It is a coin toss, sometimes, whenever I'm at Little Thailand in Beach Road, between a huge, fun, noisy, lets-dig-in meal of Mookata, or a nice, lovely, just-right meal at Diandin Leluk.
Guess what, Diandin Leluk wins most of the time.
Guess what, Diandin Leluk wins most of the time.
Because whilst I love Mookata (and I've found a new place for it!), there's something about 'embassy' Thai that charms me. :)
Okay, that's the nickname that I've given them, not because their chef formerly worked in the kitchens of the Thai Ambassador, (I don't know, honestly, it just might well be) but because they are one of the mainstays at the summer Thai Fair held annually on the grounds of the Royal Thai Embassy.
I maintain that if they're good enough for the Royal Thai Embassy, they're good enough for anybody.
It's very distinct; the atmosphere over here at the restaurant at Beach Road. On one side you've got the round, marble topped tables and heavy, carved chinoserie wooden chairs, on the other side, you've got the plastic chairs that fill many a casual diner. Then on top of that, you've got the side that offers up tidbits, crackers, fruit-shaped bean snacks, mango sticky rice, coconut desserts, snacks and skewered meats a la street food style.
The diners, too are an all-encompassing bunch. On any day you might see a large family or two seated at the larger tables, with dishes of fish, vegetables, soup and meat on the turntable in front of them, and on the other side, a group of friends with a steaming, bubbling steamboat pot in front of them with fish head, vegetables, meat, seafood and everything else that they've ordered.
There're diners who are there for a meal just before they hop onto a long-haul bus that will take them upcountry. There're diners who are there for a meal because they've just hopped off the bus from up-country. There're diners who are filling up before they cross the aisle to the Thai discos opposite. And there're diners who are filling up before they head to the Thai supermarket upstairs to grab some specially imported produce.
I'm one of those pre-supermarket diners. :)
So whilst everything is really lovely- the oyster omelet is a constant draw, the green curry charms me with its pretty bowl and coconut-laden gravy, there is the fish prepared several ways, there is the kai lan and other vegetables, and there is the pad thai and pineapple fried rice- my choice tends to go straight for the Massaman curry. I don't know the etymology of it- I just have the dish- but it's a sort of dry reddish-brown curry that's chock full of tender pork slices, juicy onions, patterned potatoes, and which goes perfectly well with plates of fluffy, steamed rice.
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| patterned potatoes! |
I tend to go straight for this other dish that's called something-honey chicken too. It's a simple dish, little chunks of chicken marinated in honey and deep fried, but when Diandin Leluk says that these well-chopped little deep fried pieces of chicken have got honey, they mean that it really has got honey.
Lots and lots and lots of it.
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| honey chicken... |
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| honey chicken... |
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| and honey chicken... |
Because they don't just drizzle the honey over the chicken. They douse it and they stir-fry it, making each bite burst with the sweetness of the honey and the faint saltiness of the marinated chicken. It is one of the sweetest, yet most non-cloyingly sweet dishes I've ever tried, and which between my dining partner and I, we clean up the morsels, all the teeny tiny little bits of chicken and chicken skin. spearing it with our forks and leaving the plate devoid of everything save for streaks of sauce.
I've been known to do a tongue tippity-tap with the sauce using my fork too. :) It's just great fun alongside great conversation.
But I've not mentioned the drinks yet, have I?
Well, there you go... Thai iced milk tea and Thai iced milk green tea. Two huge glasses. Lots of ice. And more solid a taste of milk tea and green tea could it likely be.
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| a dollar plus EACH |