Thai in Texas
April 18th 2009 05:23
Some Thai Ingredients
Well I finally got my wish, I had Thai food, in of all places, San Marcos, Texas. I realize that many of you wouldn't believe that Thai food could be any good in the middle of Texas, well you are both right and wrong.
I'd been looking forward to this meal for weeks and when we got to the restaurant it was much as I'd pictured it. It was a storefront business, run of the mill chairs and tables, not too many but enough for the customers they had.
We sat and looked over the menu. It had a lot of dishes I remembered, but today I can't remember the Thai names for them, so I'll be doing most of the names in the English equivalent. Sorry about that but if I can remember them I will.
First we ordered our beverages, they had no beer, wine, etc., so I had hot jasmine tea, the others had iced tea, American style.
Then we got down to business, ordering.
Jerry, not being adventuresome, ordered, chicken dumplings with plum sauce, they were excellent, beautifully cooked with a great plum sauce reminiscent of the plum sauce used in Chinese cooking for Mu Shu. He then ordered something I'd found on the menu, that would probably be like his favorite Chinese dish, Chicken and Broccoli. It was OK, he liked it well enough, but preferred the Chinese restaurant here in town, strange, but since I didn't taste it I can't testify to its flavor.
Wanda ordered spring rolls and a warm chicken salad, called Larb. It was wonderfully flavorful. You could taste the lime, cilantro, slight taste of garlic, ginger and other herbs. She loved it so did I. Jerry thought it was all right, but that's Jerry. The spring rolls were large and quite good. Made with noodles wrapped in a rice wrapper, with fresh basil, shrimp and other light flavors, they were quite good, served with a light sauce, not peanut, but a red vinegary type of sauce with garlic, I enjoyed mine. When I added Jerry's plum sauce I liked it even better.
I ordered Sate, pork, they didn't have beef and I don't love chicken. I also ordered cucumber salad and then for my main meal I ordered Udon noodles with mixed meats, meaning chicken, pork, beef, and shrimp.
Now the bad news. The sate was slathered, no other word, in curry. I can not eat curry, it makes me stop breathing, not such a good thing. The menu said nothing of curry in the description, I had never had sate with curry and because of that didn't think to ask first. I did ask about other dishes but not the Sate. Sate with Curry! Never heard of it. Maybe you have, but San Diego, Los Angeles, Orange County, Dallas and Louisiana Thai restaurants I've eaten in didn't have it on theirs. I was disappointed to say the least. It colored the rest of my evening.
We had all decided that what we ordered we would share, good thing, Wanda and her dog ate the Sate, Skippy threw it up. Tacky! Wanda didn't. Jerry tasted it, declared he didn't like it, I insisted he try it with the peanut sauce which should be spicy, it wasn't it too had curry. Bad form in my book.
My cucumber salad, should have had vinegar and did, should also have had, mint, cilantro, basil, sugar and a hint of garlic. It had sugar. It was touted as having onion and jalapenos, it had one, and some, OK, two pieces of cabbage. Not bad but as Jerry said, it tasted like pickles, bread and butter to be exact. Not the Thai I know, but tasty and refreshing with the other dishes.
My Udon noodles were passable, not great. When I eat Thai food I expect to taste the flavors of that country, mainly mint, basil, cilantro, hot peppers and then the flavors of the meats and vegetables. I tasted none of these. The meats were bland, the broth was bland, the spices and herbs were not present. I added roasted garlic, and spicy sauce that was at the table and it was then much better.
Overall, all I can say, this was a disappointing experience, but remember my evening was colored by the disappointment of the sate. Next time, and I'll try it again, I'll check to see if I can get sate without curry, and I'll check on what has which spices, looking for spicy sauces and dishes. I like spice.
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