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Volume CXXXII, Number 23 |
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Tying it together in one house
KERRY ELSON
COLUMNIST
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| Thai House offers delicious treats of culinary splendor. The tasty menu items exceed their cousins at Bangkok Garden and Thai Dish, making Thai House the best Thai restaurant in Brunswick. (Karsten Moran, Bowdoin Orient) |
This week's meal out marked a triple celebration. The Foodie honored not only her entrance into the "twenty-something" realm but also her final review of the year until next spring. Most importantly, however, the Foodie celebrated Thai culinary glory.
Thai House is the best Thai restaurant in Brunswick. No protestations, please. The Foodie has been to all three: NYC loft-style Bangkok Garden, Thai "the one that really is a house" Dish, and Thai House "of yummers."
What a shame that the best one is the farthest away from campus, all the way on Pleasant Street past quite a few dealerships. Despite it's distance, however, Thai House is worth the trip.
The cozy roadside establishment has a sunroom in which patrons may dine; this Foodie and her Foodie friend sat right at the threshold of the glass ceiling so that moonlight could gleam onto the plates.
A prodigious number of offerings are listed on the menu. After much deliberation, the Foodie opted for summer rolls and basil chicken, while her friend requested the ginger pork. Both decided to share an order of larb since green papaya salad was unavailable.
The last time the Foodie ventured to the House, she ordered the famed papaya salad for an appetizer. It blew her away! Though the Foodie covets spicy food, and often has to convince the waiter at Shere Punjab to "hit her with his best shot," papaya salad at the House is the spiciest dish she has ever tasted. It made her weep and clamor for napkins. Her tongue felt like it was disintegrating; she seemed to breathe fire between wheezing coughs. Needless to say, the Foodie recommends the papaya salad.
Huge summer rolls, or fresh vegetables, rice noodles and shrimp wrapped in rice paper, arrived at the table soon after they were ordered. Although she is usually reluctant to declare anything "the best ever," the Foodie will once again utter a superlative: these summer rolls were the best she has ever had. After a couple of poor reviews, the Foodie feels the need to praise something on a Brunswick plate. The House is her saving grace: the rolls were neatly wrapped and easy to consume. She was most pleased that they were filled mostly with fresh vegetables, whereas other establishments often pinch pennies by filling the rolls with rice noodles.
The entrees appealed to all senses. Basil wafted from the steaming plate of chicken, peppers and onions, while the aroma of ginger cleared the Foodie friend's nasal passages. The variety of color and the symmetrical presentation of the entrees was as satisfying as the sound of steam rising from the plate that she heard when her ear was lowered to it. The vegetables were fresh and crunchy, the chicken tender and infused with basil, garlic, and fish sauce.
The only disappointment of the evening was the larb. This dish, unfortunately, did not delight the senses. While the dish did taste alright, with hints of lemongrass and lime, it smelled like halitosis, or bad breath. Perhaps the Foodie needs to work up her tolerance for such a delicacy, but she finds it difficult to ignore smell, since she receives much of her dining pleasure from aromas. The Foodie and her Friend kindly set the uneaten, gauche plate aside.
Despite the Foodie's failure to enjoy the larb, she still cannot wait to take up residence in the House once again.
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