Issue 19

In its search for the best Thai cuisine across the globe, Horizon ventures to the Spanish capital to visit an outstanding contemporary Thai cuisine.
Finding authentic Thai food in Spain is no easy thing. While the cuisine seems to have established a foothold across the world, Madrid remains largely a virgin territory. Even at the ThaiSELECT Silk & Soya, Thai food resides side by side with Japanese cuisine on the menu.

According to Antonio Soria, Silk & Soya’s manager, the problem lies largely in perception. “In Spain,  people think it [Thai food] will be too spicy,” he says. “You have to educate them.”

Soria believes that the ThaiSELECT standard is important as it reassures customers about the standard of the food on offer. Certainly the restaurant is at pains to ensure the authenticity of the cuisine. All the chefs are Thai, with the head chef Yothin Phuphuak having lived nine years in Spain, apart from a brief return to his native country. Shipments of vital ingredients arrive from Thailand once a week and even the cutlery was purchased in Thailand.
It is this which makes Silk & Soya stand out compared with other restaurants in the Spanish capital.

“There are not many proper Thai restaurants,” says Sorya. “It’s very difficult to get this taste in other kitchens.” He believes it is this, allied to the popularity of Thai food with Spanish tourists and businesspeople travelling to the Southeast Asian country, which explains the popularity of the cuisine.

As seems almost universal the Pad Thai and Tom Yum Goong are the most popular dishes, though the restaurant has interesting variations including some fantastic seared scallops served with asparagus, that were cooked to perfection, and a fresh Pla Goong (mango and prawn salad) that had an underlying sweetness and soft spice that opened the palette.

The one area in which the restaurant veers away from the traditional is in the décor. While soft Thai touches abound, the overall ambience is much more contemporary in feel, think modern day Bangkok than that of yesteryear. However, this in no way detracts from the meal, rather it provides a very comfortable setting to enjoy the wine, which fortunately is from Spain rather than Thailand.

Silk & Soya
Av. de la Ermita (esq Av. Olimpica, 9)
28108 – La Moraleja – Alcobendas – Madrid
+34 916 620 315
www.gruposilk.es
Words by Mark Bibby Jackson, Photos courtesy of Silk & Soya

Food Tips: Khilek
Khilek or senna siamea: Native to South and Southeast Asia, this plant is used in the preparation of kaeng khilek curry in Thailand and also as herbal tea to help relieve stress and insomnia.

Thai Select

Silk & Soya 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