High Tea Like Thai Royalty at The Blue Elephant Jakarta

as featured in WhatsNewJakarta.com, November 5th 2015

A franchise restaurant with branches in major cities of the world, the name Blue Elephant will ring a few pleasant chimes for the gastro-enthusiasts. Despite Thai Food’s popularity In Jakarta, it is one of the very few restaurants in the city that is headed by a Thai chef, hence reliable for serving an authentic Thai favorites The saying has it, there is Thai food, and there’s fine dining royal Thai food a la the Blue Elephant.

Most recipes are centuries old, faithfully handed down through generations. Others are new, creative and unique variations on traditional themes, many are visually stunning dishes artistically presented with carved fruits and vegetables.

The interior reminded me of a more minimalist version of Thai royalty’s palace, laden with deep mahogany colored rattan furniture, with touches of regal elements in their cutleries and decorations.

My visit that afternoon was to sample one of the newest offering of the restaurant, the afternoon high tea menu and also some of the restaurant’s staple dishes, the Tom Yam Koong and Green Chili Curry.

Interior, Blue Elephant

The afternoon high tea consisted of 5 kinds of bite size snacks and sweets, beautifully presented on a raised cake stand. On the savory sides, there was the Thai Fish Cake, dipped in a sweet and spicy sauce in a shot glass and the flower-shaped Chor Muang, which purple color made me mistook it for a dessert, where in fact it is actually a rice cake dumpling with mild sweet minced-chicken filling.

For the sweet assortment, my personal favorite was the delicate Coconut Pandan Flan, slightly caramelized on top and colored natural green from the fragrant Pandan leaf. It had the smooth texture of an egg custard, yet firmer; the second dessert was the iconic mango sticky rice, using sticky rice imported from Thailand, making it incredibly succulent, and lastly, the Coconut Tart in a crumbly biscuit base.

Blue Elephant's High Tea Menu

Now I know how cliché it might be to go directly for Tom Yam Goong at a Thai restaurant. But just like ordering a plain spaghetti with red sauce or cheese pizza in an Italian restaurant, ordering this spicy and sour soup would determine whether one Thai restaurant was worth the fanfare or not. As it happens, this one did. I could taste the fresh lime that had been squirted into the broth mere minutes ago. The broth was tantalizingly red and the smell of refreshing kaffir lime filled the air. To my expectation, the broth was pleasantly tangy with a nice kick to it, not too spicy for my tame (albeit Asian) palate, and was a great complement for the fresh king prawns swimming in it.

The Tom Yam Goong

For a richer version, the green chili curry is another favorite;it has many similarities with Padang style curry or gulai, except instead of using red chilies and turmeric, resulting in yellow broth, this version uses green chilies and the the aromatic galangal and coriander roots as the base. The result is a quintessentially Southeast Asian taste that packs flavor but in heat. Great to be enjoyed with rice or, another Thai favorite, steamed sticky rice. 

Thai Green Chicken Curry

The price for the afternoon high tea sampler is Rp. 100,000++ for the 5 item sampler, or Rp. 150,000++ for the 7 items. This includes tea selection of English Breakfast Tea, Chamomile, Earl Gray or Peppermint, served in a unique elephant shaped tea pot, or coffee.