Not long ago, during our amazingly long easter break, my family and I went to Papaya. I've heard about it from many people before (like, surprise surprise... Jasmina! Trang's mum etc.) and have never given it much thought. One day, I thought I might give it a try, so I got my parents to take me there.
When we got to the street, embarrassingly enough, we couldn't find. We ended up asking some passer-byer, who looked at us like we were clinically stupid, and pointed directly in front of him. When we turned away, I heard him laughing to his friends...
Inside, it was nice and cozy. A place where you can easily talk and eat oriental food, with international chatter buzzing around you.
By the way, though the pictures are from the normal tables, we didn't actually eat there. That was another time, which I might talk about on another post. The "foodventure" I'm going to talk about is the Teppanyaki bar.
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| Fire burning on the teppan (this should be a song, or parody) |
Teppanyaki is " a style of Japanese cuisine that uses an iron griddle to cook food, including steak, vegetables, shrimps and other seafood. In Japan, many teppanyaki restaurants feature Kobe beef, but you don’t have to visit the far east do eat this delicious meal. (You can simply come to Papaya. The Thai master cooks in front of your eyes the most appetizing dishes. He creates a show, throwing knives, setting the table on fire! One of the options is joining him and try to prepare an aromatic meal yourself. It is the best way to spend your time in Papaya with your friends and children. The Thai master knows few tricks to cheer them up.)"
Yeah, as you can probably see, I got this directly from the Papaya site...It's funny how they call the chef the "Thai Master" though this style of cooking is Japanese.
Actually just the fact that they call him the Thai MASTER, is pretty funny.
Anyways, the Thai Master's tricks were really awesome and "cheered us up". I tried to take videos, but only two of them uploaded. I wanted to try uploading the other ones again but my mum said it's "a waste of time". MY BLOG NOT YOURS. Will try uploading the rest later on.
He started off by lighting a fire on the metal surface, which was to sanitize it. Quite smart. And also, extremely cool. He poured some sort of a spirit on the teppan and lit it. The flames burst out, flickering for around 7 to 8 seconds. My parents (being closest to it) drew back, absolutely terrified - especially my mum, but my brother and his friend, Net, oohed and ahhed appreciatively. Sadly, I only managed to get a picture.
With the teppanyaki menu, we also got complementary Shiitake Consomme and Salad (they had a name for it, but I forgot). And seasoned peanuts.
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| See those three people in the corner? Yeah, that's Mrs. Rogalska and her family. Awk... |
Firstly, in the second picture you can see Mrs. Rogalska. My science teacher. Yep, and with my luck, she obviously ended up sitting directly in front of me. I spent the whole night trying to avoid eye contact. I said hi, though, twice actually. But the second time she didn't hear. So that was fun.
Let's get to the actual food. We got our complementary dishes first: savoury cashews (or peanuts... I'm nut so sure. Hah. So funny... No it wasn't...), shiitake mushroom consomme and a salad.
The, er, peashew nuts were not oversalted (Thank God) and ever so slightly crunchy. It wasn't just salt, it was some sort of coating, that was savoury, but with a sweet aftertaste. Honey, maybe?
After that, the shiitake mushroom consomme arrived. Yum. And very simple. It's a sweet broth, quite similar to pho, with aromatic shiitake accents. Freshly cut chives swum around on the surface and gave the "consomme" a little edge to its taste.
Lastly, the salad. Sadly, I have to admit, I have no idea what was in it except, carrots, vinegar, cherry tomatoes and... that's pretty much it. I adored the bright colours and the bright flavours that matched it. Fresh would be a keyword to this dish. All the vegetables merged together in a harmony of textures. The vinegar dressing was the best, all tangy and refreshing.
These three dishes were fillers, while we waited for the Thai Master to get ready.
He started off with these awemazing (welcome back old friend) knife tricks, which I filmed, but obviously it failed.
I would try to describe it but it wouldn't sound as impressive as it really was. So I'm not going to kill it for you, so I guess you have to suck it up and wait. Or if it doesn't work, well, just suck it up.
On the bright side, I did manage to get two videos!
Hope you enjoy it!
I can't say what is in the videos right now, because I can't see them myself. But I'll just publish this, then watch it and add on. Also, I might be shaking, if that happens, that's because I was eating and filming at the same time. Again - fun.
UPDATE: Great, just great. Why am I not surprised that only the shortest, worst videos uploaded. That was just not impressive. After seeing this, I have vowed that whatever I do, I WILL GET THE OTHER VIDEOS. NO MATTER WHAT. Disgraceful.
I didn't take as much care with the pictures as I thought that all the videos would have worked, so I didn't take as much care :( You're probably thinking "Excuses, excuses" but I swear, it's true!
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| Stir-Fry |
This was fantastic. I love stir fries enough as it is, but this was really good. The noodles were tender and very well-seasoned, still piping hot off the stove with precious little gems of vegetables and egg mingling in between. My whole family and my brother's friend, Net, who came with us, loved this.
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| Teriyaki Chicken |
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| Lamb chops |
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| Calamari (Squid) |
My parents insisted on this. I'm not much of a fan, but I can't deny that these were made well. The onion was a nice touch, which added more dimension to the slightly "crunchy" (as we call it in Vietnamese) smooth feeling of the squid. My parents said it was really good though, so I'm taking their word for it, since they're major seafood lovers.
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| Sea Bass marinated in Pesto (X-large to show how much I liked it) |
Mmmmmm! Soft tender flakes of sea bass, merged with the earthy, herby pesto sauce. Just perfect. This was my dish, and I can honestly say it was absolutely amazing. The fish managed to retain it's sweet juices, whilst still being falls-apart-in-your-mouth soft. The pesto merged well with sea bass, without overpowering it. It went great with the sauces provided on the table. Especially the sweet, creamy white one on the right, which I couldn't quite figure out, but loved. The other sauce was my parents favourite, slightly sour and very "Vietnamese" as they called it.
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| Chocolate Volcano |
My brother's and his friends, but this time, I was smart enough to tell them to leave me a piece. The outside was spongy and slightly too dry for my liking, but the chocolate-y center made up for it. Hot oozing chocolate... just the thing to end the night.
Sorry about the abrupt ending and for putting it off for so long!
p.s. A shout out to JC Chou AKA ChouChou (if you don't like being called that, just give me the word and I will get rid of it)! :)
PAPAYA Restaurant
16 Foksal Street
00-372 Warsaw
booking: 022 826-11-99
office, phone/fax: 022 826-48-51
email: papaya@papaya.waw.pl
Restaurant open every day
from 12:00 to 24:00
Delivery by site www.glodni.pl
Site: http://www.papaya.waw.pl
p.s. A shout out to JC Chou AKA ChouChou (if you don't like being called that, just give me the word and I will get rid of it)! :)
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