no, really, it’s just the spices making my eyes water
the place: bamboo, 1616 comm ave, brighton
the date: wednesday, 03.11.09
the plan:awkward dinner date
my favorite thai place in boston closed years ago. I honestly don’t even remember the name, but it was on the corner of comm ave and agganis way where there’s now a qdoba. I can’t even talk about how tragical that is. so, I replaced that by fully embracing brown sugar in it’s comm ave location. I work right down the street, so I ate there at least once a week for the last four years. unfortunately, there’s been a few failed health inspections recently and coworkers have seen more roaches than I like to know about in a place I eat. (if you’re curious about health inspections, check out boston.gov’s mayor’s food court, but be careful— there may be information you’d rather not know.) I have a very healthy understanding of the fact that most restaurants are dirtier than it may be good for me to know, but once I know, I have a hard time going back.
so, the upshot here is that I have been missing thai food like burning. it’s a bad scene. no pad thai, no yellow curry, no chicken w/ cashew nuts, and on and on. thai food it my favorite and it was becoming a problem. so, when I had to plan a potentially awkward dinner date, I figured I may as well at least get some thai out of it, so we went to bamboo.
drinks, of course: I haven’t found many asian beers that I really like, but the japanese hitachino nest white ale that I had at bamboo was fantastic. typical white ale, cloudy and citrus-scented, spicy (coriander, I think, not so much cloves), and just very light and refreshing. I don’t know if it really paired well with the thai food, but the beer itself was definitely something I’ll be looking to find whenever I find a liquor store to replace marty’s. (single tear)
the main event: since I’ve been jonesing for the thai food, I had a hard time picking what I wanted. for the date, I suggested the soy duck with pickled ginger, which he ordered and seemed to like, though the duck was tough to eat and bit fatty or grisly or something. I ended up choosing the stir fry with chicken, spicy basil sauce, and chowfoon noodles. the sauce was good, though I would have liked a bit more basil flavor, but it was pleasantly spicy without being overwhelming. the noodles were perfect and the chicken well covered in the sauce. my only complaint was the vegetables— they were a little sparse for my taste, primarily onions and chinese broccoli. I definitely missed the bounty of vegetables to be found in brown sugar’s food.
for the record, the evening ended up turning out well with only minimal awkwardness and the good food we both had probably helped at least a bit. it’s still not quite ready to be pronounced my favorite thai food replacement, but it’ll do until I can find a more solid contender.
