Thai Summer Food Festival Comes to S. Korea in August
By Ines Min
Contributing Writer
Thailand is making its way into the hearts of Koreans through a universal, fail-proof tactic: cuisine.
The Thai Embassy said Thursday that the second Thai Select Restaurant Festival will take place in August, along with a culture festival on Jeju Island. Participants in the restaurant festival will be eligible to win a free round-trip to Thailand.
The series of events is an endeavor to promote the Thai Select Program, started by the Thai government in 2006, in which restaurants worldwide are awarded certificates if they meet specific criteria.
The goal is ``safeguarding the authenticity of Thai cuisine'' while promoting Thailand's best globally, said Tasanawadee Miancharoen, charge d' affaires of the embassy, at a press conference.
Introduced to Korea in 2007, the Thai Select Program has now certified six restaurants in the nation _ five are in Seoul and all are branches of three major franchise companies, ``After the Rain,'' ``Sala Thai'' and ``Thai Orchid.'' There are currently 1,219 Select restaurants in the world, and the Thai ministry of commerce hopes to increase the number to 1,500 this year.
The recent surge of Korean tourists to Thailand has helped bring Thai food to Korean culture, said Aphirak Paepuang, minister counselor of commercial affairs at the embassy. Korean tourists have reached roughly one million, and at least half of them like Thai food, he joked.
``Thai people regard our cuisine as a cultural delicacy,'' Paepuang said, adding that it can ``strengthen family and friend bonds, either at home or in a restaurant.''
The Thai Select certificate expires after three years, at which point a restaurant may re-apply to the program. Restaurants can become certified in traditional, modern or specialty Thai cuisine.
The restaurant festival, held by South Korea's six Select-certified, will offer a 20-percent discount to anyone who brings in the promotional leaflet, available to download online (www.buytai.or.kr).
The festival will last for all of August and the leaflets will be placed in a raffle at the end of the month. The winner will be given free round-trip airfare to Bangkok, free accommodation tickets and other prizes.
The culture festival will be a 10-day event at the Shilla Hotel on Jeju Island. Chefs from the Banyan Tree Hotel in Thailand will create authentic fare and a traditional Thai performance will be held three times a day on an outdoor stage. The festival will last from Aug. 1 to Aug. 10.
The embassy also held a two-day food academy on Thursday and Friday, available to restaurateurs, menu developers and foreign cuisine-related businessmen. The academy served as an introduction to traditional Thai recipes, as well as a way to encourage the Thai food import volume through franchise restaurants.
The volume of products being exported to Korea is still small, Paepuang said. He added that ``it's not hard to promote Thai food,'' but getting past the complicated official import procedures and certifications limits the amount of food able to be exported.
However, fiscal economics is not the only goal of the Thai summer food festival, he said. ``It's not just to export, but to live together (in culture).''