Closed Easter Sunday

If I were in Chanthaburi this weekend, I'd be celebrating Easter mass here, in the newly refurbished Cathedral of the Immaculate Conception (อาสนวิหารพระนางมารีอาปฏิสนธินิรมล). It is on the same site as the original missionary chapel built in 1711.

But, since I will be here in the Twin Cities far from my family, I think I'll sleep in instead.

Have a happy Easter with your family and friends. True Thai restaurant will be open Saturday and Monday as usual, but closed Easter Sunday.

Best of the Block: TRUE THAI!

Some of you may have remembered TV cameras filming you when you ate at True Thai last fall. They were from the Thai Food Network, and Best of the Block, episode 33, True Thai, is now available to watch on YouTube!

The Thai Food Network's Best of the Block series is about Thai restaurants not in Thailand. True Thai is not in Thailand, and we are Thai, so we qualified! Thanks to the magic of television, we never got to meet Alyson Sullivan, the host, but we enjoyed meeting and feeding the Best of the Block camera crew.

The camera crew went everywhere, and shot some beautiful pictures of our staff and food but my favorite was the group picture they took at the end of the shoot. 

The day the Thai Food Network came to True Thai was very exciting. I hope you enjoy the video.

Awards season

We just ordered our Minneapolis-St. Paul Magazine "Best of" award and will link to this year's Best Restaurants issue as soon as those links go up. MSP Magazine has always been very good to True Thai, and I know a lot of our regulars either subscribe or get their copy in the checkout lane at the grocery store every month.

The awards are nice, but the best part is knowing that our regular customers keep voting for us year after year after year. Thanks to you, True Thai has helped to raise the bar for Thai food in the Twin Cities.

Meanwhile, until I have a better link for MSP's award, you can always vote for True Thai online at City Pages' annual Best of Poll. Lots of stuff to vote for and I'd love to see us do better in the Best Takeout, Best Cheap Eats, and Best Place for a First Date categories! I know my easiest vote this year was for Best Villain, but I probably shouldn't say anything more about that.

Thank you again to Minneapolis-St. Paul Magazine, and to all of you, our loyal fans!

High priced Thai

I always mention lime leaves when I talk about some of the expensive ingredients we use at True Thai, but I don't think I've ever talked about our second-most expensive ingredient: Shiitake mushrooms.

As of this morning, dried Shiitake mushrooms are selling for $8 a pound wholesale in the Twin Cities. Thai eggplant might go for more than that at the moment, but only if you can find them (we can't). Baby Indian eggplant is a good substitute, but purple eggplant doesn't look the same as crunchy green Thai eggplants.

The good news is that thanks to all the Thai and SE Asian restaurants, it's easier than ever to buy hard-to-find ingredients here in Minnesota. And good oranges are finally back. Not just big Florida oranges — blood oranges are in season right now. Expensive, but if you buy them by the case (Seward Coop is our connection) you don't have to pay a dollar apiece for them.

Love, Minnesota Style

It snowed last night, so I guess we're having a white St. Valentine's Day.

Brrrrromance?

Fair warning!

This Valentine's Day will be True Thai's ninth, and in each of the previous eight years we have been booked solid with reservations. So this is your reminder that Valentine's Day is less than a week away, and True Thai has already taken a lot of reservations. A lot of reservations. Tick, tick, tick....

We'll be wall-to-wall with young, not so young, old and not so old couples on Tuesday, February 14. Will you be among them? Call 612 375-9942 to make your reservations today!

I bet you did not know elephants were sexy. Well, until I saw this picture, neither did I!

Super Wings!

It's Super Bowl time and nothing says football like True Thai's Yummy Chicken Wings. Make your Super Bowl party a success by picking up some wings to go!

UPDATE: OK, this is not what I expected. All day today, Saturday, people have been coming in to pick up green curry sauce. Is green curry something you serve at a Super Bowl party? Or is it what you serve at a Super Bowl party where people just watch the commercials? I do not know, but I do know that none of the people picking up green curry sauce looked like Vikings fans (no purple jackets and no visible horns).

The Mystery of the Cotton Fortune Cookies

A mysterious stranger came to True Thai and dropped off these two fortune cookies made from cloth, complete with real fortunes. So adorable! (And so blurry — taking pictures with a phone is not as easy as it looks!) (Picture updated courtesy of Golf)

Thank you so much to our belated Secret Santa for sharing these with us!

Thank you for your votes

Just got word that True Thai is the Reader's Choice winner for Best Thai Restaurant in the upcoming Minneapolis-St. Paul Magazine's annual Best Restaurants issue. True Thai has the best and most loyal customers of any restaurant in town, and I am again grateful to all of you for your votes and support.

Last year was very difficult for us. Losing Anousone "Ped" Phanthavong was a terrible blow to our kitchen but our loyalty to our employees was rewarded when some of the top Asian cooks in the Twin Cities applied for Ped's job. The new cooks picked up on our recipes immediately (I think Ped's spirit was whispering to them) and brought with them some tasty new dishes that have already made it to our menu.

So, on behalf of Ped, our new cooks and all the True Thai family, thank you for your votes and your continued support of True Thai Restaurant.

Weird food

I am no Andrew Zimmern, but I have eaten many strange foods in my life. That's why I was so excited when I saw this Ed Kohler post about weird foods. He wants to eat everything on the list and seems to be making a lot of progress. Here's the list with a check mark next to the 63 items I've already tried:


The VGT Omnivore’s Hundred:
1. Venison √
2. Nettle tea
3. Huevos rancheros √
4. Steak tartare
5. Crocodile √
6. Black pudding
7. Cheese fondue √
8. Carp √
9. Borscht
10. Baba ghanoush
11. Calamari √
12. Pho √
13. PB&J sandwich √
14. Aloo gobi
15. Hot dog from a street cart √
16. Epoisses
17. Black truffle √
18. Fruit wine made from something other than grapes √
19. Steamed pork buns √
20. Pistachio ice cream √
21. Heirloom tomatoes √
22. Fresh wild berries √
23. Foie gras √
24. Rice and beans √
25. Brawn, or head cheese
26. Raw Scotch Bonnet pepper
27. Dulce de leche √
28. Oysters √
29. Baklava √
30. Bagna cauda
31. Wasabi peas √
32. Clam chowder in a sourdough bowl √
33. Salted lassi
34. Sauerkraut √
35. Root beer float √
36. Cognac with a fat cigar
37. Clotted cream tea
38. Vodka jelly/Jell-O
39. Gumbo √
40. Oxtail √
41. Curried goat √
42. Whole insects √
43. Phaal
44. Goat’s milk √
45. Malt whisky from a bottle worth £60/$120 or more
46. Fugu
47. Chicken tikka masala √
48. Eel √
49. Krispy Kreme original glazed doughnut √
50. Sea urchin √
51. Prickly pear √
52. Umeboshi
53. Abalone √
54. Paneer √
55. McDonald’s Big Mac Meal √
56. Spaetzle √
57. Dirty gin martini
58. Beer above 8% ABV
59. Poutine
60. Carob chips
61. S’mores √
62. Sweetbreads √
63. Kaolin
64. Currywurst
65. Durian √
66. Frogs’ legs √
67. Beignets, churros, elephant ears or funnel cake √
68. Haggis
69. Fried plantain √
70. Chitterlings, or andouillette √
71. Gazpacho √
72. Caviar and blini √
73. Louche absinthe
74. Gjetost, or brunost
75. Roadkill
76. Baijiu
77. Hostess Fruit Pie
78. Snail √
79. Lapsang souchong
80. Bellini
81. Tom yum √
82. Eggs Benedict √
83. Pocky √
84. Tasting menu at a three-Michelin-star restaurant.
85. Kobe beef √
86. Hare √
87. Goulash √
88. Flowers √
89. Horse √
90. Criollo chocolate
91. Spam √
92. Soft shell crab √
93. Rose harissa
94. Catfish √
95. Mole poblano √
96. Bagel and lox √
97. Lobster Thermidor
98. Polenta
99. Jamaican Blue Mountain coffee √
100. Snake √

I think between Ed and I we've eaten just about everything on the list....

Closed New Year's Day

No, it's not Songkran yet, but this is what New Year's looks like in Thailand

As we do each year, True Thai will be closed New Year's Day. We will be open regular hours on New Year's Eve and January 2.

Please have a fun, safe New Year's weekend and drive carefully!

Best Christmas meal ever?

If you really love food, your best meal ever is always (hopefully) your next meal. The cooks have been planning to make this Sunday's True Thai Christmas party the best ever. I am not cooking, but I am planning and I asked the cooks to reinvent a famous Thai dish, Pla Bo-Ran. Translated it means Ancient Fish, but the cooks came up with a fish dish that is very fresh tasting. Crispy Tilapia filet garnished with Thai chilis, lemongrass, cashews, shallots, thinly sliced garlic, mint and kafir lime leaves served with a special sauce made from hand-squeezed tamarind juice, palm sugar, salt and fish sauce. Not just fresh tasting, but nutty, crunchy and tasty too!

It's a "lost" recipe. I don't know why it's called Ancient Fish, but if you put that name into Google you mostly get pictures like this one:

Our Ancient Fish looks much better than this!

We know that most of you will be with your families this Christmas, but you can try Ancient Fish now if you like. It's not on the menu yet, but that doesn't mean you can't order it. Whether you ask for Ancient Fish or Pla Bo-Ran, the wait staff will hook you up with what will surely be our Catfish Salad's biggest menu rival for the affections of True Thai fish dish lovers.

The cooks have been fine-tuning the Pla Bo-Ran for a week now, and each time I've had it, it was better than the time before. I am very confident that this Christmas, I'll be eating my best Christmas meal ever. This Sunday would have been Ped's 39th birthday, and in honor of the occasion I predict no food will stick to any wok, the rice will be perfect, and each dish will turn out exactly as planned.

It's a private party for True Thai staff and Ped's family, but if you have no place to go this Christmas, you're welcome to spend it with us. You can email an R.S.V.P to me any time before Saturday morning, or stop by the restaurant in person this week. True Thai has a very big family, and there's always room for more.