Daily Journal, Thursday, November 13, 2008
Vibrant colors greet visitors at Siam Square
Thai restaurant's variety of fare worth your time
Siam Square is a production of Ed and Sasathorn Rudisell, bringing the colorful and spicy cuisine of Sasathorn's native Thailand to the Fountain Square area.The restaurant opened last month in a building on Virginia Avenue that was the original home of the late, lamented, innovative Peter's Restaurant.
It therefore inherited its narrow dining room, wood floors and basement bar that offers an impressive selection of wines and beers.
The Rudisells have given the premises a more colorful flair, with the walls awash in vivid orange, red and yellow and adorned with tourist-brochure-caliber color photos of the Thai cultural experience.
Siam Square's extensive menu of well-spiced stir-fry, noodle, fried rice, curry and seafood dishes should provide a meaningful taste of Thai culture.
My wife loretta, daughter, Megan, and I launched our culinary odyssey with the Siam Roll appetizers ($6.95) and the combustible Thom Yum soup ($4.25).
The rolls are a cool blend of pork, shrimp and vegetables, wrapped in near translucent rice paper, to be dipped in a well crafted, flavorfully hot and sweet chili sauce.
The soup is a clear-brothed Thai soup, torched by the potent lemongrass herb, bringing zest to special guest ingredients of chicken, Oriental mushrooms, scallions, tomatoes and cilantro.
This soup is offered in mild, medium and hot forms, with hot usually requiring several minutes to regain composure between slurps.
Medium works best in terms of extracting full flavor amidst the heat.
For her dinner entrée, Megan took on the generous noodle dish, pad seuw ($10.95), with large noodles stir fried with assorted green veggies, egg, garlic and a choice of beef, chicken or pork.
Megan enjoyed the chicken option and its contribution to the well-balanced stir fry ensemble.
The garlic produced pleasing flavor, and more subtle Thai spices brought a delayed-action kick to the proceedings.
From the quintet of curry dishes, Loretta chose the green curry ($11.95) ensemble.
The dish featured chicken, bamboo, green beans, bell pepper and basil in a coconut milk-based red chili stew. It produced a pleasant light sweetness from the coconut milk and a delayed spicy kick from the curry spices.
Loretta found that the curry worked effectively with the fresh vegetables, and the basil made a notable and welcome flavor contribution.
I zeroed in on the eggplant chicken ($10.95).
I featured deep fried, somewhat fruity Chinese eggplant, which is chopped and stir fried with bell peppers, onions and chicken strips in a pleasant, mildly sweet sauce.
the freshness of the eggplant and vegetables and the distinct char-grilled flavor of the chicken breast strips make this dish a winner.
Such seafood entrées as soft-shell crab curry, breaded shrimp in curry sauce and batter-fried grouper further explain and enhance the quickly blossoming reputation of Siam Square as a Thai restaurant well-worth checking out.
Veteran restaurant critic Reid Duffy writes a weekly review for the Daily Journal.