thai princess

i don't usually like to write about a place unless i have a few photos because i think stories about food without pictures of that food is kind of boring and maybe also kind of pointless but you need to know about thai princess so i can't wait.

pictured here is the best penang curry i ever ate, which sadly is located in bangkok and not lansing, but the curry at thai princess comes close(ish)

this place is absolutely delicious.  it is one of the best thai restaurants i have tried not only in the lansing area but pretty much anywhere.  the first thing you will notice about this place is the awesome creative not just the basics menu.  sick of pad thai and massaman curry and spring rolls?  you are in the right place!  here are a few examples for you:

• Apple Avocado Salad: Shredded green apple with cashew nuts, avocado and red onion in spicy lime sauce
• Peanut Curry: Red curry with ground peanut, bamboo shoot, eggplant, string bean, snow peas, basil leaves
• Soft Shell Crab Garlic: Crispy soft-shell crab with garlic, mushroom and pepper
• Coconut Noodle: Sautéed thin noodle with coconut milk, bean sprout, onion, and scallion in yellow bean sauce

everything is prepared perfectly and they use a nice interesting authentic variety of vegetables.  i had the pad khee mao and it came with chinese broccoli, which i love and have never gotten in pad khee mao before.

the most insane garlic fried chicken which you can find not at thai princess but at soi polo, but i bet if thai princess made fried chicken it would be good

service is attentive and prompt.  one tiny complaint i have is that they did not ask how spicy i wanted my food and i didn't think to say and it came totally mild.  so make sure you tell them what you want.  even without spiciness it was still tasty.  oh and you are also going to have to ask for chopsticks if you want them.

the ambience is nice, the lighting is good and there are lots of pretty pieces of art and plants around.  the prices are comparable to any other thai place.

as for drinks, there is no alcohol and apparently lansing is not like cincinnati where you can just BYOB whenever it's not on the menu, so you are going to have to shotgun your singha in the parking lot.  they do have tea though.

the most ridiculous whole fish with lime and chili sauce that i ate in ko samui, which unfortunately is not thai princess, but as a consolation price thai princess does serve whole fish

one thing i am curious about which i am going to have to check out is whether you can get sticky rice with your meal.  they have a few desserts with sticky rice so i know they have it.  if i could get sticky rice with my curry i would crap myself with joy.

blue elephant

cousin brian* and i went paint color shopping for our new apartment and we decided that we needed sustenance after exhausting all our energy on trying to choose between wheatgrass, kiwi splash, and little sprout. but we did not know where we wanted to eat.

cousin brian: what about that new place in hyde park?

liz: what new place?

cousin brian: elephant.

liz: what?

cousin brian: i have no idea. i think it's thai and italian.

liz: what???

pad khee mao

i was skeptical but i am always up for trying a new place so we went. it turns out it is actually called blue elephant and it is located in a new building next to r.p. mcmurphy's on wasson. i have no idea when the place opened but it couldn't have been that long ago and it was jam packed.

the ambience is pretty nice, lots of reds and wheatgrasses which gave us inspiration for decorating our new place. service was average. we had to wait forever to get our order taken, but the food came quickly once we did. our waitress kind of harassed us about how little we ordered (we both got $10.95 noodle dishes so she might have been trying to boost her tip) but when we kept saying no she was friendly about it.

pad thai

the food was good but nothing outstanding. i had the pad khee mao with beef and brian got the pad thai with chicken. we both ordered a 3 (the spiciest you could get) and it was hot but not too hot. i could have done a little hotter but i was satisfied.

i did think the portions were a little small, but the vegetables were fresh, the meats were tender and juicy, and the noodles were chewy and properly cooked. mine had lots of yummy thai basil and cousin brian's was sweet and smoky. the food was flavorful and i had no complaints, it just wasn't memorable at all.

the color scheme

we did not try the italian food. when i was in thailand i ate at italian restaurants a couple of times and it was the worst italian food of my life. to be fair, i will add that the thai restaurant i ate at in italy was the worst thai food of my life.

blue elephant is a solid if unremarkable addition to the ever expanding selection of hyde park/oakley thai restaurants. i'm not complaining but it would be nice to mix it up with maybe some vietnamese or malaysian or something like that. or else, you know... some thaitalian.

*note: cousin brian is not actually my cousin

suzie wong's on madison

yum, suzie wong's is so good! i have to admit, i was skeptical about a "pan asian" restaurant run by the former owner of shanghai mama's (yes, i still hate that place and i have eaten there several more times since the last time i bitched about it so please no admonitions to give it another try. everything is bland and tastes like soy sauce and makes me sad. ok shanghai mama's rant over).

anyway, suzie wong's is excellent. i went with erin last week and since it is currently byob and prices are good ($2-12 for appetizers, $8-16 for entrees) we felt that we could splurge and get a feast. we had the following items:

• cambodian beef carpaccio: beef filet with fresh herb marinade, lime, extra virgin olive oil, and garnished with fresh basil and chili peppers. amazing! my favorite thing we had all night.
• thai green lip mussels: sauteed mussels in a tangy thai seafood broth. sooo good. the broth tasted like tom yum soup. we were eating it with spoons.
• malaysian chicken in a clay pot: chicken breast, sweet onion, green and red pepper, seasonal vegetables sauteed in a malaysian yellow curry and served in a country clay pot. awesome. so delicious. the curry was complex and savory and rich. erin said it reminded her of japanese curry, and she just got back from a trip to japan so i believe her.
• korean jap chae noodles: glass noodles sauteed with sesame oil, korean chili paste, and kimchi. eh. the only one i was not crazy about. not bad, just kind of bland. our waiter had to bring me some chili sauce to spice it up and it still wasn't that great. i've had much better at riverside and korea house. however, not bad. just not exciting.
• chinese broccoli in oyster sauce. wonderful. of course, i am a chinese broccoli freak so maybe not everyone would love this as much as i did. it was perfectly prepared, crunchy and delicate at the same time. yum.

the service on the whole was very good. there was one waitress we weren't really crazy about (she kind of got off on the wrong foot with us when we asked for recommendations from the fascinating menu and she told us to get egg rolls and calamari... boring... and she seemed to keep having conflicts with other staff). but everyone else definitely made up for it. they checked in with us regularly and really seemed to care whether we liked the food, and always made sure we had a fresh beer open.

the space is pretty similar to what it looked like when seny was in there... very red with christmas lights around, and a few asian touches now. it looks nice, and parking is easy. sorry i don't have any photos but it's pretty dark in there and i didn't want to use the flash.

i would definitely try to get there soon, not because it's going to close (i don't think it is) but because the current byob situation makes it such a good deal. we heard that they have applied for a liquor license so i am sure it is coming soon.

overall this place is awesome and an excellent addition to the neighborhood. they also deliver to a pretty wide area so if you are not in the mood to leave your house, you can maybe still enjoy their delicious food.

the best ribs in cincinnati based on what i ate at taste

1. city barbeque (delicious and second only to sam the cooking guy's ribs)
2. montgomery inn (good texture and juicy but i think the sauce is too sweet and bland)
3. pit to plate (tough, dry, not enough sauce)

i have a bone to pick (get it? bone to pick? ribs? hahaha. sorry.) with pit to plate because the guy was like "the ribs can be hit or miss but they are really good today." ok a) your ribs should not be hit or miss and b) if this was a hit, i don't want to try a miss.

i also tried the "best damn dish" which was arloi dee's chicken lettuce wraps. readers, this is not the best damn dish in cincinnati. it's not even close. pf chang's serves much better lettuce wraps. and there are so many other better things to eat in this city. i will cut them a little slack since i am sure the food at taste is not as good as what is served in the restaurant but still the sauce was just peanutty and boring. no spice, no flavors other than peanut, blah.

and that is all i ate at taste. i am poor so i ate before i went so i would not spend a lot of money. feel free to leave comments about all the delicious food i missed out on.

tan thai

do not eat here. bottom line.

the long story is this. my coworkers and i eat at tan thai semi-regularly for lunch (like maybe once a month). it is only open 5 days a week from 11 am to 2 pm. it's lunch only. we used to also like some of the other thai places downtown, but one by one they have died off and the only one left is tan thai.

this is where you are not eating lunch

the first thing you need to know is this: we don't actually call it tan thai, we refer to it as "slow thai." this is because the service is slow as hell. back in its heyday about a year to a year and a half ago, you would have to wait at least 15 minutes to even get seated (it was that busy). then another 15-30 to get your food. it was good so we only went when we had time to wait and we didn't mind.

over the past year though a lot has changed at slow thai. the service has gotten slower. the food has gotten worse. the portions have gotten smaller. and the staff has gotten... less asian. we're at the point now where you are getting served by white women in tie-dyed t-shirts. it's very odd.

things have been going downhill for a while now but tan thai used to be so good that we keep giving it another shot. well today was it and we are officially crossing it off of our ever dwindling list of lunch options.

the first sign that things were really in the shitter over there was that we arrived at 12:30 and we did not have to wait for a table. in fact, the place was only about half full. this used to be unheard of over there. our next red flag was the waitress, who was complaining about being at work and saying how she could not wait to go home. ok lady, you only have to work for THREE HOURS. are you serious?

next problem: the prices. they are steadily increasing. i ordered pad see ewe which is some rice noodles, a few chunks of beef and broccoli, and some sauce. total cost: $7.50 before tax and tip! and the portion size was so small that i am kind of hungry and i just ate like an hour ago.

food quality was a huge issue. rickell ordered an egg roll and sesame chicken. i ordered the pad see ewe. eric got a crab rangoon and pad khee mao. rickell said the egg roll tasted like it came from the freezer case and did not eat it. eric said the crab rangoon was terrible and came with "raspberry jam or something" to dip it in.

my pad see ewe was ok, except it was ridiculously salty. eric said the pad khee mao was fine (but it was also a small portion). rickell hated the sesame chicken. i tasted it and i can understand why. it was not actually sesame chicken. it was deep fried chunks of chicken covered in sweet and sour sauce. the only thing indicating that sesame was even considered was the sprinkling of raw sesame seeds on top. i tasted it and it was completely bland.

now here is the thing, we have eaten there many times before and we know what the food has tasted like. rickell hated her sesame chicken so much that she called over the manager and said, "this is not sesame chicken." the manager looked at her and said "well that is our sesame chicken" and walked away. what the hell!

when it was time to pay, rickell again complained about her food. she asked for a discount since she had not eaten most of it and did not like it. the cashier said she could not help her and called over the manager. again the manager repeated that "this is our sesame chicken sauce." rickell told her she understood but said that it was not actually sesame chicken, it was sweet and sour chicken. the manager was adamant that "this is how we serve it" and "that's just how it is here." rickell again asked for a discount since the fact is that she did not eat her food and was not offered anything else.

the manager once again repeated that "this is our sesame chicken sauce" but went in the back to confer with "him." who is "him," you ask? i have no clue, but she kept referring to "him" through the conversation. we waited.

after a few minutes she came back. "he said just what i said. that's just how we serve our sesame chicken. maybe it's not what you were expecting but that's how we make it here." rickell again asked for a discount. the manager told her that "he said" she could have 25% off but that "this is just how we make our sesame chicken." no apology, no attempt to offer her something else.

while the manager was discounting her bill, i decided to peek in the kitchen to try to figure out who "he" was. i saw a maybe 18 year old guy washing dishes and an older, actually asian woman at a counter. no one else. and i seriously doubt the 18 year old dishwasher is "him."

so who is "he?" who knows. the mystery remains. all i know is this: do not eat at tan thai.

(photo courtesy of eric, who i made retake it like 5 times until i was satisfied)

teak thai cuisine

i know i wrote about teak not that long ago, but i wrote about eating sushi outside that time. so this time i'm going to write about eating thai food inside. so it's different... i guess...

book club was meeting up for dinner at teak so liberal foodie and i decided to meet early for drinks and to catch up. we sat at a table in the bar area where we enjoyed $2.50 kirin ichibans (happy hour is from 5-7... you get $2.50 drafts and well drinks and half off appetizers in the bar area only).

los shu mai

we also enjoyed listening to a bunch of middle aged white dudes sitting at the bar bitch about obama. it was hilarious. overheard: "i hope he really fucks up in his first year. i mean we are already in a trillion dollars of debt. so let's spend more! fucking liberals. fucking big government. if it gets any worse, i'm moving to canada." yes, my friend, if you hate liberals and big government, then canada is definitely the place for you. readers, i could not make this shit up if i tried.

el crispy duck

our group of seven got seated right away at 6:30 when we had made our reservation and our server was great. super friendly, patient, and did not mind at all that we were indecisive or slow. we started off with pork shu mai that beth f. treated us to as a celebration of her new job as the director of development at artworks. yay beth, yay artworks, and yay shu mai!

el pad thai

liberal foodie and avani also ordered a sushi roll, i forget what, which they thoroughly enjoyed if their devouring of it within five seconds of its arrival on the table is any indication. "how is the roll, you guys?" i asked. "mmmmmffff mmmmfff," they chomped.

el seafood delight

soon enough the main dishes started rolling in. of course we could not decide on just one thing so several of us decided to share. teak's thai food is just good. it's flavorful, all the veggies and meats are fresh, and they are not afraid to spice it up. if you order it a 10, you get a 10. i love that since i get really sick of restaurants that take one look at me and decide for me that i can't handle spicy. jerks!

el green curry

the atmosphere is casual and slightly dated, but also thai-ish feeling. it's funny. emma was like "this place is so funny, it's like all family friendly. i just wouldn't expect this in mt. adams." this was a compliment since she had brought henry with her and she felt totally comfortable nursing him at the table. it was true. there were little kids everywhere. however, there is enough space in the restaurant that you don't feel like the kid yelling and throwing pad thai across the room is going to interfere with your meal.

los spicy fried noodles

the one thing that kind of sucks about teak is the parking. they have one tiny lot (like maybe 6-8 spots) across the street from the restaurant, but otherwise you are stuck hunting for a spot in the wilds of mt. adams. that isn't fun for anyone but what can you do.

overall, teak is a basic and reliably delicious thai option with good service and reasonable prices (all entrees pictured were $11-16). they have a wait sometimes, but not (it seems) during the week. and they take reservations and can accommodate big, indecisive groups. there is nothing especially innovative or exciting on the menu... you'll find everything here at every other thai place in town. but teak knows what it is and doesn't try to do anything it's not, and it does a pretty damn good job of it.

lulu's noodle and rice shop

shortest review ever... i am about to run to my japanese class. i just wanted to let you all know that lulu's is totally average and you should not make the trip out to springdale for it if you don't live there. i had heard about this place (i think on the internet somewhere) and i thought it was going to be amazingly awesome and it was not.

however, if you do live out that way and you want some cheap chinese or noodles, it's slightly better than most takeout places so i would go there in that case. downside: they charge you 6% extra to use a credit card. boo!

ok, time to go to class. さようなら!

teak thai, baseball, and king wok

my sister laura came to visit this weekend so clearly there was a lot of eating to be done. we started out the weekend right with pesto and gnocchi sent with laura by my mom. we sat outside and drank beer and ate the pasta. yummy. we then ran out for movies and ice cream. we spent the evening watching the darjeeling limited (boring... do not waste your time) and eating drumsticks. then we passed out at like 11 pm because i am a grandma.

the next day we slept in and spent the day exploring cincinnati. we got hungry and fortunately laura came bearing my stepdad's credit card with the instruction to buy ourselves dinner and "don't spend more than $100." this is cincinnati after all so it was not hard to do, although we did want to get our money's worth obviously.

laura had been to teak thai before and loved it, and since we were in the mood for sushi and dining al fresco, we headed over there. we decided to get there right at 5 since we were planning to go to the baseball game at 7. well good thing we rushed since we were the only people there! well that is not totally true, there were a few people eating inside. we left at like 6:30 though and there was still no one on the patio. it was crazy.

sushi bridge = AWESOME

we got the sushi boat. i was so excited about this since it has been my dream in life for years to order a sushi boat but i just can never afford it. well actually our boat was a bridge but we did not care. the sushi was very yummy... i had never had teak's sushi before. everything else i've had there (various curries, some noodle dishes, the hot pot) have all been excellent. service is also great and it's not too expensive. the only thing that kind of sucks is the parking. but overall i have always had a good experience there.

we loved the sushi so much that we did not even care that the flies were all over it

after sushi we headed over to the baseball game. we parked kind of far from the stadium so we wouldn't have to pay so we strolled through downtown cincinnati a bit. laura kept exclaiming, "cincinnati is SO RIDICULOUS! this place is SO WEIRD!" but she liked it. we just kept seeing strange random sights such as people with a grill out on the sidewalk, people in weird outfits, random dance party on fountain square, etc. in other words your normal cincinnati things. but i remember my first days here and i remember the feeling of "where the hell am i?" very well.

normally i chow down at baseball games. i always have to have beer and a corn dog (or sometimes two) and also at least one other snack. however, after all that sushi all we had room for was some nachos. well other than beer of course... we drank plenty of that. laura ordered the nachos and they asked her "do you want sauce?" and she was like "sauce? what's sauce? i just want nachos!" they ended up giving her "sauce" which turned out to be salsa. laura: "sauce, what the hell! cincinnati is so weird!"

nachos with "sauce"

laura had actually never been to a baseball game before which is why she wanted to go so bad. it was a really fun night to go. it was "80s night" so they were showing all these old tv shows before the game started. they also gave out these adam dunn bobbleheads which somehow had to do with the 80s. now i have no idea who the hell adam dunn is (i am guessing some baseball player?) but nothing makes me happier than a free toy so that was awesome.

today we went to see the batman movie which laura really wanted to see. i liked it actually more than i thought i would but damn was it long. my attention span just is not what it used to be. and after batman we were craving some chinese so we headed over to king wok, which is in my opinion the best chinese in cincinnati.

i seriously wonder how people put up with me constantly forcing them to be in photos like this

now i know no one else thinks king wok is that great but i love it. the food is by far the most authentic and delicious chinese i've found in cincinnati and they have lots of seafood options and they do dim sum on weekends and they even put the chinese part of the menu in english! it is cheap and they are nice to me, even when i am telling them that yes please i really want this spicy i promise i will not send it back please please please. king wok is totally one of my standbys and i think you should run not walk there ASAP.

please refrain from licking your computer screen

laura is gone now and i am bored and lonely and depressed since it is sunday night and i am all by myself and i do not feel like going to work tomorrow and my apartment is a mess and i have a pile of dishes in the kitchen. i think i will go feel sorry for myself now, or else maybe i will just get into those drumsticks remaining in my freezer...

mekong

tonight i went to mekong, which is a thai restaurant up near kenwood, with celia and adam. it is just a tiny little place in a strip mall. i was a little skeptical when i first went in because the place was completely empty, and the menu included the following items:

1. general's chicken
2. sesame chicken
3. sweet and sour chicken
4. orange chicken

ok. that is not exactly a promising sign for a thai restaurant.

i sat down and tried to order a singha and they told me they don't sell alcohol. !!! so i was feeling a little worried.

well then celia and adam arrived bearing wine and i calmed down a little. they told me that they come here all the time and it is their favorite thai place. they laughed with me at the "thai spaghetti" and the four versions of panda express dishes on the menu. still, i was not completely convinced.

well then the food came and it was excellent. we had the calamari appetizer which was cooked perfectly. crispy and tender and delicious and not tough at all.

for a meal i had the "spicy thai" with shrimp. this was an assortment of vegetables (cabbage, baby corn, carrots, broccoli, onions, bamboo shoots) in a delicious flavorful spicy sauce. their spicy level is 1-3 and i got 3 and it was perfectly spicy. i ate every bite. also it came with jasmine rice... none of that cheap uncle ben crap.

adam got the garlic chicken i think which i tasted and it was also really yummy. lots of fresh broccoli. celia got panang curry and she loved it, i did not taste it though.

adam mentioned that they love this indian place called hi bombay (does that make sense? it sounds kind of nutty, but who knows with those crazy brown people). he said it is a total hole in the wall and people get scared off. so then i cast aside all doubts about their restaurant taste. celia and adam, i trust you completely. feed me more!

we were complaining about weird cincinnati food obsessions and adam pointed out that bw3's, which are basically on every corner here, is the stupidest name for a restaurant ever. it is short for buffalo wild wings. ok. so there are 2 ws. so why is it called bw3's? it should be bw2's. i am now obsessed with that and can't get over it. so now you have to be annoyed too. muahahahaha.