No-frills Bahn Thai comes up trumps

Press, 16 December 1988, Page 27

No-frills Bahn Thai comes up trumps

BAHN THAI RESTAURANT 3198 Stanmore Road Phone 811-611

By

LES BLOXHAM

Before ordering a meal in an Asian restuarant I tend to jot down the numbers of the desired dishes because that seems to be the safest way of avoiding confusion. Last Friday I followed this usual procedure at the Bahn Thai restaurant and ended up with a series of Lotto-like

numbers — 25, 4, 28, 6, 10, 26. These magic numbers proved such winners in the quality of the food they ultimately produced that I felt compelled to copy them on to a Lotto card the following day. Alas, I am still not a millionaire; only the Bahn Thai came up trumps.

This unpretentious little restaurant at the north end of Stanmore Road has been open for barely a couple of months. It has a simple, but comfortably

furnished dining area adjacent to a take-away counter. While Stanmore Road (or any street in Christchurch, for that matter) does little to match Bangkok’s congested and noisy streets, the proprietors have done their best to add a touch of the Orient by way oi taped Thai classics and charming waitresses.

However, the real prool of the authenticity of this place was in the flavour and quality of the dishes. Our meal really was quite superb. Eyeing the children, the waitress knew immediately that an early offering would be needed to keep them quiet and satisfied while the main courses were being prepared. Within minutes there was a plate of succulent grilled chicken pieces, marinated and coated with sesame seed, on the table. We were away to a good start for $7.50. The traditional steamboat, always a source of entertainment for the youngsters, followed. Four soups were offered. We settled for Tom Yaam Gai — bubbling . with juicy chunks of tender chicken and a mix of mushroom, tomato, lemon grass, coriander and other spices. This proved good value for $l5 and was almost a meal in itself. Barbecued fish with whisky sauce seems an unlikely label for a Thai dish, but this one gained its flavour not so much from the influence of the rye, as from the traditional spices that gingered up the rich sauce that had been ladled over the orange roughy. This pro-

vided good picking for $l2, and even seagulls could not have done a cleaner job of the skelton.

Grilled king prawns, in fact, turned out to be steamed little princely prawns. They were about the average size available in New Zealand — perhaps I have been spoiled by the plate-straddling creatures served by Thailand’s coastal seafood vendors. While our $l5 dish gave us eight prawns that were tender and juicy, we were left with an unanimous hankering for more. Even the baby wanted to eat the shell.

Sweet and sour pork prepared in the traditional Thai way — sliced and stir-fried, rather than in the Chinese style of

lightly battered, deepfried chunks — was served simultaneously with the prawns. Thais tend to treat this dish with a more subtle hand than the Chinese, and I have always found it to be one of the milder Thai offerings. Chicken fried rice was also on our table by that stage, but as I have never been a great fan for this staple Asian dish, I have to rely on my family’s judgment — most acceptable, if the empty plate was anything to go by.

We would have liked a dessert to top off this excellent meal, but were told that such sweet offerings would not be available until the New Year. We settled on another

round of soft drinks — the restaurant is seeking a 8.Y.0. licence — and left for home most satisfied. The cost of our meal for three adults and three children under seven was $B9. The service was friendly and efficient. I liked the way we were advised that we might have over-ordered, and the options we were given in selecting our own thermometer settings for the chillis and Thai spices. Although the Bahn Thai does not have the luxurious ambience and range of dishes offered by much larger and more expensive Asian restaurants, it certainly can provide fine food in modest surroundings at a reasonable cost.