Betel was one of the restaurants chosen to serve some of the top culinary talent in the world, the finalists of the Specialty Food Association’s sofi Awards, at New York City’s Javits Center earlier this month. The Epoch Times visited Betel and asked the restaurant to recreate what its chef served.
Betel focuses on food styles and ingredients one might find at Thai hawker food stalls. Imagine Thai food with Vietnamese and Indonesian influences—an upscale twist on hawker-style food. Chef Foon Green decided to offer a longtime Thai favorite: The restaurant’s namesake betel leaf, common in Thailand food stalls but rare everywhere else, in vegetarian and chicken larb varieties.
The vegetarian betel leaf contains a cornucopia of flavors: pineapple, lychee, pomelo, cucumber, lime leaf, red chili julienne, chili powder, mint, coriander, peanuts, toasted coconut, shallots, and caramelized coconut. The chicken larb betel leaf distinguishes itself with poached chicken, scallion, mint, coriander, red chili julienne, chili salt, chili powder, lime juice, shallots, and fish sauce.
