Audio By Carbonatix
“Isn’t the Thai trend over?”
The question comes from a sincere associate, one who really enjoys a good culinary craze, and I know what she means. It is certainly true that Thai food has been part of the recherche restaurant scene for at least the past half decade. Anyone with pretentions to culinary cachet has already crunched a little Mee Krob and twirled a little Pad Thai.
I think, though, that Thai dining is more than a trend. This is a vibrant, varied, fresh, affordable, healthful and extremely interesting cuisine that has every reason to flourish beyond the fad stage. The best proof of this is that, despite the reality of restaurant market saturation, the number of Thai restaurants just keeps on growing.
Mexican, Italian, and Chinese cuisines all were once new trends in this country. With approximately two dozen Thai restaurants in the Phoenix area already, we may well be witnessing the emergence of the next cuisine with major satay-ing power. Thai marches on.
If The Siamese Cat is the first Thai restaurant you ever visit, you may have second thoughts before actually walking inside. This restaurant, you see, is located in a shopping center named Pet Food Plaza. The anchor tenant is called the Pet Warehouse, and right next to this is the Siamese Cat. “My Lord,” you may be forgiven for thinking, “what do these people eat?” Well, people who dine at the Siamese Cat eat some of the most consistently appealing Thai food in town. Having extensively sampled this particular menu, I can confidently report that this cookstaff doesn’t miss a step. Dishes are assertively flavored without being overly heat-aggressive; daring and diverse without being overly dramatic; refined without being rarefied or fussy.
Among its versions of the most familiar Thai fare, the Siamese Cat turns out a perfectly spiced peanut sauce for Satay (barbecue meat on a skewer), the most meat-generous Mee Krob (sweet crispy rice noodles) in town, a spectacularly savory Pad Thai (sauteed rice noodles with vegetables, meat and Thai spices), and a compellingly luscious Lahb Neua (beef cooked with lime juice and spices, served upon request with raw cabbage leaves for use as edible shells).
Dishes you may not have tried before, but worth wetting the whiskers with here, are Poh Haeng (shrimp and squid stir-fried with Thai herbs) and Kai Yud Sai (a Thai omelet filled with a mouth-watering mixture of ground pork, tomatoes, onions and peas). The Siamese Cat version of coconut ice cream, actually a true sherbet, is a wonderful refreshment at meal’s end and is not to be missed.
Another pleasing part of this restaurant’s personality is its soothing ambiance. Although some other top Thai restaurants in this town come on with dramatic contemporary designs, the Siamese Cat somehow manages to turn a simple whitewash job and a linoleum floor into a peaceful retreat. In part, the soothing accents come from peach linens, Thai music drifting in the background, and the subtle use of religious art and a false temple portico above the kitchen window.
Ultimately, it’s the sort of place where a well-fed cat might just curl up and take a comfortable nap.
RATING: insert graphics 4 Thai stix
Tuptim Thai Restaurant is a “looker.” Suave charcoal grays, rich ruby reds and bright shiny blacks dominate the color scheme. The feel is ultra-chic, as if some dramatically dark art gallery is about to mount an exhibit of pinspot-lighted modern Asian art.
The coolness of this impression is immediately mitigated by the service staff, however, which offers a welcome as friendly as all git-out. Although the restaurant is moderately busy during a recent visit, the hostess graciously indicates several tables from which we may choose. After we are seated, the restaurant owner comes over to effuse cordiality and place a sign on our table promoting “the Pirates,” a shrimp curry with pineapple dish that he promises “will be the new favorite.”
As things turn out, my favorite impression at Tuptim has little to do with the Pirates or any other dish that we order. I leave the restaurant most fond of the owner himself, who performs one of the most responsible and sincere acts of complaint-handling that I’ve ever encountered. This takes place when I reject the restaurant’s Pad Thai, which tastes to me like it has been cooked in rancid oil.
After profusely thanking me for calling this situation to his attention, he collects the offending dish and heads to the kitchen. A few minutes later he returns with a very polite and sophisticated analysis of the probable cause of my complaint. Although he believes the oil to be fresh, he is aware that the cottonseed oil the restaurant uses is particularly sensitive to high heat and foreign flavors. He has noticed an unnatural sticky residue in the wok in which the dish has been cooked, indicating that the Pad Thai has been cooked too long in a pan that should not have been used.
After complimenting my perception and thanking me again, he offers to replace the dish with any of my choosing. I don’t know the Thai word for such behavior, but the English terms “honorable” and “appropriate” will certainly do.
As for Tuptim’s food overall, it’s just a bit short of finely tuned. The meat in the Lahb Neua is too coarsely ground and too chewy. The Chicken Satay is a little too salty and the peanut sauce a little too thin.
On the other hand, Tuptim turns out an immensely satisfying curry, hot and flavorful with excellent chile-paste and coconut-milk dimensions. I’m also impressed by Tuptim Crepes, a moist, slightly sweet mixture of pork and crisp veggies in a delicate egg wrapper. And Tuptim turns out a great coconut ice cream, which prompts a guest to remark that she’d “like to dribble chocolate on it and pretend it’s a Mounds bar.”
I’d simply like to pretend that all restaurant management is as conscientious as Tuptim’s.
RATING: insert graphics 3 Thai stix
An example of what happens when the owner is not paying close attention to the business, or of what happens when getting bigger starts to take precedence over getting better, is found at Char’s. Justifiably lauded as the Valley’s first major league Thai establishment when it opened in Mesa at the beginning of the decade, this erstwhile trendsetter is still capable of bringing it to the plate with heat. But now that Char’s has become a chain of three restaurants, it is also starting to lose some of its fineness around the edges.
On the positive side, Char’s still turns out great-tasting Thai cuisine. Complex and authentic, the food at Char’s happily avoids pandering to the supposedly less adventurous tastes of the so-called masses. One nice indication of the sophisticated taste commitment is found in the restaurant’s promotion of Siam Ale, a yeastier and much more challenging brew than Singha Beer, the other Thai beverage in the Valley and the one that most other Thai restaurants carry.
Some personal menu favorites at Char’s are Tod Mun (crispy-fried fish cakes served with sweet/hot cucumber relish) and Bar Mee Poo Moodang (egg noodles with barbecue pork, peanuts, crab and vegetables). Unfortunately, this latter extremely delicious dish also reveals one of the real flaws of the restaurant. There’s just no nice way of saying that Char’s has become cheap: If this dish contains quality ingredients like crab or cashews, you need a magnifying glass to find them.
There are other serious problems. I can’t speak of all the restaurants, but Char’s-Tempe is getting seriously run-down. The clear glass plates and table tops that once seemed so stylish are getting very badly chipped; the dark intimate dining room is starting to grow dingy.
The service is slow and inattentive. Water glasses remain unfilled. The check is a long time coming after it has been requested.
In all, thanks to the seasoning talents of the culinary staff, Char’s spark of greatness may still exist. But somewhere along the line, the passion for pleasing customers seems to have about burned itself out. A fire on the palate is not a fire in the heart.
RATING: insert graphics 2-1/2 Thai stix
For those who could care less about the latest culinary trend, but who know what they like when they taste it, there is Siam. This is the Thai experience without airs. The food’s a little saltier and a little greasier here, the cornstarch and filler a little more plentifully added, but at least the portions are large enough so that you can find the food on your plate.
Perhaps the best dish at Siam is BBQ Beef Siam. This is a close cousin of a steakhouse version of sliced London broil with gravy, but it’s totally succulent and satisfying nonetheless. If you’re a fan of down and dirty deep-fat frying, this is also the place to chow down on egg rolls, fish cakes, et al., that are guaranteed to saturate you with pleasure.
All of this is not to say that the authentic Thai food here isn’t worth a shot. The Chicken Satay pairs excellent smoky chicken with a fine spicy hot peanut sauce. The Siam Noodles have a texture reminiscent of well-cooked vermicelli, and are an absolute pleasure in the mouth.
Just don’t go looking at Siam for the last word in contemporary style. Ambiance-wise, you get vinyl, whitewash and Elvis on the radio. If you’re in the neighborhood, you could do worse.
RATING: insert graphics 2-1/2 Thai stix
If Daa’s is the king of the local Thai restaurants (see last week’s line-up), then the queen is certainly Malee’s Thai Gourmet. Located amidst some of the finest art galleries in the Southwest, Malee’s takes the neighborhood seriously. Here is Thai cooking earnestly expressed as an art form.
There is much in the restaurant’s physical environment to corroborate aesthetic intent: the beautiful Oriental-pattern china, the crisp linens, the soft lighting accented by frosted-glass lamps on each table. Service staff, too, while eminently good-natured, seems coached to stay in the background. The feel is almost restaurant as theatre, where the repertoire accents mannered romance.
Before one even tastes the food, it’s apparent that Malee’s kitchen serves up a feast for the eyes. Occasionally, the plate presentations are as stylish and symmetrical as jewel-inset sundials; just as often, they’re free-flowing masterpieces rakishly buried in fresh herbs. Ultimately, this is nouvelle cuisine inspiration of the best sort, in which a consciously florid visual accent is but a prelude to an explosion of fresh pleasures on the palate.
Two of my favorite dishes at Malee’s are Yum Neua and the irresistibly named Evil Jungle Princess with Chicken. The first is a barbecued beef salad flavored with hot spices, sweet onions and a fascinating undercurrent of fresh mint. The latter is a fabulously creamy fricassee of chicken and exotic mushrooms punched up with lemon grass, coconut milk and an exciting blend of Thai spices.
If you visit Malee’s, make sure you also treat yourself to the Combination Appetizer. The manifold delights of this picture-perfect presentation include buttery miniature spring rolls, ground chicken Thai toast that is exceptional with a little added cucumber relish, a super-savory fried won ton, excellent Satay and mouth-watering Mee Krob. This “Thai Pu Pu Platter,” as our waitress calls it, is extremely fascinating both for its broad flavor range and virtual lack of grease, despite all the fried food.
Another exceptional feature of Malee’s menu is that it uses no MSG.
This restaurant is more expensive than most other Thai restaurants in town, but it’s still very competitively priced when judged against other fine dining establishments. Quality is definitely in vogue at Malee’s. Long live the queen.
RATING: 4 Thai stix
