Lunch at SriPraPhai

Even though we used to live in Queens 6 years ago, we have never been to this restaurant. Finally yesterday we decided to try it out and we were glad that we did. When we arrived they were just opened, however there were a lot of people already, it was lunch time.

We were asked if we wanted to sit outside in the garden, it was nice but we preferred to sit inside. Then came our waiter who brought us the menu, he was very nice and friendly. We told him that this was our first time here so we asked for his recommendation. He mentioned some of the food that was popular and good there. He took our drink order and then let us look at the menu.

I remembered reading of what should be ordered from here, so I tried to find the picture of it. There was an album filled with pictures of most of the dishes, it was a good idea. After browsing that album, we finally decided what we wanted to try and told our waiter when he came back with our drinks, the Thai iced tea.

Thai iced tea

For appetizer we ordered fried vegetable (chive) dumpling that was recommended by our waiter. It was crunchy and filled with lots of chives, a little bit too bland when I didn't dip it in the sauce that came with it. It was okay, not our favorite.
The next dish was crispy thai catfish meat salad, it was amazing. The crispiness of the fried shredded catfish combined with the spiciness, sweetness and sourness of the salad was perfect, so yummy! We would come back again if only for this dish, highly recommended.

Fried vegetable (chive) dumpling and Crispy thai catfish meat salad

For the entree we ordered soy sauce noodles with beef and broccoli, it was good. The beef was tender but the overall taste was not that flavorful. The one from Thai Kitchen in New Jersey was still better. The saute fried soft shell crab with chili, garlic and basil leaves was delicious, it was special of the day. The crab was well covered with the sauce that was spicy and tasty.

Soy sauce noodles with beef & broccoli and Saute fried soft shell crab with chili, garlic & basil leaves

The masaman curry with chicken, onion and potatoes was wonderful. The chicken was tender, the sauce was rich and not too spicy. Then came the shrimp paste fried rice with chicken and dry shrimp, it was fantastic. The tender chicken and the crunchy dried shrimp were very tasty, mixed with the cucumber, red onion and egg as well as the shrimp paste fried rice itself was incredible, definitely our favorite here. When we ordered this, our waiter made sure that we knew what this was. He warned us that it didn't smell good but the taste was good. We told him that we are familiar with the shrimp paste and love it, even though it does smell awful :-)

Masaman curry with chicken, onion & potatoes and Shrimp paste fried rice with chicken & dry shrimp

As usual we ordered too much, we couldn't finish them since we wanted to save room for dessert. We chose sticky rice & ripe mango, as well as steamed sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves with banana filling, they both were excellent.

Sticky rice & ripe mango and Steamed sticky rice wrapped in banana leaves with banana filling

Before we left I told my husband that I wanted to check out their display that we passed by on the way to our table. I was so happy to see boxes of fried chicken skin and decided to get one box. It was so crispy, a little bit too salty though, but overall was still very good, I love it. It's been a long time since I had this since I couldn't find it until yesterday. I didn't want to make it myself even though I had a deep fryer at home, I just didn't want to get hurt from the possibility of hot oil splash. The fried banana was disappointing, the banana was still not ripe yet.

Fried chicken skin and Fried banana

I also got a couple desserts to take home: sweet rice, coconut milk, longan & sugar and tapioca, coconut milk, corn & sugar. Both of them was very good, creamy and not too sweet.

Sweet rice, coconut milk, longan & sugar and Tapioca, coconut milk, corn & sugar

From here we went to Mitsuwa Marketplace to check out their Matcha confectionary fair that they had this weekend.

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SriPraPhai
6413 39th Ave
Woodside, NY 11377
(718) 899-9599

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Lunch at Highline

Yesterday my husband and I took several of our good friends (E, Y, R, B, W) for lunch in Manhattan to celebrate my birthday. It is customary in my country for the birthday person to treat his or her families and friends. Since we all love Thai food, we decided to try out Highline after hearing positive reviews about them. I also planned to take them to one of my favorite dessert places (Bouchon Bakery) right after lunch.

We didn't go to the meatpacking district often, if I remember correctly this was the second time we were there. The first time was when we went to Del Posto last year (sorry I didn't write a post about them since I haven't started blogging yet, but here are the photos if you want to see).

We left home around 10:30 am to pick up E and Y before going straight to Manhattan. We were going to meet R, B and W at the restaurant, our reservation was at noon. By the way, we were lucky that we planned for lunch instead of dinner since there was thunderstorm later that day.

As soon as we arrived in Manhattan, we found a parking spot right away, on the same block as the restaurant. When we first saw the spot we thought we couldn't park there since there were orange cones, but soon came a man who moved the cones for us and then stood nearby. We understood right away what he wanted, so E got out of the car and gave him some money since we didn't want to have any problem.

The restaurant was empty, I guessed it might be because they just opened but proven to be wrong when there were only 2 other guests that came throughout our 2 hour lunch. We were quite surprised since from what we've read this place was usually crowded on the weekends, maybe at nights? The interior was modern decorated in white color, bright and very clean, the server was quite friendly.

While waiting for W who arrived 15 minutes later, we ordered our drinks. I knew that I wanted Thai iced tea, while my husband who usually like regular tea, that day wanted to try lychee cha dum thai which is an infused Thai black tea with re-hydrated milk and lychee fruit. R and B also ordered the Thai iced tea, while E ordered chrysanthemum tea and guava tea for Y. All the teas were very good, definitely a good start.

Thai iced tea and Lychee cha dum thai


Chrysanthemum and Guava & lemon peel cha dum thai

When everyone had arrived and got a chance to peruse the menu, we were ready to order. Since this was lunch, we were given a complimentary appetizer for each of the entree. Wow, it was a very good deal!

We decided to share everything so that we could taste them all. Here were what we ordered for appetizer:
- 2 orders of chicken lettuce wrap with 10 spices vinaigrette, it was amazing -- very tasty
- 2 orders of shrimp and chicken fritters served with mint and tomato sauce, it was moist and a little bland
- 2 orders of pad thai spring rolls served with tamarind dipping sauce, it was fantastic -- crunchy and flavorful
- 2 orders of caramelized shrimp with dried mushrooms, it was very good

Chicken lettuce wraps and Shrimp & chicken fritters


Pad thai spring rolls and Caramelized shrimp

As for entrees, here they were:
- 2 orders of black rice towel with beef flank and reduced soy (basically pad see ew), it was wonderful, the noodles were soft and the meat was tender
- 2 orders of black and white salmon, it was disappointing -- tasteless
- 1 order of massaman curry with organic chicken breast, peanut and potato, it was delicious, rich and very tasty -- we should have ordered 2 of this dish rather than the salmon
- 1 order of pad garlic with bokchoy and tofu, it was okay, nothing special
- 1 order of roasted duck with pineapple curry and fresh bamboo, it was fantastic, the meat was tender and the sauce was flavorful
- 1 order of green curry with tofu, eggplant and basil, it was pretty good

Black rice towel with beef flank and Black and white salmon


Massaman curry with organic chicken breast and Pad garlic


Roasted duck and Green curry with tofu

Since we planned to go to Bouchon Bakery after this, we didn't order any dessert from here. However when the waiter came bringing the check, he brought cheesecake for each of us, how nice! The cheesecake was creamy and rich, so yummy!

Cheesecake

After paying, we were off to the Time Warner Center for my "main entree" and more chit-chatting :-) Overall we were satisfied with both the food and service. This was a good and inexpensive place (especially lunch) to celebrate a birthday with some good friends.

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Highline
835 Washington St
New York, NY 10014
(212) 243-3339
http://www.nychighline.com

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Lunch at Singapore

Last Sunday we had lunch with R and B at Singapore after spending several hours at their house for some embroidery work. I asked B to help me embroider my new chef jackets that I just bought for the Pierre Hermé class. When we arrived there, the restaurant was quite empty, only 2 other tables were occupied. We were a little bit in a hurry since my husband had a conference call later that day, so we were glad that they were not busy.

After looking at the menu we decided to order shrimp and crabmeat spring rolls, crispy duck salad, Malaysian hot and spicy shrimp, spinach with shitake and garlic, fresh mango with chicken, mee goreng, banana leaf grilled fish. Wow, that's a lot of food! I knew even before the food arrived that we would take some home for our lunch tomorrow. Actually we were thinking to have Singapore chili dungeness crab too, fortunately they didn't have it on that day, phew, one less entree to take home :-)

The shrimp and crabmeat spring rolls was very good, crunchy and lots of filling, highly recommended. However the crispy duck salad was not as good as we hoped for, the duck was not crispy at all. For an awesome crispy duck salad that has never failed as of today, we have to go to Thai Kitchen in Bridgewater, they call it house special duck though, so yummy! Thai Kitchen have 3 locations but we usually go to the one in Bridgewater, so we don't know how the taste at the other locations.

Shrimp & crabmeat spring rolls and Crispy duck salad

Back to our today's lunch, the Malaysian hot and spicy shrimp was good, it tasted literally as name says. Spinach with shitake and garlic was okay, not my favorite since I don't really like any vegetables. The fresh mango with chicken was too sweet for me since I was hoping to taste a little bit of sourness in it, the mango slices added some crunch to it.

Malaysian hot & spicy shrimp and Spinach with shitake & garlic


Fresh mango with chicken

The last two entrees were delicious, I liked the mee goreng a lot. The noodle has some bite to it, the dried squid sauce was so tasty and not overpowering. The banana leaf grilled fish was so tender, the sambal was spicy and complimented the fish well.

Mee goreng and Banana leaf grilled fish (red snapper)

As predicted, both R and B and us took home the leftover entrees which was still a lot, we only managed to finish the appetizer/salad since we already had our eyes on the desserts which were fried banana and peanut pancake. Fried banana was good, crunchy and I could taste the sweetness of the banana, but I didn't like the syrup on the bottom, I prefer they had used honey instead. The peanut pancake was pretty good, crispy but the filling was not sweet enough, I still like the one from Penang more.

Fried banana and Peanut pancake

Overall the food was good, unfortunately the service was only okay, we had to wait for about 30 minutes before the first food came out. They were not busy, but I suspect they only had a few staff to run the kitchen since it was a family business -- and we ordered a lot.

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Singapore
182 Orlando Drive
Raritan, NJ 08869
(908) 685-3088
http://singaporenj.com/

Thai Kitchen
1351 Prince Rodger Ave
Bridgewater, NJ 08807
(908) 231-8822
http://www.thaikitchennj.com/

Penang Malaysian Cuisine
505 Old Post Road
Edison, NJ 08817
(732) 287-3038
http://www.penangcuisine.com/

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