Tom Sietsema Dining The question elicits a smile
Server Phonesavanh “Pon” Luangrath serves Thai and Lao dishes at Bangkok Golden Thai Restaurant.
and a vigorous nod from Phonesavanh “Pon” Luangrath, which makes me feel as if I’ve uttered some magic code. There is no written menu, she tells me, but both of the cooks at Bangkok Golden Thai are Laotian (as is she) and prepared to honor requests for their native food. I leave it to Luangrath to select a couple of special dishes for my friends and me, with the proviso that the food be prepared exactly as she and the cooks would eat it. As a backup, and to be fair to the written menu, I tack on a few Thai dishes to the order. Minutes later, I’m breaking
Thai beyond the buffet,
Laotian off the menu Go for the less obvious at Bangkok Golden
“A
re you here for the buffet?” That’s always the first question out
of the mouths of servers at Bangkok Golden Thai Restaurant, and I can understand why. In all of my visits to
the tiny dining room in the Seven Corners Shopping Center, I’ve never seen anyone order off the menu. That puzzles me, because the buffet, a steamy beige collection of food on display in the back of the place, does not present itself as a serious ambassador for Thai cooking. At $8.95 a head at lunch ($12.95 at dinner), it’s gently priced, but also run-of-the mill with pad Thai, spring rolls, drunken noodles and crispy chicken. Yawn. Armed with a promising tip from a reader about a secret menu, I dismiss the buffet and ask my server, “Do you serve Laotian food?”
open a curry puff, an empanada as routed through Thailand and mellow with curried potatoes beneath its flaky cover. Close behind comes a plate of springy little fried shrimp cakes, greaseless and hinting of lemon grass in their seasoning. Their cucumber dip is more sweet than sour, but the seafood snack is so good, it doesn’t need any enhancement. Slices of duck, wispy in a light batter, are listed as a house signature, and each hot-crisp-green (with basil and green pepper) bite explains why. “Spicy” seafood salad isn’t a major hair-curler, but it does deliver a nice shock of lime and lemon grass, and the shrimp and scored squid are both tender and abundant. Bangkok Golden Thai, it
turns out, does pretty well with its Thai food. But it does even better with
what’s rarer on the scene. If you’ve never had the food of Laos and you want to know how it differs from the country with which it shares a border in Southeast Asia, try the green papaya salad. Done the Lao way, the shredded fruit is mixed with tomatoes and garlic and (Continued on Page 32)
★ ★ (Good)
Bangkok Golden Thai Restaurant 6395 Seven Corners Center, Falls Church. 703-533-9480.
Open: Weekdays from 11 a.m. to 10 p.m., weekends and holidays from noon to 10 p.m. MasterCard, Visa. Parking lot.
pRices: appetizers $2.95 to $6.95, lunch entrees $6.50 to $7.50, dinner entrees $8.95 to $13.95.
sOund check: 78 decibels/Must speak with raised voice.
All in The fAmily
Bangkok Golden Thai has two older siblings, Bangkok Golden Thai in Fort Washington and Tong Thai in Fairfax. Neither claims a “secret” menu.
Tom sietsema chats live at 11 a.m. on Wednesdays. Join him and find videos, blog posts and more at washingtonpost. com/
tomsietsema. November 28, 2010 | The WaShinGTon PoST MaGazine 31
PHOTOGRAPH BY SCOTT SUCHMAN
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