Thaimee Love hosts acclaimed Thai restaurant Kalaya for pop-up dinner in the West Village

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Chef Hong Thaimee is celebrating the closing of her pop-up restaurant, Thaimee love, in New York City’s West Village. The celebration features a special guest: Kalaya chef and owner, Nok Suntaranon. The one-night-only dinner will feature dishes from two acclaimed female Thai chefs on Wednesday, June 30th. 

Chef Hong Thaimee

Originally from Chiang Mai, Thailand, Chef Hong Thaimee has served as a global ambassador for Thai cuisine and culture for nearly a decade. At her pop-up restaurant, Thaimee Love, at 615 Hudson Street, she serves market-driven Thai comfort food. Her cuisine marries the traditional flavors of her homeland with the highest quality local ingredients, as well as sauces, spice blends, and tea from her new product line. 

Chef Nok Suntaranon

For the last pop-up dinner, Hong invited her friend Chef Nok Suntaranon, who has been serving authentic Thai Cuisine at her restaurant Kalaya, in Philadelphia. She has seen a number of extremely high honors come her way in the past year. These include Esquire’s Best New Restaurant in America for 2020, a James Beard Finalist for Best New Restaurant in 2020, and one of Food & Wine’s Best New Restaurants in America in 2020. 

“We’ve known each for about a year and we wanted to do a pop up because, one, Chef Nok invited me to do a pop up with her last summer, two, because I want her to have an honor to celebrating the closing of my Thaimee love pop-up as a special guest, and three, we always find good excuse to enjoy each other company”, says Chef Hong. 

Chef Not says they really enjoyed the process of simply combining two different Thai cooking styles to create the menu por the pop-up dinner and they believe it will surprise customers. 

“Guests will be able to experience the diversity of Thai culinary cuisine and see how it can be presented in so many different ways, while also being so similar in the way we serve our ingredients and use our own techniques. Guests can expect a wide range of what Thai cooking has to offer”, says Chef Nok.

Five-course Thai dinner

The five-course dinner costs $120 per person (plus tax and gratuity), with reservations beginning at 5:30 p.m, that can be made here. Check out the menu:

Appetizers

Sakoo Hed (mushroom dumplings with peanut & sweet radish); 

Shaw Muang (flower-shaped dumplings with chicken & sweet radish); 

Chui Kwai (rice cup with ground pork, mushroom, shrimp topping); 

Khao Niew Luang Na Goong (yellow sticky rice with coconut shrimp topped with coconut cream);

Chiang Mai Fries and Saa Salmon from Thaimee Love. 

Main course

Kang Ghai Khao Mun (southern style chicken curry with coconut rice); 

Som Tum (green papaya salad); 

Nua Pad Look Pak Chee (stir-fried beef with coriander seeds); 

Namprik noom relish with crudite; 

See Klong moo tod.

Dessert

Thaimee Love’s Pandan Custard with roti; 

Kalaya’s Mango Sticky Rice.

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