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I find my biggest problem at food blogging comes from restaurant reviews. You order your food, it arrives, and you are so eager to eat it, you forget to take the pictures. So this is another review without pictures.
My dad and his new wife requested Thai. One I like is pretty distant for the rainy weather we were having, so I decided to go to Boon Boon Cafe. After all, although I've eaten there a couple of times with the Epicureans, I had never gone on my own for dinner. We arrived to find a large birthday party and a few other tables. Luckily there was one left for us. What a surprise to then see another table was occupied with none other than Epicurean Paul, out for a night with his son and little brother. We also saw Linda, the owner, who I had ridden with when she led the Stockton Blvd. tour.
We ordered four dishes including Thai fried rice. We did not know that the dinner entrees each came with a big side of rice as well. This I expected for lunch specials, but I was surprised that it was an automatic for a dinner entree. After all, we were thinking of family style dining and sharing all the dishes between us. Anyway, keep this in mind when you order. The rice, though, is excellent on its own. Linda had said that she always serves 100% jasmine rice while many restaurants save money by using a rice blend. This rice was nice and sticky, fragrant, and delicious.
Our first dish had been recommended by Paul. The Praram Chicken came with broccoli, carrots, and spinach and was topped with a peanut sauce. Unlike other dishes with the sauces mixed in, this had the veggies and chicken piled and the peanut sauce ladled on top. Cooked/wilted spinach is not a veggie you often expect with such a dish, but I liked it the best. The sauce was mildly spiced.
We had also ordered two of the night's specials. The first was a pumpkin red curry. It had chicken, scallops, shrimp, and pumpkin in a red curry sauce. Red curry lends itself well to working with pumpkin because it is a bit sweeter than the other color curries. It's also hard to mess up curries. We enjoyed this one and my dad liked the change of having the sweet pumpkin added.
Our last entree was our least favorite. It was a shrimp and asparagus dish that also included some carrots, peppers, and eggplant. The sauce was done with a yellow bean paste and was thin and salty from the fish sauce. It was OK, just not great.
It was nice to know where the ingredients come from since I had learned where Linda shops. She knows where to pick up the best produce and the freshest seafood and then prepares them with proper attention to cooking time - shrimp was tender and the veggies still with crunch. Boon Boon deserves the attention that it has gotten.
