date: 9/18/07
location: richfield
grade: a

we were going to go to natural escape in richfield, but we found out they were closed. instead of going with another mexican place, we went to a place that more or less shares their philosophy of food (and was in richfield, too, for that matter). both places are about fresh, healthy cooking with ingredients as close to the original ones used in their home country as they can get. this is not the thai food of your corner joint. it's much better.

per their web site and menu, the cooking here is based on principles of oriental medicine, and the five flavors that represent the five elements of the body (salty, sweet, sour, bitter, and pungent). they do a very good job of balancing flavors, and do a kick-ass job with all of flavor profiles in the dishes.

the dishes are family-style, we ended up with an appitizer and two main dishes dishes between the three of us- it was just about right, maybe a bit much. to start, we had the vegetarian spring rolls, fried version. (cue cut and paste)- golden fried roll stuffed with cabbage, carrot, cellophane noodle, shitake mushroom and naviya’s seasonings wrapped in a fresh pulverized rice skin., served with a sweet spicy fresh nam bplah dipping sauce. you know how in spring rolls you get individual ingredients are hard to pick out? here, you could taste the difference between the cabbage and the carrot, for instance. that's impressive. and tasty. i'd like to see how the non-fried versions turn out.

then we had an incredible dish, as billed on their menu... ra ma thai. a slow cooked spicy peanut, sweet coconut milk and red curry paste tossed with choice of meat served on bed of vegetables. per instructed on the menu, we had to try it with shrimp ('must try with shrimp!' it says, and i always do what i am told). it's one hell of a tasty sauce, my friend. again, balanced, piquant flavors, very nuanced... hot, but not tongue burning hot (i didn't eat the peppers i found in the dish, that would've made it a bit hotter). and the shrimp, an easy to overcook ingredient, was spot on. i'd like to eat this weekly. daily. it's very very good.... perhaps... incredible, hmmm? (though maybe not with shrimp, as i am still thinking i may be allergic, this dish was not conclusive either way.)

and i convinced everyone to go with the pad thai (as long as i have the cut and paste theme.... it's rice noodle stir fried with sweet radish, egg, tamarind paste, shitake mushroom, shrimp paste and your choice of meat... in our case organic chicken). everyone's had so much of it in so many places. but it's my baseline dish for thai places. if you put a crappy version of pad thai out, you aren't going to do too well by the rest of your menu. i think no one was unhappy with the result. remember when sole food last visited a thai place for i said it was the best pad thai i had in ages? this one tops it by far. and the longer it sat, the more the flavors melded into one happy dish. tasty.

i really wish they served bread with the meal to get at more of the sauces. anyway. with most dishes, you can pick from a few vegetarian 'meat' options, a tofu 'cutlet' or mock duck, get regular or organic beef or chicken (organic is a buck more), shrimp or scallops for most dishes. with different price profiles. it's cool they have the organic option. and i'd love to hit their buffet to be able to try more things on the menu.

they have an interesting beverage menu, with much emphasis on rare and exotic teas- it read like a wine list in the descriptions, and some very rare teas had prices to match (it's a pot of tea, by the way, not just a cup). they also serve beer, wine, and some thai beverages.

after a while, the thai music and good service start getting to you (most of it sounded like the thai version of olivia newton john), and you get into the vibe (or in my case with the music it stops annoying you as intensely as it did when you got there), and kind of overlook the details of the places aren't as buffed up as they may be. it's not as bad as the thai restaurant of utter soul-crushing despair, for instance (well, nothing really is). it's the best thai i've had in the cities.