Cafe de Siam in Tampa: Papaya Salad and Family Tradition

Cafe De Siam
11242 W Hillsborough Ave, Tampa, FL
(813) 855-1108 ‎

Cafe de Siam is our family's go-to Thai place, located very close to my grandparent's home in Tampa. It's a small, family run place with a pleasingly interesting menu and a basic but comfortable dining room: I believe I have been eating there for at least 8 years, possibly longer. The owners know my grandparents and are always happy to see us - we like seeing them, too.



My grandmother and I started off with some spring rolls. These were pretty unusual, with a flour crepe-like wrapping instead of rice paper. To my surprise, the crepe treatment worked very well: the filling of egg, bean sprouts, crab, and pork was fresh and crunchy. I didn't quite grasp the squiggle of Chinese mustard down the side, but then again, I have never quite grasped the Chinese mustard concept. (It just doesn't go with stuff! What the hell do you use it on? What the hell is pink "duck sauce"? NO ONE EATS THAT IN CHINA GOD okay i'm finished)



Next move: Thai papaya salad (som tam) with shrimp and peanuts. I love green papaya salad to distraction. It's one of my favorite foods: crunchy, deliciously fresh green papaya, spicy-ass fish sauce dressing, crunchy peanuts, and shrimps, in one delightful combination. In Thailand, som tam is considered to combine the four primary tastes of Thai cuisine: sour lime, hot chili, salty fish sauce, and sweetness from sugar. I've been told you can buy this stuff on the street in Thailand and dictate how much you want of each element - wish we had that going on in the USA. Really authentic versions are made with brined crabs, small and delightfully funky - order them if you see them available, as they're rather rare in the USA. This was a particularly finely grated and delicate version, with a pleasing slow burn and a bunch of crunchy peanuts. Entirely successful.



A dish of seafood in spicy garlic sauce proved to be another success - the fresh, high quality seafood was a pleasant departure from the usual soggy out-of-the-bag seafood combos most Thai places serve up. The sauce had a pleasantly powerful preserved garlic flavor, and I especially liked the chunky snow crab legs, as most places use fake krab and call it a day with this dish.



Red vegetable curry with coconut milk wasn't as much to my taste - the vegetables were a little overcooked, and the sheer richness of the dish ain't really my deal. I'm much more interested in the snappy, fresh, explosion of fresh style Thai cooking, although light-handed coconut milk preparations do have their place.

No dessert for us, although my cousin's swear up and down by their sticky black rice dish. We took back a whole bunch of leftovers. I'm always glad to see this place when I come into Tampa.

Good Asian food acts as my anchor point, the proof positive I need that I can like and thrive in a place, without it I'm adrift and confused - I must have readily available papaya salad or the world goes pear shaped, I'm lost. I am going to have to settle in California or actually finally in Asia, but this is a price I am prepared to pay up.

Thai Hot and Sour Shrimp Soup: Oh Goodness Gracious Yes

It's beginning to get hot out here in Sacramento, and there's few better meals for dry n' scorching weather then fresh Thai soup. The rendition offered in the Cooking Club cookbook looked pretty choice to me, so I picked up some nice looking tiger shrimp and some slightly more esoteric ingredients and gave it a shot.

You will need (for 4 servings):

6 oz dried rice noodles
2 stalks fresh lemongrass
Vegetable oil
4 cloves garlic, sliced
2 shallots, sliced
An inch of ginger or galangal, sliced
4 kaffir lime leaves if you can find em', 4 tsp lime zest if you can't
1-3 Thai red chilis, depending on your preference
Salt (no duh)
1 to 1 and a half lbs shrimp, shells on
1 quart chicken stock
Button mushrooms (1 cup)
1 cup baby bok choy
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/4 cup tamarind paste/concentrate
Juice of one lime
2 tsp sugar
1/2 cup cilantro (if you like it)
1/2 cup fresh Thai basil (necessity)




You'll need to acquire some Thai ingredients for the broth. Collect your shallots, ginger, kaffir lime, and lemon-grass. Bruise the cut lemongrass first.



You'll want to get yourself some shrimp - I used about a pound for two people and had plenty left over. Remember to get shell on shrimps.



Here's the important part: keep the shells when you peel the shrimp. You're going to use the shells to make the shrimp stock which, when cooked for a while, will infuse the broth with an addictive and tangy flavor. I am rather mortified that I did not realize the delicious utility of the humble shrimp shell sooner.



Heat some oil (I used olive, I don't think that ends the universe or anything) and toss in your magical shrimp shells, your garlic, shallot, lemongrass, galangal or ginger, kaffir lime, chili peppers, and salt. Saute for four minutes and stir frequently because burned shrimp shells are a tragedy against mankind and also sorta icky.



Toss in your chicken broth, turn the heat to high, and bring to a boil. Lower the heat and simmer this beeyotch for 20 minutes, skimming off the foam on occasion. While you're at, boil your rice noodles in a separate pot.



Once 20 minutes are up and the broth is attaining some margin of deliciousness, you'll need to strain it, unless you find consuming shrimp shells delicious and stimulating - we won't judge you. Strain the broth and return it to the pot. Now, add the mushrooms and the bok choy (and whatever other veggies you may be using) and cook for two minutes.

Next, add the tamarind, fish sauce, lime juice, sugar, and shrimp. Stir well and cook for two more minutes, or until the shrimp are pink and delectable. Turn the heat off, dole out rice noodles for each bowl, and pour the soup over them.



Serve the soup with fresh basil and mint, to be ripped up and dumped into the broth as suits personal taste. Fresh bean sprouts are another crunchy and refreshing touch. I like to add hoisin sauce and additional fish sauce to my soup, as well as some hot sauce: put out some condiments and let the people decide for themselves, you patriot, you.

Chada Thai: Yet More Tasty Thai Food on Broadway

Chada Thai Cuisine
1624 Broadway
Sacramento, CA 95818
(916) 444-8909


Chada Thai is located on Broadway here in Sacramento, a productive enclave of cheap ethnic restaurants. There are so many, in fact, that Chada Thai is right next door to another Thai place, which gave me a spot of cognitive dissonance. Are we seeing the California variant on Starbucks assimilation? Will pad thai be the new double-soy-low-fat-mochalatte?

But let us focus on Chada Thai. The restaurant is nice and open with spiffy mirrored walls, although the tiled floor made the interior a bit chilly. Your usual assortment of fake plants and such fills the room. You know that of which I speak if you ever eat Thai food.

The mid-sized but interesting menu contains all the usual Thai favorites, along with a good assortment of yummy Thai salads and quite a few daily specials. I went with the mango shrimp salad, and my friend selected the green curry and a Thai iced tea, which she proclaimed to be tasty (and nice and big as well.)



Before our meal, we were served some okay coconut milk soup. It had a bit of spice to it, but the actual broth was a bit too watery for me, although I enjoyed the tofu bits and bamboo shoots that accompanied it.



My mango shrimp salad was incredibly spicy, just like I'd ordered it, and I was very happy with it. The finely shredded papaya was nice and fresh and the char-grilled shrimp were plump and had a good smoky flavor - unlike the sometimes watery shrimp that often accompany Thai salads. (Also note the pretty bowl. Okay, so I notice junk like that.) My friend also liked her yellow curry with chicken, which was rich with coconut milk and tender chicken meat - and came with a healthy portion of rice.

I'd like to return to Chada Thai soon and try that apparantly famous pumpkin curry - I love pumpkin. Beware of parking, however. Broadway is not exactly an easy place to find a decent and non-flagrantly illegal parking spot.

Thai-Lao Restaurant

Thai-Lao Restaurant
1120 Fulton Ave
Sacramento, CA 95835
(916) 485-8424

I've never had Laotian food before, so when I saw a intriguing new crop of Lao restaurants appear on Fulton Avenue, I had a new Dining Objective, which is one of those lame excuses I make for eating out. Thus, we stopped into this unassuming strip mall restaurant one rainy night in an effort to try something new. Decorated with a vague Tiki-bar theme, it was nearly empty on our visit, other then one other family that appeared to be banqueting. This was not nearly as creepy as I had anticipated. The place, however, was very cold, although admittedly I am a sissy whiny bitch in that regard.

Surprise: Laotian food is a lot like Thai food. The long menu featured a variety of the usual Thai standbys, along with a few more interesting dishes, mostly involving variants on seafood (yum.) There's a wide variety of noodle dishes and some interesting looking curries as well. Since this was a new restaurant to us, we opted to order all the dishes at a medium spiciness level, since in our experience, Thai restaurants will on occasion decide that ordering food "spicy" means "I want you to kill me." In this circumstance, this proved to be a bit of a mistake, since I for one could have stood for them wounding me a little more.



We began with my perennial favorite, the papaya salad. This was a good enough version, although I remembered the Lao variant I'd had at the State Fair as involving more fish sauce. It was certainly spicy, although the papaya wasn't quite as crunchy as I like it. (Or maybe that's because they used more tomato then usual.)



Our other three dishes arrived quickly, which was good, since I was so hungry I was beginning to hallucinate. My favorite was the seafood hot plate, which featured a considerable variety of innocent sea creatures doused in red curry sauce and served with vegetables. It was a beautiful dish, and I enjoyed picking out the tasty bits of crab, mussels, and shrimp from the pungent sauce. Next time I'll order it extra spicy so I can salivate and suffer like a happy, happy fool.



The pad prik king with chicken was also delicious, with a soulful, spicy flavor. The crunchy green beans juxtaposed with the tender and spicy ground chicken made for a wonderful combination, and I appreciated the fresh, intense flavor of all the ingredients. The fried basil garnish really made it - I love that flavor.



I'm not exactly a carbohydrate addict, but the basil fried rice was quite good, with a nice texture and a subtle but present basil flavor. There were ample veggies interspersed with the rice as well, though I could have gone for a little bit more of that rich, carmelized flavor I associate with truly killer fried rice. I'll try their seafood version next time.

Thai-Lao restaurant is a nice (and economical!) choice for tasty and fresh food if you're in the area. Although I couldn't detect much about it that was truly different from a purely Thai place, the menus variety and the pleasant, fresh taste of the food will definitely see a return visit from me. Just ask them to step on the heat a little bit if you're a spicy-food masochist like myself, and you should be in food-heaven.

Siam Square: Solid Thai Food, Awesome Menu Titles, What's Not To Like?

Siam Square: Solid Thai Food, Awesome Menu Titles, What's Not To Like?
290 Main St
Great Barrington, MA 01230
(413) 644-9119



Siam Square is a solid "neighborhood Thai" restaurant - the sort of joint where the music is soft jazz, the decor is gaudy, and the food is homestyle and dependable. It's not going to rock the Asian culinary world, but it's a great choice if you want something a little more flavorful then most of the other American/continental joints operating in Great Barrington. (And one operating more in accordance with the health code.)

The food is dependable, if a bit under-spiced for my taste. Prices for dinner are over-inflated, although this IS the Berkshires, but lunch won't break the bank with most entrees under 10 bucks.



I was pleased to find out that they do have a Papaya Salad on the specials menu, which is absolutely huge and not a bad variant on the theme, although I don't think it'd kill them to give you more then two soggy shrimp - and to make it spicier.

Avoid the fried Siam Rolls ($5.95) - they're your standard grease trap appeal at the New England palate. The Thai soups (several varieties offered) are generally pretty good and definitely tangy - a nice way to stave off any lingering influence from a stuffy nose. I also adore the menu item titles here. There's a soup called the SEAFOOD VOLCANO. That is awesome. (It tastes pretty good as well.)

The Pad Thai($11.95) is a very large and very filling - although you do only get two shrimp with your order. (Shellfish withholders!) The veggie pad thai ($11.95) isn't half bad either, adding broccoli and fried tofu to the mix, if you have some sort of perverse objection to chicken and shrimp.



I've also enjoyed the black peppery Drunken Noodles ($10.95) which comes with finely minced chicken, flat rice noodles, carrots, and lots and lots of bell pepper. The Rama Noodles ($14.95) are best described as a Thai riff on seafood fettucine, featuring a variety of seafood mixed in rice noodles with vegetables and a creamy red curry sauce. It's definitely decadant, but worth a try if you're interested in something new, or at least something that will ensure future and tasty heart failure.

The curries are decent but have too much coconut milk for my taste - they are very, very rich. Shrimp red curry($14.95) came with a decent quantity of shrimp with the usual bamboo shoots, eggplant, and red and green peppers. With a side of rice, it's definitely a filling meal. The restaurant also features green curry, yellow curry, and Massaman, all for the same prices. Prices vary based on the meat you pick: chicken $11.95, beef $11.95, pork $11.95, shrimp $14.95, duck $15.95 and tofu $10.95. (There, now you won't have to look at the menu.)

Stir-fries here can also be tasty (and they might even spice them for you on a good day!). I had the awesomely titled FISHERMAN MADNESS for lunch today ($19.95 dinner, $8.95 lunch) and it was actually really spicy - I think they're finally beginning to recognize me. It featured squid, fake crab, scallops, shrimp and fish in a spicy pepper and garlic sauce, stir-fried with sauteed onions and red and green peppers. Yummy.



Decor is comfortable but not fancy, with the standard embroidered pictures of elephants and maybe-authentic Thai tapesteries adorning the walls (and the requisite photos of Thai royalty, of course.) Service is generally quite quick, with an impressively short turn around time from ordering to actually recieving your food, as you hear the wok sizzling ferociously away in the kitchen from your comfy chair. They're equally speedy if you're ordering take out, and put your food in cute little foil take out containers.

And I want to give extra props to my server this afternoon - after I ordered my stir fry very spicy, she brought me out some sambaal and an AWESOME dry Thai spice mixture that the restaurant apparantly makes itself. If you're really into spice, ask the server to bring this stuff out - it's impeccable sprinkled on just about anything. I'm trying to convince them to sell me some so I can carry it around and look sketchy.

Osha Thai Noodle Cafe: Salty Crabs!

Osha Thai Noodle Cafe
696 Geary Street
(between Jones St & Leavenworth St)
San Francisco, CA 94102
(415) 673-2368




Osha Thai Noodle Cafe is a pretty good place for a snappy Thai lunch, although the state of the dining room doesn't betray its good reputation. Apparently the hip and trendy people of the area are rather sweet on it, according to the magical oracle that is Yelp.com. I thought it looked like your standard decrepit Asian joint that somehow manages to turn out awesome food. Could we both be right?!?

Prices are quite low, and I was happy to see a papaya salad with salty crab on the menu for 6.95, which is one of my favorite foods in the whole entire universe. The food came out extremely quickly, and I was suprised to find that when they said the papaya salad was spicy, they actually meant it - most places kinda nod and roll their eyes and bring out the mild dish anyway. This, on the other hand, had my eyes running with tears of painful joy, which sort of sucked since I'd only ordered water to curb that sweet sweet pain. The crab portion seemed to be an entire small crab (these suckers aren't big) and I had a fun interactive moment sucking, biting, and ripping out every single part of seafood flavored protein from its tiny body. I apologize to everyone else in the dining room. My only complaint: the portion size was pretty small, though I suspect this was meant to be an appetizer instead of a main dish.

The day I went there, the place contained an alternating crowd of Thai diners and vaguely out of place cops, all ordering noodles, mowing through them at disarming rates, and talking loudly. The wall are mirrored, which is somewhat awkward for me - how repulsive is it to watch yourself feed like some sort of giant carnivore anyway? The place is decently designed but it seems like little care is being taken to maintaining it. I was really suprised to find on Yelp that Osha has some sort of "hip" reputation, because that sure as hell wasn't my first reaction. I thought, "Oh, look, a cheap dive with dodgy hygiene!" (My standards for ambience are very low.)

Oh, and do visit the bathroom here: it's dirty and under-maintained but has a truly exciting degree of graffiti. I was under the impression I had mistakenly stepped into the cement bathroom of a squatters warehouse and spent more time then I really needed to reading the walls. People looked at me funny when I finally stepped out. Well, eh, reading material is what it is.