The Nottingham Food Assembly- Internet Shopping Meets the Producer

The Nottingham Food Assembly Launches Friday 5th August 

The Nottingham Food Assembly

Oriel's Honey Emporium- Don't Worry, Bee Happy

Local Nottinghamshire Honey at Oriel's Honey Emporium

Sometimes you stumble across somewhere or something you hadn't expected to find on a trip out. Recently we headed up to Floralands on the lookout for some new paving slabs. Unfortunately we didn't come away with the paving slabs but we came away with a lovely jar of local honey made by the River Leen in Bobbersmill right in the heart of Nottingham.

Plenty of sweet selections at Oriel's Honey Emporium

Within one of the outside cabins is Oriel's Honey Emporium. A treasure trove of honey and related products with plenty from local producers. There's plenty to sample from too. We've been at a number of sports events recently and producing our own sports nutrition instead of buying so we're always on the lookout for a secret ingredient for our flapjacks.

Tasting the New Menu at Thaikhun Nottingham

Great news for Thai food lovers. Thaikhun has launched a new menu

Street food is a way of life in Thailand, as it seems to be across Asia. We love our Asian cuisine, especially with a bit of a kick. Traditionally Thai food is often cooked outside, stopping houses getting even hotter and slowly but surely creating the food scene for which Bangkok is renowned. 

Thaikhun Nottingham within the Intu Victoria Centre

We love the opportunity to see what's on a new menu and when we were invited to Thaikhun for their latest offerings it was hard to refuse. We're keen to head out into South-east Asia at some point in the not so distant future so some food education before we go is necessary and where better than the street food inspired flavours of Thaikhun Nottingham.

This was Jem's first visit to Thaikhun and being one of the best weather days of the year so far it made sense to head out onto the terrace area for some al fresco dining. There's certainly a character to Thaikhun's terrace area with oil cans made into tables and chairs alongside up cycled furniture all bright in colour. Whilst the views will never take your breathe away there's a feeling of calm despite being above a busy part of Nottingham.

Thaikhun Nottingham's Roof-Top Terrace

Exploring the New Menu at Thaikhun- Starters

We love our quick eats and Thai starters come across more as snack foods that would make a great lunch if you chose a selection of 4-5 dishes in a similar way to Spanish Tapas. From previous we definitely recommend the Sukumvit 38 platter which remains on the menu as a house classic: featuring some of the best selling items from the Bangkok market by that name. With Fishcakes, Honey Pork, Steamed Vegetable Dumplings and Chicken Spring Rolls there's plenty to sample.

If we could we'd have ordered everything from the starters menu and worked our way through it all slowly. Dumplings are a classic Thai street food so we decided to try some of the Ka Nom Jeeb. Steamed Dumplings with Pork and Prawn filling.

Ka Nom Keeb- Steamed Pork and Prawn Dumplings

The dumplings came out with a nice selection of salad alongside them, beautifully fresh and complimenting the dish. The Ka Nom Keeb were very nice, a lot lighter than they looked but filling at the same time. They came in a bowl with a soy based sauce that really worked well. We'd love to tell you what the sauce was flavoured with however we sadly couldn't quite grasp just what it was- very nice though!

As we love a bit of piggy and so do the people of Thailand it seems we also opted for the Moo Dad Deow. Pork strips, marinated with palm sugar, pepper, coriander and soy sauce, before being fried and topped with sesame seeds.

I loved the fried pork strips. The flavour was great with a subtle sweetness from the palm sugar and the slight sour from the soy making them a great snack that I'd happily devour repeatedly. A real highlight was the great chili sauce they came with which was almost like a jam. Well worth trying.

Moo Dad Deow- Marinated Pork Strips, Fried with Sesame Seeds and Chilli Dip

If we could pick more off the menu we'd have likely opted for the interesting sounding Gai Satay. Chicken skewers with a peanut sauce although we also like the sauce of the Sweet Corn Cakes (Tod Man Khao Pod) flavoured with red curry paste and Kaffir Lime leaves.

Main Courses at Thaikhun

When we think Thai food we usually consider red and green curries as well as the earthy Massaman which are classics on any Thai menu. We've had them before but were really intrigued by the Gaeng Som, Deep fried Bream in a sour curry sauce.

The young lady serving us wasn't sure if the curry came with rice (The menu stated curries served with jasmine rice when looking back) so we asked for a sticky rice which was needed for a cooling effect and to soak up the sauce.

Gaeng Som- Deep fried Bream in a sour curry sauce at Thaikhun 

Featuring a deep fried whole Gilt Head Bream, butterfly cut to allow access to the flakes, swimming in a very warming curry sauce with lots of vegetables the Bream curry was very much a highlight of our visit to Thaikhun. For the squeamish the fish eyes were covered with the spicy sauce featuring carrot, green beans, courgette, pak choi and Chinese Greens to really fill out the dish. There was almost enough for it to serve two people which would be possible if you both had a portion of rice alongside.

Moo Yang- Thai Grilled Pork

We also opted for the Moo Yang. A simple Thai street favourite featuring grilled Pork with a chilli and tamarind sauce. Nicely grilled this was a good simple choice which would suit any fussy eater. Whilst the pork was by no means lean, it was full of flavour. I love a bit of fat with my meat so it worked well for me. It was served with a choice of sticky rice or steamed noodles and I opted for sticky rice which came presented in a rather fetching container.

Thai Sticky Rice with the Moo Yang

We would also have liked to have tasted the Phao Kee Mao- spicy seafood noodles with prawn mussels and squid with a chili, ginger, oyster and soy sauce. We've also not had duck for a while so the Ped Phad Prik Pao sounded good with roasted duck slices fried with chilli paste mushrooms peppers and onions sounded right up Jemma's street.

We didn't even have room for pudding!

Overall there was plenty to choose from Thaikhun's new menu which seems to have expanded from our first visit when the restaurant opened. The variety means it's great whether you fancy a sociable snack or full meal

I have to admit that as someone who's a bit of a fussy eater (I never grew out of it since my teens but I'm slowly getting better). I'm always a little wary of what to go for on a menu, particularly with Asian cuisine as the description often doesn't show half of what goes into a dish. Thaikhun does follow this principle which is a little gripe of mine- certainly with their curries as we found with the Bream curry. I'd love to see a little more

If you have children there's a great explorers meal option. 3 courses with a main course selection of Phad Thai, a mix and match Thai tray and Fried Chicken in a choice of sauces to give them plenty to choose from.

Thaikhun Nottingham
R7 Intu Victoria Shopping Centre, Nottingham NG1 3QN
Tel: 0115 838 9950