Jamaican fusion is cuisine to Thai for
STICKY rice, larb and green paw-paw salad made from fresh locally sourced produce will feature on the menu of a new CBD restaurant set to merge popular Thai and Jamaican cuisine.
The expansion of the popular Ma Der Thai store in Rusty’s Markets called Jam Thai will soon offer a new option for foodies.
With a green and sustainable focus Jam Thai will serve coffee from a hole in the wall on Lake St, grow their own herbs and will offer takeaway meals using an Asian-style stackable lunch box called a tiffin.
Proprietor Saowani (Tiss) Bunwong said her love of Thai food and her partner’s Jamaican background meant running a fusion restaurant together was a logical outcome.
“In north east Thailand we eat a lot of sticky rice and we use many types and my partner’s grandma is Jamaican so he has a background with Jamaican food so we are going to merge each other with spice,” she said.
“In Jamaica they do a lot with jerk which is a herb spice, we would like to merge that with Thai food (such as) paw-paw salad, that’s our plan.”
Jam Thai will also offer vegan dining options and is planning live music nights from the former Jafflehead site.
“And we are going to do everything with biodegradable (products) to reduce all the plastic, we will do coffee with a green (reusable) cup and make everything green, that’s our concept,” Ms Bunwong said.
“I love food and my partner loves food and we thought ‘let’s do something that we are happy with.’ We are not really like commercial in the way of profit, profit, we just want to do something we have a passion for.
“When you do something with a passion you are just happy when (people) give you good feedback, that’s what happened to us in Rusty’s Markets”
The former Bangkokbased United Nations IT worker said Cairns had the perfect climate to grow fresh ingredients used in north east Thai cuisine.
“Everybody knows Thai food, that’s a bonus … and I feel really proud to be a part of it,” she said.
“But being born in north east Thailand people know Thai food they will know paw-paw salad, larb and soup.
“And we will use local products as much as we can.”
The Lake St restaurant had a soft opening last week and will begin serving meals from Monday, July 26.