Kittichai – Plate 90

Lawrence and I disagreed on eating this one with or without the crackers. The regular white crackers were just OK, but the black sesame crackers gave it a sweetness I liked. You could really taste the coconut milk in this one. Super creamy. If you could find a way to make this at home, it would be a pretty impressive appetizer.

I tried it with just the sauce and wasn’t psyched. Then, I tried it with the sauce, the scallions, the cilantro, and the mint, and I loved it. I have been telling people that I don’t know how to order (I now exclusively ask for omakase anything if it’s an option, even sometimes when it’s not) and reflecting on this, I don’t even know how to eat.

Super crunchy, like the chicken at Mad For Chicken (link). Look at those things; they even look crispy. Those were oats on the outside of the fish cakes, and yes, the consistency was ike a rice krispy (I wonder if the proper spelling is ‘krispie’?) This one takes my favorite dish of round one.

Oh yeah, I forgot to mention, five courses, three items each, thai food heaven.

This one was like a salty bulgogi. I hit this one harder than Lawrence; he was psyched for the Chocolate Spare Ribs. I mean, come on. You’re not actually reading this sentence, you’re scrolling down to find the Chocolate Spare Ribs.

Nope, keep scrolling.

This was actually quite interesting. The cashews gave it a pleasing crunch and the microgreens, a distinct tartness. I don’t know what banana blossoms are, but I want to have them fried.

Lawrence had heard about these things before we got here and he was psyched. When I looked at the menu, I was psyched. When we saw them come out, we were psyched. When we finally tasted them, we were, well … we were kinda meh. It’s an interesting concept, but I didn’t know what was supposed to be happening here. They left us asking why. Here’s the thing, they were still very good, the ribs themselves were fantastic, I just didn’t know what they were going for other than putting chocolate on pork.

My favorite dish. Nice crispness on the fish, sweet chili, red curry, shallot and garlic sauce with the clincher; palm sugar. I wish I’d gotten more of the dish in here – the fish just looked super cool. The outside was sweet and crispy and the fish was extra juicy and tender. I don’t remember what Lawrence’s favorite was, but I think this was pretty high on his list, too.

Basil, onion, chicken stock, lemongrass, and kaffir lime – what a great combo. They knew this from a long time ago .. say, 3,000 years back. I really think southeast asian cuisine is the best in the world because of its roots and complexities. The only cuisine that comes close is French. Feel free to debate me on this. I don’t think this molecular gastronomy thing is a fad.

I was suprised – this dish was one of my favorites in China and it was actually better than I remembered. How is that? No frickin’ clue.

The home stretch – these last three finished us off for the main course. I know you can’t see it in this picture, but it really looked dry, and then it came through with the succulence. Again, the coconut milk really set this one off.

We were just confused by this one. The green curry was awesome, the short rib was awesome, but the combo didn’t work for us.

And our dinner comes to a close with something healthy. Two vegetable plates, I loved them both (vegetable jones). Look at how bright those colors are! Those are some fresh snow peas.

I just compared the fried banana things at Bogota Bistro (link) to the ones at Sanford’s (link), but we have a new winner. The desserts here were amazing. The burnt honey ice cream was something else, and obviously, those banana things were crispy as hell on the outside.

Finally, a flourless chocolate cake that made me say “wow.” You know what I was thinking when I saw this on the menu, but it was a whole different animal entirely. You can see the banana leaf in the picture; that was holding the chocolate cake, steaming it. I was overwhelmed; how can the rest of the flourless chocolate cakes be so blah and this steamed one be the bomb. It didn’t make sense, but I devoured it. Lawrence shared my sentiments.