MANILA -- Dusit Thani Manila’s premiere Thai restaurant Benjarong is making a splash with an upgraded version of its tasting menu, the Benjarong Experience Vol II.

Volume I of the Benjarong Experience was a hidden gem in the Benjarong menu when it was quietly launched even before the pandemic. It flew under Manila’s restaurant radar until groups of foodies, like the ones from the Fine Dining Club Philippines Facebook group, stumbled upon this exquisite expression of Thai cuisine early this year. This multi-sensory experience spread by word-of-mouth and has become quite the culinary attraction for the restaurant.

Thai chef De Cuisine Watcharapon Yongbathorn, affectionally called Chef Ja by Benjarong regulars, gets her inspiration from Songkran, Thailand’s water-filled celebration of new year. The food and ingredients have their own significance and Chef Ja’s flavors are bolder than ever accentuating the sour and the spice.

“In normal times, Dusit would celebrate it the way it would be done in Thailand with people wet with water. But because of COVID restrictions, we decided to celebrate it with this dinner instead.,” Chef Ja said.

The recommended way of enjoying Volume II is with the Moet et Chandon champagne pairing which presents four carefully selected glasses of bubbly to go with the dishes.

Get comfortable, settle down, and look through Chef Ja’s sketches for a preview of what’s to come. The meal starts out with a glass of Ice Imperial. This champagne is meant to be sipped with ice and herbs, and was given a touch of Southeast Asia with the addition of a kaffir leaf.

Chef Ja doesn’t hold back with the flavors with the Pha Pla, the tuna salad exploding with ginger and chili decorated with edible flowers representing the colors of Songkran. Munch some of the coconut turmeric tuile to balance out the heat.

The Sau Oua is a pork and herb sausage from northern Thailand that comes with a sticky rice popsicle. Spread some of the potently spicy Nam Prik Noom, green finger chili paste, on a bit of the sausage and rice to get a complete bite. Hope you saved some of the champagne as a sip would really tame the spice from green chili paste.

Sips of the classic Imperial Brut accentuated the next two courses restrained, but more complex flavor combinations.

Larb Ped is a minced duck salad that’s considered a lucky dish. This one was spicy so take some of the accompanying watermelon sorbet with shredded dried snake head fish.

There is a reason why this Tom Yum is served in a young coconut with the meat still intact. Have the crab and shrimp ball, slurp some of the soup, then scrape off the coconut meat that’s been infused with the spicy sour soup and enjoy.

While Imperial Rosé would have been nice to sip on its own, it does have the intensity of a berry forward medium dry red wine making it a pleasant companion to Chef Ja’s mains.

The Jackson Pollock-ish splash of curry on the Panaeng See Krong Krae is stunning. Use your fingers to bite into the lamb chop with the underlying red curry noodles for long life. This particular curry isn’t that spicy though it can be mixed it in with the dollops of coconut milk to make it a richer sauce.

I thought that this was a clever way of making a “dry” tom yum. A large grilled river prawn with tom yum herbs and spices mixed into the fried rice. Have some of the tamarind chili paste underneath the prawn to add more spicy sour notes to the dish.

A flute of Nectar Imperial accompanied the dessert courses. This sweet creamy champagne was a nice way to sip out the rest of the evening.

There was a sort of ritual lifting the lid of the ornate glass jar that contained the first dessert. According to Chef Ja, the Ka Nom Tom, a chewy coconut dumpling coated with toasted coconut, is a common treat for kids after visiting the temple during Thai holy days. The bit of gold leaf symbolizes wealth for the new year.

The I-Tim (ice cream) Ma Muang was the sweet finale for Volume II. Do some light taps with a spoon to break the white chocolate shell than have some of it with the mango sorbet with the coconut milk crystals frozen with liquid nitrogen.

All in all, this was a fitting and somewhat different successor to Volume I. As this celebrates the Thai New Year and new beginnings, it's also symbolic that Benjarong is launching this with an exclusive dinner on Songkran, while the city is enjoying the lifting of restrictions to level 1.

There’s another major difference. Unlike the first one which was available for a very long time, this one will only be offered for a very limited time only until May 31.

The new Benjarong Experience Vol II with Champagne pairing is priced at P7,750++ pax; Wine Pairing at P5,250++ pax; and P3,950++ pax for no pairing. Reservations are required.