Thai take-out is a banquet

Sharing dishes from Siam Garden is a treat of different tastes.

By WILMA NORTON, Times Staff Writer

© St. Petersburg Times, published August 3, 2000

A friend was coming for dinner, the person who first took me to Siam Garden, so it seemed an appropriate dinner choice. I didn't have a menu and probably could have winged it over the phone. But the service is so fast that it hardly seems worth it to make the call ahead of time.

I placed my order and barely had time to flip through the sports section of the newspaper before the food appeared, stacked in a cardboard box and ready for my table.

At home, we spread everything out and shared, treating the appetizer and all the entrees like a buffet.

My 7-year-old couldn't get enough of the tom ka gai soup ($2.25), chicken, mushrooms, lemongrass and Thai ginger in a coconut milk broth. After she finished the entire bowl -- allowing me just one taste -- she said, "I wish it was full again so I could eat it again."

I had ordered pad Thai ($8.50) with her in mind, thinking she would like the peanut-buttery sauce. That ended up being the dish we put into the refrigerator virtually untouched. It had too many bean sprouts for her and didn't have as much peanut taste as I like. It did have several large shrimp.

I ate the noodles for dinner a couple of nights later.

My daughter preferred as her entree the nam sod salad ($5.25), which covers shredded lettuce with ground pork, peanuts, carrot slivers, lemon grass, green onions and a fish-sauce dressing. I love the contrast of the spicy meat against the cool lettuce. It can also be prepared with ground chicken.

For fun, my daughter and I each took a small taste of the edible (I hope) orchid that adorned the nam sod. It tasted like an orchid smells. A tiny nibble was enough.

My friend and I shared the chicken with cashew nuts ($7.50) and the crazy meat with shrimp ($8.50) and still had enough left for lunch and then a late-night snack.

The chicken dish, which I had ordered medium, was loaded with green and red pepper slices and cashews in a chili sauce. It also is available with pork or beef. For a dollar more, it can be made with shrimp or squid.

The crazy meat contained chunks of pineapple, lots of bamboo shoots, green and red peppers, plump shrimp, snow peas and basil leaves in a creamy coconut milk and red curry sauce. I had also ordered it medium spicy. It left that slight burn in the back of my throat, but the heat didn't overpower the other tastes.

Siam Garden has a long menu with more than 60 items. Many of the entrees are available with chicken, beef, pork, shrimp or squid and are $7.50 or $8.50. There is a big selection of seafood dishes, including six that use whole snapper ($15.50 to $16.50) and several dishes that have a combination of seafoods. Those range from $10.95 to $11.95.

Two Thai-style steak dinners are available for $10.95, and three duck entrees are $11.50 each.

And there are four deep-fried frog leg entrees: with garlic, with basil and chili sauce, with coconut milk sauce and in curry paste. Each is $8.95.

The lunch menu contains 25 entrees, priced $4.95 to $5.95.

Do you have a favorite takeout restaurant? If so, tell us the name, and we may feature it in Pinellas to Go. Mail your nominations to Pinellas to Go, Taste Section, St. Petersburg Times, P.O. Box 1121, St. Petersburg, FL 33731, or e-mail to floridian@sptimes.com.

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