Joshua WalboltWhat makes Thai food good?
Thai food should hit all the flavor profiles we know. Spicy, sweet, salty, savory, umami and sour. When these flavors are properly balanced then we have had a delicious Thai meal. Of course this is hard to achieve when we all have different levels of tolerance for heat or different preferences on sour notes. I guess what we are hoping is that it make the majority happy.
What to Order?
When I go out to eat, I like to go out with friends of family who like to try different things or like to share. This does an array of things. Not only does it allow us to try new things its gives the restaurant a chance to show us the complexity of their menus. Often times ill go to a place and notice they’ll use the same sauces across multiple dishes for the sake of putting more items on the menu. Another example would be if a place has a signature sauce and they wind up putting it on everything. In my mind it ends up being like a cure all like adding hot sauce to anything. Sure it tastes good but in the end it just taste like hot sauce on food. I found that being an issue this time coming around where I noticed they put this chili sauce on two dishes that didn’t need it at all. The chili sauce kind of drowns out the flavor of the freshness from the other ingredients, but that could be me ordering from the “signature items” menu. Even though one sauce was used one to many times, I still found our meal and experience rather enjoyable.
Some of my favorite dishes would be their duck dish. I didn’t order it this time we went but I had it the first time we visited the restaurant and it was AMAZING! The duck was nicely rendered and paired with a sweet and tangy tamarind sauce over a bed of tender braised cabbage.
Another dish I have become a fan for it the Huang Lay curry. It’s a braised pork in rich spices with a rich curry served with some pickled ginger, rice and some paratha. I love this so much that I started cooking it at home. I will say it can be made with a lot of funk but it is delicious.
Whenever I go to a Thai spot I always look for the classics. Laab, Pad Thai, curries just being some of my favorite.
Thai Desserts?
Notably the most popular Thai dessert is probably the mango with coconut sticky rice. It’s not a terribly difficult dish to make but with a nice ripe mango and properly cooked sticky rice you have an amazing dish. Surprisingly enough this was not a dish that they carried here. Maybe it wasn’t in season or maybe the mangos were not ripe and they refused to serve them. But they did have some really great dessert options here. This spot in particular is Thai and French Fusion. Which is an interesting enough concept noting that Thailand was one of the few countries that was never colonized by the French. However, we do find ourselves looking to French gastronomy as the culinary masters of the world but I do believe that times are changing and more things don’t have to be French to be “refined”. With that being said We ordered some different flavored Cremè Brulèes and flaming fried ice cream, which my son enjoyed the show! you can see his reaction in my video above!
Other Thai Restaurants in NJ
There are few other Thai restaurants in New Jersey that I have been to that I have enjoyed enough to document the experience. I will say that there is another on that sticks out close by. Right across the river in the Big apple we know as New York City is the beloved Fish Cheeks. If you happen to be closer to New York, check them out or read about them here!