Bai Cha gone?!

I walked down Ninth Avenue this afternoon and saw a curious sight between 48th and 49th: a missing awning and shuttered storefront where recently there wasn't one. A quick racking of my brain reminded me that this was Bai Cha, that Thai-ish street food offshoot of Chili Thai a few doors down. Gone already, when it only opened in August?! Sad!

Bye bye, Bai Cha

Giving Pure another try

This past week, my dad was in town for vacation, so many delicious meals were eaten, and many Broadway shows were seen (Book of Mormon = Best. Show. Ever). The first of said delicious meals was pre-theater, which always makes for a curious conundrum-- it's gotta be relatively quick, something yummy but not too fussy. For some reason, I steered us toward Pure Thai Shophouse.

Now, I know things hadn't gone so well the last time, but I'd had a craving for their dumplings (which I knew were the same as the ones at Land) for a while, so on we went. We were perched at a semi-communal table in the back on the same uncomfortable backless stools; peppy emo-rock blared all around us. It took a while for the server to take our order, but once she did, the food arrived quite quickly.

They had the same awesome crushed ice in their drinks. It's just a really cool touch, I think.

Extra nice with crushed ice

And then, the food: Dad got chicken pad thai, which he really enjoyed. It's a well-sized portion, too: not too large, but not so small that you're still hungry at the end.

Pretty pad thai

We shared an order of the vegetable dumplings. They're exactly as I remember them, and damn, those dumplings are good. Though I ordered an extra cup of dipping sauce, I still would have liked more sauce, but even with the sauce rationed the dumplings were their same peanutty, hearty, mushy-in-a-good-way vegetabley selves.

Hello again!

And I got the papaya salad, vegetarian-style, once again. I noted on the receipt that they actually make it without fish sauce-- not just without the shrimp-- when you request it vegetarian, which is really thoughtful. And again, the salad was decent but not stellar, and again it was mouth-searingly spicy despite my request for mild. It actually hurt to eat this. Hurt so good? Kind of.

Crazy spicy

And there we were. I'd say that we had more success this time-- those dumplings really elevate Pure's game. This past visit converted me from a Pure skeptic to one who appreciates having Land-style dumplings a little closer to home.

Pure Thai Shophouse
766 Ninth Avenue, between 51st and 52nd Streets
212-581-0999

Pure Thai Shophouse disappoints

Last week, Mom was in town for work, and since she's a Thai food fanatic, I figured it would be the perfect opportunity to check out Pure Thai Shophouse. So on a chilly, chilly December evening, we convened in the tiny store for some eats.

First off, the restaurant's atmosphere is funky but not exactly comfortable. It's a small place with only a few tables in the back, and each table is wedged in quite intimately with its neighbors. That's one of the exigencies of being in New York, I understand, but the design aspect I took issue with was that the chairs were backless stools. Square backless stools. Not cool, and not comfortable. Unless you're at a bar, there's no reason to be sitting on a stool, and even at a bar the stool should have a back. But, you know, that's just my thing.

First, they do serve their drinks in cool crushed ice, which makes everything better, in my not-so-humble opinion.

Swanky!

But now, to the food. Mom and I both ordered the papaya salad, hers as a starter, mine as my main. While this dish (along with everything else in the restaurant) was quite reasonably priced, it actually wasn't one of the better papaya salads I've had. The earthy taste of the papaya overpowered the flavor mix, so rather than having your mouth pop with the lime, chile, peanuts, and fish sauce, the overall flavor profile was (literally) muddy. Just a little bit... blah. I've had much better. Sad.

Sad emoticon

Mom's Wok Curry Paste with Shrimp was also disappointing. She said it didn't taste like typical Thai curry, so it wasn't exactly what she was expecting. She rated it "okay" but not great, which for Mom is a pretty low rating.

Tear emoticon

And so I write this review with consternation. Everything I've read about Pure has been a rave, and I love the owners' Land restaurants, so I'm extra disappointed that our meals weren't great. Again, everything is reasonably priced, but given all the fantastic Thai joints in the neighborhood, that alone won't cut it. I really have no choice but to give Pure two Offset Spatulas and a sad, slightly confused shake of the head.

Pure Thai Shophouse
766 Ninth Avenue, between 51st and 52nd Streets
212-581-0999

Back in the (Thai) saddle

I haven't had Thai food for quite a while now, so when it was time for BL and me to have a catch-up dinner, I skipped the usual Italian or American choices and went straight to the Thai. This thaime -- excuse me, time-- we tried a place I've never been before, despite it being marginally in the neighborhood: Thai Basil, on 9th Ave between 55th and 56th Streets.

The dining room itself is typical Thai: sparse, somewhat depressing, nothing to write home about at all. The prices are also relatively standard, in the $8-12 range for an entree depending on your protein, perhaps a dollar or two more expensive than some of the other comparable options. They had a papaya salad, and that's all that mattered to me.

So a papaya salad is what I got. This one was actually a relatively small portion, although there was lots of sauce swimming at the bottom of the curiously oblong rectangular plate. But it was pretty good; just as I remembered it, crunchy and savory, with lots of peanuts on top. I requested mild spice, and I don't think they put any spice in it at all, because come to think of it I don't remember any lingering burn whatsoever.

The plate extends for about another 6 inches to the left

BL chose to start with a Thai iced tea, which was the most alarmingly orange beverage I've ever seen. I'm talking more orange than orange soda, which is probably about 50% orange dye. This is not something I'd drink (and again, I drink orange soda). But BL consumed it, enjoyed it, and called it refreshing.

It got even more orange once he mixed it up

For his entree, BL got the "Thai basil" with pork. This comes with basil, onion, and bell pepper in a brownish/orangeish sauce, with the obligatory plate of white rice on the side. Though he had just had lunch a few hours before, BL did enjoy this dish. From my perspective, it looked pretty standard.

Big chunks of veggies there

So where does Thai Basil fall in the spectrum of Hell's Kitchen thai joints? Pretty much right smack in the middle. It's hovering between two and three Offset Spatulas in my book... not bad at all, but there's no reason to go there over any of the other Thai places on Ninth Ave, unless this happens to be the closest one to you at the time of your Thai craving. For the slightly less-appealing-than-average dining room and the slightly smaller-than-average portions, I'll give Thai Basil two OSes and a tip of the hat for curing my Thai craving admirably.

Thai Basil
860 Ninth Avenue, between 55th and 56th Streets
212-397-2036

A brief non-NYC interlude

Last weekend I was home in Massachusetts to meet the newest member of our family, a Bernese Mountain Dog puppy named Lily. As you might expect, she's pretty darn cute:

Puppy-dog face

But despite the persistent cuteness of this puppy, we had to eat. So one evening we went to check out the newest local Thai restaurant, which replaced a different Thai restaurant. This one was called Chili Basil, and it turned out to be pretty good.

There was an order of fresh basil rolls and a "Dumpling Delight" (pork dumplings) for Dad and a seafood red curry for Mom. All met with approval.

Fresh rolls

Delightful!

Currylicious

Additionally, Mom and I split a papaya salad and a mango salad. The papaya salad was standard, nothing to write home about. But the mango salad was delicious. The ripe mango was coated with an addictive sauce that made it pretty much impossible to stop eating. Plus, on top of the whole concoction, there was a handful of the hugest roasted cashews I've ever seen. Though the spice seared my mouth, I was contented and would definitely order the mango salad again.

Served the purpose

The winner!

Welp, that's all from home. It feels weird to travel four and a half hours to eat Thai food when I pretty much live in Little Thailand here in NYC. But weird is sometimes delicious.

Chili Basil
385 Boston Post Road, Sudbury, MA
978-443-0988

The Thai is back

As I noted before, I'm gradually adding Thai food back into my life. So last Saturday evening, AV and I headed to Sala Thai near his place to get back in the saddle once again.

Note to self and readers: at 8PM on a Saturday night, Sala is HOPPING. Really. We've always gone earlier, so I've never seen it in all its glory. So it was loud and packed, but still the food came quickly, the servers were friendly, and the edibles were tasty as ever.

AV went with the chicken basil, which comes with mushrooms, peppers, chili, basil, and rice. The portions were huge, providing AV with lunch the next day as well. Two meals for $12? Not terrible.

Lots of sauce-- bonus

My choice was the papaya salad, of course. Again, the portion was huge, and it was basically a substantial tangle of shredded papaya. The odd green bean thread, cherry tomato, piece of iceberg lettuce or cashew piece gave a bit of interest, but since the sauce here is so mild I wish there were a better ratio of "other stuff" to papaya. Still good, though, and did I mention it was huge?

Plenty of papaya

And that was that. We paid and headed off to get ice cream (naturally) to cool our tingly mouths. A solid three Offset Spatula evening indeed.

Sala Thai
1718 Second Avenue, between 89th and 90th streets
212-410-5557

Curious.

Up in AV's neighborhood this past weekend, I noticed something curious: a new Thai restaurant. Now, in a city with more Thai joints than Starbucks, that in itself is not notable. However, this new establishment caught my eye because of its name, Tiny Thai, and logo, a big stylized T. Curiously, there used to be a Tiny Thai right near me in Hell's Kitchen, a place that slowly and unclearly morphed into Tai Thai, AV's and my preferred local Thai restaurant. This was obviously the very same Tiny Thai, and a glimpse at the takeout menu confirmed that the menu was very similar to the Tai Thai restaurant (which has recently been revamped slightly). I'm itching to know what the deal is here-- are they owned by the same people? Is it a chain? Why did the HK Tiny Thai become Tai Thai? What is the DEAL, yo?

Same, same, same

Anyway, I'm a bit out on Thai food for the moment since getting food poisoning after a recent dinner at a Thai restaurant, but as soon as I feel I can stomach the sight of peanut sauce once again, rest assured we will check out the new Tiny Thai and report back fully.

Weirder and weirder at Room Service

On Sunday evening, after getting back to the city from Princeton, AV and I headed to Room Service for some Thai food. I've been there twice before, for some reason, despite the fact that it wasn't great either time around. But hey, we had a yen, so we made our way there.

Room Service is still one of the more bizarro restaurants around. The giant chandeliers, the crazy metal chairs, the techno music... it's like being in some tripped out club, only it's 7PM. We took our customary 1.5 seconds to figure out what we wanted to order, and soon our waiter sidled up and took our order with about as much awkwardness as a three-sentence exchange can embody. While we waited for our appetizer to arrive, we eavesdropped on-- nay, were subjected to-- the conversation of our neighbors, which went a little something like this: "You're skinny." "No I'm not." "Yes you are." All righty then.

Finally, our dumplings arrived to arrest our attention. Thank you, dumplings. Although I still argue with the presentation-- all clumped together in a pool of sauce, rather than presented separately with dipping sauce on the side-- the dumplings were really quite good and piping hot. The dipping sauce was sweet soy, and I still would have preferred a bit more of it. And on the side. Did I mention I like to control the dipping?

Big ol' mass of dumplings

After we scarfed the dumplings, we paused for a brief interlude to let a passing waitress spill a stream of steaming hot tea-water on AV's arm. By way of apology, she produced a stack of paper napkins. Sweet, thanks. Fortunately, the brief sponge bath fortified us for the entree course, which came shortly after our neighbors' tea. AV went with the traditional pad see ew with chicken; he enjoyed it, noting that, like the dumplings, it was also steaming hot.

Hot, like the tea water

My choice was the Thai Salad. This was the most difficult-to-eat food I've had in a very long time, perhaps ever. It's tough to see from the picture, but it came in a deep, flared vessel about a foot high, which AV compared alternately to a medieval helmet or a bedpan (thanks, darling). There was a little ladle holding about a cup of peanut dressing (quite good), which I removed from the veggies. And then I tried to tackle the salad. I gave up on the slippery plastic chopsticks immediately, grabbing my fork like a trident. The huge discs of cucumber were too large to dip comfortably, and of course I had neither a knife nor a flat surface on which to cut, so I just made do. Underneath the cukes, pallid tomatoes, and huge wands of dessicated fried tofu was a melange of julienned carrot, red onions, and bean threads. And another six inches down was a bed of stiff iceberg lettuce, cut into pieces about 3" by 3", which of course also rendered them nearly inedible by themselves without the right utensils, let alone in combination with any of the other vegetables. While I tried gamely to spear, dip, and chew the veggies, the table on the other side of us filled up with two of the most obnoxious couples we've ever had the displeasure of running into. So I tried to eat faster so we could get out of there. But I couldn't eat fast enough. Each bit revealed more veggies underneath, each more awkwardly cut than the last, and my sad, knifeless fork couldn't keep up. Finally I just gave up. We paid and left.

There's about a pound of vegetables under the visible matter here

So what I've learned about Room Service is thus: The restaurant is all about form, pretty much constantly sacrificing function along the way. The chairs are visually arresting but uncomfortable. The presentations are interesting but sacrifice the food on the altar of style. The huge green plastic chopsticks are striking but are difficult to use. You get the picture. The salad would actually have been a pretty good value if it were at all accessible, but c'est la vie. Will I go back to Room Service? Alas, probably. Hey, sometimes I get a craving for some more avant-garde Thai than our old standbys. Which makes Room Service the prototypical three Offset Spatula restaurant-- some pros, some cons, but good enough to go back.

Room Service
9th Avenue between 47th and 48th Streets
212-691-0299

Branching out to a new Thai on 9th

Two weekends ago, I attended the incredible show Fantasy Football: The Musical?, written by my good friend DI, part of the New York Musical Theater Festival. After laughing heartily for an hour and a half, fellow showgoers AV and JR and I were hungry. So we scurried around the corner to Aura Thai on Ninth Avenue.

The decor of Aura is plain and simple, but we were all so ravenous we didn't care. We started with a couple of apps-- first up, JR's fried calamari with sweet chili sauce. This dish looked like onion rings and was well received by both JR and AV, who sniped a ring or two.

A tangle of veg 'n' squid

AV and I shared the vegetable dumplings. These were large, half-moon/ravioli-style dumplings filled with a mixture of shredded veggies. The sweet sauce was drizzled over the top, which meant we weren't able to control the mixture of dumpling and sauce through dipping, always a key part of the experience. Overall, these weren't my favorite dumplings in the NYC Thai Restaurant Dumpling Pantheon; the filling tasted like generic frozen veggies, and I wasn't a huge fan of the half-moon shape.

Pretty, but plain inside

Moving on, JR got a curry dish... and shamefully I can't remember exactly which one. But it was ample and flavorful and delicious, according to its consumer.

Some sort of curry? Maybe?

AV went with the pad see ew with chicken. Lots of green veggies made this one a winner in my book... and AV was also a fan.

Wide noodles and bursts of bright green

My choice was, of course, papaya salad. This was a big portion with lots of green beans; the papaya was also cut spaghetti-style rather than in small matchsticks, which was interesting. The vinaigrette here was heavy on the lime and light on the umami, which made the whole dish light but lacking in the strong flavor usually associated with papaya salad.

It also came with sticky rice. Very, very gluey sticky rice.

Overall, we were so hungry that the food at Aura hit the spot. But the quality of food was definitely eclipsed by the other Thai options a few blocks up on Ninth. As a result, I wouldn't necessarily return to Aura unless I were ravenous and right in the area, which means Aura earns a two Offset Spatula designation. Done and done.

Aura
462 Ninth Avenue, between 35th and 36th streets
212-971-8530

More delicious cheap Thai at Eat

While heading to an apartment open house on Sunday afternoon (which turned out to be canceled, setting our Sunday off on a trend that continued throughout the day), AV and I noticed a Thai restaurant we hadn't yet been to. It was vaguely in his neighborhood, and it looked solid and cheap. Good lord, how could we have missed this? The situation had to be rectified, and fast.

So rectify we did. After attempting to see Julia & Julia in the late afternoon (sold out, of course), we wandered around until we both got hungry, then we made a beeline to our destination: Eat Thai on 3rd Avenue.

Only when our server placed the "early bird" menus on the table did we realize we were there early. As in, before 6PM early. No matter; if we were going to act like old people, we might as well capitalize on the early bird specials. So we placed our order and readied ourselves for a cheap and delicious meal.

As we are wont to do, we started off by splitting an order of veggie dumplings. These were done little parcel-style, which I tend to like slightly less than the traditional dumpling shape, but no matter. Stuffed with all kinds of chopped veggies, these were quite tasty, especially with the sweet and spicy dipping sauce. The only faux pas: seven dumplings for two people (AV got the extra one this time).

Beautiful little gifts

Cross-section

For entrees, AV got the pad see-ew with chicken. A perfectly-sized portion, these were the traditional wide rice noodles with dark, savory sauce, and a good helping of Chinese broccoli mixed in with the ample chicken. AV heartily approved, and the noodle (or three) I stole was duly delicious.

So much umami

My choice-- again, another shocker-- was the papaya salad. This was truly delicious, set apart from the pack by the overabundance of non-papaya veggies (particularly the green beans). I appreciated that because it made me feel as though it was healthier. This salad was also quite spicy, leaving my mouth tingling for a while after I downed the last bit of crushed peanut. Next time I'll ask them to make it mild, 'cause I'm a spice wuss.

Variety and abundance

When there was nothing left on our plates, we asked for the check and prepared ourselves for the worst. The damage: about $17. For an appetizer and two entrees. Turns out that Early Bird pad see-ew is $6; all I can say is, wow. We scurried out of there feeling as though we had somehow beaten the system and celebrated our success with a splurge at Tasti D. Eat was a great find and is a place to which we'll definitely return-- another four Offset Spatula cheap Thai joint. You can never have enough!

Postscript: Turns out Eat is owned by the same people who own Spice. Guess that's why it's cheap and delicious!

Eat
1429 Third Avenue, between 80th and 81st Streets
212-772-1494