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Cheap Eats
Thai
Where the
lemon grass is always greener.
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Stick
'em up: Beef panang at Sripraphai in Woodside, Queens.
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Too often, Thai chainlets give
us what they think we want: too-sweet satays, tame tom yum, pallid
pad Thai. The critical balance of hot, sour, salty, and sweet is
lost in translation. There are exceptions -- namely, and most spectacularly,
Sripraphai, a superb Thai kitchen housed inside a nondescript
Woodside, Queens, storefront that looks about as cheerful as an
H&R Block office. With all due respect to Mets fans --
if there are any left this season -- we can't think of a better
reason to board the No. 7 train than feeding on crispy dried catfish
in a piquant mango, red-onion, cilantro, and chili-pepper salad
($10.50); fiery beef panang redolent of basil and lemon leaf ($7);
mouthwateringly good minced pork with chilies, peanuts, and lemon
juice ($6). You'll trivialize the experience to some ineffable degree
if you eat indoors, cramped among the Formica tables, under the
fluorescent lighting, so instead repair to the semi-secret bare-bones
backyard with its picture-book border of overgrown pink and red
rose blossoms. But don't forget to make a pit stop at the dessert
counter on your way out to stock up on sticky coconut-rice confections
or some milky puddings for the road.
Somewhere between standard Americanized Thai and Sripraphai are Thai Cafe and Amarin Cafe, two brightly flavored spots in Greenpoint's pierogi-laden landscape. In the East Village, Kai Kai Thai Eatery deliciously breaks the menu monotony with fifteen appetizers that read like Thai dim sum, priced from $1 to $5 apiece. (We're addicted to the ma-ta-ba, a flaky, buttery chicken pastry.) Good grub turns up in the unlikeliest of places, perhaps none less likely than Lady Bakery, a generic fluorescent-lit pastry-and-birthday-cake depot near the mouth of the Lincoln Tunnel. Strategically located a couple doors down from Cupcake Cafe, ostensibly to undercut the competition, this nondescript storefront dabbles in takeout Thai home cooking, almost as if it were a hobby. "People would come for coffee and ask for food," the cashier told us. She and her mother obliged, with handwritten signs announcing a daily choice of two soups and a main dish, like the rich and pungent chicken curry served with soft jasmine rice ($6.50). If the Hell's Kitchen cake racket proves too cutthroat, these ladies clearly have something to fall back on.
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