Thai food with its coconut sauces and savoury spices has been a favourite of mine for a long time. Especially since My good friend Donato introduced me to a truly excellent Thai restaurant in Toronto during several lunches when I used to work there. The dish I consider the epitome of Thai cooking is the green chicken curry. Savoury. Saucy. Spicy. Succulent and Aromatic. Yum! I just love it.
And now that St. Valentine’s day has come upon us in the cold, what better to talk about than the stuff you love. Like my wife Karen. So we had planned to go out for lunch but it didn’t work out. Mainly because it snowed enough to almost make it a snow day. The kids were so disappointed. Me too. My office rarely closes (even on snow days) and so that hope really wasn’t for me… a snow day was just so much of a happy time when I was a kid that I can’t help wishing for them. Anyway, as it was almost a snow day, it took longer than usual getting into work. I had to push the bike through drifts for part of the way on the dog trail. What’s wrong with those dog walkers anyway? Don’t they know I depend on their hard-packed trails?
So. Since the roads were more of a challenge today, Karen wouldn’t be able to make both her 11 o’clock appointment and our luncheon date. I only have an hour for lunch anyway. That’s not enough time for a real Valentine’s Day feed is it? No.
But I’m glad to say that it worked out excellent in the end. Karen and I went to the Thai Villa Cuisine which is a new place that just opened around the corner from where we live. It’s at the bigger mall at Woolwich and Speedvale and we walked there for supper after feeding the kids hamburger. I know it’s too good for the likes of them but they like it!
We ordered two appetizers (Shrimp Rolls and Golden Calamari) and two shakes (Mango for Karen after her favourite SNL character and Durian for my favourite stinky fruit). The Tiger Shrimp in the shrimp rolls were not as tender as I would have liked but the calamari easily made up for it. It was lightly battered and succulent! So good that a couple might wanna arm wrassle for the last piece! I won! (But Karen took the biggest 2nd last piece, so it was relatively even!) Yes, they were – get counting and rulers at the ready, good!
The fruit shakes were very good too, in fact Karen said her shake was the best she’d ever had. I keep hoping that I’ll get a Durian shake made from the fresh fruit but I’d better not hold my breath or nose.
For an entrée I had Surprise Surprise the Green Curry with Chicken. Karen had the Prawn Soup (a Tom Yum variant). Both were good but even Karen preferred the curry. They didn’t spice it as fiery as I normally like it and that was just as well since it was tame enough for Karen to enjoy. I thought the curry was very nice although I could have used some more fresh coriander in it.
We shared a plate of banana fritters and ice cream for dessert. Very nice.
Overall I have to say this was a great and relatively inexpensive place to eat. Certainly the best in an easy walking distance. So all you Ann St. irregulars out there… we’ve got a new spot for dindins. The only thing is they don’t have a license yet; but with food that good… it’s easy to forget.
Golbing 