For a while now, I’ve been hearing whisperings that “the best Thai in NYC” (whose name I refuse to say until I have a post up about it, with pictures) has been slipping in quality. With each expansion of its space, the food quality goes down a bit. I’m not Thai but I am picky about my pad thai. Someone whose house I used to frequently dine at, the parents made it totally kick ass, best I ever had. Not sweet, gloppy, sticky, just perfectly balanced with a slight sweetness, savory as well, and then with your squeeze of lime, the sour kicked in. I haven’t been to that person’s house in well over 5 years, and haven’t had their pad thai in even longer, so I’m constantly questing for a pad thai to top it. So far, I’ve been extremely unsuccessful.
I also have limited experience with much Thai food; the first time I had it was on a first date maybe 10 years ago. I should enter this into some contest for “Worst First Dates. Ever” with the title “My date tried to kill me” or something. So I had no experience with Thai food, and while I’ve always enjoyed eating, I was less, shall we say, aware of things than I am now. My date, a few years older, insisted that I would love Thai food and that he would take me and guide me through the menu. Awesome, I’m open to new experiences.
We had a nice enough dinner; I’d only just met him very recently so we didn’t know each other very well. I enjoyed the food just fine, I honestly have no idea what he ordered (probably pad thai), I don’t even know where we went (he drove to some part of Queens I wasn’t familiar with). Dessert time came, so he ordered for me again (a secret turn on for me). What came was a bowl filled with a white liquid and some banana slices floating in it. I asked him what it was, but he wouldn’t tell me. “Just try it,” he urged.
So I did. I began eating, and it was pleasant enough. It was banana in a somewhat familiar but… not… milk? After a few sips/bites, though, my intrigue turned to… a swollen tongue. “What’s in this?” I wheezed out.
“It’s bananas in coconut milk,” he said proudly, as though he’d made it.
“I’m allergic to coconut,” I again wheezed, my lips swelling slightly. At this point, my tongue flopped around in my mouth somewhat uselessly. I believe a panicked look crossed his face, and – this is the part that gets me everytime – he told me I was a liar. “No you’re not!” he said loudly. Thankfully, though it’s my most severe food-related allergy, it is not deathly, so I just kind of stared numbly at him while my face swelled up. There was no conceivable way I could have still been attractive at that point.
“You’re just FAKING it so you won’t have to go on a second date with me!” he announced.
… Needless to say, I put my foot down and insisted he take me home that second. I never saw him again. (I wanted to go to the hospital or doctor, but decided that I could pop some Benadryl at home and be okay.)
Aside from being slightly traumatized by Thai food, I must point out here that much of it – like nearly every curry dish – is off limits to me. While I will ignore some of my food allergies to eat delicious things, it’s generally in small doses, and coconut really swells my face up badly enough that it doesn’t seem worth the risk. Over the years, I’ve stuck to a bunch of safe dishes at Thai places, but in the past few months, I’ve been trying to expand all the dishes I eat at any Asian restaurant (because of a book I read recently that I will be reviewing, hopefully soon…).
Enough of my tangent! Now you know all this: I am allergic to most Thai curry dishes; I am picky about pad thai, searching for the perfectly balanced dish; and I am attempting to expand my knowledge of Thai food. So we move onto the food!
Snorlax started with the near-pre-requisite Thai iced tea.
I forgot to mention, this place had been recommended as better than “the best Thai place in NYC” by JW. He had told us to order the som tum ($5.95), described as a Thai papaya salad with peanut and chili. I took two heaping forkfuls of this onto my plate after stirring up the whole thing, and began eating. OMFG OMFG OMFG I started crying, my mouth lit on fire and I swear to you I had burn marks on my lips the next day. FIRE. FIRE. FIRE. I was amazed that B. actually ate more than one bite, since he is worse than I am with spiciness (if it’s even a bit spicy, he’ll decline or stop eating, whereas I have at least been trying to bring up my tolerance). But dude. I gulped all of my water (and my styrofoam cup remained empty for the rest of the meal), and finally, Snorlax took pity on me and handed me his Thai iced tea. “Take a sip, the milk will cool your tongue off.” I must say, I’ve heard this before and even tried it before, but it never worked and I remained extremely skeptical. But once I took a sip and swished it around my mouth before swallowing, the heat was temporarily calmed. Thanks, big bro!
Next were the steamed dumplings ($5.95), ground pork and shrimp with water chestnuts. These were quite tasty, like large shumai, but the dipping sauce is what brought these to another level. I’m not sure what kind of dipping sauce that was, really, but it was slightly sweet, but smoothly savory all at the same time, coating the side of each piece and elevating them to not just good, but delicious.
Of course we had to order pad thai ($7.00), sauteed rice noodles with shrimp, ean sprouts, egg, scallion and ground peanut, at least to compare it to every other place to see how it held up. Snorlax admitted he likes sweet pad thai. I’m much more a fan of the delicately balanced flavors of real pad thai, as opposed to the gloppy sweet crap that some Thai places serve to appease the non-Asian palate. This place doesn’t try to cater to anyone but themselves, and I respect that. I didn’t try the shrimp (I don’t like shrimp), though Snorlax said they were cooked just right, not overdone and rubbery at all. The pad thai itself was delicious, especially after the juicy lime was squeezed liberally over the top to bring the sour element into play. I admit that though this was technically Snorlax’s dish, I did wind up eating more than half of it.
I’ve mentioned countless times about B’s unadventurous and non-Asian palate, and probably – possibly? mentioned that the first time B had dinner with my family, we went, as we normally do, to an Asian restaurant that served food family-style. Not knowing this, after my mother had placed the order in Chinese, B added on his own order – chicken fried rice. My family looked at me a bit oddly, but my mother insisted I not make him not order it (she said to me, in Chinese, “Just let him, that’s what he wants to eat, it’s fine” – my reasoning for him not to order it was mostly because we were in a Malaysian restaurant, and my mother had ordered 5-6 dishes for everyone to enjoy family-style). Anyway, he now understands the way it works, though he does genuinely enjoy chicken fried rice for reasons I can’t fathom – chicken is so boring and lends little to no flavor to the rice! But he likes it, and he ordered it here happily. Thai fried rice with chicken ($6.00). This was easily the blandest dish of the night, though not horrible. I actually thought it was a good accompaniment to the other dishes we’d ordered, which were all very aromatic and the rice did nothing to compete with those flavors, working nicely together.
Snorlax also ordered the Beef Nam Tok ($8.00), BBQ beef with chili, mint and lime juice. I found the meat a little boring here, and he said it was a bit tough to chew. This was only one of two dishes we didn’t finish (and wound up taking home). The spices were fine, but the meat just a touch chewy.
Finally: I decided to try something new, and this is what I chose; ped pad kaprow ($8.95), sauteed duck with chili and basil. Dude, wow. I can’t compare this to anything else I’ve ever eaten, so I will just say that the flavor profile was off the chart. The way all the ingredients came together and melted into one new, unique taste was amazing. We totally dogged this dish, digging out all of the duck and inhaling it quick as we could. Luscious, tender with that meaty chew that only duck boasts, and fatty in the good way – wow. I have to start ordering this at more places.
Arriving last to the table was our larb ($6.95), ground pork with lime juice, dried chili and fresh mint. I was wary this might be overwhelmingly spicy, a la the papaya salad, but it was not. While it wasn’t bad, per se, it was not a favorite for me, as it kind of hung limply out. I would have liked some rice with it, or a thin pancake, or something- more lettuce, arranged more easily for filling cups of and consuming. Of course, now that I know, perhaps next time I will order some sticky rice to accompany this dish. The meat itself was flavorless, but the additions tried to aide it… I don’t know, not a fan of it, though I wouldn’t avoid trying it again elsewhere.
We had also ordered an 8th dish (are you counting? That’s 8 dishes for 3 people, one of whom does not eat that much- that one being B), but it was served to the man who sat at the table next to us, who came in when about half of our dishes had already arrived. We chose not to say anything (except to get it taken off the bill at the end) because we were just that darn full; we made a good showing, only having to take some of the larb and some of the beef nam tok home, though.
Maybe we should have. He all but licked his plate clean before paying the bill and scurrying out of the tiny place. Must’ve been some good pad si lew.
Yvo says: I have to say, I really enjoyed this meal greatly. While there were some definite FAILs for me and my not-so-spicy palate, I found the other dishes to be right on key with their seasonings and flavors. Everything balanced each other out very well, coming together to make a complete meal work together in perfect harmony. I’d say we’d succeeded in a great meal- and did I mention our entire bill, before tip, came out to just over $56? (With our tip, it was $70. In case you were wondering.) That’s ridiculously cheap for Thai food, which I find tends to be quite expensive.
highly recommended
83-18 Broadway
Elmhurst, NY 11373
718-898-6836
boonchunyc@gmail.com
Lizz says
mmm Thai food! I passed by this place the other day and was curious. I migh have to try. I suck at Thai food, meaning I’m not an expert and not too fond of anything I really order from Thai food places but that’s probably bc I don’t know what to choose. Usually I stick to anything sour and/or spicy. I agree with you though, that those sweet, sticky mess that most places call pad thai is disgusting. Oh I think Thai people use chili padi also. Another name for it is bird’s eye chili – small little chili peppers. I usually cut one up and add to soy sauce for a nice dipping sauce.
Ok, I’ll try the lobster thermidor. I’ve been craving mac and cheese for AGES (well a good batch that is) so I would be SO down for the SMAC place. I passed by it a couple weeks ago – the place is teeny though.
soopling says
Ooh, how exciting, good pad thai! I’m always on the hunt. Of course, now that I’m in Colorado I’d prob kill for any pad thai, sweet and gloppy or no. There are two places here, but I’ve yet to check them out. I’ll do it when my cravings get the best of me I guess.
Ann says
OH MY GOSH
you won’t believe this, but one of my worst dates was nearly the same thing. my date insisted on ordering icecream even afteri told him i was lactose intolerant, then told me i was lying. what theee!
he ended up eating the icecream on his own…very very strange.
John says
noooo, don’t come here, i want it kept all to myself! =P
Rochelle says
Your description of what pad thai should be is .. well, it’s just quite perfect.
Ambitious says
This is in my ‘hood and I have never been there! I should totally check it out next time =) I always end up at the neighboring Thai places near Boon Chu.
Thanks for your review!
JO says
what a comprehensive review! It sounds like you and your crew know how to order (a lot).
Also, forget going out on dinner dates! the dates ruin the food and the food ruins the date. I’ve sworn it off.