Suggest-a-Meal - Garlic Lover's Delight - Yum Thai

I think ChiNOLA's idea of Suggest-a-meal is great, and I hope he does not mind me appropriating it. I also hope others appropriate away.

I've written many times about Yum Thai over the years, and while it is not my favorite Thai restaurant in the area, it is surely my favorite in my immediate area. Yum Thai is a place where Select-a-meal really matters, as what you order can really influence your meal.

I should note, before proceeding, that I had dinner there tonight, although I did not quite do my Select-a-meal. Also, there was some concern expressed about Yum Thai due to family issues. Eddie was in the kitchen tonight, and she did a suberb job with the food, as good as ever. The other good news at Yum Thai is they have actually codified the secret menu. It's an actual menu (I mean it actually says "Menu" on it, oh for my own camera) on menu stock (i.e., thicker paper). The Thai script is clear. The translations, however, are foodfirsts and the transliterations are her phonetic spelllings not Erik's true version. Still, the best thing to do is figger out what you want and then point to the Thai scrip instead of trying to say the Thai.

OK, Select-a-meal (for garlic lovers!). Note, if you use the terms I use, you should get this meal regardless of the menu, but insist of the Thai menu anyways, and insist on asking for it "Thai style."

Two yam or salads:

lime squid salad. This is the second of the squid salads on the Thai menu, and the one listed on the Yum Thai version as "like the pork above". It is quick cooked, criss-cut squid bodies (no arms) dressed with plenty of lime and even more garlic. In this dish the garlic is cooked, drawing out the heat but taming some harshness. It is not subtle, but the interplay between the lime and garlic against the bland squid work exceedingly well.

beef garlic salad. Oddly, my favorite dish at Yum Thai is not on the Thai menu. It is steak grilled but left pink showered with raw garlic and sliced jalepenos. If the squid salad is the jab setting you up, this is the right cross to the kisser. A brutally delicious item. All Arun's would have to do is take this same dish, substitute a higher caliber and quality cut of beef and they'd justify their price.

One soup/curry:

Mon curry. For some reason foodfirst translated this dish as "mon style" curry. Erik M calls it spicy peppercorn curry. To me, the dominant flavor is shrimp paste, and after the garlic assault, the funk of the shrimp paste will seem nearly meaningless. You will smell this one being made.

One vegetable dish:

Chinese brocoli with oyster sauce. My wife the Condiment Queen loves this dish but despises the small portion.

Two dishes that should be hotter but are otherwise delicious

gaeng som or sour curry with shrimp (might be called orange curry on the foodfirst menu). This is nearly as soup too as above, but do not let that stop you. Yum Thai manages to coax amazing flavor out of ordinary shrimps and these sweet shrimps against the mostly sour curry is another wonder of Thai cuisine.

the red curry with long beans (usually string beans). The red curry paste is used here as base for a stir fry not for something simmered. The green beans present a nice visual contrast.

Dessert

Thai custard. Nuked but delicious.

This should be enough food for 4 to 6 people.

Yum Thai is BYOB and there is a decent liquor store nearly next door. I recommend something Loire-ish, like Sancerre or Pouilly Fume to match all the lime flavors or a decent California sparkling like Domaine Chandon.

Vital Information wrote:I think ChiNOLA's idea of Select-a-meal is great, and I hope he does not mind me appropriating it. I also hope others appropriate away.

Quite the opposite. I actually called my idea "suggest a meal", but "select a meal" works just as well - it's the concept that counts.

I'd also encourage others to post these things (whatever they are called), because I'd like to use them myself!

ChiNOLA wrote:

Vital Information wrote:I think ChiNOLA's idea of Select-a-meal is great, and I hope he does not mind me appropriating it. I also hope others appropriate away.

Quite the opposite. I actually called my idea "suggest a meal", but "select a meal" works just as well - it's the concept that counts.

I'd also encourage others to post these things (whatever they are called), because I'd like to use them myself!

Whoops

Which one should I use. I want to use your term to ensure credit goes to the originator of the idea. I'm editing unless you say otherwise.

Let's stay w/ "Suggest-a-meal". I don't care about getting credit for the idea, but it will make it easier to search for them if we all use the same title.

BTW Rob, got one coming for La Quebrada (hint, hint)?

Rob, as you know from previous experience on CH, I cannot resist delving into Thai food esoterica (LTH is the most happening site when it comes to Thai food, it seems, so I've been getting my fix of Thai food discussion, if not the real thing itself, by perusing old posts these last few days).

RE: Mon style curry. If I'm correct you're referring to "gaeng lyang" (yellow curry)? This is a specialty of Thailand's ethnic Mon, who were the dominant culture in central Thailand around (I think) 6th-9th centuries AD.

There is a small, car-free island in the middle of the Chao Phraya River called Ko Kred, and it is the site of one Thailand's oldest Mon settlements. About 45 minutes from downtown Bangkok (by river), Ko Kred is a popular wknd daytrip spot -- Bangkokians go to buy pottery (Mons are especially skilled at extremely intricate terra cotta claywork), cruise the tourist schlock stalls, and buy snacks from vendors selling things like gai yang and somtam, satay, tawtman plaa (Ko Kred is informally known as tawtman plaa central), and a truly impressive array of sweet khanom.

Abt a 20-min walk from where most of the boats dock is a very informal Mon pottery "museum" and a down-to-earth eatery specializing in Mon cuisine, which does not make use of fresh and dried red chilies as much as Thai cuisine does, but *does* employ lots of shrimp paste in many dishes. Examples of Mon cuisine are dishes like khao chae and gaeng lyang. Thus my "translation" of the peppery yellow curry as Mon-style curry (I think I also called it Mon curry to distinguish it from gaeng som -- which, in the south is sometimes confusingly called gaeng lyang!)

Cheers!

Thanks for hanging around!

Rob