Wild Papaya And The Perfect Curry

I am continually amazed at how much I have learned about the restaurant industry from writing a food blog for nearly three years. Of course, it seems obvious that if you study something for that length of time, you would naturally pick up a few things along the way, but that honestly wasn't why I started Exploring Food My Way. One of the two most important lessons I've learned so far is that despite your server being the primary point of contact with a restaurant when choose to dine out, slow or "off" service can be caused by far more than just the server's lack of experience or enthusiasm. Knowing when to legitimately gripe about service takes time to develop.

The other important lesson I've taken away from this experience is the extreme volatility of the food service industry as a whole. Servers, cooks, chefs, heck, even the restaurant itself can be there one day and gone the next. I know a server who in one year worked in thirteen different restaurants. That isn't to say that there aren't some longtime stalwarts that have been around for forty, fifty, or even one hundred years (restaurants, not servers). These are clearly the exception to this generalization.

Back in February of this year, fellow photographer and camera salesman extraordinaire Dan at Campus Camera, upon finding out that I write restaurant reviews advised me about a restaurant that was serving up great food, Shorty's Subs and Salads. Even better, the restaurant was just down the road from the camera store. I didn't have time to try it that day, but I returned with a few days to find the restaurant oddly dark at a time when it should have been open. Between the time Dan had told me of the restaurant and a short while later, they had closed up shop.

Fast forward eight months later, I happened to be driving down Main Street in Kent when I drove by the old Shorty's location only to discover something had opened up in its place. Curious, I pulled in to discover Wild Papaya Thai Cuisine. My attention firmly gotten, I noted that it was roughly 5:30 on a Sunday evening and I was suddenly hungry ... for Thai food. I parked my car and approached the main door:


Wild Papaya Thai Cuisine was located at 1665 East Main Street, Kent, OH 44240 and can be reached at 330-677-0916. Parking was in the large lot in front of the building. You can check out their web presence by visiting their website or their Facebook page.

Since I never managed to eat a meal at Shorty's, I was unfamiliar with how the interior looked before Wild Papaya took over, but I have to say that the decor was quite contemporary with a bit of traditional Thai art thrown in for good measure. When I arrived, I was one of only two tables that were occupied. I'm happy to say that within thirty minutes, another six or seven tables were seated.

My server left me with the rather sizable menu in order to take care of recent arrivals at the hostess stand:








As I looked through the menu, I saw a lot of the usual suspects: Pad Thai, Tom Yum Goong, Chicken Satay, just to name three. But I also saw some dishes that were more indicative of a serious commitment to stay true to traditional Thai cuisine. While the menu also listed several Chinese dishes (to be more accurate, I should call them Americanized Chinese), the Thai dishes looked far more interesting. I decided to start out my meal with the Tom-Sum (papaya salad):


Staying with the traditional version of this salad, tonight's dish was made with green papaya which had yet to ripen. Thus, the fruit wasn't particularly sweet (think green tomatoes versus ripe tomatoes). The papaya had been shredded thinly along with carrots and had been dressed in a dressing of nuoc cham -- typically a mixture of lime, fish sauce, chile, cilantro, sugar, and rice wine vinegar. This combination of flavors gave the papaya "slaw" the qualities of sweet, salty, spicy, and acidic. All of the flavors were nicely balanced and the spiciness of the chile was quite subtle, yet still present.

The two yellow hunks of meat placed on top of the salad were chicken that was hot, juicy, and nicely grilled. I could tell based on the flavor of the chicken that this was the same protein used for the satay appetizer. The salad was actually quite large and could definitely be split among two or three diners. My only complaint was that two pieces of chicken seemed a bit light for the amount of salad on the plate. A third piece would have rounded this salad out to the point where one person could eat it for their entire meal.

As I was contemplating what to order for my entree, my server helpfully suggested the Siam Duck. She indicated that it was one of the cooks specialties. While I was a little leery of the $17 price tag, I decided to go ahead and trust her suggestion. A few minutes after finishing my papaya salad, this appeared at my table:


Accompanying my entree was a bowl of Brown Rice:


Before I talk about the Siam Duck, I would just like to go on record as saying I really appreciate an Asian restaurant having both steamed white AND brown rice available for diners. While I certainly don't mind white rice, I know that brown rice is slightly better for me and knowing that it is available, I will always order it over the white. To make it even more enticing, Wild Papaya gave me the choice of either to accompany my meal at no extra charge.

Anyone who has ever watched me evaluate a meal for the blog knows that I rarely dig into a dish thoughtlessly. If the protein has a sauce on it, I taste it. I tend to taste components of the entree before taking the all-inclusive bite. I had been hesitant to order an expensive entree (one of the most expensive on the menu), but upon getting my first taste of the yellow curry, my taste buds exploded with nervous energy signalling the "YUM!" center in my brain. I suddenly realized I was in for a epicurean roller coaster ride.

The sauce was complex, sweet and salty with a hint of vinegar to balance it out. While the menu listed the dish as being served at "one chile pepper" which meant hot, I asked for the dish to be served at "two chile peppers" meaning hot and spicy. While I certainly could've handled much more heat, the spice level was a nearly perfect match for the extraordinary savoriness of the sauce. Honestly, gentle reader, you could have put that sauce over a leather boot and it would've been good.

The duck, which had been clearly finished in the deep fryer due to the crispiness of the skin, was moist and juicy and the skin was crispy without being greasy. Because duck has a thick layer of subcutaneous fat, it must be rendered off during the cooking process or else the result is chewy, rather unpleasant fat that is often better removed than consumed. Tonight's duck wasn't the best I had ever eaten, but I would say it was deftly prepared and tasted very good. Combined with the yellow curry, it was an absolute home run. The broccoli, while steamed, was a bit on the lukewarm side and while the squash and zucchini were softened from the steaming process, the carrots were crunchy to the point of being noticeable.

Those minor quibbles aside, whatever I didn't finish at the restaurant (which was about half), I took home with me and eagerly consumed the next day for lunch. While not as good cold as it was hot, just the thought of the curry sauce accompanying the Siam Duck made my mouth water like the unwitting subject of a Pavlovian experiment.

Dinner tonight at Wild Papaya Thai Cuisine wasn't inexpensive at roughly $28 for my meal with water and tax. That being said, I had enough food for two complete meals at $14 each which isn't bad if you are watching your wallet and need a place to split dinner for two. While this might be a tad on the pricey side for your typical Kent State student, it also means that the place won't be overrun with college students looking for food on the cheap.

Needless to say, I recommend that you give Wild Papaya Thai Cuisine a visit to try out the Tom-Sum and Siam Duck for yourself. I currently live on the west side of Akron and I would be more than willing to drive the thirty minutes each way just to have another dinner there. Of course, now that I have tasted this amazingly wonderful curry, in order to try other items from the menu I will undoubtedly have to bring friends with me when I return; hopefully they'll be willing to trade a bite of heaven from my plate for a bite of theirs.

Sushi On The Dais At Cilantro Thai And Sushi

I had heard a lot of good things about a local addition to the local food scene in Akron, Cilantro Thai and Sushi Restaurant. While I knew it was downtown, I had never really bothered to find out where until today. I had been hanging out with some friends when the idea of eating dinner came up. Naturally, they turned to me for a suggestion and when I asked them what type of food they were eager to try, Thai food came into the conversation. When I mentioned that Cilantro had been on my "Place To Eat" list for a while, they quickly agreed that we should head there tonight for dinner.

Cilantro was located at 326 South Main Street, Akron, OH 44308 and can be reached at 330-434-2876. There was no parking available specifically for the restaurant, but there was plenty of available curbside parking and since we had gone on a Sunday, it was essentially free since the meters weren't being monitored. As it turned out, the restaurant was actually only a few blocks south of the stadium where the Akron Aeros play and just a few more blocks away from the Lock 3 Park area.

Here was a shot of the front entrance:


As you open the door, a rather annoying electronic beep could be heard. Once inside the main doors, the entrance to Cilantro was on the right. Another set of beeps was heard once those doors had been breached as well. The first thing I noticed once inside the restaurant was how expansive it was. It had a real art deco, early to mid 1930's feel to it and in the middle of the restaurant, was the sushi bar on a dais. What I didn't realize at the time I dined at Cilantro was that this was the location of the old Piatto restaurant (now Piatto Novo at the Sheraton in Cuyahoga Falls). While you could definitely seat yourself at the sushi bar for a more authentic sushi experience, today we were in the mood for the Thai portion of the menu.

Speaking of the menu, here were snapshots that I took:







As you can see from the photos above, it was a combination of about half Thai and half Japanese dishes. I liked the fact that the Japanese portion of the menu wasn't just sushi. I rarely eat just sushi for dinner anymore and like you will see in just a bit, I more often order a few choice pieces as an appetizer.

I decided to start my meal out with two orders of nigiri sushi, two pieces per order:


Here you have both hamachi (yellow tail) and unagi (barbecued eel). As with most sushi, it was artfully and simply presented and it was incredibly fresh and tasty. Even the vinegared rice (which is what sushi actually means in Japanese) tasted recently made. Both types of seafood had a clean taste to them and it was clear that whomever was running the sushi bar knew what good seafood should taste like. I did use just a tiny bit of wasabi with the hamachi, but other than a light dip in some soy sauce, I ate them as they were plated.

Having finished our appetizers, I eagerly awaited my main course, a green curry with chicken. Why eagerly awaited, gentle reader? When I ordered it, I asked for the range of spiciness at Cilantro. Our server informed us that the dishes could be made from zero (0) to five (5). When I asked if five really was the hottest level, my server hemmed and hawed a little bit before admitting that there really was an additional level of heat, "Thai spicy." As I'm sure any long time reader of my blog already knows, I have employed that term "Thai spicy," in numerous Thai restaurants only to find out that for true Thai spicy food, in the end I always have to add extra superlatives to the phrase such as "extra Thai hot" or "extra extra Thai spicy."

Our waitress today assured me that "Thai spicy" was the hottest the kitchen would make it and she had never seen anyone actually order it that spicy since she had started working there. Still skeptical I would get the food at the right spice level, I went ahead and ordered it "Thai spicy." I'm glad I did.

Here was a shot of the curry I received:


Two things bothered me when this was coming to our table. First, either the kitchen was sloppy or our server was a tad uncoordinated because there was sauce all over the rim of the plate. I have a feeling that because there wasn't anything between the ceramic plate and the ceramic bowl in which the curry had been plated, the bowl had slid around a bit too much between kitchen and table. Second, I was concerned because there didn't appear to be a lot of red flakes in the curry, usually a good sign that fresh Thai chillies had been used.

Not to be deterred, however, I spooned some of the curry over the inverted bowl of steamed rice I had received with my meal:


As I took those first few tentative bites, I tasted the green curry, the coconut milk, and the intense heat from the chillies. Apparently the lack of red flecks didn't mean a whole lot because this baby was on fire with chili heat. This was exactly what I was after and after I offered my dining companions a bite (they ordered their dishes at a two), they politely declined figuring that they wouldn't be able to taste anything else after trying my dish. The curry itself was quite tasty and the chicken was cooked through but still tender.

Having finished about half of my curry and rice, I boxed up the remainder for a spicy late night snack later that day. Between my sushi appetizers and my green curry chicken, the bill came to just over $22 with tax. Given that I would get two meals out of it, I think for this level and quality of food, it was definitely worth the price. Up until this point, when I had been jonesing for Thai food, I had been going to Siamone's Thai Pub over by Springfield Lake. Knowing that I have another Akron restaurant where I can get my "Thai spicy" fix (with the additional benefit that Cilantro's menu offered far more dishes than Siamone's) for Thai food and with the quality of the sushi I had received tonight, I highly recommend that you give Cilantro Thai and Sushi Restaurant a try. I know that I intend to return very soon for another great authentic meal.

Buster Poindexter Must Like His Green Curry Mild

In an effort to show me as much of Scranton's cultural diversity as possible, my host Chris decided that on my second night he would take me to a restaurant that just happened to be right around the corner from Cosmo's Cheesesteaks called Thai Rak Thai. Chris and I share the same love of ethnic cuisines and I knew that if he recommended it, it must be worth a try. Given the fact that Thai Rak may also be the only game in town if you are looking for Thai food, this was doubly good news. Yahoo Maps does indicate the presence of another Thai restaurant, Le Thai, but when I mentioned it to him, he thought that they had closed.

Thai Rak Thai was located at 349 Adams Avenue, Scranton, PA 18503 and can be reached at 570-344-2240. You can also visit them at their website. The restaurant was on the corner of a series of buildings in downtown Scranton and as such, there was no lot to park in. We opted for a curbside parking space just down from the restaurant.

Here was a photograph of the front of the restaurant:


Considering we went on a Friday evening during prime dinner hours, I was surprised to see that they weren't fully packed. Perhaps the lack of business was due to the holidays. In any event, we were seated at a table by the window and I ordered a Thai Iced Tea to start off my meal:


A nice mixture of cool, sweet, creamy, and just a hint of smokiness from the tea, this concoction was also delicious and would serve to cool my mouth from the hopefully fiery curry I was planning on ordering. At $2.25, this wasn't overly expensive, however, refills were not free so I alternated between this and my complimentary glass of water during the course of the meal.

I opted not to take photographs of the menu since the lighting was so subdued in the restaurant. The menu is available on their website, so if you want to check it out before actually going to the restaurant, feel free to do so. I asked Chris if he wanted to split an appetizer and he agreed. We both sat and silently studied the menu for a moment and when each of finally announced what we thought we should order, it turned out that we were on the same page, Tod Mun Pla:


As described on their menu, "Mince kneaded with chili paste deep fried to golden born served with sweet chili sauce." It turned out that the sauce is actually a combination of the traditional sweet and sour cucumber sauce that is normally served with chicken satay combined with sweet chili sauce. The fish cakes themselves have a bit of chili heat already in them and the sweetness from the sauce counterbalanced the fish cakes nicely. The cakes were fried well and were not oily, but Chris didn't particularly care for the texture. I agreed with him that they had the texture of a fried tofu which doesn't bother me.

Since I had come all of this way, I decided that I would give their Tom Yum Goong soup a try. Here was a shot of my bowl of soup:


At $4.95 for a small serving, this was borderline on a touch too expensive for what this was. A combination of shrimp, mushrooms, kaffir lime leaves and lemongrass, this soup was just mediocre. The three shrimp were cooked nicely and weren't rubbery, but what really disappointed me was the lack of an assertive flavor from the soup stock itself. Perhaps the lack of the chili heat normally associated with this most famous Thai soup was its downfall.

Finally, Chris and I each decided to order a curry dish, him a Massaman curry with beef and me a green curry with chicken. In respect to spice levels, Chris ordered his as it came on the menu, but I wanted something spicier (surprise, surprise, right gentle reader?). I asked my server what my options were and she started rattling off a litany of spice levels that ended with "Hot Hot Hot." I proceeded to ask her if the "Hot Hot Hot" actually had Thai chillies in it and she nodded affirmatively. My decision now made easy, I asked for "Hot Hot Hot" only to be confronted with a pained look on her face as she responded, "Are you sure?" "Definitely."

Chris and I chatted a bit while we waited for our food to arrive. Being the realist that I have learned how to become when it comes to actually receiving food spiced at the level for which I ask, I bet Chris $5 that my dish would come out at somewhere near a medium level. A few moments after making my bet, a bowl of steamed rice arrived at the table:


Followed quickly by Chris's Massaman curry with beef:


And my green curry with chicken:


Knowing that each would be curious to try not only our own menu selection, but also the other's as well, I made myself up a plate of rice and both curries:


I decided to try the Massaman curry first since it was supposed to be the milder of the two. Comprised of incredibly tender cuts of beef with potatoes, onion, pineapple and peanuts, this was a delicious curry. In addition to the Massaman curry flavor, you could also detect hints of cinnamon and clove, too. It instantly reminded me of the cinnamon soup I had eaten while at V-Li's in Canal Fulton. Chris thoroughly enjoyed the dish as well, but for him, the beef was superfluous. He would've gladly eaten just the sauce and rice.

Next I moved on to my green curry. My curry contained chicken, green beans, red and green peppers, bamboo, coconut milk, kaffir lime and basil leaves, and tiny eggplant. While the flavor of the curry was consistent with other green curries I've eaten at other restaurants, it just didn't have the depth of flavor that the Massaman curry had. However, everything was cooked nicely and the chicken wasn't tough. As to the burning question of the spice level, it turns out that both the mildly spiced Massaman curry and my green curry were alike in that the initial heat gradually grew and plateaued slightly higher by the end. On a scale of 1 to 10 (10 being the hottest), my curry probably started out at about a 3 and finished at about a 4. From what I could tell, there wasn't a Thai chili anywhere to be found in my curry. In fact, the curry was so mild that my normally sensitive sinuses didn't even react.

When my server returned to clear the plates, I told her that I didn't think what I had been served was "Hot Hot Hot." Obviously having been caught, she sheepishly admitted that not only wasn't it "Hot Hot Hot," but that she had purposely ordered it a level or two below "Hot Hot Hot." It was also at that point that she also offered up that "Hot Hot Hot" wasn't the hottest level. Apparently the restaurant has something called "5 Stars" which must be equivalent to "Hot Hot Hot Hot Hot." Although I was mildly annoyed to find out this fact after I had thought I had asked the right questions up front, it still didn't take away from the fact that flavor-wise, the meal was pretty decent. However, I thought that I would include this side story for anyone else who might be so inclined to want their food actually spicy so that they know how to order it correctly.

I would definitely recommend you give Thai Rak Thai a visit if you like or would like to learn what proper Thai flavors and spices should taste like. Personally, I'd skip the Tom Yum soup as I don't think it is good enough for the price they are charging. Other prices seem to be in-line with Thai restaurants from the Akron and Cleveland area, although they do seem a little high for the Scranton area. Then again, if you are the only place in town that offers this cuisine, the only guideline you have to follow is what your customers are willing to pay.