By Dennis R. Getto
Journal Sentinel dining
Published: Feb. 24, 2002
(Dennis R. Getto's review can be found on http://www.onwisconsin.com/dining)
The readers of this column don't miss much.
Last November, the Virasith family opened a restaurant called Thai
Gourmet in Kenosha's Southport Plaza shopping center. Within three
weeks, a reader had e-mailed me about it.
"They have a great lunch buffet," she wrote.
I regret to say I haven't had the chance to try that lunch buffet
($6.95 per person). But I have visited for dinner three times in
the past month, and I've eaten some good Thai food.
I suspect that many folks in Racine and Kenosha have been waiting
for a Thai restaurant to open. The first Thai restaurant arrived
in the Milwaukee area in 1985, and in the 17 years that have followed
the number has grown steadily. Just about every neighborhood in
Milwaukee has its own Thai place. I've even visited one - the Bangkok
Cafe in Muskego - that's connected to a country and western bar.
It's about time
But up until now, but no one had served Thai food in Kenosha.
Thai Gourmet is close to Interstate 94 (about three miles east).
That, and because it's open on Saturday and Sunday, makes it a great
place to keep in mind if you're headed back home from northern Illinois.
The restaurant is a family project. The lead chef is Simone Virasith
and her daughter Lea is the restaurant's manager. Lea Virasith said
her brother, sister, brother-in-law and father all help out on weekends.
Her mom shares the cooking duties with an assistant, Thay Thomnavong.
The menu is all Thai (some other Thai places also offer Chinese
dishes), touching on most of the major dishes in that cuisine. Thai
soups and noodle dishes appear on the menu alongside more standard
stir-fries and curries. Five dishes are available for vegetarians.
There's also another authentic element to the food here - it can
be searingly hot. Fordishes that contain Thai peppers, our servers
offered us a range from one (mild) to five (hot). We never ordered
anything hotter than two and found our mouths and tongues suitably
challenged.
The most memorable dish we sampled was Volcano Tofu ($8.95), one
of several "volcano" entrees that are served in the same
way. In our case, large slices of golden brown, deep-fried tofu,
mushrooms, onions, cabbage, green and red bell peppers and carrots
had been heaped onto a hot steel platter and set on a tray beside
our table.
Next, our server poured on a sweet sauce that exploded into a huge
cloud of steam. The effect was dramatic, and the dish, with its
interesting contrast of chewy tofu and still-crunchy vegetables,
was quite good.
Fried rice with a twist
Almost as unusual was an order of Tropical Pineapple Fried Rice,
which we ordered with pork ($8.95). As someone who frequently eats
in Asian restaurants, I've come to expect fried rice to be a savory
dish with a light brown color imparted by either soy sauce or nam
pla, a fish sauce that's widely used in Thai cooking. This rice
was bright yellow, lightly flavored with curry, sweet from the addition
of pineapple and crunchy, thanks to the addition of cashew nuts.
It delivered a refreshing mix of flavors and textures.
Then there was Thai Gourmet's Ginger Fish ($16.95). In true Thai
style, the kitchen started with a whole red snapper into which the
chef cut large slits on both sides (to speed the cooking). The fish
was then fried in oil, set on a platter and topped with freshly
stir-fried ground pork, ginger, scallions and mushrooms.
It was some of the most delicious snapper I've eaten anywhere,
as long as I was careful to watch for bones (my dining companion
and I only found a few).
Thai cooking reserves an honored place for duck, and the dish we
sampled delivered a great combination of flavor and texture. Boneless
pieces of the poultry were deep-fried to crisp its skin, then covered
with a slightly sweet sauce and arranged on a hot steel platter
atop a mix of onions, straw mushrooms, broccoli, green peppers and
bay corn. Those vegetables added crunch to the chewy duck pieces.
The only traditional Thai curry we tried, Beef Massamun ($9.95),
was an absolute delight, with plenty of meat, potatoes, carrots,
onions and peanuts in a bright yellow sauce that was nicely sweetened
with coconut milk. That sweet sauce turned the jasmine rice served
with the meal a great main course.
Dipping into appetizers
Appetizers matched the best entrees. For something out of the ordinary,
my dining companion and I tried Beef Satay ($5.95), skewered strips
of marinated meat that Thai Gourmet served with a small burner.
We found it fun to toast the skewered meat crisp on the small burner
before dipping it into the sweet coconut-peanut sauce served on
the side. Other appetizers - Thai egg rolls ($2.95), crispy squid
($5.95), Tod Mun (Thai fish cakes, $6.50) and Thai chicken wings
($4.50) were all very good.
The big disappointments were noodle dishes. Neither Pad Thai, which
I sampled in shrimp ($10.95) and in vegetarian ($8.95) versions,
nor Pud See Euw with pork ($8.95) was anything more than average.
The best versions of these classic Thai rice-noodle dishes have
lots of flavor from soy, sugar, fish sauce and some ground chiles.
All three dishes lacked a traditional richness and tasted more like
limp side orders than main courses.
But there was excellent Thai Custard ($2.50) for dessert. Made
with coconut milk, Thai pumpkin, eggs and milk, it was flavorful
without being overpowering and sent us on our way back to Milwaukee
with a sweet taste in our mouths.
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