I've previously blogged mango curries from Indian restaurants, but this is my first Thai version. The actual smooth mango curry sauces are quite similar, but the Thai version I had today contained small chunks of both sweet and soft ripe mango and crunchy unripe mango along with whole grape tomatoes that burst with juice in your mouth. For my protein I chose pork, because pork and fruit go well together, but vegetarians can choose tofu (and I've often served tofu in fruit sauces). I was told that the dish was medium hot, and I was asked if that was okay. I replied that I love spicy food, and on the receipt I noticed that they'd kicked it up a notch for me (which was perfect). The dish was served with plain rice which was good for soaking up the delicious gravy. Portions are large at this place (what you see is only a quarter of what I got), but the food was so saucy and tasty that there was never a doubt in my mind that I was going to finish it.
Location: Talay Restaurant, 70065 Highway 111, Ste 1, Rancho Mirage, California. Date: November 20, 2021.
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I wasn't drawn to this dish just because of the name but also because it featured lots of julienne of fresh ginger. It also came with stems of spring onion, chewy and crunchy black mushrooms, and onion pieces that were sweet and crunchy, but the ginger was the dominant flavor. It came with special brown sauce that the dish was obviously stir fried in which softened the ginger. For my protein I chose tofu, and there were ample cubes of chewy and satisfying deep fried tofu. The photograph shows just a small portion of what I got, but you can see that the dish was served with rice. The oil in the sauce really brought this dish together. I thought it would be good, but it was better than I thought. I think I may have found the best Thai food in the valley at this hard to spot and somewhat funky restaurant. Certainly this Pad Khing Sod ranks among the best Thai dishes I've had.
Location: Talay, 70065 Highway 111, Ste 1, Rancho Mirage, California. Date: October 30, 2021. I inquired about whether the tamarind sauce for the Three Flavors Fish was more sour or more sweet. When I was told that it was more sweet, I ordered the Spicy Beef Salad instead. The waitress now had an idea of what I liked and so she asked me if I'd like my beef salad more sour. I said yes enthusiastically, and then she asked if I'd like it more spicy. I answered in the affirmative to that one too. This spicy and sour salad consisted of grilled very thin beef slices with wedges of tomato and cucumber, thinly sliced red onion and carrot, and sprigs of cilantro. It was served on a bed of lettuce and dressed generously with lime juice and sweet and spicy chili sauce. It was a hot day, and I knew this salad would be refreshing even though I broke out into a sweat while eating it. But wait! I had it with a cold Beerlao Lager, one of my favorite Asian beers. When I'd eaten all the salad, there was still a good amount of dressing in the bottom of my takeout container, and the friend who introduced me to this Thai restaurant had some leftover brown rice. I put some of her rice into the sauce, and oh yeah! It was the Asian version of sopping up good sauce with bread.
Location: Thai Spoon, 802 W Colton Avenue, Suite B, Redlands, California. Date: May 7, 2021. This Thai curry from the vegan menu is unlike your regular yellow, red, or green curry. The menu says “assorted veggies with bamboo shoot in spicy and salty light curry”. Apart from slivered bamboo shoots, it came with carrot, celery, mushrooms, broccoli, cabbage, red and green bell pepper, baby corn, and Thai basil. I was offered tofu, but I declined because I wanted all the veggies. The veggies were all crunchy, in typical Southeast Asian style, and the broth was salty, very spicy (I opted for that), and there was a hint of sour and sweet. This curry was, just like the jungle, hot and wet. It came with rice of choice (I chose white steamed rice), and I took it to go as Zen still has no indoor seating for lunch. I took the first photo in my car and the second one after I plated the dish at my friends' house. Their tablecloth fit the theme perfectly.
Location: Zen, 1231 W Ramsey Street, Banning, California. Date: May 4, 2021. My friend suggested taking Thai food to go and eating it in Trolley Barn Park which overlooks San Diego's Mission Valley. For our appetizer he suggested Fresh Spring Rolls with shrimp. These consist of vegetables, especially lettuce, rolled in a translucent and somewhat chewy rice wrapper. The shrimp were halved from head to tail and wrapped outside the vegetables so that you could clearly see them through the wrapper. The rolls came with a smooth peanut dipping sauce; it was a bit thick for my taste but quite tasty. For our salad I chose Som Tom, which is shredded green papaya prepared with lime juice, fresh Thai chili, palm sugar, and halved peanuts. It was fresh, tangy, and spicy, and the green papaya had some crunch to it. For our main dish we opted for Drunken Noodles with the addition of shrimp. This dish consists of wide rice noodles in a mixture of onion, bell pepper, carrot, and fresh basil in chili garlic sauce. There's no alcohol in the dish, so I assume the name comes from the fact that the noodles are wet as opposed to dry. While this was not the best Thai food I've had, it was certainly enjoyable, and it was noteworthy because of the times we're living in, which dictated that we take the food to go and because of that we opted to eat in the park at sunset, which was quite special.
Location: Thai Joint, 3456 Adams Avenue, San Diego, California. Date: October 23, 2020. This is Australian lamb cooked in Thai yellow curry with sweet potatoes, onion, and carrots, plus rice on the side. I asked the American server at this hole-in-the-wall Thai restaurant if lamb was common in Thailand; she said she didn't know but would ask. I heard her ask the question in the kitchen, and the response from the Thai chef was a forceful “No!” Why they do lamb in Redlands, I don't know, but I love it when I get something unique. The coconut milk based curry sauce was thin but tasty; it tasted like it had honey in it. The Australian lamb was fairly tender and quite mild in flavor. The sweet potato was white, not the orange yam. They brought me hot sauce on the side which was spicy and sweet. It was a good dish, but it was most noteworthy for using a protein that they really don't use in Thailand.
Location: Siam Dish, 656 E. Redlands Blvd., Redlands, California. Date: October 30, 2019. As I was sitting in this hole in the wall, with completely white walls and where you have to go outside to get to the bathroom, a lady asked the waitress “How are the flavors so amazing?” The answer: “The chef is a minimalist.” That seems to be the philosophy of this entire restaurant. The dish I ordered, Eggplant, was indeed minimalist, and the flavors were indeed amazing. I chose tofu as my protein, and it came in thin slices that had been fried. Since I don't like eggplant al dente, I asked for it to be well cooked. Some of the pieces were still less soft than I would have liked, but the eggplant had soaked up so much flavor from the sauce that it was just delicious. The rest of the dish was red and green bell pepper, still a bit crunchy, and Thai basil that tasted of mint and anise. The savory sauce was probably soy based, but I think it was the addition of the fresh basil that really took the flavors over the top. This restaurant is a place I would never have found on my own; luckily, a friend (who knows the family that owns this place) took me here. Even though they serve no alcohol, I'll be back!
Location: Siam Dish, 656 East Redlands Blvd., Redlands, California. Date: October 23, 2019 I had this rice porridge dish at the newly opened Aroi Mak Mak, a Thai street food restaurant. It comes with two ginger flavored pork dumplings, a soy sauce flavored poached egg, and it's topped with fried egg noodles, fried garlic and onions, green onion, and a lime wedge. The rice porridge is creamy, you taste the garlic, and the fried noodles are crispy. The rice porridge is flavorful but quite mild. You get a couple of hot sauces on the side, with extra fried noodles, and if you tip it all into the porridge it gets really flavorful. The one hot sauce is green and smoky, and it's made with roasted green chiles; the other hot sauce tastes of Maggi and ginger. This place serves the dark, rich, and slightly sweet Beerlao from Laos, one of my favorite beers; alas, tonight they were out.
Location: Aroi Mak Mak, 344 Orange Street, Redlands, California. Date: July 15, 2019. This was an exciting find: little Vietnamese fusion appetizers served in martini glasses. They're a happy hour special, but in Palm Springs in the summer it's very hot, the snowbirds have gone, and so happy hour lasts all day. (By snowbirds I mean people from colder climates who spend the winter in the Coachella Valley.) My delicious appetizers, from left to right, were green papaya salad, chicken meatballs in lemongrass curry, and noodles in red curry. The papaya salad was mildly sweet and sour and fresh and crunchy. The three meatballs were swimming in a mild creamy coconut lemongrass curry sauce with rice at the bottom that had soaked up some sauce and turned into savory rice pudding. The noodles were chewy and the red curry sauce was quite spicy. These dishes reminded me more of Thai food than Vietnamese, but the restaurant does have the word fusion in its name. What made my experience even more memorable was that we'd had a wet thunderstorm earlier and it had cooled down the hot desert air. I ate outside and it was like a pleasant tropical evening. The following night I went back and had, from left to right below, the roasted vegetables, the bau bau salad, and the deconstructed mango spring roll. The roasted vegetables were most notably carrot, zucchini, and mushroom. The bau bau salad contained carrot, bean sprouts, cucumber, green beans, curried tofu, and peanut lime dressing with cilantro. The deconstructed mango spring roll contained unripe mango slaw and ingredients that enhanced the mango, such as cucumber, house pickled ruby cabbage, rice noodles and a fried wonton garnish. Like the night before, all the dishes were delicious.
Location: 533 Viet Fusion, 1775 E. Palm Canyon Dr., Suite 625, Palm Springs, California. Date: July 11 & 12, 2018. Merry Christmas! Pumpkin is not a curry that I've seen in other Thai restaurants, though it's possible that I've been overlooking it. Not anymore. This sweet and spicy red curry came with baby corn, red and green bell pepper, carrot, and onion, all with a bit of crunch. The pumpkin turned out to be kabocha squash that was cooked until soft and creamy. The sauce, which I would also call creamy, probably had coconut milk in it and, judging by the color, may even have had some kabocha (or maybe even real pumpkin?) blended into it. One could choose one's protein so I decided to keep it vegetarian today and chose tofu. This colorful, sweet, spicy, creamy, and crunchy dish was a perfect find for Christmas Day. Location: Thai Palms, 12070 Palm Drive, Desert Hot Springs, California. Date: December 25, 2017. |
AuthorChef Roland has been a legal resident of seven countries and has travelled in over thirty, documenting food along the way. He currently resides in the desert in Southern California. Categories
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