Southeast Asian – Page 3 – Writing With My Mouth Full

Sripraphai

64-13 39th Avenue between 64th and 65th Streets, Woodside, Queens
718/899.9599
about $45, without drinks, with tip
â™¥ â™¥

Sripraphai is the kind of restaurant you have to visit again in order to really get a good feel for its Thai cuisine. Dining with a large group would help because sharing is encouraged in order for you to taste more than two dishes. Because it was just me and the Dr., we could only order three. Out of
those three, only one was solid.

The mango salad with crispy dried catfish to me was what makes Thai cuisine good. It was salty, hot, sour and sweet all the same time. The red onions, cilantro and chili peppers woke my taste buds up. It reminded me of the Filipino daing, only saltier and spicier, and perfect with a cold bottle of beer.

The dishes over rice were safe and less flavorful. I should have known better when I read that the pork came with “special house sauce.” The Dr.’s duck was a little bit better with the small, round eggplants I rarely see in any other dishes I eat in New York City. It also reminded me of the Filipino pakbet. Both came with a generous plateful of rice we couldn’t finish.

We didn’t have enough room for dessert, but we swore we’ll be back to order the other specials on the menu. Next time, we’ll skip the rice dishes and bring an army of friends with us.

Kampuchea Noodle Bar

78 Rivington Street on Allen
212/529.3901
about $50, without drinks, with tip
â™¥

It was a balmy, summer evening. We thought ordering a bowl of noodles was just appropriate. Upon entering Kampuchea Noodle Bar, I surely felt like being in Asia. It was hot and humid, but a faint breeze coming from the outside made everything comfortable inside. The restaurant details, from the glass mugs to the dim lights, romanticize everything on the menu. That’s a good thing because the food can’t hold its own.

We started with the crisp pork belly. They were a little sweet for my taste, but it’s hard for me to turn down fried fat. It reminded me of Fatty Crab’s better-executed version, served with chunks of watermelon. The pickle plate was very spicy but addicting at the same time. It made me wonder if there was a Korean back in the kitchen. My bowl of vermicelli was good enough to satisfy an Asian taste craving I was having, but the Dr. hated his bowl of duck soup because it was too oily. We both felt that the noodles needed some more love because their consistency felt like they were prepared carelessly.

The wooden communal tables and the mostly beautiful diners reminded me of Momofuku but with a sexier address. In terms of food, however, Momofuku it wasn’t.

Fr.Og (French Origine)

71 Spring Street between Crosby and Lafayette Streets
212/966.5050
$120 for two people, with four drinks at the bar, with tip
â™¥

I haven’t been to a nice bathroom with communal sinks since my clubbing days–and I mean, like a real club, not the ridiculous Sea in Williamsburg, Brooklyn–and I’ve never been to AIX Brasserie either, chef Didier Virot’s first venture with Philip Kirsh, so it was like a new experience walking into Fr.Og with pink leather seats and silver-beaded walls. What could possibly come out from the kitchen of a place looking like this in the middle of SoHo?

The menu is French with Vietnamese, African and Middle Eastern influences, but really sounds less confusing on a plate. Fried spring rolls, or Vietnamese nem ran, has the traditional pork and shrimp with cucumber, lettuce and carrot on the side dressed with mint and garlic dressing. They were perfectly dainty and crunchy; the mint starting a party in my mouth. The Lebanese tabbouleh was better than the seared lamb loin served on top of it with its texture giving life to the cold, almost-limp tongue slivers of lamb. I only wished there was more of the foie gras encrusted in ginger. I didn’t even need the mango coulis and the soy-balsamic sauce with it. The drinks were even better than the appetizers. A coconut-lemongrass infused martini was beautifully done and so was a request for a citrusy and fruity cocktail after our meal. The maitre d’ and the bartender were equally nice and accommodating, quite a pleasure from a restaurant that plays dance music in the background.

Chef Didier is known for the short-lived Virot at the Dylan Hotel (later taken over by none other than Britney Spears’s NYLA, also short-lived) but his partnership with Jean-Georges Vongerichten as executive chef at JoJo should be taken more into account. The guy can obviously cook and has a tremendous palate to be able to translate different cuisines on each dish, but at $120 for three small plates and four drinks, I don’t know if people are hurrying to flock the place. I would come back, though, to use that bathroom.

Bahn Mi, Vietnamese Sandwiches

A Vietnamese sandwich, or bÃ¡nh mÃ¬, has minced pork, potted meat, salami, carrots, cucumbers and cilantro. They are served in a slightly toasted French baguette with a special sauce that brings all the fillings together. Skip on the mayonnaise and order an iced Vietnamese coffee while you wait. There are also the neo-bÃ¡nh mÃ¬s like vermicelli glass noodles, beef fillets, chicken and even tofu. Most of the stores carry other Vietnamese snacks and your best bet would be the summer rolls or the rice cakes. SÃ¡u Voi Corp also sells Vietnamese CDs and DVDs for some soundtrack while you eat. (I’ve updated this post since 2004 with the latest bÃ¡nh mÃ¬ stores.)

I’ve listed my favorites below and they all get â™¥ â™¥

Viet-Nam BÃ¡nh MÃ¬ So 1
369 Broome Street off Mott
212/219-8341
Updated, 2008: Renamed Saigon

SÃ¡u Voi Corp
101-105 Corner of Lafayette and Walker Street
212/226.8184

Paris Bakery
113 Mott Street between Canal and Hester
212/226.7221

Ã ChÃ¢u Deli
82A Mulberry between Canal and Bayard
212/766.3332

Wondee Siam

792 9th Avenue between 52nd and 53rd Streets
212/459.9057
$52 for two, BYOB, without tip, cash only
♥ ♥

I never make it to the Hell’s Kitchen neighborhood but before a My Morning Jacket concert at Roseland Ballroom, we wanted to eat dinner. Wondee Siam came recommended from an out-of-towner. Forgive me for being cynical, but I usually would not take a recommendation from a tourist, especially for Thai food. But I stand corrected. Not only did Wondee Siam offer traditional Thai food, it also offered the good kind. So what if he got the advice from Zagat’s?

When we were ordering our meals, I told the waiter I wanted duck so I asked for his opinion between two dishes that had roasted duck in it: Yum Ped Yang and Duck Ka Prow. He said he likes the Yum Ped Yang one (or so I thought) so I nodded to order that. When it was time to eat, he brought both dishes to us. When I told him I only picked one, he apologized but left them on the table. When we realized he was not going to take the other plate away from us and from our bill, we just asked him to pack it for us to take home. Some battles should be left untouched especially if the Yum Ped Yang with slivers of green apples and cubes of pineapples was really good.

The duck wasn’t roasted, it was deep-fried, and it tasted more like bacon than it did duck. (It looked like bacon, too!) But I was all over the fresh combination of the chili pepper, lime juice and cashew nuts that I didn’t really care if it wasn’t the dish I ordered. The duck Ka Prow tasted familiar because I cook it at least once a month with chicken. Fresh basil is always a nice touch with sweet soy sauce even though the menu listed it as oyster sauce.

The mixed seafood roll was like a deep-fried version of shumai and was served with that sweet orange dip Chinese restaurants call duck sauce. The menu listed it as plum sauce which I thought has a darker color. I barely tasted the crab which is featured as the main ingredient but it was still a pretty good appetizer. The chicken was good, too, drowning in all the sauce which makes your mouth numb in a good way.

We had a good meal at Wondee Siam because their selection was also better than Pongsri’s downtown, so I’ll give them two stars even though what we ended up eating were not exactly what we initially wanted.