IM Thai Cuisine

IM Thai Cuisine is a new Thai restaurant that has won me over with its delicious offerings and great service.  What is super great about this place is that you can taste the freshness of the ingredients. 

The Thai tea here is not too sweet, which is perfect.  I want my Thai tea to taste like tea and not some syrupy mess.

Thai Tea

We ordered the N3 Pad Kee Mao, which is stir-fried flat noodles with mushrooms, Thai chili, basil, tomatoes, bell peppers, and (choice of meat) beef.  The Pad Kee Mao is addictive.  The tangyness from the tomatoes gives this noodle dish a sharper flavor.  I used to think that I could never part with my Kua Gai at Thai restaurants, but this might be my new Thai noodle dish obsession.  I have to admit, my former go-to Thai restaurant, Madam Mam's, has gotten really lax with the quality of their meats. I detected some funky smell and taste in the beef several times in my beloved F11 Guay Teaw Kua Gai. The meat in my noodle dish at IM Thai does not have the stink of days/week old meat like at Madam Mam's. So-long Madam Mam, and hello IM Thai!

 

Pad Kee Mao

I originally wanted to try the C6 Duck Curry, but it wasn't available that day so I ordered the H2 Pla Pad Ped, crispy catfish topped with stir-fried bell peppers, fresh basil, lime leaves in a red curry sauce.  This really was a whole catfish.  The portion was huge!  And I did not complain.  This dish is so amazing that my dining companion and I nearly finished everything in the adorable fish fire pot.  Although the pieces of catfish was simmering in the curry, the fish still retained its fried crispiness.  The curry itself was sweet, savory, creamy, and spicy.  I highly recommend this dish.

Pla Pad Ped

Pla Pad Ped



Satay

Satay

I concluded my Marble Falls & Burnet daytrip with a satisfying dinner at Satay.  The food was delicious, but the price was not commensurate with the portion or quality of dishes. 

Strawberry Mint Tea

Goong Hom Pa-fried black tiger prawns wrapped in rice paper with Thai roasted coconut salsa

Paradise Grill-grilled catfish filley with grilled onions, lemongrass, and spicy peanut sauce

Siamese Duck

I've often wondered why Thai restaurants are generally more expensive than Chinese restaurants in terms of price-portion, price-ingredients, and price-difficulty in preparation and cooking ratios.  I think it boils down to socioeconomics.  The regular consumer's willingness to pay for Thai food is higher than Chinese food because Chinese restaurants outnumber Thai restaurants in the U.S.  The competition amongst Chinese restaurants drive down the prices in comparison to Thai restaurants.  In addition, a bulk of Chinese restaurants are buffet style with a bad reputation for low quality food, which gives the impression that Chinese food is cheap.  Consumers also base their willingness to pay on the dining experience, some even subconsciously find this more important than the food itself.  Quite a few Chinese restaurants are not well lit, have sticky floors, tables, and dinner ware, offer poor service, and are poorly decorated.  Thai restaurants, on the other hand, often emphasize decoration and are generally cleaner. 

I'm not an expert in Thai cuisine, so I also wonder whether the Thai restaurants around town are like P.F. Chang versions of Thai food (overpriced, Westernized, "pan-Asian" food).  Don't get me wrong.  I do crave Westernized, "pan-Asian" food from time to time as long as we consciously treat it as such.

Thai Restaurant in Shenyang

Drinking Thai Tea

I didn't think I would frequent a Thai restaurant in the middle of Northeast China as much as I ended up doing. The menu at this restaurant is encyclopedic! There were too many dishes to try. Unfortunately, the restaurant wouldn't let me photograph their food, so I only have photos from my first meal there.

Food here is very greasy, but delicious. The set menu lunch costs as much as a meal at KFC next door, but the amount and quality of food is just so much better. Why go to KFC?!?!

Complimentary Pickled Radishes and Peppers in Soy Sauce

Stir-fried Water Spinach; Pad Thai

Madam Mam: More Dishes I've Tried Other than F11

I always get the same noodle dish at Madam Mam-F11. I felt like being a rebel and trying something different...sort of...My dining companion ordered F11 to share with me.

I ordered the A3 Kao Tung (Thai rice cakes with minced pork and shrimp in a spicy coconut sauce). It was a savory treat but not impressive as I couldn't taste the meat that's allegedly in the dish.

Kao Tung

For dessert, I had the Sticky Rice with Thai Egg Custard. This dish was deliciously creamy, warm, and comforting, but I still prefer the Sticky Rice with Mango because of the nice sweet-tart balance.

Sticky Rice with Thai Egg Custard

Thai Kitchen

My brother's favorite restaurant in Austin is Thai Kitchen. Like Madam Mam's, Thai Kitchen has an extensive menu, but while Madam Mam's specializes in noodles, Thai Kitchen has a wider range of non-noodle dishes and has plating that's conducive to sharing.

The Gatee Thom Yum Gai soup is the best dish on the menu. The tartness of the lemongrass makes the chicken based broth refreshing. I also highly recommend the Kuai Tai Haeng with duck. This almost tastes Vietnamese to me in its gentler seasoning; it is a good contrast to the stronger, sharper taste of other Thai dishes.

Thai Coffee and Thai Tea without milk

Gatee Thom Yum Gai-chicken soup with coconut milk, lemon grass, markroot, Thai hot pepper, cilantro, green onion, mushrooms, lemon juice and chili in oil; Beef Satay

Sauteed Vegetables with Shrimp; Tofu Curry-tofu with Thai hot-tot red curry and coconut milk

Ba Mi Num Egg Noodle Soup-with green onion, cilantro, bean sprouts, and duck; Thai Dried Noodles (Kuai Tiao Haeng)-with green onion, cilantro, bean sprouts, ground peanuts, and duck

Madam Mam's

Umbrellas hanging from the ceiling at the West Gate location

Madam Mam's is another old haunt of my college years. I used to live on West Campus a block behind Madam Mam's on Guadalupe. All the dishes are tasty here, but it really takes your taste buds for a ride on the extreme in seasoning. Almost all dishes are super salty, always flavorful, and the dishes marked by chili peppers are spicy as hell. It's like street food in Taiwan or anywhere in the world. You know it's all bad for you, but you can't help liking it.

The West Gate location is great for me now that I live way south of campus. The parking is much less a headache, and there is no wait because it's huge! The only bad thing is that when you enter, you are greeted by a counter of tchotskies. I wish they would stop trying to sell us stuff besides food. (Same goes with Coco's. I go there for the food, not for the cell phone accessories!)

Anyways, the colorful paper parasols hanging from the ceilings are beautiful. I dined by myself, and it was fun just staring up, though I probably looked stupid and pitiful all by my lonesome.

I ordered my regular, Thai tea, and remembered that the only place that makes Thai tea with the right amount of sweetness is Saigon Pho. Everywhere else I've tried, the tea is cavity-inducing.

Thai tea

Next, I ordered the fish cake appetizer (A5) and then the flat rice noodle with beef (F11). Ahhhhhh...everything was salty, thirst-inducing perfection. I would eat this every week if I were invincible.

(A5) Tod Mun Plad Glai-spicy fish cakes with cucumber sauce

(F11) Guay Teaw Kua Gai-flat rice noodle stirfried with beef, eggs, bean sprouts, and pickled radish

Alaska Day 1

I'm drained from our south to north journey (Austin to Memphis; Memphis to Minneapolis, Minneapolis to Fairbanks) and from waking up at 2:30AM! Yikes!

After arrival, we were given a brief 15 minute bus tour on our way from the airport to Westmark hotel in the downtown area. "Downtown" was more like "deadtown." The only Alaskan we encountered on the streets was a lady from Texas. (Meeting Texans became a trend on this trip; many come here for work in the spring and summer months and abandon the state during the cold months.)

Hunger was taking over us since we were deprived of decent meals so we hunted around for a decent restaurant. We finally happened upon Bahn Thai (541 3rd Ave), which turned out to be an awesome choice! If you don't salivate at the following photos, then you don't know food! Who knew Thai food could be so good in Alaska?

Halibut Eggroll



Shrimp Pad Thai

Silver Noodle Soup

After dinner and a shower, we crawled into bed and basked in the midnight sun.

Midnight