I say the new My Thai restaurant because the original one located in the Park Plaza building in Mt. Vernon suffered a devastating fire. Well it is a new day, new dawn and a new My Thai restaurant that has opened in the refurbished Tack building on Central Avenue and Bank Street.
It was a seriously rain filled evening when I enjoyed the offer from My Thai’s owner Brad Wells to come taste the unique and ever rotating dishes on their street food menu. What is street food? Different cultures have their own variations, but in essence, quick and easy. The surge in food trucks is this century’s look at street food although My Thai’s is a look at Thai street food from chicken satay to flash fried silkworms.
The restaurant is quite large showcasing an extensive bar with flat screens, regular dining tables, a room with communal dining, and a private dining room offering flat screen for corporate meetings or for private parties. The executive chef/owner is Pui Wales, Brad’s wife and mother to sous chef Jirat Suphrom-In. There are two kitchens, the main one in the back turning out a vast array of Thai foods and the open kitchen/grill, Street Food Kitchen.
It was around the open kitchen that boasts counter dining where I and my friend Wendy Tien of Upstart Kitchen tasted, munched, chatted and enjoyed a vast array of My Thai’s street food. Wendy enjoyed one of a number of signature cocktails and I quenched my thirst with a Thai ice tea.
We kicked off our tasting with the chicken satay with a not so traditional, run of the mill, peanut sauce, this one had some spice and I liked it and a second dipping sauce of fresh chopped veggies in a more sweet and sour type base. Next were flash fried in the wok crispy chicken livers with baby bok choy and oyster sauce showcasing a nice contrast in textures. The most daring of all the items were the crispy silkworms with short bamboo skewers to stab your Thai nosh. This was a first for me, the worms were crunchy, pleasant enough flavor – I munched a few. Just like anything you have grown accustomed in your culture just might take time for newbies.
Chef Jirat said the noodle bowl was the most popular of the offerings which is rice noodles, Chinese broccoli, crispy shallots and duck in a rich, slightly sweet broth. Lemongrass beef, lotus chips, ginger cabbage slaw with a sticky rice cake adorned the counter for Wendy and me to share. We agreed that the sticky rice cake was a real nice surprise. Skewered beef tongue with strong hints of white pepper and the head-on jumbo prawn were street dishes that rounded off our tasting.
Due to a computer crash I only have some of the snaps retrieved from my phone. Should the others be retrieved I will add them to the slideshow.
Know that the street food is only a small part of the Thai dishes available to you at My Thai but it is the fun part. I would definitely be back for a number of the dishes though as stated above, the street food menu does rotate.
My Thai’s street food isn’t quite the days of yore when one would ride up in their T-Bird convertible and have a carhop take your order that was street food too. But it is a new day, a new dawn and a new My Thai.
My Thai Restaurant - 1300 Bank Street (entrance on Central Avenue)
Baltimore MD - 410-327-0023 - www.mythaibaltimore.com
Facebook: www.facebook.com/MyThaiBaltimore
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