You know you’re in California when you opened the bag of your Thai food delivery, the foam boxes containing your dinner combos are embossed with a picture of a cactus, sombrero, and “Muchas Gracias”.
Confused? Me too. 🙂
Yep. That was our dinner. Dinner combo came with “shrimp fried rice”–well, a mound of fried rice with 2 shrimps, that is–2 fried chicken kyosa dumplings, and a choice of entree. Brandon ordered panang beef, and me gaeng keow wann chicken (green curry).
Yet, another downside of having Brandon orders food on the phone, other than the fact that food ordered by farangs who could actually handle the heat never get spicy enough for their flame-retarded mouths, is that the restaurant sometimes would westernize the food a little bit.
The panang is standard to what we usually get from them. Actually, they got the spicy right. Enough to give Brandon the run for his money, burn the hell out of my mouth, but yet still a medium-spicy for ordinary Thais.
My “curry” wasn’t much of a curry. Maybe they were concerned about the curry splashing about in a compartmental foam container. But there was a lack of curry in my, well, curry. It’s not even a “dry curry” like in Richard’s recent post. I mean, this thing is more like chicken and thinly sliced bamboo shoots tossed around with green curry and coconut milk gravy. But then again, I haven’t ordered green curry from here before so perhaps they only make it farang way. *shrug*
That is what we get for being lazy and not trekking out to a reliable Thai food joint, and settled with a decent, hold me over until the weekend, shack. We’re just too cold to go back out there, huddling in our warm abode, away from the harsh California winter of 54F/12C. 😉
Yeah. We’re lazy. We’ve had a long day. So sue us!
If you have been reading my entries/comments for a while, you’d notice I’ve been raving about a local Thai joint called “Treasure Pot”. They have new owners now and at first we couldn’t quite tell the difference in the food, but we noticed the flavors were different. Not to mention the new faces behind the counter. But we figured it’s a new weekend service crew. Then our friends Jim and his Thai wife Att, who introduced us to the Treasure Pot in the first place, told us that actually the ownership did change. Ah-ha! That’s why we can’t get quality, slow cooked to perfection panang on weekdays any more!
This past weekend, Jim and Att told us that the original owner and cook of the Treasure Pot has started a new restaurant called Kapow Thai. So, we waltzed in. To our surprise, the owner remembered us! (And shame on me, I still don’t know his name!) He was quite puzzled as to how we found his new joint. We told them about Jim and Att. He was very pleased to hear that Jim and Att have been spreading the words around too!
So, our wish was granted. Brandon has the wonderful panang he’s been craving, flavored Thai spicy the way he likes it. Same with padd kraprow chicken (chicke and Thai basil). And me? I had me a bowl of kuayteow ruah (boat noodles) with everything in it. Yum-o!
As authentic the restaurant is, and as willing as the kitchen is to prepare whatever it is off the menu, going to Thai restaurants here still can’t beat home.
I am putting together a list of stuff I want to eat, so Pueng, my maid/nanny would be ready to feed me. Oh, she can hardly wait to feed me, she told me over the weekend when she answered the phone. Even more so, she can’t wait to freeze the panang in tubs for me to bring back to Brandon!
Oh yes, my mom and I already planned out how to pack frozen tubs of homemade panang to bring back to the U.S. (Shh…don’t nobody tell the custom office!) Last year we sneaked in frozen roti sheets which were still frozen solid when I unpacked many hours later. I hope it works the same way for frozen meat.
Yes, this time next week I’d be putting around LAX, waiting to board my THAI direct flight to Bangkok where wonderful home made food awaits.
On the sidenote:
My trip schedule is shaping up to be a busy one. My brother’s wedding on the 4th. Head down to Khao Lak with my dad for the Tsunami Memorial design competition on the 5th. And after that, my mom is supposed to start her chemotherapy. Richard, I’d probably have to skip visiting your school this time around. But I’m still hoping to go grab a beer with any of you somewhere around my neighborhood i.e. Langsuan/Ploenchit. So far, I know Steve want in…right? Email me your email address and I’ll coordinate.
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