thai seafood tamarind salad

If you take away anything today from this post, I urge you to try the tamarind dressing, as it's simple, and can dress up any lifeless pile of greens and veggies. It is especially good with seafood. The tamarind is tangy and earthy all at the same time.

tamarind pods

I call this my "cold pad thai salad", as for the dressing/marinade, the ratio of fish sauce to tamarind pulp to sugar is the same as in the famous fried noodle dish. Without the heat, this salad makes for a light, refreshing summer dinner, on those nights when you just don't want to turn on the stove. If you happen to have leftovers from a seafood bake or the grill, this is a good way to use it up. I roughly chopped up about 1 cup of leftover steamed shrimp, lobster claw and scallops for this salad.

Thai Seafood Salad with Tamarind Dressing

Salad:
1 cup steamed/grilled seafood (shrimp, scallops, lobster, crab, fish filets), chilled
2 medium cucumbers, slivered
1 carrot, slivered
1 red onion, slivered
heaping handful of bean sprouts
2 rolls Asian vermicelli noodles (also called bean thread noodles)
crushed peanuts
roughly chopped cilantro and scallion, for garnish

Dressing:
3 Tbsp tamarind pulp
3 Tbsp fish sauce
3 Tbsp palm sugar/granulated sugar/or natural cane sugar
juice of 1 lime
1 Tbsp freshly grated ginger

1. Soak the dried vermicelli noodles in hot water until they are soft and pliable. Drain and put into the salad mixing bowl. Add the rest of the salad ingredients, except for the peanuts. Chill in the refrigerator while making the dressing.

2. For the dressing: Combine tamarind pulp, fish sauce and sugar in a microwave-safe container. Heat on high for 1 minute. Stir and let cool to room temperature. The mixture will be slightly thickened at this point. Stir in the lime juice and ginger.

3. When the dressing is completely cooled, add it to the salad and toss together. Garnish with the crushed peanuts, extra bean sprouts and/or cilantro.

new favorite thai

Fillmore at Broadway

We found one of our favorite views of the city tonight. At Fillmore and Broadway, if you look out across the Marina, you can see the sprawl of the northwestern part of SF, and the Golden Gate bridge. We stopped there for a few minutes as the sun was setting, which gave the sky a beautiful gradient of hues.

Heading north, we started looking for a dinner spot. Mr.S has had nothing but raves about Osha, a modern Thai restaurant, so we stepped into their Union St. location, one of 5 branches across the city. It had that uber-trendy lounge feel to it as you walked in, mixed with the exoticism from the decor and the spices that permeated the dining area. The interior had a clean, uncluttered aesthetic to it, and incorporated a lot of white lucite furniture everywhere. It felt like we were in some sort of modern, Asian space capsule.

There's a strong pan-Asian influence to the menu, blending traditional Thai dishes with ones distinctly Japanese, Indian and Vietnamese. I always go into such restaurants now with reservations, somewhat lowering my expectations, simply because I've had one too many overly-sweet, fish sauce-saturated meals.

To start, there were a few choices that sounded pretty tasty- crispy tofu with sweet sour plum dipping sauce, Angel Wings (fried chicken wings in a homemade sauce with crispy basil), Thai samosas, and beef wasabi rolls. I let Mr.S choose since he'd been here plenty of times before. The beef wasabi rolls arrived at our table a few minutes later, 5 rolls, each sitting in a small pool of wasabi sauce and chopped watercress.



It was a sensory explosion. The beef, tender and well-grilled, tasted much like Korean bulgoki with strong notes of sesame oil and soy. It was stuffed with slivers of crunchy carrot, celery and mint. The best part was the wasabi sauce which infiltrated every corner and crevice of my sinuses, making me tear up and choke back a cough. It was awesome. I couldn't stop going back for more. The thing about good food is that you're willing to endure just about any amount of physical pain to get it.

Usually always ordering some type of curry dish or fried noodles at Thai restaurants, this time I opted for the grilled sea bass lettuce cups. (Though the Kabocha squash curry looked excellent as well... next time.) My plate came with only one medium filet of sea bass, but it's ok since it was an appetizer salad. The kitchen was generous with the sides of diced mango, red and green peppers, red onion, ginger and lemongrass, and roasted peanuts. Each piece of bibb lettuce was layered with a small square of rice sheet. The spicy cilantro dipping sauce was wonderfully aromatic, sweet, sour and spicy all at once, reminisent of a similar Indian green chutney made with cilantro and lime juice.



The flavors married together perfectly, like a concert in my mouth, there was just so much going on with taste and texture. I love sea bass for its high oil content. Its butteriness was nicely complimented by all the spice and acid from the all the sides. Not once did I lift my head to talk to Mr.S; that's the sign of a very happy me enjoying my meal.

I was offered a bite of Mr.S's spicy sweet chicken with basil. It was deeply flavored, and I liked how Osha uses a roughly ground chicken, instead of chicken slices, in this dish. The smaller pieces soak up the marinade much better and you can eat it with a spoon! (I love eating everything with a spoon; it's a comfort thing.)

I looked up after cleaning my plate, sighed and leaned back, completely satisfied. The food, not only was it heavily seasoned and delicious, it was fun, and stepped outside the box of traditional Thai. It incorporated elements of numerous types of Asian cuisine, not afraid to fuse different flavors and spices all in one dish. I like adventurous; I like flavor.

Osha also has a girl-friendly drink menu, perfect for a group of girlfriends out on a Friday night. There's a lychee martini that I'm waiting to try. Perhaps it will bump down Dragonfly's version down to number 2 on my awesome-lychee-martini list. There's also a green tea mojito that sounded interesting as well. I'm certainly counting the days until I go back again.

Osha Thai

2033 Union Street SF, CA 94110

lemongrass

There's always a buzz when a new hip Thai restaurant moves in, and from Annapolis! I'd heard much about Lemongrass, and it's sister restaurant Tsunami next door, actually first from my hairdresser (whose opinion I worship). Mr.S and I, who'd most likely be Thai reincarnates in another life, were intrigued, and decided to make a date of it two weekends ago.

There was a short wait for a table, so we plopped ourselves at the bar for a pre-dinner cocktail. First off, for the contemporary upscale "lounge" ambiance that Lemongrass was trying to impart, the staff sure was dressed down. The barstaff, and there were 3, were mismatched, wearing a range of wrinkled corduroys to wrap sweaters to Hane's white tees. The drink menu was interesting, offering a list of seemingly exotic ingredients mixed into martinis like kaffir lime leaves, blood orange juice, pear puree, etc etc with names like Bangkok Sunset... I ordered the Royal Tiger, which included Tangqueray Bangpur, blood orange bitters and muddled kaffir lime leaves. What was placed before me was neither very attractive nor very delectable. With the interesting ingredients, this drink could have great potential, but it just didn't hit the mark that night.

I'm not sure where the giant Buddha-like statue in the middle of the restaurant was looted from, but we walked past its enormity to the rear dining room, all very contemporary with its polished woods. It seemed like there was only two servers that night; we waited a long time to place our order and were not even offered glasses of water. Seeing as most of the tables were full and there were two large parties, we patiently waited and waited.

To start, we had the crispy string beans, lightly battered, fried, and coated with a sweet and spicy garlic sauce. Nothing to complain about here, it was delicious. The string beans were more tender than crisp, and I honestly would have eaten anything covered in that sauce.


Mr.S got the crispy duck as his entree, which was basically slices of duck breast, fried and covered in the same chili garlic sauce as the string beans. I was confused by the steamed veggies on the side; large slices of squash, snow peas, and broccoli that were way too bland and completely unnecessary. I looked around at other entree plates around us, and they seemed to adorn every plate!


My seafood red curry came in a large soup bowl. The flavors were good, and there was a medley of shrimp, scallops, and squid stewed with bamboo shoots, green pepper, and eggplant. My only complaint was it was too soupy to be called a curry, and the eggplant a bit undercooked.


If you're looking for an authentic Thai meal, Lemongrass should not be at the top of your list. There wasn't even a single Thai server or customer in the restaurant, and I seriously doubt any of their kitchen staff are of Thai lineage. The flavors were all there, maybe a bit too sweet at times, but the dishes were obviously lacking a precision and fine-tuning that the art of true Thai cuisine embodies. The vegetables, garnishes, and presentation were all too rough for the fine quality that these dishes should have had. Our meal surely didn't break the bank, but the prices were comparable to those of other Thai restaurants who offer a higher quality of food (i.e. Thai Restaurant and Thai Landing) Lemongrass is definitely selling its trendy and as they would like to call it "urban chic" atmosphere, but in order for that to be believable, the staff first needs to be better trained and secondly, more smartly dressed.

I would go back, but probably in a few weeks when some of the kinks have been smoothed out, if only for a Tiger Lager and a plate of those crispy string beans.



Lemongrass
1300 Bank Street
Baltimore, MD 21231

pad thai

This is a very straightforward and authentic recipe for pad thai, one of my most loved dishes. It plays on different flavors simultaneously- sour, sweet, salty, and umami. Mr.S and I frequently get carry-out thai on our busy nights; I have a feeling we'll be cutting back now that I can easily make this at home. I admit I am a bit of a pad thai snob; this recipe definitely seals the deal.

The prep is more time consuming than the actual cooking process.

Ingredients from top left:

thin rice noodles
shrimp
roasted peanuts
scallion
marinated dried tofu
bean sprouts
eggs
salted radish
seasoning sauce- tamarind pulp**, fish sauce, palm sugar, chili powder


Pad Thai
serves 2

Pad Thai Sauce:
1/4 cup fish sauce
1/4 cup tamarind pulp
1/4 cup palm sugar
1 tsp chili powder

10-12 large shrimp, peeled and deveined
1/4 cup roasted peanuts, rough chopped
1/4 cup salted radish
1/3 cup dried tofu, cut into matchstick size
2 stalks scallion, chopped
1 heaping cup bean sprouts
2 eggs
thin rice noodles, half of a 14-oz package
vegetable oil
orange slice, garnish

1. Noodles: In a large bowl, cover noodles with hot water, stir, and let soak until noodles are pliable but not too soft. Time will vary depending on how hot your water is. (generally about 15-20 minutes) Drain the noodles and set aside.

2. Sauce: Stir together fish sauce, tamarind, sugar and chili powder. Microwave for 20 seconds to gently dissolve the sugar. You can adjust the amount of each ingredient to your liking- for more sour, sweet, or salty.

3. In your wok: on high heat, add 3-4 Tbsp vegetable oil until smoking hot. Stir-fry the tofu until edges start to turn golden brown. Add the noodles and half of the reserved sauce. At this point, stir vigorously until all the noodles are covered in the sauce. Fry until noodles are soft. (Taste to make sure) Push the noodles to one side of the wok, and add 1 Tbsp oil to the empty half of the wok. Crack both eggs here and let set for about 15 seconds, and start to scramble. Push toward the noodles. Add the shrimp, scallions, radish, half of the peanuts, half of the sprouts, and remainder of the sauce to the empty side of the wok. Stir everything together, and fry for another 2 minutes until shrimp are cooked through.

4. Plate: Heap the noodles onto your plate. On the side of the noodles, and not on top, garnish with the rest of the peanuts and raw sprouts, and a slice of orange.


**tamarind pulp:
For the best flavor, make this from scratch. You can buy a box of tamarind, in which the tamarind are still in their pods. Crack open the hard shells, and remove the hard fibrous "spines" from the sticky meat inside. In a shallow bowl, place the shelled tamarind and cover with hot water. In an hour of two, with clean hands, mush the tamarind to make a paste, while removing and discarding the seeds. What remains will be a pile of brown mush, with the consistency of applesauce. Strain this through a fine mesh sieve to remove any fibrous pieces, and you will be left with wonderfully fresh tangy tamarind paste/pulp. This can be frozen for later use.