Occasionally I just need a huge bowl of soup. I usually head out for pho at Sophy’s, but this time I really wanted to go to Thai Gourmet on 2nd Street. Their Thai boat noodle soup always blows me away.
My husband and I arrived at 6PM on Saturday night and there were only about three other full tables and a few other people sitting at the bar. I’m always curious as to why it’s not PACKED in there; the food is always delicious, there is never a wait and the staff is very friendly.
We were lucky enough to get in there for happy hour, when the Chang beer is only $2.50 for a bottle and the Widmer is $3.00 for a pint. We decided to share the latter. All the appetizers on the happy hour menu are $5.00. You can choose from friend tofu, egg rolls,fried won tons, neau dad diew (which is Thai style beef or pork jerky) and calamari. If you know my husband, then you know he jumps at any chance to have calamari. It came with the usual dipping sauce and the portion was a nice size. They were a little bit too oily for my taste, but of course he loved them.
Since I came in craving the boat noodle soup, I was pretty sad to see that it wasn’t on the dinner menu, but thankfully the service is amazing and they went ahead and made it for me anyway. I always have it with chicken but you can get beef or shrimp. This soup has so many ingredients! I couldn’t even tell you what they all are, but I will tell you the few that I love the most. The fresh rice noodles are the main part of the dish, there is a lot of cinnamon and star anise that they mix into the Thai spices and the kaffir lime leaves give it the tang that I love.
Photos by Nikol ZumMallen
My husband usually goes straight for the green curry but this time he decided to try something new: Noodle kee mao. This noodle dish is stir fried with tomato, sweet basil, chicken, onions, green beans and bell pepper. Since he had been wanting Upper Crust, I guess he found the most Italian dish on the menu. He loved it. A bit too much basil for me so I just continued to enjoy my soup. Both were very large portions and I can’t wait for my next soup craving.
Thai Gourmet is located at 4722 E. 2nd St. | (562) 438-5838