Having a total variety of cuisines
from Asia, I recently ventured to Thailand Kitchen located at 86-05 Jamaica
Avenue (718-847-4700) to sample more than my usual Pad Thai. Please keep in mind that the sampling was not
done in one sitting or on the same day.
Yes, I do get full.
I tend to judge a Thai restaurant on
its Pad Thai, a dish consisting of Thai rice noodles sautéed with egg, dried
bean curd, bean sprouts, ground peanuts, and green onions. With an added choice
of chicken, beef, tofu, vegetables or vegetarian duck, I tend to find it to be
a “safe” dish as well as “passing my test”.
Spicy food is not my thing, but I do
want to be fair. In fact I take my
friend Deveka along with me as nothing seems too spicy for her. I chose one safe salad and one spicy soup. Glass
Noodle Salad uses translucent vermicelli noodles that are made from mung bean
starch. Add minced chicken and shrimp, chili, onions and cilantro, topped with
a lime dressing. Per my request the
chili was not added.
On another occasion, we sampled the
Mango Salad of julienne mango and carrots with red onions and lime
dressing. Me thinks that I communicated
my spicy situation regarding the glass noodles and forgot to mention on this
salad as the dressing is quite hot but so tasty. I viewed chili flakes. My Thai iced coffee was of great use having
the milk in it.
Lemongrass Shrimp Soup, better known
as Tom Yom, is a hot and sour soup with lemongrass and galanga root, a
white-fleshed root from Thailand that can be used as a substitute for ginger.
What makes the soup hot is the chili pepper. However, I found that this
particular chili doesn’t circulate around my whole mouth and make it
unbearable. It hits that back of my throat and within a few lovin’ spoonfuls I
am able to build up a tolerance and appreciate the excellent flavors of the
soup.
As a change on soup choices, I did
order the Coconut Chicken Soup that uses coconut milk, galanga, kaffir lime and
scallions. It’s quite good and not as spicy as Tom Yom.
Back to the appetizers. Spare ribs here on not of the Chinese
ilk. They are deep fried with garlic and
pepper, accompanied by a sweet and spicy sauce for dipping. No dipping for me. I found them to be tender and savory.
Crispy Spring Rolls seem to be made
different in each Asian cuisine. Thai
style is filled with glass noodles, cabbage and vegetables. I also loved the Shrimp Fritters, a sort of
fried wontons filled with ground shrimp and chicken served with that sweet
chili sauce. Then, there are the Chicken Wings in the sweet Chili sauce. They were not coated with bread crumbs or
flour and the sweet chili sauce, scallions and cilantro gave it an added flavor
to the freshness of the wings.
Deveka was being “vegetarian” for a
while. Thus I ordered the Emerald vegetarian dumplings served
with a ginger soy
sauce. Quite a good mixture in the dumplings tasting just fine without any
meat.
At this time I stray from the Pad
Thai and selected the Drunk Man Noodle dish with chicken. Wide wheat based noodles are used in this vs.
the Pad Thai cooked with rice noodles.
It was sautéed with chili, onions, vegetables and basil that is not the
same as basil used in Italian dishes.
Dealt with the chili to find how delectable the combination is.
Sauteed is another group listed on
the menu and one of many groups that you choose from: chicken, tofu, veggie,
duck, beef, or shrimp and priced by the chosen protein. We opted for total veggie with the Japanese
Eggplant in Hot Sweet Basil. It was
sautéed with fresh garlic, onions and chili with a basil sauce. Tofu was the
protein. Deveka was thrilled and I loved
it as well.
On a different visit I guess that I
was in the mood for chicken as the Grilled Lemongrass Chicken was one of the Specialties
that I opted for. The marinated half of a
chicken is served with a plum sauce and some veggies. The marinade is not spicy
and the plum chili sauce is perfect as even though it had a bit of spiciness,
the plum adds a bit of sweetness.
I did one more time as I wanted to
stray from the usual with something “more challenging” and ordered a lunch of
the Massaman Curry dish with beef having tasted this type of curry before. It’s a sweet and mild curry with potatoes and
peanuts. The secret’s in the sauce. There was only a
bit of kick due to some red pepper flakes.
Otherwise, the curry seemed to have a base of coconut milk.
I decided to sample another lunch
special of chicken Hawaiian Fresh Ginger with onions, ginger, scallions,
vegetables and mushrooms in a ginger sauce. Ginger is in thin strips. Rather than their regular jasmine rice, I
opted to splurge for the coconut rice. I
associate Hawaiian food with having pineapple or poi. I guess I need to look into Hawaiian cuisines
more. Despite my wanting to feel like I
was in Hawaii during these cold days, the food only warmed my stomach.
There are only a few desserts to
choose from, one of which is the fried ice cream. Vanilla ice cream is thickly coated so that
when fried, the crust becomes crispy without the ice cream melting. Topped with whipped cream and some chocolate
sauce swirls. I’m full just writing
about this!
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