Posted by Anita on 01.21.06 10:29 AM
Thep Phanom used to be one of our favorites when we lived in the lower Haight. Even once we moved to another part of town, we kept coming back because the food was head and shoulders above the ordinary.
A few years ago, they started sliding. It seemed that the drop in quality coincided with the removal of the specials boards from above the windows. Although it paled in comparison, the food was still very good, and we kept coming back, kept recommending it as our favorite Thai place, kept ugring people to go…
So you can imagine our sadness after eating there twice in the last 6 weeks, and having two mediocre experiences. In December, we ordered a pair of our old favorites — tom yum goong and crispy basil chicken — plus salt-and-pepper beef, a new one for us. The soup was bland and unbalanced; the chicken, formerly blessed with a wispy crispy coating, now had a blatant battering; and the beef was interesting but not terribly Thai-flavored, and unpleasantly chewy. We chalked it up to a bad night, and didn’t give it much thought.
Last weekend, we went back with a couple of friends. We shared everything, so I had a chance to grasp the breadth of the problem:
Som tam — green papaya salad — is typically blazingly hot and pungently tart. Thep Phanom’s version was neither. The rather small portion was served in a cocktail glass.
Tom yum goong was dished out tableside into flat soup plates, rather than bowls. The broth was almost clear, not even a hint of redness from steeped shrimp shells or chiles. It tasted almost as bland as it looked: no hot, barely any sour, a paltry 4 shrimp for 4 people.
Larb ped featured tasty grilled, chopped duck meat, but the rest of the dish was bizarre. There were hardly any greens –typically you eat larb by rolling up the meat and seasonings in leaves of lettuce or other leafy veggies — and, again, the spice was almost non-existant. Larb is supposed to be HOT!
Basil chicken with crispy basil (gai kprow tod) suffered from the same problems as we noted on our last visit. Very sad… this dish used to be a true standout, a modern riff on a beloved thai classic. Now it wouldn’t be out of place at a cheap chinese takeout joint.
Panaeng beef curry was unspicy, badly balanced (sweet flavors completely overwhelmed the salty, spicy tastes) and oversauced.
Thep Phanom is still OK, but it’s no longer great. It may not even be better than average.
Thep Phanom
400 Waller Street
San Francisco, CA 94117
415.431.2526
Lower Haight, restaurants, Thai
Comments Off on Thai standby
Posted by Anita on 12.15.05 1:54 PM
Originally posted as part of eGullet’s Culinary Resolutions thread
In 2006, I will eat… more food that I can trace to its source.
I will make… time for entertaining friends at home.
I will find… a talented architect to remodel my kitchen.
I will learn… where to find better lunch possibilities near my office, and not just lazily fill my belly with convenient crap.
I will teach… the basics to my friends who want to learn to make Thai food.
I will read…. cookbooks from the library before I buy them, to keep my media budget sane.
This is the year I will try… to cook at least one new recipe a week.
I will taste… , at least once, anything that’s put in front of me, no matter how ‘weird’.
I will use… my new smoker (you know, the one I hope to get for my birthday) often enough to justify its purchase.
I will give… my time to the food bank, and not just when my company gives me time off to do it.
I… will fill my new garden with as many edible plants as possible.
We… will finally take our long-awaited culinary tour of Thailand.
My kids… are dogs, so their culinary needs are relatively simple.
cookbooks, food boards, garden, holidays & occasions, kitchen, Thai, travel
Comments Off on Culinary Resolutions 2006
Posted by Anita on 12.07.05 5:35 PM
Tonight, Cameron and I are going to COCO500, one of SF’s hot new restros, so I peeked at the menu.
I’m sending it straight to the editorial penalty box for the following infractions:
1) Pretentiousness:
You’ll find items in all the categories that could be starters, but there’s also a “small starts” category. The listings are sort-of organized by cooking method, but sort-of not. The word “dirt” has no place on a menu. And seriously, how can a dessert be noncommital? Is it sort of a brownie, but not really? Sort of dessert, but more like a kick in the ass?
2) Confusion:
Some of the items have dollars and cents, some don’t (why “6.0” but “11”, for example?). it’s like someone decreed: “all prices must have 2 digits”, or maybe or maybe they thought that if they didn’t add the “.0” it would look like “6 fried green beans” (which would be a pretty scrawny appetizer). Of course, all of this would be moot if they put the price AFTER the item, instead of before it. The way it reads now, it looks like an essay outline written by someone with poor counting skills.
3) Narcissism:
Any time the word “coco(a)” is used in a menu-item name (which, in and of itself, is a minor infraction) it is rendered in ALLCAPS. And, for the love of Pete, what the hell is a ‘ COCOmole “taco” ‘ ?
4) Ignorance:
Among the choice typos…
– seasame tuile
– balsalmic
Hello, get a dictionary. Or, better yet, an editor.
downtown SF, restaurants
Comments Off on Coco no-no
Posted by Anita on 12.05.05 3:58 PM
I cleaned out the freezer this weekend — in preparation for the Thailand trip — and found a huge Honeybaked ham bone (with meat!) that I need to use up, so we’re having Senate Bean Soup.
I started cooking it last night after dinner. It’s currently sitting in the fridge, melding flavors for tonight’s dinner.
cooking, recipes, Soup o' the Fortnight
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Posted by Anita on 11.29.05 3:55 PM
We made Mexican Turkey Soup tonight with our stock and carcass meat.
I liked this soup, but I didn’t love it. There was too much broth for the amount of ‘stuff’ in it — we had to scoop the turkey and veggies into the bowls with a slotted spoon to get the balance right.
Before portioning out the leftovers, I ladled off 2 cups of turkey/tomato/chipotle broth (out of the original half-gallon of stock, plus the tomato liquid) and froze it separately for later use. The remaining bowls seemed closer to the mark. It also needed a lot more salt than the recipe called for. It’s a nice, easy weeknight recipe, and a nice way to use up turkey. It was reminiscent of tortilla soup, but not as good.
cooking, recipes, Soup o' the Fortnight
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Posted by Anita on 11.26.05 3:53 PM
We made turkey stock today, here at my mom’s house. It was a 22-pound bird, so we ended up with a lot of very rich stock.
I’ve set aside a half-gallon in the freezer that I’ll bring home with me on the plane on Monday, along with some of the meat we pulled off the carcass. So, even if we don’t get a chance to make soup while we’re here, we’ll probably squeak a soup in right at the end of the fortnight once we get home.
family, holidays & occasions, recipes, Soup o' the Fortnight
Comments Off on Soup of the Fortnight: Turkey
Posted by Anita on 11.16.05 3:49 PM
I had planned last night to make Julia Child’s Garlic Soup with Potatoes (Soupe à l’Ail aux Pommes de Terre from Mastering the Art of French Cooking) but then Cameron got invited to a business dinner, and I had a work projet that was going to keep me busy all evening. So, instead I made… uh, soup from leftovers.
I had a half dozen or so boiled new potatoes left over from Saturday’s corned beef and cabbage, so I put them in a small pot with some chicken stock and a splash of cream. Once they were warm, I buzzed them all together with the immersion blender, added some salt, pepper and a little more stock, and tasted. Yummy, but a little bland. I added a small amount of jack cheese, which helped, but it still needed more.
Then I remembered I had some roasted pepper garnish left over from Sunday night’s salad: roasted red, poblano, and anaheim chiles, thinly sliced red onion, a bit of cotija cheese, all bound together in an olive oil and champagne vinegarette. I garnished the soup with the chile-onion mixture, and — ta dah — Crema de Papas con Chiles Picantes y Dulces
(Sounds a lot better than Soup from Leftovers, doesn’t it?)
cookbooks, cooking, Mexican, Soup o' the Fortnight
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Posted by Anita on 11.15.05 5:42 PM
Every time I open my pantry, I get a huge kick out of this.
It cost me almost $150 (for the containers — the shelf is three levels deep), but my dry goods are now bug-proof, spill-proof, and organized. I swear, nothing has made me this happy in months.
baking, geekery, kitchen
2 Comments »
Posted by Anita on 11.11.05 5:45 PM
Rocky and I had a little too much fun visiting Murray last night.
The good news is that I am staying at the Ändra, so the best damned room-service hangover cure ever was only a speed-dial call away: Two eggs (scrambled), housemade pork-maple sausage, smashed garlic-fried potatoes, rustic Dahlia Bakery toast, figs… courtesy of Mr. Douglas at Lola.
breakfast, drinks, restaurants, Seattle, travel
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Posted by Anita on 11.09.05 3:47 PM
Last night we — and by “we” I actually mean Cameron — made potato soup: Potato, Bacon and Gruyere Soup.
It was a pretty odd preparation, and the end result needed a fair bit of salt (perhaps due to the use of homemade stock rather than prepared broth). Once it was properly seasoned, you could taste the bacon and the cheese, but before that it was all texture and very little taste.
Next time, I would mash or blend some of the potatoes to get a creamier texture, too.
cooking, recipes, Soup o' the Fortnight
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