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Community Corner

Little Thai Kitchen, Big Bold Flavors

There's more than Pad Thai to this downtown eatery. A lot more.

Last October, I wrote about Little Thai Kitchen as part of a take-out piece comparing Pad Thai offerings around town. LTK's Pad Thai and friendly service won, hands down. I vowed then to return to experience more of the menu, and I'm glad I did.

Little Thai Kitchen is located at the busy intersection of West Avenue and Post Road, overlooking the Darien Metro-North Station. If eating in, the spot makes for fabulous people watching, but if picking up, it can be challenging to park during rush hour and train stops.

The long, narrow space is defined by a center counter and seating tucked away to the left. A few steps up, there's a dining room with wood floors, bamboo-styled green chairs, and a floor-to-ceiling window from which to watch the outside world. While perusing the menu, I noticed a constant stream of folks popping in for their take-out orders.

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I ordered a Singha Beer from Thailand—a light, crisp ale that works wonderfully with the spice and boldness of Asian foods. First to arrive was the Tod Mun, fish cakes served with cucumber salad, crushed peanuts, and a sweet chili dipping sauce. The cakes are flat pancake-like discs that combines white fish and eggs with red curry, lime leaf, fish sauce, and other tangy flavors; the texture is not unlike that of an overcooked omelet. They were tasty, fun, and great to nibble on with the cold Singha.

Pork Dumplings can be ordered pan fried or steamed. I always choose the pan fried method as I enjoy a firmer bite to the outer rice paper. The pork filling is meaty and dense, while the outer wrapper is thin and light. Hints of ginger, coriander, and basil combine well with the saltiness of soy based dipping sauce, which is really not needed as the dumplings are slightly sauced already.

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The waitress recommended another appetizer ($2.95-$8.95) of Lime Chili Shrimp when she heard that I preferred spicy dishes. She was right on. Six large shrimp are batter fried and dressed with a bold combination of lime, onions and green chilies. They are served atop a mound of crisp, quickly sautéed strips of sweet red peppers and onions. It's a meal in itself, but there's still more to come.

I sat and waited with anticipation, taste buds fully excited. The menu does a nice job with listing ingredients and even provides recipes for the various curries (red, green, yellow, massaman, and more). Prominent spices include garlic, galangal, lemongrass, coriander, peppercorns, cumin, cinnamon, clove, chillies, and ginger. Owner Shiva Natajaran is also known for his Indian restaurants—including Chola in Greenwich and Bombay in Westport—and restaurants throughout New York.

Beef, chicken, duck, seafood, and noodle and rice dishes (lunch $7.95-$9.50, dinner $10.95-$20.95) are a fun journey through the spice route. "Curry" dishes are many and varied, and are used as a flavor enhancing ingredient to the tomato, coconut, and broth based sauces.

Pad Beef Basil, tagged as "spicy," is a stir-fry of tender sliced flank steak, peppers, onions and chili paste. The brown sauce is earthy and the large mushrooms add to the intensity of the dish. I'd guess there's close to ½ pound of meat in the dish, in keeping with LTK's large portions. White rice soaks up all the tasty goodness.

Another recommendation was the Thai Mango Chicken. A large bowl is  filled to the brim with a pale orange sauce created by sweet coconut milk and red curry. Slices of white meat chicken swim around in the sauce with mango, onions, and peppers. It's a sublime dish that handles sweet and savory nicely.

A surprise dish for me was the Pla Rad Prik, a dish of fried cod fish in a spicy curry sauce. Three nice pieces of cod are lightly batter coated, flash-fried, and ladled with a curry sauce, peppers, onions, and basil leaves. The fish is juicy and the coating marries well with the sauce.

Drunken Noodles, one of several noodle dishes, share the stage with fried rice variations that all seem a notch or two above traditional Chinese fried rice. I look forward to trying the Pineapple Fried Rice with onions, carrots, eggs, and cashew nuts.

Curry, noodle and rice dishes come with a choice of beef, chicken, shrimp, or tofu. I choose to have my drunken noodles with beef. Wide, flat rice noodles are tossed in Ga Prow sauce with bell peppers, onions, and fresh basil leaves. 

I started to really dig the rice noodles and rice wrappers. They have a chewer bite to them, yet they seem lighter than egg noodles. Lots of great flavor and texture contrast make this dish stand out.

A large bag of leftovers was placed in my table. "Some dessert?" she asked. Fried ice cream, fried honey bananas with vanilla ice cream, and pumpkin custard sound good, but, I just can't. So much good food, so little room left.

I was happy to discover that the friendly service and fine food I reported from the previous article wasn't just a fluke.

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