Crazy for Thai

I love pad thai... that's the most important thing you need to know.

• Vegetable with tofu

• Extra peanuts

• Medium plus spicy
  

Since coming to NYC I've been hesitant to eat out much and nervous to find a good, cheap thai restaurant that can fulfill my love of pad thai. However, yesterday I found the restaurant that will likely become my pad thai place, they serve an almost perfect pad thai dish.

I stumbled upon this restaurant by complete accident. I had intended to return some books to the library but the library was closed and didn't have a drop box. That failed. I was gonna try to study at a park near NYU but couldn't keep my mind focused. That failed. So I just started to wander around the area aimlessly. I walked by this restaurant and the ONLY reason I even gave it a second look was because it had something very very few restaurants in NYC have.... outdoor seating.

It's really very disappointing... all I want to do most of the time is get a good light meal outdoors, it's not that hard. But it just doesn't happen here for whatever reason. So anyway I see it, think "finally someone from michigan decided to open a restaurant with outdoor seating" and go look at the menu. I was happy to realize that yummm it's thai food and wow their pad thai is only $11 and because I was there before 7pm I get an extra 30% of my entire meal. No way was I gonna pass this by.

So I sat outside and had the most wonderful, simple pad thai.





It's amazing... the peanuts and spices were on the side and so were the sprouts! This has to make it so much easier on the patrons and chef. There is no guessing about how spicy, spicy is, just do it yourself. The presentation was beautiful, food delicious, portion was just right, waiter was really friendly and the price was excellent, including tip under $12. It was one of the best meals I've had in a while.

Tartlets to Hell

Up to this point in my training I've been pretty confident and happy with my performance in the kitchen and with my final products. I have to work on my knife skills, speed and some technical skills but most of it seems within my grasp. I'm not struggling at least not until these stupid mini tartlets.

Mini Tarts are so much harder then you might think. The platting and arranging of the fruit is a pain in the butt. No matter how many times you try to re-arrange the fruit, it still looks off. I was not to pleased with the outcome, although they tasted yummy and I learned some really great knife skills. I've learned the proper way to cut a mango, kiwi, orange and even strawberry, I'd been doing it all wrong! Side Note: Can't wait to show my mom how awesome I am at cutting a mango. When I'm done I basically have two perfect mango boobs. hahahA close up of more ugly tarts. And as Chef Toni says "I don't serve ugly food"

That's Christopher, he's oustanding! He's holding our tray of our oh so yummy fig bars. When you chop them up, you have a fig puree surrounded by a sweet and crumbling shortbread dough, they complement each other perfectly! I wasn't about to let those tartlets ruin my day! I went home and nearly ate the entire half log of fig nuten. The fig nuiten is at the top of my list of favorite things I've made so far.

And finally our first savory tart. It has onions which were sweated, then carmalized with a small amout of Saki, chopped walnuts, sliced tomatoes and blue cheese. OMG just thinking about it I'm getting hungry.
Good thing I have some left over in my fridge! Hello breakfast. : )