mindless ramblings

I quite like my Thai food, but I seldom get the chance to eat it in Vancouver. The only (semi) regular time I eat Thai food is in the Aberdeen Center food court. So a couple of days ago, all of us (me, Esther, parents and Yen) headed to Thai House to try it out. None of us had been here except for Esther so we didn’t really have any idea what to expect.

The first thing I noticed upon entry was a little sign saying that the restaurant was part of the Thai House group, which included strangely enough, a Brazilian steak house and Japanese all-you-can-eat sushi restaurant. Nevertheless, we got seated and started to make sense of the menus. Unusually for a restaurant in Richmond, their menus are only in English… maybe that’s why the majority of the customers weren’t Asian.

Tom Yum Goong
This was tasty! Perhaps a little bit on the salty side but it was good. I wish they had used peeled shrimp but I’m just nitpicking here. I thought the bowl was a bit small for 5 people though, it would be just nice for 4 though. Not the cheapest bowl of soup for $9 though.

Chicken Satay
I was fully expecting some totally lame rendition of satay but this was pleasantly good. The chicken skewers were HUGE! They were the size of those souvlaki skewers you get at a Greek restaurant. These satays were marinated in coconut milk and then grilled. I have no idea if this is authentic but we all thought it was tasty with the peanut gravy.

Pineapple Fried Rice
I have fond memories of heading out to Sembawang Shopping Center years ago to eat pineapple fried rice. I was hoping of a flashback to the good old days but unfortunately it wasn’t that great. The presentation of the rice in a pineapple shell was great, except for the fact that they couldn’t fit all the rice in it. The rice itself was quite soggy for fried rice too.

Kaeng Mat Sa Man
Everyone enjoyed this the most. My dad proclaimed it to be very close to the curries back home and I wholeheartedly agree. Perhaps a little salty but it was very flavourful. It’s a thick and rich beef curry with peanuts added in for good measure. We liked it so much we packed this up so we could eat it with rice the next day!

Kaeng Kiew Waan Gai
No idea how to pronounce that, but it is basically chicken with green curry paste and coconut milk. It tasted pretty much like the food court version I am used to, except it was deceptively spicy. I’m used to my spicy food being red in colour… be warned! All of us thought the beef curry was much better.

Green Beans
It was basically green beans fried with shrimp paste, spices and dried shrimp. I personally prefer the Chinese version of green beans fried with ground pork and chilli (Mui Garden does a particularly good rendition of this dish). Besides, I was too busy eating the beef curry to pay much attention to the vegetables!