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Thai'd and true experience
| Wednesday, Aug 30 2006 6:35 PM
Last Updated: Wednesday, Jan 3 2007 4:56 PM
Call Thai House the restaurant built by love.
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You may have read that feature story in a recent Money section of The Californian about owners Clarence and Bualai Blain. It was a romance with a meet-cute beginning that Hollywood loves. Clarence, a widower, had been eating alone every night at a Thai restaurant in Lancaster. Bualai's sister, Somsong Suksan, started asking questions and eventually played matchmaker by telling Clarence about her sister, who had also lost a spouse. They started writing letters and, three months later, he flew to Thailand to meet her. He was 79 and she was 52.
Eventually they married and bought the restaurant at the corner of Ming and New Stine and began serving some of the secret family recipes. Bualai's brother-in-law is the chef. The matchmaking sister came over to help take care of customers.
I'm not sure how the relationship is going, but the food is impressive. It could be that I'm a pushover for the sweet-hot combos of Thai food, but I'm doing my best to keep my critical standards high in the face of such personal preferences. However, what we sampled was truly satisfying. I had to get the Mongolian beef ($7.99) as the feature story mentioned that as one of the family specialties, but we also sampled the dancing shrimp ($11.99) and the barbecued salmon in banana leaves ($13.99). My companion pointed out I failed to order anything with a peanut sauce, but Thai food offers so much more.
Let's start with that fascinating salmon, which was marinated with coconut milk, curry powder, onions, basil, garlic, ginger and lemon grass before being wrapped in thick green banana leaves and cooked. How many years I've had salmon, cooked how many different ways, and this made it new to me. Amazing. I had to think about every bite, and it seemed to change its notes as I savored it. The salmon with peanut sauce could not have been as complex.
The Mongolian beef was just as satisfying if much simpler, prepared with sliced bamboo shoots, white onion and green pepper. This dish is sort of like Tandoori chicken in an Indian restaurant: the less adventurous find it a comforting port. The shrimp was disappointing. I knew they really wouldn't "dance." C'mon, but the presentation was so strong that I was expecting the sort of dining delight I got from the salmon. The shellfish had been skewered, coated in a curry powder, cooked (but not to the point of being crisp) then spiked into half an orange, with the broccoli, zucchini and carrots on the side.
There are exactly 100 items on the Thai House menu, and I have to say that some of them are very intriguing. There's an appetizer of stuffed chicken wings, with the limbs stuffed with vegetables, ground chicken and glassy noodles. The seasonal papaya salad is made with peanuts, dried shrimp, tomatoes and green beans. There is a long list of vegetarian choices, and many items can have tofu or mock chicken or duck substituted for the meat. (All the noodle dishes can be made vegetarian style.) I feel the need to come back for the duck with peanut sauce and the lover's honeymoon, which has shrimp and chicken sauteed with pineapples, onions, bell pepper, mushrooms, cucumbers and tomatoes.
Service was very kind and quiet, and we heard the waitress making recommendations to another party that didn't seem as familiar with Thai cuisine. They'll do what they can to get converts, which is nice.
Thai House can be recommended for a fine dining experience.