19 July 2012

Famous for it’s soupy curries and seafood, Bangkok is buzzing hive of street food production. Each dish is designed for pavement hawking, a jewel of twinkling contrast. As David Thompson (chef talent behind Nahm restaurant in London and Bangkok) explains in his book, Street Food, dishes are designed to lasso passersbys with aroma.

Some of my favourites include sweet rice, slow-cooked in fresh coconut milk, tamarind jungle curry and seared pancakes made from prawns, coriander and fresh chilli. And I like that street food is also food to share.

In the steaming Thai capital, friends crowd around small tables, sharing dishes, and dipping in and out of each other’s bowls and sauces. It’s possible to do the same if you choose well from a number of street food inspired dishes scattered across Vermillion’s new Thai and Indian menu, which includes a number of street-food inspired options.

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Bean salad with prawns and quails egg, for example, is one of the best examples of this dish I’ve tried in the UK. Nodding to “wing bean salad”, which you’ll find on menus in Thailand, this dish combines peanuts, fish sauce, egg and beans. The real deal is 1000 degrees hotter, but it’s a solid effort.

Spring rolls with prawn, cheese and vegetables and the wonton soup are not familiar from my travels in Thailand. Chicken green curry, however, is a Thai staple. Sweet Holy Basil, “apple” aubergines (so named for their green colour and spherical appearance – look out for them in Thai food stores, the skin even looks a bit mottled, like an fresh, green apple), reduced coconut milk and fresh chicken equals nurturing happiness in a bowl.

Jungle curry

We eat this with jungle curry of spiced and fried red snapper, packed with menthol galangal ( “kha” in Thai). It’s not selection that will surprise the Thai food enthusiast, but it’s perfect as an introduction. Dessert is great too. We coo at the ice cream served with a pleasantly warm, dense, green, coconut flavoured jelly on the side (pictured) and served with an edible flower.

Over the course of the meal, my party discuss whether Vermillion and Cinnabar is more like a luxury casino or a private yacht. Designed by the guy who created Paris’ Buddha bar (so named after the towering figure which rises up through several floors) – there are princely dining rooms, lashings of laquer and a column of illuminated small Buddha heads rising up through the centre of the building, like a zen twister.

At the end of the meal, we head upstairs to the bar where “pods”, created out of large, circular mattresses stand in each corner, available to hire for a minimum spend of £200 per night. Illuminated ball-shaped lights shift and change in colour. The effect is like a thousand UFOs on stand by: a fittingly unMancunian finale.

Vermilion & Cinnabar, Hulme Hall Lane Newton Heath, M40 8AD. Tel: 0161 202 0055. www.vermilioncinnabar.com