Saturday, April 9, 2011

Reasonably priced yet authentically tasty Thai Food

After reading posts from Motormouth, I finally get to have a taste of the renowned unsung hero of Ipoh Garden East-Bercham territory. When it comes to Thai food, there are not much options in Ipoh, except for a few decent restaurants like Koh Samui. Remove the pricey tags in compensation of a hawker stall ambience, Thai Wong from Nakhom Pathom Specials can easily whisk up a few champion dishes.
For example, their Tom Yam soup is a clear winner! The fiery red concoction will leave you sweating buckets since this place is not air conditioned! As seen, Thai Wong is ever generous with ingredients. You get what you pay for, with squids and prawns enough to accompany your rice by itself. This will get you downing additional rice as the soup was pleasantly sourish and spicy but abit salty to my liking.

Glass Chicken Feet Salad - Not that they incorporate glass to coat the chicken feet. duh! but the translucent chicken skin from the chicken feet is the star of this dish, contributing to the good mouth feel, slightly crunchy and juicy, just like you are eating the fungus (suet yee). Coupled with the tangy nature of tomatoes, vinegar, lime juice and generous portion of onions, if this dish doesn't give you the headstart in a meal, what does?

For those who fancy semi ripe mangoes, do try their Thai Mango Salad. The version here is slightly different as it was very pungent in taste rather than swaying to the refreshing side. The salad is drenched in vinegar and sugar, giving a robust taste! Be careful of birds eye chilli as it may give you a long lasting sting towards the meal. The amount of dried cuttlefish is not very much to be seen but it was substituted partially with chopped cashew nuts.

Thai Styled Steamed Tillapia. You can opt for a Lemon Grass Style or have it done using Sting Ray. Mix and match do apply here! Mix and match wisely though as I wouldn't advise you to order the thai styled steam fish if you have ordered Tom Yam soup.

Lala Omelette. Generous portions of chopped lalas are used in this dish. The egg is fluffy and far from being oily. Besides this, they also serve Or Chein if you fancy oysters.

Thai Fried Chicken. I read from a blog post that this dish was praised up to heavenly realms. But in reality, the dish arrived slightly cold, probably pre-fried and reheated upon serving. The reheating step probably was not enough, maybe due to the oil not hot enough. It did not delivered the crispy exterior as promised, though the flesh within was kinda juicy. What is fried stuffs when its not pipping hot, ryte?

Thai Styled Fried Fish Cakes! With chunky portions, one pieces should be enough for one person. And a small serving for 3 came in 5-6 pieces! Gasps! The fishcake is abit too chunky for my liking. I think one piece here is equivalent to 3 pieces served in Koh Sam Mui! And a small portion here costs only half of that in Koh Samui. Now, you do the maths! =p

Last but not least, this is the Chicken with Basil Leaves. I do not really fancy the version here as I prefer something more delicate and the chicken used is too chunky! I ordered this on my first trip because I wanted something with gravy. Well perhaps I would try the Green Curry. The food here is quite reasonably priced. 1st trip: 1 salad + basil chicken + tomyam + fish cake = RM33 with 3 big rice. 2nd trip: 1 salad, fried chicken, steamed fish+ lala omelette = RM43. Come earlier on weekends as you will be doomed when the crowd comes in full force around 7pm!

No comments: