Category: Thai

AlbuquerqueNew MexicoThai

Thai Boran – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno11:34 AM

Many of us with a puerile sense of humor can probably recall giggling like silly school kids the first time we visited a Thai restaurant and perused a menu. We went straight into the gutter the first time we came across such foods as phat prik and fuktong curry. Even after learning that “phat prik” is actually a stir-fried chili dish and “fuktong curry” is a pumpkin curry, the sophomoric among us couldn’t order these dishes with a straight face. It gets even worse when we actually learned how to pronounce the names of Thai dishes. Not even Bob Newhart could order “cow pod guy” (chicken fried rice) or “cow pod moo” (pork fried rice) with his usual deadpan delivery.…

AlbuquerqueClosed in 2021Gone But Not ForgottenNew MexicoRated 23Thai

Siam Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno3:37 AM

It’s oft been said that “you taste first with your eyes.”  Certainly sight figures in to the enjoyment of food and sets expectations, but the first sensory receptors to engage in taste is the sense of smell.  If you’ve ever experienced a pleasant aroma wafting toward you as you approach a restaurant, you’ll agree.  The Siam Cafe is quite possibly the most aromatically-enticing, olfactory-arousing restaurant in the Duke City.  Its exotic spices and herbs waft like a gentle summer breeze over all diners entering what is conceivably Albuquerque’s best Thai restaurant. For years the marquee named its previous occupant, Pollo Loco, before the owners of the Siam Cafe finally changed the marquee in 2003. With its new signage, this gem declared…

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Tokyo Bangkok – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

In 2019, Mastercard published its Global Destination Cities Index which ranked 200 cities around the world with the most international visitors.  Topping the list for the fourth consecutive year was Bangkok, Thailand which boasted of 22-million overnight visitors.  Next on the list with around 19-million international overnight visitors were Paris and London respectively.  With 13.6-million visitors, New York City was the only United States destination to make the top ten, ranking seventh.  Tokyo (12.93-visitors) was ninth on the list. Many years ago when I was a fledgling airman in the world’s greatest Air Force I had the privilege of serving with grizzled veterans who had been stationed in Southeast Asia during the long and drawn-out Vietnam War.  Almost invariably they…

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Thai Kitchen – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno3:52 PM

“There is no good meat that their stupid cooks do not spoil with the sauce they make. They mix with all their stews a certain paste made of rotten prawns…which has such a pungent smell that it nauseates anyone not accustomed to it.” No, that’s not a review published by a disgruntled diner on Zomato or Yelp. Nor is it Gil describing a chile dish to which liberal amounts of cumin were added. This scathing indictment was written in 1688 by Gervaise, a Catholic missionary from France. It was his tactless way of describing a Siamese meal at a diplomatic function he attended. Much has changed since Gervaise disparaged and insulted the cuisine of what is today Thailand, the only…

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Thai House – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno3:18 PM

American fashion designer Zac Posen observed that “Chefs have the ego of an actor and fashion designer combined.” In comparison to private cooks, however, chefs are as modest as a cloistered nun.  In a recent survey, PayScale.com, an online salary information company ranked occupations by ego size, asking 383,000 people how strongly they agree with the statement, “I am the top performer at my company for jobs similar to mine.” The highest scores were determined to reflect “either a high level of professional confidence, an inflated sense of self, or both.”  The survey revealed that a whopping forty-three percent of us strongly believe we are our company’s top performer and that men and women are equally immodest. Topping the list…

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Thai Vegan – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno7:39 PM

“What’s in a name? That which we call a rose By any other name would smell as sweet.” – William Shakespeare Contrary to the Bard of Avon’s most famous sonnet, what something is named does matter. It matters at least as much as what it is. Some would say, in fact, that a name is everything. If a steak restaurant was named Rotted Meat, it’s unlikely it would entice enough diners (much less pedantic critics) to ever discover it serves four-star gourmet quality cuisine. Diners would stay away in droves and those intrepid enough to visit would likely find the suggestive nature of its name greatly diminishes the deliciousness of the food. A restaurant’s name is its identity. The right…

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Fareast Fuzion – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

A Journal of Consumer Research study published in 2012 revealed that consumers equate eating meat with their concept of masculinity. To the dismay of spinach-lovers like Popeye, respondents indicated meat has a more masculine quality than vegetables. Study participants considered male carnivores to be more masculine than their vegetarian counterparts (ostensibly Bill Clinton was more masculine when he scarfed up Big Macs than he is now that he’s a vegetarian). “To the strong, traditional, macho, bicep-flexing, all-American male, red meat is a strong, traditional, macho, bicep-flexing, All-American food,” wrote the researchers. “Soy is not. To eat it, they would have to give up a food they saw as strong and powerful like themselves for a food they saw as weak…

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Pad Thai Cafe – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Celebrity chef Anthony Bourdain likened his first experience tasting Thai food to “like discovering a color I never knew existed before. A whole new crayon box full of colors.” With so many vibrant colors available, most people don’t settle for one fairly basic color (let’s say black) in a box full of crayons. Unfortunately, settling is precisely what many diners tend to do when eating at Thai restaurants. Although the menu may be replete with dozens of exotic options, many diners focus exclusively on ordering that one Thai dish with which they’re familiar, that ubiquitous dish more innocuous than bold, the dish which provides flavor without venturing outside the safe comfort zone that bespeaks of the unknown. For many diners,…

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Sakura Sushi Thai & Laos Cuisine – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno2:02 AM

Opinions vary as to what the next “hot” cuisine in America will be. As an independent observer of the New Mexico culinary condition, I’m more interested in how long it will take for that heat to make its way to the Land of Enchantment…and whether its sizzle will wow Duke City diners or pass us by. In 2005, Bon Appetit declared Peruvian the next hot cuisine. Apparently Albuquerque didn’t think it was so hot because Perumex, the city’s first and only Peruvian restaurant at the time both opened and closed the year of Bon Appetit’s proclamation. Thankfully in 2011 Rene and Monica Coronado opened Pollito Con Papas to give the Duke City a second chance at a taste of Peru.…

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Hot Pink Thai Cuisine – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno5:36 PM

Black socks and sandals, mixing plaids and polka dots, middle-aged men sporting the “pants falling down” look, T-shirts that accentuate the “spare tire” look, fat guys wearing culottes… If there’s a fashion faux-pas out there, you can bet some of us XY-chromosome-enabled fashion Luddites have committed it and then some. When it comes to fashion, many of us are as clueless as a pirate wearing two eye patches. There is, however, one fashion statement we won’t make. Among the six to seven shirts hanging (wrinkles and all) in our closets, none will be the color pink. Nor will they be salmon, carnation, rose, Amaranth or any other shade of pink fashionistas invented in an effort to get us to wear…

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Loving Vegan – Albuquerque, New Mexico (CLOSED)

Gil Garduno9:22 PM

My adovada adoring amigo Ruben likened the irony to an episode of Seinfeld. Two weeks into his experiment with an ostensibly healthier vegan diet, he was craving sushi and needed his sushi-specific pangs of hunger sated. No sooner had we finished a very satisfying sushi soiree at Albuquerque’s only vegan sushi restaurant than our waitress apprised us the restaurant would be closing for good two days later. “Serenity now,” we cried, mimicking Frank Costanza when faced with a stressful situation. It just didn’t seem fair that we would make such a delicious discovery only to have plans for future meals dashed. Loving Vegan gave it the “old college try,” initially launching in June, 2012 on Coors Blvd before relocating in…