Way back when, Thai cuisine...at least in my parochial universe...was considered an exotic and esoteric affectation. For example, on one "1st date" of mine, I took a young lady to a new Thai restaurant nearby on the assumption that it might make me appear to be more of "a man of the world" than I might otherwise have come across as (although, considering how that "romance" ultimately wound up, I might as well have taken her to a McDonald's...my trips down Memory Lane have a lot of potholes in them, for sure...but...once again, I digress..). One thing those early ventures into experimental gastronomy left me with was an abiding appreciation for coconut-based soups and mango with sticky rice.
I'm still far from being a connoisseur when it comes to Thai cuisine. As with Mexican cuisine, I don't always know what I'm ordering. With an increasingly fragile digestion, I shy away from the dishes highlighted in red. And a bad Thai dish can turn me off to the cuisine for months if not for a year or more (I not too long ago had Pad Thai from a take-out place in Hudson County; the congealed tamarind paste and lukewarm, gummy noodles nearly caused me to lose my cookies...or my Pad Thai, in this particular case-- I didn't embarrass myself, but it was a close call).
An old friend is much more of a connoisseur than I am of Thai food, and when we got together recently to hang out, he recommended this place for dinner. The memory of those cold, gummy noodles had receded sufficiently enough in my mind that I was willing.
Thai Kitchen is located in a relatively new shopping center off of Rt. 206 South, where the old outdoor flea market used to be (sad to say, but I'm old enough to remember buying old horror comics and bootleg Sex Pistols and NY Dolls records at that flea market!). We seemed to be the first customers of the evening and were seated at a corner table. My friend obviously had been here more than a few times as indicated by his friendliness with the people running it. Immediately, I liked the interior. Somewhat dark, but with enough strategically located orange-tinted lighting to keep it from resembling a cave.
We were offered chopsticks, but we opted for forks and spoons. (My friend's son has said eating with chopsticks for him is like eating his food with a thimble, and I have to agree.)
I wasn't paying a ton of attention to what my friend ordered, although an appetizer of some sort of dumplings had him shedding tears and gasping for air. I ordered the Tom Kra Gai soup (which does have a bite to it but doesn't leave me teary-eyed and gasping for air like a beached fish) and another dish. The lady serving us smiled and discouraged me from ordering that dish in the most pleasant way possible. Not too long ago, I ate at a Chinese restaurant and the waiter discouraged me from ordering a particular dessert, saying, "Not for you." Back then, I was kind of offended. Now? I was appreciative that this nice lady was showing her motherly concern (although she's a lot younger than I am) that I get the best dining experience possible. Is that fair to the guy in the Chinese restaurant? Probably not. But this time I was appreciative, not offended.
Instead, I ordered Mussamun Curry (chicken, peanuts, potatoes) with my soup, and enjoyed it immensely. I told our server that I liked sticky rice, and she brought me 1 dish of regular sticky rice, and another of coconut sticky rice. Very nice. My friend ordered sticky rice for dessert (without the mango) but at that point I was all sticky-rice'd out.
My friend always wants to pay separately, so I paid mine with cash. He, unfortunately, had forgotten his wallet, and I didn't have enough to cover him (my friend, a recovered alcoholic/drug-addict, has made a heroic recovery from his years of heavy substance abuse, but it has left him with short-term memory problems; in the past, when he forgot what was important to you but not to him, I chalked it up to a rampaging narcissism bordering on sociopathy, exacerbated by the drugs/alcohol-- these days, it seems to be caused by an organic damage that all those substances inflicted).
I was getting ready to hitchhike home while he washed dishes to pay off his bill, but the server and the owner smiled, waved it off, and told him he could pay when he had the money. I'm not suggesting that customers should go there expecting the same kind of treatment, but to me that speaks volumes about the inherent decency of the people running this place (they may know my friend, but they don't know him that well). Coupled with the excellent Thai cuisine being served, this is definitely a place that one should seek out when in the Chester area. Or anywhere in the Central/North NJ area.
A hearty thumbs-up! read more