For the first Thai banquet in our eating course we went to Salathai Restaurant and ate our way through a menu featuring typical dishes from central Thailand and Bangkok.
Salathai Restaurant opened in 1985, and was the very first Thai restaurant in Vancouver. A few years later I took a course in Thai cooking taught by Joie, the owner of Salathai. At the time there weren’t many Thai ingredients available in Vancouver, so Joie recommended adding pre-mixed curries to Aroy-D coconut milk. Now that the fresh ingredients are flown in daily, the Thai dishes have all these subtle nuances that you just don’t get from a can.
THE MENU
- the first appetizer was floral dumplings. Strange, gelatinous, purple, these ‘floral dumplings’ were appreciated by most of the class although I wasn’t so sure about them.
floral dumplings
- the second appetizer was marinated chicken wrapped in pandalus leaves with a sweet sour dipping sauce. It was my favourite dish of the evening (but not on the menu so you might have to request it special).
marinated chicken wrapped in pandalus leaves
- Mee grob, crispy noodle with a sweet coating
Mee Grob: crispy noodle
- fragrant rice served in a decorative metal pot that I coveted
a silver serving bowl filled with fragrant Thai rice
- seafood in a red curry sauce, served in a coconut (yum!)
red seafood curry served in a coconut shell
- green curry with chicken (double yum!)
green curry
- the Salathai house salad with eggs, lettuce and tomatoes slathered in a peanut sauce dressing
the Salathai house salad
- coconut ice cream with jackfruit strip
coconut ice cream with a strip of jackfruit
