Opportunity Blog

Well, I finally visited a local Thai restaurant. That is not unusual in Nang Rong, where virtually all restaurants are Thai restaurants. In this case, however, I was in North Idaho in the U.S. where Sue and I spend summer. A Thai restaurant opened its doors here a year ago. My daughter in law Add, who is Thai, works there as a waitress, so eventually I had to show up.

For me it was good, maybe in the top half of restaurants in this town, but not great. The first time it was chicken in a yellow curry sauce, zucchini, bell peppers, a bit of onion, carrots and pineapple chunks. The chicken was good, but not really different from chicken at other restaurants. The sauce was OK but I have certainly had better. Bland?

The second time it was Mongolian beef. I have had better at some U.S. Chinese restaurants but the closest is a five hour drive from here. I’d rate it as very good for here and was told it was a popular dish. The glaze on the beef was good.

There was three times as much meat, twice what I could eat, compared to in Nang Rong. As a leftover the glaze soaks in or changes and the Mongolian beef loses a lot. Split this dish with someone.

They have five levels of spiciness. If you eat medium spicy in Isaan go for five and you should at least notice it.

The big overall thing was the rice. I was coarser, like rice at any normal American restaurant, like rice I grew up on in the U.S. I don’t like it. Maybe most here do? In Isaan they use Jasmine or the like that cooks up softer, a little more “melt in your mouth.”  Add said the owner preferred to save money by using U.S. rice. Notice the chicken dish also saves by using green bell peppers rather than the more expensive, colorful and slightly tastier yellow and red. This restaurant leans toward the upscale (the décor is best I’ve seen in this area of nearly 100,000) so I expected a bit better.

 For me the rice made all the difference. I don’t think he saves much. I get Thai Jasmine rice in a 25 pound bag inexpensively at Costco. My wife as well as Add use it when in the US. Does living in Thailand make one become a rice bigot?

Will this make a difference to most diners here? I don’t think so. They should give it a try. I spent a month in various parts of China and in general (there were a couple of shining exceptions) I like Chinese food in the U.S. better than that in China. I also like pizza here better than that in Italy. But when it comes to Thai food, I’ll stick with Thailand.

In case you were wondering, Sue and I arrive back in Thailand October 7. We would not miss the dry season.