Tiger Road

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On a chilly Thursday evening, I attended a pre-opening tasting event at Khao San Road, a soon to be opened restaurant. The chef of the popular but tiny Sukho Thai has decided to leave her old haunt for bigger digs. I felt a frisson of excitement as I entered the restaurant since the front to the place was still covered up - it's almost like I was a well-connected cool guy ("Hey, ladies"). But that faded a bit as the smell of new paint tickled my nose and the electricians wandered around hooking up lamps. It turns out the kitchen equipment was only installed that day.

No matter, Nuit is here to tempt us with some victuals. First, a Thai salad came out. I enjoyed the savoury curry taste, a nice change from the typical Thai mango salad which is too sour for my taste. I would prefer a little bit more kick like the delicious laab gai, or Laotian chicken salad. I was also a little disappointed with the lettuce base. This is standard issue for Westernized Asian dishes but I think there could be more exciting alternatives. For example, there is a Vietnamese salad that uses Chinese water spinach and banana flowers. However, the rest of the ingredients including chicken, boiled egg, and basil are tasty.

The second dish is a definite winner: deep-fried shrimp. The breaded coating had the deep brown hue of KFC chicken but it was not oily. The sauce that came with it was a slightly viscous, sweet garlic dip. I believe this is the same sauce, or very similar, to the one that accompanies Thai spring rolls. I'm not sure if the dish will be less plentiful once the restaurant opens, but on this night the shrimp was piled high. A pint of beer would have been perfect but the bar, made from recycled wooden planks, was still a work in progress.

The next two dishes were more typical Thai dishes: a yellow curry chicken with rice, and a pad Thai dish topped with shrimp. Both dishes were a little salty though the rice mitigated the saltiness. The pad Thai had a subtler flavour than the bad orange noodles you get in most Thai restaurants.

For me, the wow factor was in the last dish, or rather drink. Thai iced tea was served last as a sweet refreshment. Yum! How have I never tried or heard of this drink in all the times I've eaten Thai food? A cross between a spiced tea like masala chai and those sweet Vietnamese shakes or Taiwanese bubble tea, it went down so smoothly. Khao San has got to push this concoction on its clientele.

I think this new restaurant will do very well on Adelaide once it opens. Compared to the tired Thai restaurants on nearby Queen St. W., there's no contest. Nuit hinted that with a bigger kitchen, she will be able to make more interesting dishes. As well, Khao San will use fresh and local ingredients so the menu may be changing fairly regularly. This is all excellent news. The only downside is that it is sufficiently far from my West end digs for me to spontaneously drop by for a quick dinner after work.