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
Somtam D.I.Y
My very first try at a papaya salad. It’s much harder than it seams. It’s labor intensive. Anyhow, you’ll need: A green papaya, limes or lemons, salt, fish sauce, 1 tomato, 4 garlic cloves, red chilies (from my garden), peeler shredder;
First: Cut that papaya in half hamburger style, then cut each half into 4 pieces. You’ll have 8 papaya slices.
second: Start Peeling then put the juice of 4 juicy lemons in a deep bowl. Place the papaya in the juice with 1 table spoon of salt. This salt/lemon juice will get rid of all that yucky white papaya juice.
third: prep three red chilies, slice em down the middle try to leave the seed pods in. Finely mince 3 cloves of galric. Add two table spoons of salt. Throw all of this into another deep bowl. Smash it all using a wooden mallet. It will become a red paste.
fourth: Shred that papaya using a special shredder or you could shred it with a food processor of grater.
fifth: put shredded papaya in container with the red chili paste, Smash it all together with a mallet.
sixth: add juice of a big lemon and three table spoon of fish sauce.
seventh: Add some tomato wedges. You’re set. Pretty tarty and spicy right? But good for a hot day at the pool.
Uncle Tim’s Thai House
Located on 327 N. Azusa Ave, this place is a stone’s throw away from my house and I’ve eaten my usual dishes there, you know the usual suspects that have always tasted good: Gang Muawn (Yellow Curry); Pad See Eew, Pad Thai, Pad Woon Sen, BBQ Chicken (Gai Yang), but today i had to change it up.
I was doing some reckon work on my mission to created a delicious Papaya Salad and to my surprise Uncle Tim’s doesn’t offer it. Well I though I would improvise by ordering Thin Glass Noodles Lime salad (Yum Woon Sen). I was in the mood for something light, crisp and refreshing and this noodle salad unfortunately didn’t do the trick.
The salad came out almost steaming vapor hot. Now when I eat salad I expect it to be either 1) chilled or 2) room temperature, as it should have been for this noodle salad.
I was shocked to take the first spoonful of noodles, the bite was at first moist and filled of vapors. These vapors at first masked the strong lime juice seasoning and I though the dish was bland, but wait for it, bam! Hot lime juice all over your mouth. It was an unpleasant experience because the dish lacked a uniform consistency. At first it was steamy and bland then as the temperature cooled in my mouth, that pungent lime juice kicked in ever more powerful than before. I continued to eat a 1/2 cup serving for tasting purposes (took one for the team), and I went to finish eating the latter half at room temperature.
I explained my concerned about the temperature to the waitress and she agreed that it should have been cooled to room temperature. As I suspected once the noodles cooled the lime flavor stabilized and became less offense. Attention Uncle Tim’s, run some cold water through the noodle salads. It will taste a lot better.
If you’re looking for a very tart starter dish and you love sour flavors you might like it. But to be honest this place has so many better dishes, I would save my appetite for some of their bbq plates.
1.5 stars for warm salad, 2.5 stars in colder style.
Oh my papaya salad where art thou.
