A study in contrasts, partaking of these spicy victuals v. the behemoth portions @ Rock House Grill Cart.
To once again completely mangle a metaphor....Whereas the cuddly gent @ Rock House uses a chainsaw for his origami, the lady @ Diamond Thai uses her finest point, bad ass doily needles. Whereas the the Rock House Grill create their culinary delights like a man possessed, carving ice blocks w/said chainsaw ("How on earth did he make THAT, with THAT"??), ole girl creates a frenzy of soups and noodles and bad-ass spicery of much variety--- thai chilis, the obligatory ginger root and bamboo shoots and scallions and other greenery. Oh! I do like this woman's soups-- both with and without the coconut milk. Some Thai places take it way too easy on Yankees, as though they are thinking "He can't possibly, *really* mean, 5 star spicy hot, can he?"..... Oh this lady was meticulous, she was thorough---- that soup was so incredible and so spicy -hot, it actually WARPED the plastic tubs they come in!!! Now THAT is what the heck I'm talkin' about, right there!
Win!
However, and this is a definite first in my long career of enjoying Americanized Thai--- I counted one---ONE!--- jumbo shrimp in the entire tub of non-coconut milk soup. One shrimp! That can't possibly be the norm for Diamond Thai, can it? whether it is or not, sorry, that sort of parsimony is gonna effect your rating. The irony is, if I'd have ordered the soup as vegetarian, it would have been perfect, 5 stars, and I wouldn't have minded the lone shrimp finding its way in there. But alas. The devil's in the details, so they say, and so this is a perfect case in point. Maybe it's at least in part a function of my westerner ethnocentric bias--- if I have to choose between Mr. over-the-top Piledriver, and little miss prim and stingy, I'll take the pile-driver, for better or worse, almost every time. one wonders what kind of masterful origami those two could make, if paired as a team........ read more