing as chicken soup can be and gives a fulfilling, warm sense long after the coconut milk and lemongrass base has passed ones lips. There is also, of course, Pad Thai, rice noodles pan fried with fish sauce, sugar, lime juice, tamarind pulp, chopped peanuts and egg combined with chicken, seafood or tofu.

The festival features all the classic Thai soups and salads as well as some you may not be so familiar with such as Gaeng Kiaw Wan Gai (Thai green curry with chicken and eggplant), in which the chicken and eggplant are cooked with kaffir (lime leaves), nam pla (fish sauce), palm sugar, basil and chili peppers.

Nam pla, a very aromatic and strong tasting fish sauce, is the ingredient found in almost all Thai dishes from every region of the country. Besides nam pla, shrimp paste and a combination of ground shrimp and salt is also used extensively.

The hotel’s executive sous chef Deden Gumilar said that for the festival his team used ingredients available in Indonesia, as most Thai foods contain similar ingredients and spices used in Indonesian dishes. Even nam pla can be found in Indonesia’s major retailers.

“Thai cuisine is well-known for having the longer hot and spicy flavor compared to our [Indonesian] cuisine because they usually use lime juice, fresh coriander, lemon grass, galangal root and dried chili,” Deden said.

Thailand is known for its rice cultivation and two varieties are featured in the festival: jasmine and sticky. Jasmine rice, sometimes known as Thai fragrant rice, is a long-grain variety that has a nutty aroma and a subtle pandan leave-like flavor, while sticky rice is a unique variety of rice that contains an unusual balance of the starches present in all rice, which gives it a gluey texture when cooked.

To ensure authenticity the restaurant flew in Chef Wisanu Srijaikham and Chef Pradit Kaewnikom from the JW Marriott Hotel Bangkok especially for the occasion.

Besides food, traditional Thai beverages such as Cha Dhra Khai (lemon grass ice tea) and Nam Ma Muang (mango syrup) are on offer. For dessert, try the Banana Roti, a crispy pancake with a sliced banana filling and various toppings.

Sailendra Restaurant

JW Marriott Hotel Jakarta

Jl. Lingkar Mega Kuningan

Kav. E, I.2 Jakarta

Phone: 021 5798 8992

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