I eat a lot. A whole lot of f Thai food that is. I have an obsession with Thai dishes. If I was on death row for committing a capital crime, my last meal would be Kra-pow gai. That's basil leaf chicken for non kon-thais (thai people)
A long time ago my ex and I would always giggle whenever we heard people say "Can we order the FAT Thai. I know sometimes the menu reads FAT thai, but really you should pronounce it phut thai or pad thai.
Catching Elephant is a theme by Andy Taylor
04-05-2012 Cha-Da Thai Restaurant (West Covina)
Anyhow, Yesterday I was on a mission. I’ve been to this place on 501 S. Glendora Ave a bunch of times. It’s normally always quiet and with fast service. From the wonton flame soup to their pad see ew, its always on point. Trust fast dependable Thai food. This place is my default for nearby Thai places.
Yesterday though, it was all about the Papaya Salad. This is the restaurant that turned me onto papaya. Out of all of the dishes, I could never get into papaya salad until I had it here.
I forgot my yellow notepad so I improvised my sending myself text messages of the comments I had. Here goes my review:
Crisp, Refreshing, Tarty lemon juice, and spicy. These are all of the ways you can describe this bold salad that engorges one’s pallet. Its served over a 10 ounce pool of lime and fish sauce. Although you can taste a subtle fish flavor over the pieces of the jumbo shrimp, it was the tarty and savory lime juice dressing that keeps me coming back. Notice how I didn’t say sour because the juice isn’t over powering, it was the right amount of tanginess.
The papaya was finely shredded and slightly limp. The papaya meat was crisp and mixed with the chopped peanuts, my mouth was full of cruch and crisp; the perfect consistency that I’ll never get bored of. Served with 6 steamed jump shrimp, the salad was chilled. Unlike Uncle Tims, this salad was perfect. No too cold and perhaps 20 degrees below ambient temp. When it arrives to your table you can just start chowing down like no one else’s business. It’ll be the perfect appetizer that’ll clean your pallet with its lime juice of any yucky flavors one may have from coffee or anything.
But if your alone like me, you could order it as a main dish. I thought I might of get tired of the same tarty flavor over and over, but this wasn’t the case. The flavor has a delayed kick of spicy and after examining the dish, I notice a bunch of chili pods everywhere. I love spicy food and I had to actually take breaks to let my mouth cool. But fortunately, the lime juice has a cooling neutralizing effect to bring your mouth back to normal. It’s this sorta ying n’ yang balance that keeps the dish exciting. Also worth noting that papaya meat is substantive almost like tofu. So by eating this salad as a main dish, you won’t be hungry an hour later.
I really want to give this salad a 5/5 but I’ll hold off until I try a restaurant that’s famous for their Papaya salad. God I love recon work. I just hope I don’t suck when I try my first attempt at it.
