Mekong Fresh Noodle & Grill

Alrighty.  I still have a little motivation left over and I did promise some local content, so let's keep the ball rolling.  Today we'll be talking about a place that I actually visited two months ago (where does the time go) but because I'm a lazy bastard I'm kind of the last person in town to talk about it.  The Statesman not only reviewed it, it was also only one of two Meridian eateries to make their best new restaurants of 2015 list, an assertion that I agree with.  With a caveat or two.

Memorial Day Weekend 2014: Day 1 - Portland (Sen Yai, Uno Mas, Voodoo Doughnut)

A little less than a year ago, I embarked on a road trip to Seattle for a three day weekend (meaning that I really only got to spend about two days enjoying the city).  This time around, I decided to step up the crazy by going on the single strangest vacation of my life (so far)...

At roughly 5:30 on Saturday morning, we hit Starbucks for coffee and breakfast (I do NOT recommend the bacon Gouda breakfast sandwiches) before jumping on the freeway.  In one car rode myself, my roommate and her kids; in the other, my mother and sister.  In Boardman, we stopped to visit with my aunt for a few minutes and gas up the vehicles.  At that point, the roommate's kids hopped in the car with my Mom and Sis so their mother could crawl in my back seat, and then it was straight through to Portland.  We reconvened at a shopping mall that I don't recall the name of, where the roommate's BFF awaited to whisk her and the younger child away to the Oregon Coast.  

The older child would stay with me and my family, spending the rest of the day and part of Sunday exploring Portland.  Sunday evening we would drive to Albany to visit with my cousin and her kids, and after a bit of that I would continue on to the Coast alone to spend the night relaxing (and hopefully indulging my rarely-addressed seafood cravings).  Monday morning I would collect the roommate and younger kid, swing back by Albany for the older kid, and then head homeward.  Yes, I agree that it seems a bit insane looking at it all laid out like that, but at the time it seemed perfectly sensible (or maybe I was just glad to be out of town for the weekend).  We checked into our hotel, which was a lot nicer than I expected, even though they charge three bucks to rent one of their severely limited selection of videotapes and were completely out of complimentary cookies.  Then, it was on to lunch.

Krung Thai

One thing I'm learning about eating in Nampa is that the further you get away from the historic downtown area, not a lot of attention is paid to how a business looks on the outside.  I have stepped across the thresholds of several eateries that were a little sketchy-looking, only to find myself in a cozy little place staffed by friendly people who made me feel welcome and were happy to share their love of food.  One such place is Krung Thai.

Pad Thai House

Well, since I'm starting to get backed up on Thai restaurants I need to review, I might as well get one of them out of the way.  Pad Thai House has become a favorite over the last several months, not just of mine but my roommate, my mother, my sister, my sister's boyfriend, etc.  They were one of those places I drove by a million times and never stopped at until my loved ones basically held an intervention to get me there.  Sometimes visiting a place a half dozen times in a few months makes reviewing them tricky, because I don't really recall my first visit or any anecdotes about it with any real clarity, but by the same token there are usually a lot more pictures to show and dishes to talk about.  So let's talk about some food, eh?

Chai-Yo Thai

So, a couple of days after my previous trip, I had occasion to be in Twin Falls again (don't ask).  But given my previous good luck, this time I decided specifically to see what else Mountain Home might have to offer.

When it comes to aggregate review sites for restaurants, I've always been partial to Urbanspoon, so I turned to them for information.  Friends, let me introduce you to the highest-ranked eatery in Mountain Home...

My Thai "gateway dish"...

I'm not in the habit of writing a second blog entry about places.  At least so far.  Even though I will revisit places that I love, albeit far less often than I would like, I would rather focus on ground I haven't already covered.  There have been a few exceptions, like Boise Fry Company and Lorena's, where particularly interesting circumstances justified (at least in my opinion) further attention.

In this case in particular, it's a single dish from A Taste of Thai that I really want to draw attention to.  A few days ago I happened to be long on appetite and short on cash, I pulled out the old coupon folder and came across a $20 voucher for A Taste of Thai which I had purchased from CitySmart for $10.  I knew my sister was in more or less the same financial boat, so I offered to use the certificate to buy us lunch.  She went with the Pad Thai, which to most people is the "gateway dish" that draws them in to the exploration of Thai cuisine, much in the same way that the California Roll is most people's first sushi experience.

For my own part, I don't dig Pad Thai too much.  I don't like the odd sweet/tangy seasoning combination.  I kept dragging my eyes over their lunch menu again and again, trying to find the dish that would suit my tastes and keep me wanting to explore.  Eventually I decided that I wasn't going to find that dish amongst their lunch specials, and I decided to peruse the dinner menu.  And that, my friends, is when I saw it...

38. Pad Gai - Wide wheat noodles, eggs, onions, roasted garlic, black pepper and your choice of meat stir-fried in a mild sauce

A Taste of Thai

No, not the A Taste of Thai that makes the colorfully packaged canned and boxed foods that you can buy in pretty much every grocery store.  This A Taste of Thai is the latest link in a small chain based out of Twin Falls, and took over the space vacated by the Saigon Grill at the corner of Milwaukee and Emerald in Boise.