SalaThai

After having possibly one of the most carb-heavy brunches at The Fish Shack, I still didn't feel very hungry when dinner came around. My aunt took us to SalaThai on Burrard Street for a dinner of Asian cuisine. 

SalaThai looks like it has been in business for many many years. Upon stepping into the restaurant, I noticed how much Thai-related decorations are placed all around the restaurant. Everything from a rickshaw to elephants and exotic plants. The lighting inside is dim, giving it that 'high(er) class feel' and the table settings resemble that too, with the napkins fancily folded up. The restaurant is fairly large, probably because it is an older establishment. There is a private party room and an elevated 'indoor patio' as well. The tables and chairs are quite dated, and some of the chair seats are sunken in and not comfortable to sit in. 

Since we were all unfamiliar with Thai cuisine, it was difficult to make our dish choices. They have an option for a set course menu at $25 per person. The menu is expensive for what you get. The portion sizes for each dish feed one person; perhaps they want to mimic a 'fine dining' restaurant. Anywho, here is what we ordered. We shared family-style.

Beef Satay

As appetizers, we got two orders of beef satay (total of 6 sticks) and a green papaya salad. The beef satay was tender and well seasoned, but the peanut dipping sauce was watered down and not pungent enough. The picked cucumbers on the side were very appetizing, or 'stomach opening' as the Chinese would say. Although the satay tasted fine, it did not match up to the high price. 

Green Papaya Salad

I was very excited to try my first green papaya salad. It did not disappoint; the saltiness of the fish sauce, the chili, and the crisp produce, and crunchy peanuts blended well together. This was around $9 or $10 for a small bowl-sized pile of shredded papaya. Something I will attempt to make at home next time.

Special Curry with Scallops, Prawns, and Young Coconut Meat

Since it is a Thai restaurant, we couldn't go without trying one of the many types of curry. We settled on one listed on the chef's special page that had scallops, shrimp, and (apparently) young coconut meat. Sounded unique enough! I was pleasantly surprised that they used the big, fat, juicy scallops. Frozen or not, it is an appreciated component. The shrimp, wait prawns, were just as large and delicious. There was six of us trying to share this one order of curry so I didn't get the chance to fish out a bit of everything. The major complaint is that the curries do not come with rice. A bowl of rice cost $2; even if that bowl is a decent size, two dollars for white rice is kind of ridiculous. Curry is no good without rice so we ended up ordering like four bowls of rice just to slop up all of the curry. It was a thick and rich (from the generous amount of coconut milk) curry (you don't find that too often!), but one shallow plate of it with a price tag of $17 makes the most of us want to refrain from eating it again.

Pad Thai

And again, as Thai-food-newbies, we ordered Pad Thai because hey, how can it go wrong? I'm no expert critic on pad thai but this was merely okay. The noodles were more on the sweet side and had the slightly wet-sticky feel. Not necessarily good or bad, but just the facts. There were a few slivers of tofu and a bit of crushed peanuts. It was pretty basic and nothing about this dish stood out to me. It wasn't cheap either, around $15 I believe...

Pineapple Fried Rice

Finally, we ordered a Pineapple Fried Rice because my aunt, who has come before, said it was tasty. We also needed something to fill our stomachs with. This was more presentation than anything else (I saw they also serve fried rice in a young coconut shell). The pineapple was hollowed out, but because of its small size, it barely held anything. There was some chicken, sauteed onion, and cubed pineapple in the fried rice and the top is some pork floss (or fluff). Again, it didn't have anything that made it distinct and worth purposely coming for.

The total cost for this dinner was nothing close to cheap, considering what we received. The presentation of all the dishes was very beautiful and the quality is okay/good, but the portion sizes and WOW factor just didn't do it for us. The location is very convinent, just around the corner from Pacific Centre and Robson Street, meaning that many of the customers are probably tourists that ran into the closest restaurant looking for a meal. (Ahem, tourist trap.) I would not recommend this restaurant to anyone nor choose to come back, as the money could very well be spent on better food deals or go to a better cause. Sorry SalaThai, but the cons from our first encounter heavily outweighed the pros.



Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡

Rainbow Thai Quinoa

I've been eying this recipe for the loooooooooongest time, and finally had the opportunity to make it myself last Sunday. Cashews? Colourful veggies? Peanut butter dressing? Sounds like it was like designed for moi :'D

Rainbow of ingredients for Rainbow Thai Quinoa

How can this plate of fresh ingredients not bring a smile to your face? It's the definition of gorgeous! The only colour absent from my plate is yellow, which could easily be filled with some yellow bell pepper, corn, squash, or zucchini. Any dish with a whole rainbow of fresh produce in it has to be healthy for you.

Making this dish (or it could be called a salad, I suppose) is super quick and simple. Minimal cooking and lots of chop, chop, chopping! Most of the time is spent cutting up vegetables and herbs. To speed up the already short process even more, cook the quinoa ahead of time. I cooked mine in the morning before heading off to church, and threw the whole dish together for lunch when I arrived home. Easy and delicious, what more could a lazy chef like me ask for?

Rainbow Thai Quinoa ready to eat!

Although the peanut butter didn't dominate the dish like I had expected, it added the perfect hint of nuttiness and richness. I like everything sweet, so I adjusted the sauce a twinge with more honey. This quinoa dish has so many dimensions, and is a party for the taste buds to try and decipher all the components. Sometimes a little sweet, sometimes a little spicy (raw onions!), sometimes a punch of cilantro... I could eat bowls and bowls of this stuff. For lunch, for dinner, for snack..okay but maybe not breakfast. That's when I need my pancakes.

I highly recommend you push this dish to the top of your 'recipe bucketlist' because it is mind-blowing-ly delicious. This Rainbow Thai Quinoa tastes wonderful slightly warm but also great cold from the fridge. Meaning it make great left-overs, if there is any.

Rainbow Thai Quinoa

Very lightly adapted from Ambitious Kitchen

Yield: 4 really large servings

Ingredients

For quinoa

• ¾ cup uncooked quinoa
• 1½ cup chicken or vegetable stock (or water + crumbled stock cube)
• 3 handfuls of baby spinach
• 1 red bell pepper, diced
• ½ red onion, diced*
• 1 cup shredded carrots
• ½ cup chopped cilantro
• 1 green onion, diced
• 3 handfuls of roasted unsalted cashews
• A few squeezes of fresh lime juice, optional

For dressing

• ¼ cup all natural peanut butter
• 2 teaspoons freshly grated ginger
• 1 tbsp dark soy sauce
• 1 tbsp light soy sauce
• 1 tablespoon honey or agave
• A dash or vinegar (apple cider vinegar is fine)
• 1 teaspoon sesame oil
• Water to thin, if necessary
• A few cracks of freshly ground pepper

Directions

1. Cook quinoa with stock in a medium pot according to package. I brought mine to a boil over high heat, then turned down the heat to the lowest and cooked for 15 minutes. Let cooked quinoa sit with lid covered for 5 minutes. Add the baby spinach with quinoa and lightly mix together in pot. Cover pot with lid; the residual heat and steam will wilt the spinach.
2. Cut, shred, and chop all vegetables.
3. To prepare the dressing, mix all ingredients together in a small bowl or custard cup. Microwave for 10 seconds or so to melt honey and mix thoroughly. Add water by the tablespoon until dressing reaches desired consistency. A viscous but steady stream flowing off spoon is good.
4. Add sauce to quinoa and spinach mixture, gently mix to combine. 
5. Pour dressed quinoa into a large mixing bowl, add all vegetables and nuts, and mix until combined. Serve with a few squeezes of lime juice if desired.

*If your stomach is very sensitive to acidic foods, omit or cook onion. Or replace with shredded purple cabbage.

Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡

Tip Thai Restaurant

Running out of suggestions as to lunch places in the Tri-Cities, my dad decided to finally give Tip Thai a try. Our first experience at a Thai restaurant was not impressive. That was Sang Thai, which is run by Chinese people so that doesn't really count. Tip Thai has been given pretty good reviews; a tiny restaurant with friendly staff and decent food? Definitely sounds attractive. But I'll have to give Tip Thai a mixed review.

Tip Thai is located in Downtown Port Coquitlam, which I think that sounds rather amusing. It is beyond Lions Gate Park after passing under the bridge. There is free street parking and a small parking lot behind the row of businesses. The restaurant is really small with only six or so tables. All the glass doors were slid open, so the whole restaurant front was open-air. At first, we were glad to see we weren't the only customers. Turns out, the man sitting at one of the tables was the waiter.

I was surprised that a Caucasian past-middle-aged man was the waiter; my family assumed he was the husband of one of the Thai cooks. Very friendly and welcoming service. Just a tad bit awkward because everyone could probably hear us discussing what to order, including the people across the street. 

Each of my family members chose an item from the lunch specials, which are served from 11:30am to 3:30pm, even on a Saturday, for only $6.99 each. Each entree has a choice of chicken, beef, or tofu and spiciness level. Adding $2 for a few frozen prawns or seafood is too much in my opinion. We were promptly provided with cold water and utensils after placing our order.

Pad Thai lunch special ($6.99)

Our orders were quickly put together in the open kitchen. I believe there were only two cooks making the food. They spoke a different language and I assume it is Thai. The lunch specials were served all together which is a sign of good timing in the kitchen. My brother got the Pad Thai with beef and asked for it as spicy as possible. Apparently that is 4x spicy. When it came, we were all curious to see how spicy 4x was. It wasn't spicy, at all. The sauce was more sweet than anything else. A bit too sauce-y and sweet for me, but my brother still ate it all. The noodles were perfectly cooked and still maintained its bounciness and chew.

Tip Thai Fried Rice lunch special ($6.99)

My mom got L1, Tip Thai Fried Rice with beef. I don't know if the cook put the wrong spiciness in the wrong dish because my mom's rice was way more spicy than the Pad Thai. Although bearable, there was a definite burn in the throat after swallowing a bite of this rice. The flavours of the fried rice were quite delicious. However my mom pointed out that the rice used was of very low quality. We aren't even sure if it was jasmine rice like the menu stated because it was obvious that the rice were broken and in small bits. This also makes it harder to keep it dry when frying as it clumps together in mushy lumps. The broken rice is sold of a lot cheaper because it is the 'rejects' from the crop.

Green Curry lunch special ($6.99)

Once we were given the menu, my dad immediately say "well, of course curry". So that's exactly what he got. There are three types of curry and he chose green curry and asked for it spicy and with beef (again...). The curry sauce was rich in coconut milk but the consistency was too thin for our liking; turns the rice into a soupy mess if too much sauce is added. There were a few pieces of eggplant and bell pepper, and a bit of basil for seasoning. The spiciness was just right for my tastebuds, enough to give it some heat but not mask all other flavours. The curry base is very flavourful, just need to thicken it up. 

Red Curry lunch special ($6.99)

I also got a curry, but the Red version instead, just to get some variety. I had it medium spiciness and with tofu. The coconut flavour was pungent (yippie!) and just as flavourful and thin in consistency as the green curry. The red curry is more sweet than the green one. Mine had pumpkin chunks, bell peppers, and basil too. The side salad that comes with all the combo dishes was lightly and simply dressed with fish sauce. Refreshing!

So here comes the bad news. For the whole afternoon following lunch at Tip Thai, my tummy was gurgling and feeling very uncomfortable. I won't go into any further detail than that. I suspect that it was either a) I scarfed down my meal way too quickly b) the food was just too rich compared to my usual clean diet or c) the tofu in my curry was spoiled. The last option is a possibility as it doesn't seem like Tip Thai has a steady wave of customers to regularily clear their ingredients. That is a pity because they have potential as being a great restaurant. Cheap prices, decent portions, tasty food, good service, and clean presentation, it's all there.

While I can't say I'll be running back to Tip Thai at the next opportunity I get, there are several other dishes on their menu that peaked my interest. Thai flavours seem to suit me well, coconut milk, peanut sauce, tofu, cashews, eggplant, Thai basil... There are areas Tip Thai can improve upon, and hopefully that will strengthen their restaurant. It's a good place to try if you're feeling sick of the usual rotation of restaurants in the Tri-Cities. Maybe the quality of the food will increase with the number of customers~



Love from Coconut Crumpet's Corner ♡