beXnlog

3x Thai

After the Li-Young Lee poetry class at the Workshop, P, be and i headed downtown for dinner. It was a toss up against falafel and lentil soup at Chickpea or noodle dishes at East Village Thai. Thai won out because i'm always down for pad Thai. I think it's a perfect dish: slightly sour, slightly sweet, chewy, crisp, fresh, hot, noodle-y and full of peanutty goodness. Be always gets pad sew ew (broad noodles) when we go out, so i feel like we're dumb for getting two noodle dishes, but we keep ordering the same way each time.

On my recent trip to NoVA, i had Thai food two times with two different sets of friends. The first crew included an incredibly smart and funny 3 year old who proclaimed that his favorite food was pad Thai! I thought that he sure had sophisticated tastes for a 3 year old, but this is the same kid who said "complicated" in casual conversation. The second meal was with a dear old friend of mine from junior high. The food was great but the dried roasted crushed chiles were lacking in heat. The batch P gave me that her father made is so good that i intentionally make foods to eat it on.

I've had plenty of good pad Thai in New York. I'm not an expert on what's authentic or not; i only know what i like and what i suspect has been Americanized. The place by our house in Astoria is actually quite good, as is Holy Basil and Pam Real Thai. Nothing beats the first place i had Thai food at though. It was back in high school at a little restaurant that opened at Fair Oaks Mall called Owen Thai. The main decor of the place was a line of stuffed animal elephants hanging from the ceiling. This was when one could still smoke in the "smoking section" of any restaurant (at Owen i recall it was 1 or 2 tables) and we would be the only customers in there, eating out of styrofoam sectioned plates. Owen closed a few months after it opened, proving, i suppose, that Thai food was just too different and new to white suburbanites at the mall in 1991. The smells of the cooking would fill up that wing of the mall and i'm sure it was as undefined to them as it was to me. They made this fried tofu, bamboo shoots and basil dish that i still crave to this day.

I don't know how much of my craving for Owen Thai is because it was excellent food or because it's nostalgic. I guess i'll never know since i can't go and see for myself. Many times, revisiting something from the past leaves you with disappointment because it doesn't live up to the fond memories, much like how watching Three's Company as an adult makes you realize how stupid it was, but you loved it as a kid and now your memory is ruined.

Some Thai iced tea would hit the spot right now.

posted by beXn @ 9:16 PM