Issue 15

Away on business in Hong Kong, Horizon Thailand finds a little Thai gem in Thai SELECT award winning Moon Thai restaurant.

It was a daring decision when, at the beginning of the millennium, Vincent Leung, General Manager of Moon Thai restaurant, proposed to investors to open his first Thai restaurant in a golf driving range. He claims that nobody believed it would be successful.

Backed by a million Hong Kong dollars investment, Leung and the restaurant’s Executive Chef Harnskunwat Viboon (Lek) spend two weeks at Bangkok’s Jatujak weekend market to ensure that authentic Thainess embraced every inch of his first Thai restaurant.

On its opening day, customers flooded in to try the Tom Yum Goong and the restaurant was an overnight success and the talk of the town.

Located on the second floor of the Holiday Inn Express in the Sheung Wan business district, Moon Thai is the third Thai restaurant project by the Hong Kong management team and Lek in the last two years ago. It has gained Thai SELECT accreditation as well as being included in the 2014 Michelin food guide.

To start, we had one of my favourite Thai dishes; Tom Yum Goong or hot and sour prawn soup. Served well the soup is spicy and aromatic with fresh herbs such as lemongrass, galangal and kaffir lime. The fish sauce provides some depth to the dish and the fresh lime juice adds sourness. It may sound simple enough to make, but it is difficult to create the right taste. So, I was very pleasantly surprised to find it to be exceptional with a good combination of spice from the chilli and sweetness from the prawn.

“Tom Yum Goong is the most popular dish for Thai people so we only make it perfect,” says Leung, adding that most of the ingredients have to be imported from Thailand to make sure the dish is authentic.

Our main dish was one of Leung’s favourites – stir-fried crab in curry sauce (Poo Pad Pong Karee). Neatly prepared with a curry paste of fresh spices, Thai chili paste, coconut milk and fresh crab, it had a rich flavour but, unsurprisingly, also quite a kick. The dish was excellently presented and served in a generous portion.

For dessert, we had an unusual steamed pumpkin custard. A double steamed pumpkin filled with a sweet mixture of egg yolk, milk, coconut sugar, sticky rice and juicy slices of Thai mango, it was the perfect, sweet ending to our meal.

Everything at Moon Thai, from the sour and spicy flavours in the Tom Yum Goong to the moreish sticky rice with mango dessert was tasty and very authentic. Despite its somewhat hidden location, it’s well worth the effort for Hong Kong’s business community to visit this dining gem and indulge in an array of mouthwatering dishes.

Moon Thai Restaurant
www.moonthai.com.hk
2/F, Holiday Inn Express, Soho, Hong Kong, China
Tel: +852 2851 1288

Words by: Nattamon Limthanachai, Photos by Emisa Wongsiri

Food tips: shallots: In Thai cooking, shallots are the counterpart to garlic – and used about as frequently. They are always included in curry paste and sometimes eaten as a condiment in fish sauce. Translated as homm in Thai, it means "good smell".

Thai Select

MoonThai is endorsed by the DITP under its Thai Select scheme. The Thai SELECT programme was launched to certify and promote authentic Thai cuisine around the world. It is a seal of approval granted to Thai restaurants – both overseas and local Thai eateries that serve authentic food – and processed Thai food products. The objective is to increase the recognition of quality Thai restaurants and processed Thai food products as well as to encourage Thai restaurateurs and food producers to raise quality while maintaining authenticity. For more details of the scheme visit: http://www.thaiselect.com