Dining Out: Stir-Fried Pineapple Beef with Cashew Nuts and Thai Green Curry Chicken at Pho Pad Thai

It's funny that I was so hell-bent on eating only non-Asian food when I came back from Asia because all I've been eating every time I go out is Asian food. (I guess you can take the girl out of Asia but you can't take the Asian out of the girl.) On that note, we decided to go for fake Thai Thai-style food this evening at Pho Pad Thai:

Stir-fried pineapple beef with cashew nuts
Thai green curry chicken with roti

The food is decent for what it is as long as you don't compare it to authentic Thai food. (To be fair, you come here knowing that it's not the real shit. It's Chinese-owned and they serve multiple Asian cuisines, so at least one of them is gonna be lacking.) My only real complaint is the portion sizes here. They are noticeably small, especially for the price. (Maybe I spent too much time in Asia. Where food is way cheaper and there's no tax or tip.) In fact, we were contemplating whether we should order another entrée, but then thought it wouldn't be worth the money so we just got some Vietnamese spring rolls to share instead. (I've been here a few times before and I do think the Vietnamese food is pretty good.) Whatever they lack in value and authenticity, though, they make up for in service. The servers and owners treat you like family here and that's what keeps people coming back.

Pho Pad Thai

20 Apple Creek Blvd., Unit #2

Markham, ON L3R 5Z1

(905) 305-6755

Dining Out: Vegetable Thai Spring Rolls, Chicken Panang Curry, and Ho Mok Talay at Aroma Taste of Thai

In the plaza of the T&T Supermarket that I frequent, there is a unit in the inner corner that has completely covered windows with images of random women and beaches and statues. So I obviously thought it was one of those happy ending massage parlours and wrote it off. But upon deciding on where to go for dinner this evening, my mom and I headed over to this plaza (we needed to go grocery shopping at T&T afterwards) so we could just pick from one of the restaurants there and found ourselves walking by this unit. And we realized that it's actually a Thai restaurant called Aroma Taste of Thai. So we thought we'd try something new.

Vegetable Thai Spring Rolls
Chicken Panang Curry

And we had what is maybe the best Thai food I've ever eaten. (Well, I did go to Thailand when I was 13, but I barely remember what I ate yesterday let alone 23 years ago, so I don't count that.) The Thai spring rolls are filled with a mixture of glass noodles and vegetables that are tossed in delicious spices that make them distinctly different from Chinese spring rolls and are surprisingly worth getting even though they sound so basic. Panang curry is my favourite Thai curry so I obviously had to order it here, and as expected, it is excellent — thick, creamy, flavourful, and full of peanut-y goodness. 

Ho Mok Talay

But the pièce de résistance of this meal was the Ho Mok Talay. It is a curry "custard" that is made with coconut milk and the meat of a young coconut with plump pieces of shrimp and mussels added in, and then baked in that same young coconut that the meat is from. I've never had anything like it and it is INSANELY DELICIOUS. I didn't even know I really liked coconut until I had this. They even serve you the extra water from the coconut as it's being baked so none of the coconut goes to waste. It's pretty pricey at $26.99, but my god, it is worth every penny. It's so good, in fact, that it has officially become my new favourite Thai dish.

Anyway, the moral of the story here is that just because a place looks like a shady massage parlour from the outside, it doesn't mean that it is. It could just be your new favourite Thai restaurant.

Aroma Taste of Thai

Cachet Centre

9255 Woodbine Ave., Unit 12

Markham, ON L6C 1Y9

(647) 930-6888

Cooking at Home: Panang-Style Beef Curry with Peanuts and Jasmine Rice

Panang-style beef curry with peanuts and jasmine rice
Tonight's dinner kit from Hello Fresh: Panang-style beef curry with peanuts and jasmine rice. Okay, so I don't normally order the curry kits from Hello Fresh because they're never authentic and never taste quite right. Now, this one isn't particularly authentic either (I appreciate that they called it "panang-style" rather than actual panang), but I love coconut-based curries, and this one ended up being really delicious and tasting surprisingly similar to actual panang. Okay, so it's not particularly photogenic, but it was creamy, flavourful, and actually had a spicy kick to it. (And yes, I replaced the cilantro with some chopped spring mix leaves for colour. For reference, I just bought a bottle of laundry detergent, and there is a note in it that reminds me of the taste of cilantro. That's how much cilantro tastes like soap to me.) The only thing I would change is to add less water to make it thicker and creamier, and add a touch of lime juice to it to make it taste a little more authentic. Otherwise, a really solid curry recipe.

Photolog 2020: Day 180 of 366

Sunday Funday means delivery for dinner! As I was scrolling through Uber Eats for ideas on what to get, I came upon Little Bangkok and realized I hadn't had Thai food in years, so I decided to order from there. Thai curry puffs, Pad Thai with chicken, and green curry with beef. (I made rice at home, 'cause I ain't paying $2.50 for a bowl of rice.) But yeah, I forgot just how goddamn tasty Thai food is. The green curry was especially excellent — the perfect amount of spice, with a hint of sweetness from the coconut milk, and a good amount of meat and veg. The only thing that was missing was an order of mango sticky rice for dessert. A rookie mistake that I will have to correct next time.

Linda Modern Thai

After a lovely afternoon of shopping, Steph and I drove over to Shops at Don Mills for dinner at Linda:
Long Bean & Cucumber Salad
We started off with the long bean and cucumber salad because Steph thought we should incorporate some sort of healthy dish in our dinner. Neither of us had ever tried it, but it's a traditional Thai salad that is actually prepared table-side by the server. It's a mix of long beans, cucumber, cherry tomatoes, basil, crushed peanuts, dried shrimps, and a fish sauce-vinaigrette mix. It's simple with clean, fresh flavours and a nice crunchy bite, but neither of us thought it was phenomenal. For the portion you get, I personally didn't think it was worth the $9 — the mango salad is a much better salad option here, in my opinion.
Homemade Vegetable Spring Rolls
I don't think I'd ever tried the spring rolls here (or even at Salad King, Linda's sister restaurant and a staple during my university days at Ryerson), but Steph insisted they were her favourite spring rolls in the city. After tasting one, I'd have to agree; definitely the best I've had at any Thai/Vietnamese/Asian fusion restaurant. Each roll is filled to the brim with full strips of various vegetables that are tender but still firm (e.g. not mushy), and the wrappers are just the right thickness and fried to a perfect golden crisp. A definite must-have here. And Steph taught me an awesome trick: slice the roll length-wise in half but not all the way through (akin to a hot dog bun) and drizzle the accompanying fish sauce into it for the perfect roll-to-sauce ratio. Seriously, a game-changer.
Panang Curry with Crispy Beef
Okay, so when I used to eat at Salad King all the time (like, three times a week) as a student, my go-to dish was the panang curry with chicken. Panang is a rich, creamy curry made with coconut milk and peanuts, and it is a great choice for those who like a milder, sweeter curry (it's the same reason why I prefer korma at Indian restaurants). Their version is infused with sweet Asian basil and lime leaf, and cooked with a ton of green and red bell peppers. It comes with a bowl of steamed white rice, which I like to dump into my curry so every little bit of it is soaked up. Anyway, when I saw that crispy beef was an option, I decided to try it because it sounded intriguing. Basically, it's a big, chunky strip of beef that's battered and deep-fried. It's pretty good, but the beef was on the tougher, drier side (the key is to drench it in the curry, of course, but I still thought it was a bit too chewy for my liking), and I think if you're going to be charging $17 for this dish, the beef should be a bit better quality. Plus, I thought it made an already rich dish a little too heavy, so I think I'll stick to chicken or shrimp next time. That having been said, you can never go wrong with the panang — my bowl was completely cleaned out, 'cause, holy crap, is it ever addictive.
Though the decor is nicer and the ambience is cozier and more romantic than Salad King, I still say Salad King is far more worth it if you're willing to make the trek downtown. They serve almost the exact same menu with the exact same recipes, but Linda is nearly double the price — you're essentially paying for the atmosphere, more attentive service, and the location (Shops at Don Mills is pretty fancy, after all). Still, it's a great option for tasty, authentic Thai food, or if you're craving Salad King when you're not in the downtown core — just be prepared to shell out a pretty penny for it.

Linda Modern Thai Shops at Don Mills 11 Karl Fraser Road North York, ON M3C 0E7 (416) 642-3866