Supawan, Thai Select award celebration

If you love Thai food, the ’Thai Select’ symbol is what you should be looking for. Awarded by Thailand’s Ministry of Commerce to promote local cooking to the global stage, it’s a mark of high regard which guarantees ‘authentic Thai taste.’ There are roughly 19,000 Thai restaurants outside of the Kingdom of which about 1800 are UK based. Of these, 115 have been certified under Thai Select, the latest of which is Supawan in London’s King’s Cross.

Owner and executive Chef, Wichet Khongphoon, originally from Phuket, has called London his home for over twenty years and Supawan is his baby. Needless to say he was excited about this latest accolade and wanted to share his excitement. Khongphoon and his team transformed his private dining room into a grocery store cum lavish eatery for one night only. Flowing with greenery and orchids, Warhol-esque stacks of Thai ingredients and bowls of colourful fruit and vegetables, the transformation was joyous and resembled an exotic twist on a British Harvest festival.

Cocktails and Mocktails greeted guests on arrival with the Old-Fashioned inspired Phuket Old Town bearing the most evocative name and Do it for love, Straight into your heart, the most tongue-twisting. I went for an Afternoon Swim but after Khongphoon announced the Fig me Martini was his favourite, kept my trunks on and defected; dry and strong, the fig infused sipper was a perfect mix of vodka and vermouth making it, surely, one of London’s best kept secrets.

With a twinkle in his eyes and a twirling of his hands, Khongphoon offered a quick introduction to his cooking style. Inspired a little by his mum, a little by his dad, his Southern Thai style also borrows from China and provides a dry but also spicy twist, ‘a little kick with a lot of coconut.’ Red, white, rosé wine was provided by Thai’s finest and largest wine exporter, Monsoon Wine.

Starters came thick, fast and very tasty, from grilled prawns served on Betel leaves to crab, minced pork and fish sauce to coconut milk cooked in chilli oil. As well as being super fresh and fragrant, the majority of starters were unified, as Khongphoon promised, with a spice. Not a blister-burn-on-your-mouth spice, more delicate, more subtle, occasionally strong and surprising, sometimes tingling, often lingering.

The mains were similarly fragrant and with names such as Moo Hong, Kha-Nom Jeen Namya Poo, Pla Tod Sam Rod, almost impossible for a British (or European) tongue to grasp. Dad’s Beef Curry was the only dish to contradict this and is one of Khongphoon’s favourite culinary legacies. Featuring ridiculously tender, disintegrate-in-your-mouth beef, flavoured by a roasted dry coconut and ginger stem sauce this testified to Khongphoon’s dad being no slouch in the kitchen either. The Phuket slow-cooked pork belly was another winner. Thick with five spice pepper and soy sauce, the pork was succulent and accompanied by bursts of irresistible fat. My favourite, though, was the most unexpected; a crispy sea bass fillet. Served with head and tail, basil and red chilli vitalise the metallic grey fish, the meat of which is pre-wrapped in parcels which were sweeter than expected, at times crunchy and adorned with a rich tamarind sauce.

As fruits go, Durian is one of the more controversial ones, banned on Thai public transport due to its ‘natural’ odour which, at its most polite could be described as sulphurous. Nonetheless, it’s also one of the country’s most loved fruits so no surprise that the final dish of the evening was Durian sticky rice, served in a coconut milk and palm sugar sauce. As our waitress cheerfully explained “the surprise is inside!” Once the banana leaf was opened and the durian’s natural vapours evaporated, it was a curious but not unpleasant experience, looked a little like scrambled egg, tasted a little like fresh custard.

It was a memorable way to end a lively and veritable feast but just as we were leaving, Khongphoon encouraged us to take some of the ingredients off his shelves. I grabbed some of his dad’s paste and hope I don’t do his legacy and restaurant a disservice by trying to replicate the family magic in my own kitchen. Yikes.