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Appetizers star in tasty Thai takeoutBy WILMA NORTON © St. Petersburg Times, published May 2, 2001 We have always referred to Thai Wok as the place that gets it hot enough. My husband seldom finds a restaurant that can get the food to the high spiciness he loves. Maybe restaurants are worried about sending people to the emergency room with a burned tongue, but even when he insists that he wants food as spicy as possible, it seldom comes out to his satisfaction. But Thai Wok has, on several occasions when we have dined in, produced food so spicy his forehead sweats. (Don't ask me why this is a good thing, but he swears it is.) He didn't have as much luck with the heat index with Thai Wok takeout. The beef with basil ($7.75), which I ordered "as hot as you can make it," really was more what I would describe as medium. That aside, it was a nice dish, packed with onions, green and red peppers, mushrooms, scallions and fresh basil. I ordered the ginger chicken ($7.75) mild for the girls, though they seem to be developing palates that prefer spice as well. They liked the chicken and the light ginger sauce but picked around the plentiful and crisp peppers, onions and celery. My sweet panang curry ($8.75) was filled with plump shrimp and made to medium spiciness. My vegetables, however, were a tad soggy, cooked past slightly crisp to limp. One important kudos: We got enough jasmine rice for our dinners, plus the leftovers. Too often, we find Thai or Chinese restaurants skimping on the white rice. Thai Wok did not. Our biggest raves for the food went to the appetizers. Namsod ($6.95) is always a favorite of ours. We like it best when the spicy ground pork, cooked with scallions, peanuts, lime juice and ginger, is served with a wedge of fresh cabbage. Some restaurants put the namsod mixture over shredded cabbage, but we like to roll the tangy mixture into the crisp, cool leaves. We got our cabbage wedge here. The spring rolls ($2.25 for 2) were fried light and crisp. The highlight, though, was the tod mun kai, something we had never tried in years of Thai dining. It was a fried patty of ground chicken, seasoned with scallions. The dipping sauce was similar to a Thai cucumber salad, with sliced cucumbers, ground peanuts and fish sauce. The staff at Thai Wok was pleasant, as always, and our food was packed in a large box, much easier to carry home than several plastic bags. Thai Wok has a 20-item lunch menu, which includes a few dishes, such as lemongrass chicken, that aren't on the dinner menu. All the lunch items are $5.50 with chicken, pork or beef and $6.25 with shrimp or squid. The extensive dinner menu ranges from salads and vegetarian dishes for $7.50 up to the whole fresh snapper with a choice of sauces for $18.50. Most are $7.75 or $8.75. Thai Wok11270 Fourth St. N St. Petersburg Phone: (727) 577-8121 Hours: 11 a.m.-2:30 p.m. and 5-9:30 p.m. Mon.-Fri.; 5-9:30 p.m. Sat. Closed Sun. Consumers: Two adults and two children What we got: Spring rolls, tod mun kai (ground chicken patty) appetizer, namsod appetizer, beef with basil, ginger chicken, panang curry with shrimp. What it cost: $41.10 Time it took: 15 minutes Pay with: Cash, major credit cards
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From the Times Taste section From the features wire |
