London: Bangkok Restaurant

I can't say enough wonderful things about the Aster House, the B & B where I stayed with LaShauna. It was a 3 minute walk from the tube, a 5 minute walk from the Albert & Victoria Museum (which is free!!!), and just down the same street was a bevy of food and drink options. We stopped one night at Bangkok restaurant for a Thai dinner. Bangkok touts itself as one of the oldest Thai places in London, having opened its doors back in the 1960s.

First things first--I ordered a glass of the house white. I think it was a Chardonnay, but not an overly oaky one. It was light, refreshing, and a generous pour (my favorite kind).

LaShauna went with the spring water--every time I visit a country outside the US I get a renewed appreciation for the abundance of free, readily-available tap water. Sigh.

For food, I started with the mushroom soup (similar to what we'd call Tom Yum soup in the US). This was citrusy and delicious, with soft, perfectly-cooked shrimp--prawns--and loads of mushrooms. The cilantro was tasty, but there was a lot of the stem, whcih normally we'd discard. It got stuck in my throat a lot, not conducive to a nice dining experience. The heat was a steady, slow-building heat--I loved it.

LaShauna ordered spring rolls and said they were quite tasty!

I ordered another appetizer, chicken satay, for my main course. This kind of threw off our waitress, but I wasn't super hungry. I just wanted a little nosh, nu? These were succulent--they didn't even need the peanut dipping sauce! It was just enough to tide me over without feeling too full...as I planned to get dessert soon (that post is here!)

Also accompanying the peanut sauce: a cucumber/red onion salad dressed in vinegar--this was a bit sweet, but perfect for cooling off the tastebuds!

LaShauna ordered the steak and peppers/onions, as well as some rice noodles. I shared more than a bite or two (how lucky am I that she's a sharer???) and zomg I think I ate all of her leftover onions, and I had a few bites of the rice noodles. Normally I'm meh on noodles, but these were delicious. And I could have eaten the sauteed onions all night long.

Like most service in London, it was polite but took forever to get the check. They're not as dependent on tips there, so "we'll take the check" usually translates to "in 30 minutes, come back so we can ask again for the check." Sigh. So it took a while to get out of there, but I'd still go back! It was delicious--and reasonably priced!

Bangkok Restaurant
9 Bute Street
South Kensington, London
SW7 3EY
0871 971 7207

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Cheap & Tasty Thai

A trio of us were looking for a quick, tasty, and of course, affordable lunch spot the other day. My friends took me to Ghang Thai on Smith Street in Brooklyn. As I walked in the building I had a powerful feeling of deja vu, but dismissed it, as I knew I'd never been anywhere called Ghang. It wasn't until we sat in the back that we saw the old doors to Miriam, propped up in the outdoor seating area. Miriam (the Court Street location) was a former favorite spot of mine. Apparently Ghang took over the spot when Miriam (oh, how I loved the shakshukah, which inspired this meal) closed.

The lunch special there is ridiculously affordable. A salad or soup, appetizer, and entree for 7 or 8 dollars (depending on your protein: shrimp, beef, chicken, and tofu and 'vegetarian duck,' aka seitan). For less than $10 bucks? Yes, please.

It was a muggy, muggy June day, so I started with a glass of Thai Iced Coffee. This was delicious--strong coffee flavor, just enough sweetness. Sometimes it can be TOO sweet, but this was perfectly balanced and oh-so-refreshing.

We all started with the house salad, a lovely mix of greens and veggies and fried tofu with a scrumptious peanut dressing.

For my entree, I picked the drunken noodles with chicken, and a single spring roll as my appetizer. Crisp green beans, bell peppers, and deliciously sauteed onions were tossed with glass noodles and chili peppers. I asked for somewhere between mild and medium, and they hit it right on the mark. It was also an insane amount of food--I barely ate half of this, leaving mostly noodles (and eating all the chicken/veggies first).


This was as tasty as it was cheap. The service was friendly and quick without making us feel rushed. Ghang is a new one to add to my list of cheap eats in my favorite borough!

Ghang
229 Court Street
Brooklyn, NY 11201
718-875-1369

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Little Thai Kitchen

A friend & I tried in vain to hit up Angelo Sosa's Social Eatz restaurant on a rainy afternoon, only to find it was closed to prepare for dinner--there went our plans for a late lunch! Across the street, we saw a teeny-tiny Thai place and opted for that. Patty remembered going there ages ago.

They aren't kidding with the 'little' part. A total of 4 or 5 tables, a max of 10-12 people, fit in the narrow space. We grabbed a two-top closer to the window and got the lunch special: $11 for an appetizer and entrée!

I start almost every visit to a Thai place with my favorite: Thai iced coffee. This is super-charged coffee with sweetened condensed milk. Not low-cal, but such a good, cooling treat with your spicy dishes!

I adore Tom Yum soup, a sweet-sour combo that warms the belly and clears the sinuses. This version had shrimp. It was more sweet than sour, so it was a bit too much for me. I ate all the onions, though. :)

Patty started with the vegetarian dumplings. Nicely presented, tasty, she enjoyed them.

I ordered shrimp pad thai, and was shocked to see an ENORMOUS bowl o' noodles set before me. This was at LEAST a pound of cooked pasta. Holy oversized portion. The lemon instead of lime wasn't doing it for me. This whole dish wasn't doing it for me.

The winner of that day was Patty's dish, the beef with ginger. It smelled heavenly and was a lovely mix of beef, carrots, baby corn, and peppers. I'd go back for this just because she loved it so much, but I'd skip the pad thai, and the shrimp in general.

Little Thai Kitchen
231 E 53rd St # 1
New York, NY 10022-4820
(212) 644-5353

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Pongsri with ABF

ABF's sister gave us tickets to "Jersey Boys" for Christmas (great show! loved it!), so we picked a nearby restaurant for the pre-show dinner: Pongrsi Thai, a favorite standby of mine for years and years (and reviewed here in a visit with That Sara).

Tai Thai

Once again, CPZ has shared another amazing find in NYC: cheap and delicious Thai! We met one incredibly rainy day for an early dinner (I get up at 4am, so the Early Bird Special is just about right these days). Tai Thai is a tiny (thai-ny?) little spot near 1st street and 1st Avenue, and their prices are so low I triple-checked the menu.

First of all, their house wines are $2.50. No, I didn't leave out a "1." Two dollars and fifty cents. So hell yes I had a glass of red! It was nice, full-bodied and smooth, a great match with the upcoming dishes. Carlota ordered the white, but I'm not sure what she thought of it.

I started off with one of my favorites--Tom Yum soup--a spicy red broth with bits of chicken, peppers, straw mushrooms and more. This was steaming hot and so delicious. A bit salty but yummily so. And $3.50!!!!!

Carlota ordered the tofu and veggie pad thai ($8.50). Doesn't it look bright and fresh? That's exactly how it tasted--delicious. She thoroughly enjoyed it.

I ordered the green papaya salad, which is a favorite dish of ours at another CPZ find, Pho. This one comes without meat, but was still yummy. The crunchy peanuts were a nice add, and I knew ABF would love this dish (which he did, 2 weeks later, when he & I stopped in for another early dinner! Two weeks later, it was also EXPLODING with garlic--wow. My mouth was on FIRE.)

We weren't ready to go yet, and we were still a little hungry, so we opted for the coconut pudding. These were adorable, tiny servings, just a bite or two. The dishes were barely bigger than a silver dollar, but it's just enough sweet to end a delicious meal.

When I went with ABF, I noticed Tai Thai also has a ridiculously low corkage fee if you'd like to BYOB. Either way, enjoy your meal and make sure to tip well--their servers are lovely and attentive, and they bring your food out fast!

Tai Thai
78 E 1st St
New York, NY 10009-7951
(212) 777-2552

SriPraPhai

I've wanted to try the Thai at SriPraPhai for ages. Bloggers and magazine writers alike seem to sing its praises, and since it's also super cheap, I figured it would be worth a trip, someday. Then, serendipity! A friend of mine is getting married in May, and 2 of the bridesmaids (Heather & Laura) and Laura's mom and I met to put together the invitations...and the gal hosting us, Heather, just happens to live within walking distance of this restaurant. Well, you can't expect us to do something like that on an empty stomach, can you?

First of all, prepare to read. This menu is EXTENSIVE. Pages and pages and more overwhelming pages.

Heather is no stranger to this place, and she insisted that we try her favorite dish, the fried watercress salad. Now, watercress is something I normally pick out of my sandwiches, etc. I don't care for its bitter taste. Once it's fried, however, it completely transforms. Granted, I realize it also probably loses much of its healthy benefits, but let's focus, people, focus!! This dish was WONDERFUL. Bright, crunchy, tangy--and not really spicy, but well-seasoned. If I go back there, I'm getting this, no question.

I decided to get the fresh shredded papaya salad with fried catfish. The photo in the menu made it look like whole pieces of fried fish, but instead, the fish is super-shredded and shaped into a crunchy disc on the side. Odd, but interesting. I wasn't crazy about it, though. A few nibbles of the fishy-crunchy thing and I was moving on to other things. Like my INSANELY hot papaya salad. Heather warned me about the heat, but clearly I didn't fully realize that 'medium' spicy (my usual level) meant tongue-searing, sweet-mother-of-mercy-save-me HOT.

Sweet fancy Moses. I mean SERIOUSLY. This was out of control hot. I love a good spice, a nice smoky heat that builds and builds, but this was almost incapacitating at times. I don't mind if my nose runs just a little, or if a few beads of sweat break out on my forehead. But THIS? This was painful, unending, tears rolling down, flush-faced torture. This white girl has never been so pink. Jumpin Jehosephat.

I turned to sample a few other dishes to relieve my throbbing taste buds. I also had TWO Thai Iced Coffees (I figured the milk had to help). Laura's mom, who isn't a fan of spicy, ordered some non-spicy dishes (and probably saved my mouth from permanent injury). I tried half of a chive dumpling. The sauce was delicious, but the dumpling I got was a little gummy in the middle. Not my favorite--but I'd give them another shot if I go back. I love chives!

I tried Laura's mom's dish, the shrimp pad thai. This has to be one of the best pad thais I've ever tasted. It was clean, bright, fresh, and just outstanding. Well done. I think I kind of got burned out a few years ago on pad thai--I ordered it so often that I needed a break. This pad thai is worth a return.

Laura ordered another of my favorite dishes: Pad See Ew (wide egg noodles) with beef. It was much sweeter than I'm used to, but the beef was tender and perfectly cooked. Not a lot of noodles, but that's fine with me!

Someone also ordered shrimp rolls for the table. These were shrimp pulled perfectly straight and wrapped tightly in a crunchy coating. I thought they were YUM.

Heather ordered the green curry with noodles. I tried a spoonful of this and enjoyed it--I've never tried the green curry before. She and Laura both said it had a very hot and spicy finish, but I barely noticed it. I think the papaya salad did its damage already--anything after that was a cakewalk!

I'd read in reviews (and heard from people who ate there) that service is really bad, but I didn't have that experience. They definitely let us take our time to order, and sure, they don't pop by every five minutes, but whenever we needed something (like, say, a tongue-rescuing Thai iced coffee), I had no trouble getting their attention. They also filled our water glasses often, which Heather says NEVER happens normally. They probably saw me plotzing over the salad and figured they didn't need some chick having an episode--bad for business! They did take away a dish for the shrimp before Heather could dip her last roll in the sauce, but other than that, service was definitely better than any of us expected. The bill came to 21 per person, including a great tip--not bad for all that food (apps, drinks, etc!) The papaya salad was good, but not as amazing as the papaya salad at Pho. It's definitely worth a return visit for the pad thai and maybe a MILD papaya salad. :)

Thanks again, Heather, for hosting us!!!

Thai Standby

Pongsri Thai on New York City's 48th street is one of the first places I had Thai when I moved to NYC. My friend Jenezuela lived right across the street at the time, so we tended to order it quite a bit. Then she moved to Venezuela and I didn't frequent that neighborhood quite as much.

My first return back was with That Sara, my friend Mel, and Sara's friend E on the night we all saw BareNaked Ladies at Radio City Music Hall (amazing concert). I was delighted to find the food was still as fresh and affordable as ever. I've gone about once a year since then, usually with That Sara, as was the case last night.

If you're in the market for an appetizer, their spring rolls and their soft-shell crab are both quite tasty, but last night a dessert caught my eye, so I opted out of apps to save room. Priorities, people!

I have been trying to branch out and try new things (my go-to dish had always been Pad-See Ew there, I think it's number 124 ;) On my last visit, I tried the unusually-named "Big Bird's Love Nest." It was chicken, cashews, veggies, and pineapple chunks flecked with red pepper flakes, all atop a 'nest' of vermicelli which I think had been flash-fried or otherwised molded into a nest. Last night I remembered that I really enjoyed it, even though it had been so long I couldn't remember why, exactly. After much hemming and hawing, I ordered it again. The dish is spicy but NOT overwhelming, and the pineapple helps balance out the heat. The veggies were crisp, crunchy and flavorful, and the whole dish just sang to me. Yum.

Sara ordered the shrimp pad thai with no spices (as they are NOT her friend), and it appears the kitchen followed through with her request (since she didn't stop breathing or anything after her first bite) ;). Here's the link to her review! Our dishes came out in about 5 minutes flat, which was quite shocking. Service was swift last night, though not very attentive. No one checked on us to make sure everything was okay, no one checked in on us, period! The guy who refilled our water glasses took our dessert orders--I wish we could have tipped just HIM! ;)

I had about 1/3 of my dish wrapped up for leftovers (lunch today!) and saved room for the pumpkin coconut custard. I think I tasted more pumpkin than coconut, but that's just fine by me, and it was delicious. Smooth, creamy, with slices of fruit stacked vertically in each of the four squares. YUM. I was quite glad I made room for this!

Sara got her favorite: mango and sticky rice. It smelled delicious as well and it was quite tasty! The mangos were meltingly-ripe and sweet, and the sticky rice was sticky and nutty and not-too-sweet. I'm not really a rice person (I can take it or leave it, and in fact opted NOT to have it with my entrée), but this was still tasty.

Considering how rarely I've been going out to eat lately, this was a delicious and quite affordable treat! If you're ever in midtown/theater district/Hell's Kitchen, I highly recommend this place! They have 3 locations in NYC, but I can only vouch for the 48th street one--and I deem it worthy of repeat visits, something rare in this city jammed with thousands of new places to try!

Pongsri Thai
244 West 48th Street
New York, NY 10036
(212)582-3392