I haven't been to THE PARK, in ages. To Lotus Thai, well, at least not in the last 3-4 years. Lotus Thai was the go-to place for premium Thai, but once they shut for about 10 months before relaunching last year, it has skipped my radar. Until tonight when the seafood festival really caught our attention. My cousin, a theeni pandaram from birth (read, well meaning version of foodie in Tamil) wanted to see (or taste) an entire menu of seafood in Thai cuisine. While that is not uncommon, it is uncommon in Chennai. So, off we went.

Started off with some nice crackers (basically appalams), but non veg ones. The prawn crackers were cracking! The garlic crackers were cracking too. We regretted filling our tummies as there were lots to try. Three stunning dishes stood out! Like really shining. While waiting for them, we did gulp down some drinks. A green tea mojito was fabulous, with just a hint of aftertaste of green tea and the Rose Lemonade was a nice and refreshing.

I'm not even going to attempt to name the dishes in German (or Thai or Chinese). The super jumbo prawns. I've shot from two angles, but both don't tell you how big these were. Steamed to perfection with just the hint of Asian flavours. One each and we were revelling. Next came the awesome soft shell crabs. With Malabar peppercorns used for Thai flavours, these crabs were fried to perfection. And then the lobster!!! Priced at a measly Rs. 1650 for a 900g lobster for the festival (normally these would cost you about Rs. 3k), and marinated with garlic and green peppercorns, the lobster was yummy. I wasn't a big fan of the thai green curry (wasn't very green) with the jasmine rice.

We had a small dessert platter with the usual water chestnut with coconut milk and a beautiful black sesame ice cream which helped wash down the Arabian ocean we had just swallowed!

Beyond the Seafood festival, I'm thinking why and how I missed Lotus Thai for so long. The restaurant has been renovated last year and it has moved away from the gold and orange shades to a beautiful and elegant blue gold theme and looks a lot more modern now. Menu has changed and I'm looking forward to going back and trying more stuff from there!

Two fantastic cricketers. One Chef. A noble intention. No ego branding. This deadly combination brings in a fantastic restaurant. The Ministry of Crabs. While it also makes it to Asia's Top 50 restaurant list, it also operates out a quaint little space in the Old Dutch Hospital in Colombo.

A picture speaks a thousand words, but some pictures speak a thousand pictures. This one prawn photo that I posted on instagram went viral (by my standards) and the one question that most people had was, "Is that shell on?" Nope. It was without the shell, but the head was intact."

So, we thought we were not going to Ministry of Crabs. After unsuccessfully trying to get a reservation for dinner, including blowing my trumpet about this blog, I was waitlisted. Our host in Colombo was able to get us a place for lunch and after nearly missing our place because of a delayed meeting, we barely made it, just before they were going to release our table. The place was full with a the board, "Sorry, the Ministry is full today." Thank God.

6 of us. 6 prawns, 3 crabs, 2 bowls of rice and two plates of bread. That's it. The prawns came first with the breads. Oh-My-God. The flavours seeped in well and the prawns were super jumbo. I mean, it could pass off as a baby lobster! Without the shell they were half a fist in diameter and the juices were flowing in the plate that was good fodder for the nice and freshly home baked kale breads. Just one piece each and we thought we were done with the mains. We almost forget the crabs, though this is the Ministry of Crabs.

The crabs came in next with the burnt garlic fried rice. The crabs were just as Oh-My-God as the prawns. I am used to having flavours on the shell and no flavour seeping through the crabs, but here, flavours of the marinade had seeped through, and with the natural flavour of the crabs, were simply awesome.

We finished off with the only available dessert, the chocolate biscuit pudding that is ubiquitous in Sri Lanka.

The meal set us back by LKR 30,000 which is roughly about Rs. 14000! For a premium experience and the size of the prawns and crabs, we thought it was justified. Actually it doesn't matter what we thought, because honestly, we didn't think about it till we got back!!!