Bangkok Cuisine is Thai-licious
ByClaire Tapia, Outpost Staff
Bangkok Cuisine
55 Mt. Rose St.
322-0299
When I first moved to Reno
from New Orleans, I was more than a little depressed about
the lack of good food in the area. Since then, I have
explored the city a great deal more and have found several
nice surprises in local restaurants. One of my first
discoveries was Bangkok Cuisine. In the past three years, it
has continued to be one of
my Related
links
favorite Reno restaurants.
Thaicooking.com
Traditional
&NouvelleThai
Recipes
More
Thai Recipes
When I first started frequenting Bangkok Cuisine, it was a little shabbier than it is now. The restaurant was decorated with plastic flowers and posters of Thailand with the occasional piece of artwork hanging on the walls. It was never hole-in-the-wall shabby , but it wasn't nearly as nice as it is now. The owners remodeled the restaurant this past year and along with throwing out the plastic flowers, they also built a beautiful new front room. Instead of displaying t-shirts for sale in the entrance, they have replaced them with ornate Thai artwork, including couches, gilded mirrors and small figurines, most of which are for sale.
The change was a good one, but it made me wonder what other changes may have taken place. My three friends and I decided to go to Bangkok Cuisine on a Monday night. Because Monday is traditionally the slowest night in the restaurant business, we didn't expect a big crowd. We were wrong. When we came through the entrance, we were greeted by a herd of people waiting in the front room. We studied the specials board as we waited, and I was a little surprised to see that they were still featuring the same specials that they had for several months. This was not however, a letdown, because I have had almost all of the specials and they have all been good. After a couple of minutes, we were brought to our table.
Photo by
Claire
Tapia
The place was jumpin'. There were only a few open tables and as we were seated at one of them, I noticed that the old laminated menus had been replaced with attractive leather bound ones, complete with tassels and embossing. My friends and I mulled over the menu and were quickly approached by our waiter, who asked us if we wanted any drinks or appetizers to start with. We requested two orders of the shrimp Rangoon ($7.95 ) and my friend Michelle ordered a drink.
The server was pleasant, but after 10 minutes of waiting, Michelle had to ask him again for her drink. He said it was on it's way, but I wondered to myself how long it should really take for someone to pour a 7-Up. About five minutes later, we got our appetizers and Michelle still hadn't gotten her drink. Halfway into the shrimp Rangoon, the 7-Up was brought to the table.
Other than that, the service was good and the place was busy. We were watered fairly often and the plates were removed from the table promptly. The shrimp Rangoon, which are small wonton pouches filled with a mixture of shrimp, green onions and cream cheese and then fried, were delicious. There are seven pouches to an order, and they are served with a light and tangy sweet and sour dipping sauce.
We received our dinners quickly after we finished our appetizers. As our server brought out the steaming dishes, I remarked out loud that I wished I had gotten flat bread to go along with my meal. When our server returned with the last of the bowls, he said that he put in the order for flat bread and it would be out shortly. I was impressed by his listening skills and proceeded to fill up my plate.
One important part of ordering at Bangkok Cuisine is deciding how spicy you want you're dish to be. Spiciness is rated by stars (*mild, **medium, ***hot, ****very hot, *****+ native Thai) and I have decided that either two or three stars is the way to go. For red curry dishes, I rarely go above two stars, but for yellow curry dishes, three stars is perfect. I also don't like to sweat when I eat, so you might want to make you're own judgment call.
For my dinner, which was a red curry dish called Gang Panang ($ 7.50), two stars was just right. Gang Panang is a bowl of fresh vegetables and your choice of chicken, beef or pork cooked in a coconut milk, crushed peanut and red curry sauce garnished with lemon leaves and served with a bowl of steamed rice. You can also replace the meat with shrimp or squid for an extra $ 2.45. I went with chicken and was extremely pleased with my meal.
My friend Trina got the Pra Raam Lom Soeng (aka the Bangkok Sizzling Platter, $8.95) with pork, at three stars. This is a platter of stir-fried fresh spinach with garlic, fresh cucumbers, carrots, bell peppers, peanut sauce, your choice of meat and a yellow curry sauce. This is also served with steamed rice. As promised, the platter was served sizzling and we all agreed that the entree was delicious. Michelle ordered Pud Ocha (Bangkok Delight, $9.95) and didn't request any amount of heat. It was a bowl of strips of chicken, large shrimp, baby corn, crisp snow peas, straw mushrooms and onions in a light brothy sauce. This was also really good and a nice departure from the rich coconut-milk-based sauces in the rest of our dishes. As with the rest, steamed rice accompanied it.
Deane decided on a small bowl of Thom Kha Gai ( $3.50) which was a Chicken Coconut Soup. It had strips of chicken and straw mushrooms in it and it smelled great. But when we tasted it, we all thought that it was way too salty. It was a shame, because I think that the soup would have been really good had it been toned down a little. Other than that, everything was great. We all got cucumber salads ($1.00) to go with our dinners, which are made up of sliced cucumbers and shredded carrots in a light, sweet dressing. These salads are perfect for cooling off your palate after a curry infused bite.
After we had all eaten way too much, we decided to call it quits even though I longed for a dish of coconut ice cream ($2.25.) The bill was a little over $50 and we left completely stuffed and with a bag full of leftovers. Overall, it was a very good dining experience at an extremely reasonable price. If you haven't already discovered Bangkok Cuisine, I highly recommend you check it out.
Posted
March 3, 2000
Copyright 2000
Nevada Outpost
|
|
|
|