a bite of brownie

or at least that's how I call it. I was invited to join a girls' dinner out last night with L, J and F, and since my fridge only had cookies I felt it was time to go out and eat real food. They were planning to have dinner at Sushi Garden but then the line up was too long so we ended up at its neighbor's kitchen instead. We skipped appetizers and went straight to the main course.

The first thing that came out of the kitchen was the Ruaam Mit Phat Bai Horapa (Snow peas, fresh tofu, carrots, beans sprouts, mushroom with Green Basil). It was served inside a foil, giving the impression that it was reheated leftover, but really it wasn't. I'm not really a snow peas person, in fact, I'm not into carrots and bean sprouts either, so I guess this dish pretty much failed my radar even before I tried it. I sampled the tofu and mushroom and found them ok, nothing spectacular, just like any stir fry veggie that you could make at home.

The next dish became F's instant favorite: Gaaeng Ka-Ri (Yellow curry paste with carrots, potato, pineapple & coconut milk). Apparently my dinner friends are not into spicy food so they specifically asked for really mild-spiced dishes. I'm allergic to chicken but it's my favorite, so really, if I wanted to risk my anaphylaxis, it has to be for nothing less than the best chicken dish out there, unfortunately this wasn't it. I thought the curry was ok, and the meat was tender, but again, carrots and potatoes are not really part of my favorite things so..


Finally, my favorite dish came. I must say Green Basil is indeed THE spot for people clamoring for good Pad Thai. J ordered extra peanut toppings and a peanut sauce side dish to go with it. I am mildly allergic to peanuts, but that's what Claritin is for right? But she's right, it did taste distinctively different in a good way to have peanut sauce on the Pad Thai. Just imagine pansit with kare kare sauce, hmmm weird I know.. but yeah it was exotic for sure.


The fourth dish was Khaao phat Sap-Bpa-Roht (Fried rice with fresh pineapple, peanuts & raisins topped with pork floss). I'm not really a rice fan either plus more peanuts is not good for me, but I thought this dish was good, the pineapple gave character to the fried rice. (ok, by now you must be asking how I can write a blog about food when there's so many food I don't like or I'm allergic to, but hey whatever, to each his own, I just like writing, period ^^)

We only ordered four dishes at the start but L wanted to try another curry dish so we got the Gaaeng Kiew Waan (Green curry paste with green basil, eggplant, green bean & coconut milk). Ugh eggplant and green bean, why do you have to be in this dish, I'm gonna cook my own curry next time. But it wasn't bad actually, I'm just not sure if I can distinguish between the yellow and the green curry, they taste the same to me.

All in all it was a fun night to reconnect with friends from Church, I like that we hold hands as we pray. Unfortunately, I forgot to take photos of the food, so these ones are from previous visits.

Verdict
N: 3.5/5.0 [-1.5 because the other dishes were not as spectacular as the Pad Thai]

Green Basil Thai Restaurant
4623 Kingsway
Burnaby, BC V5H 2B3