Review: Thai Corner

So, last Friday Matchstick and I went out to dinner, since I got my last paycheque from work in the mail. We'd been to Antonio's a few nights before, so we wanted to try something different. Arigato was a little out of our price range, and Fresh Side was bound to be crowded...where to go? I remembered that there was a little Thai place just down the alley by Antonio's, so after some short deliberation we decided to try it out.

Thai Corner is actually in the plaza off Main Street, but it's quicker to take the little (and I do mean little! It's exactly wide enough for one person) alley next to Antonio's. It's next to a little pho shop, which is also on my list of places to try, but rather farther down. Entering Thai Corner, you're greeted by brightly coloured walls, photos of Thailand, and paintings and silhouettes. The place is rather small, and probably always sounds busy. One of the things I liked about the layout of the restaurant is that you can catch a glimpse of the kitchen from the "audience," which is somehow comforting in a small eatery (and the sight of fresh rice coming out of the steamer made me do a little happy dance inside). The menu is large enough to provide variety, and do a good job of explaining exactly what is in each dish.

Matchstick and I both got varieties of curry. We were told that his was of medium heat, while mine was the hottest they served. He had gang kari with chicken, while I had gang bha with beef. The dishes were presented well, with heaping portions of fresh jasmine rice. The gang bha had the appearance of a clear broth, the vegetables in it were cooked just right--tender crisp. The beef was tender and had absorbed the flavour of the curry. While the heat of the curry did grow as I ate, it wasn't as hot as I had hoped.
The gang kari was a yellow curry, of mild spice. It had the characteristic sweetness of yellow curry (or rather, the sweetness I tend to expect), and the potatoes in it had absorbed quite a lot of flavour. The spices could, however, suffer to be toned up quite a bit. The vegetables and chicken were cooked well, and were flavourful.
The issues we had with both curries were the thinness of the curry and the portion sizes. Thai curries are, in general, quite thin, more like soups, but these were just a little thinner than I am accustomed to. The upside of this, I suppose, is that the sauce was more readily absorbed when it was poured over the rice. As for the portions, they were decent, but could definitely do with a little bulking up. They needed more everything, but most of all more meat (I guess that's my American prejudice coming through *laugh*).
The rice was perfectly cooked, and plentiful. You cannot believe how happy it made me to finally have a bowl (well, it was on a plate...) of good rice. Fragrant, sweet, neither too soft nor underdone...The DCs are absolutely incapable of cooking rice and pasta, so when I get to have the real thing it's amazing. Thai Corner definitely understands the importance of rice, and more importantly can prepare it well.

In all, although it wasn't spectacular, Thai Corner is a nice little place. It definitely deserves another visit--I haven't had their pad thai yet! While perhaps a little too tame in terms of flavour for those familiar with Thai cuisine, it's definitely a place everyone can enjoy. Yes, even poor college students; the prices are quite reasonable. Go check it out if you're in the area!

Of course, being the bottomless pits that we are, Matchstick and I were hungry a few hours later. The kitchen in the mod was...disgusting, and the sink was piled so high with EVERYONE ELSE'S DISHES that we couldn't even reach the tap for water... The obvious solution, of course, was to order Wings (prime food for college students: cheap, yummy, and ubiquitous! Just look around for "Wings over *insert town name here*")--a honey barbecue DC-10 and large fries. Yum yum! Saturday we had a big production and cleaned the kitchen. It was fantabulous, by which I mean we both wanted to kill his flatmates afterwards. We reclaimed all his implements, and all was good.

Saturday, we visited a farm stand near Hampshire, which was awesome fun in the mud (he wore his "hooker boots," since they're the only waterproof shoes he owns. Four inch heels!!). We bought a large container (I want to say quart) of little tomatoes--about golf ball size--a butternut squash, and six little sugar pumpkins. We haven't done anything with the pumpkins or squash yet (pumpkin soup is on the agenda!!!), but we did start on the tomatoes. Let me just say that they're absolutely heavenly. I need to go back before the season ends and buy myself some! Maybe even try preserving a few...I should try to find the New York Times recipe. Anyway, those little fuckers are so juicy and sweet it's hard to keep yourself from having another...and another...and another... Matchstick's been making BLTs with them. Sounds so delish!! I hope we'll be able to enjoy plenty of good produce from that farm stand before the season ends. Samhaintide is coming up fast, and the season doesn't last too much longer after that!