My kind of Thai

At Thai at Silk. Vintage Mickey Mouse T-shirt from Hong Kong, Nixon "Time Teller" in Blue X, a stalk of lemongrass with an orchid.

IRON MAN wouldn’t hear any of my pleas to split the bill with him.  I knew the dinner was quite expensive.  But I knew all too well that in this place, it was always worth every peso forked over.  Or in Iron Man’s case, swiped with his pre-approved plastic.

Yet another one of our “the-best-laid-plan-is-no-plan-at-all” dinners transpired last Wednesday night.  Iron Man and I sort of agreed to foot the bill for the night, but the self-proclaimed “excellent orderer” me decided on the place on my own – Thai at Silk at the Serendra Piazza.

Thai at Silk has always been one of my usuals.  Batman and I used to frequent the place.  And since I knew very well that having amazing company – Mike & Thea, The Flash, and Iron Man – would take care of 50% of an unforgettable meal, I had to make sure that the restaurant of choice could deliver the other 50% – great food.  And in the case of an establishment that brandishes directly the country of origin, the place better deliver authentic food.

The Flash, eNTeNG, Mike, Thea, Iron Man.

And that has struck me as something consistent with Thai at Silk.  One sip of my favorite Tom Yum Kung (Hot & Sour Shrimp Soup) never fails to conjure up images of how people from the Northern part of the country would make this soup with plenty of freshly caught shrimp, then people from the South would add pounded roasted chilies in oil to give the soup its characteristic deep orange color and powerful kick.  This same soup embodies the ideal of Thai cuisine, a perfect balance of all the four tastes – sweet, sour, salty, and spicy.  To this day, I maintain that Thai at Silk makes the best Tom Yum in Manila.

Tom Yum Kung

Around the soup, I built a spread that continued to showcase this balanced play among the four tastes.  The Roti with Choo Chee Kung had wedges of slightly charred roti bread elegantly served alongside a dipping sauce of minced prawn in reduced red curry sauce.  I usually would break the roti by hand, and dip each piece into the sauce.  But Thea recommended doing it one better – by dusting each dipped piece with white sugar before eating.  It was superb.

Roti with Choo Chee Kung

To the uninitiated, the Tod Man Kung (Thai shrimp cakes) would seem to be deep-fried, dried-out breading with a sporadic sprinkling of minced shrimp.  But no.  Each cake is Thailand’s answer to the Italian Veal Milanese!  Tender chunks of fresh shrimp are lightly breaded, formed into cakes, then deep-fried yielding an appetizer that does whet the appetite – tender and juicy on the inside, crunchy on the outside.  On their own or laced with the special sweetish sauce, these are cakes you would fight to have and eat too!

Thai shrimp cakes

For our entrées, we had Pla Lad Prik Sam Ros (deep-fried fillets of fish with tamarind chili sauce), Kaeng Khiaw Waan (green curry chicken), Deep-Fried Black Pepper Soft Shell Crab, Phad Thai (stir-fried flat rice noodles), Pineapple Fried Rice, and steamed fragrant Jasmine Rice.  All of these, save for one revelation, were excellent as always.  I’ve never been the one to ask for soft shell crab.  The reason why it found its way to our selection was the enthusiastic recommendation of our server.

Lad Prik Sam Ros (deep-fried fillets of fish with tamarind chili sauce)

 

Deep-Fried Black Pepper Soft Shell Crab

 

Pineapple fried rice

 

Phad Thai

 

Iced lemongrass tea

Thai at Silk’s Deep-Fried Black Pepper Soft Shell Crab is one huge blue crab cut up into pieces, breaded and deep-fried, before being tossed up in their special black pepper seafood sauce.  It was surprisingly quite tender!  I didn’t have to fight with the “soft shell” with chewing that would be a lot of jaw work.  Before the evening ended, I realized I made a new favorite that would be worth coming back for.

Granted that we feasted on a meal that balanced the sweet and sour with the salty and spicy, you would expect us not to crave for any desserts.  But Cupcakes by Sonja being a few doors down the Piazza, it was inevitable to have desserts.  And this time, on me.

The Flash, Mike, Thea, and Iron Man at Cupcakes by Sonja

 

eNTeNG with the gang!

 

 

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