siam on broadway no more = rom mai thai to the rescue!

the other day i gave my girlfriend a ride to the airport (NJ-bound). since her plane was departing around 10:30, we decided to hit up siam on broadway for a tasty pre-flight meal. her fiance dislikes most asian food (though sushi is a new and surprising development!) and hates thai most of all. though recently engaged, dining is probably their one point of contention: thai, chinese, and japanese are M's absolute favorite cuisines.

M lives on first/cap hill, so siam on broadway is her spot, err, was her spot. we walked up to the joint, engrossed in gossip, and only realized that siam on broadway had gone out of business when i reached for the handle and the door didn't budge. the business hours sign was still on the door, but the interior was devoid of decoration, people, and any evidence of cookware. SHIT! what to do, what to do.

luckily we turned around, and the bright, shiny, newly renovated rom mai thai beckoned us from directly across the street.

since it was a tuesday and on the earlier side for dinner on the hill (7:00), the restaurant only had a few occupied tables (which quickly changed over the course of our meal). the interior is lushly decorated in shades of yellow, emerald screens, maroon tablecloths, and richly carved wood.

rom mai thai's menu is extensive, but M rarely deviates from her tried-and-true tom kha soup and phad thai. unfortunately my camera is kaput, so i asked M to snap some quick pictures, but only after we both destroyed the tom kha. i suppose i'll let you know that it was complex, tangy, spicy, lemongrass-y, and all around bomb. often tom kha is just meat, mushrooms, and green onions, but rom mai thai serves theirs with carrot rounds, broccoli, meat, mushrooms, and zucchini. mmm. refreshing.

moving on...M's phad thai was actually damn good. i'm generally not a fan of phad thai because it's often too sweet or just lacking excitement for me. RMT's had me going back for seconds. the noodles were perfectly al dente so it's not just a blob of soft rice noodles that give too easily. the flavor was just right for me, too...the only thing i would have changed was the chili level, but it was M's dish, not mine :).

since there were so (too?) many items on the menu, i just went with the phad kee mao with tofu. interestingly the server said that the heat system was 1-5 stars (i went conservatively with **** since i'd never been there before), but online it says 1-4!! hmm, indeed.

anyhow, the wide rice noodles are my favorite because they trap pockets of singed sauce in their folds. the tofu had a nice, crispy skin and soft interior. M noted that she's often had tofu that's over-fried and dry on the inside. sounds gross. the tomatoes were a bright contrast to the deep, umami savoriness of the dark soy sauce. there was a nice balance of spice, salt, sweet, and acid. success!

thanks rom mai thai for saving us when we had been craving thai food all day just to find that our planned location had mysteriously gone out of business. looks like M and i will have our thai dinner dates with you from now on. kisses!

Buddha Ruksa Thai Cuisine

I rarely get to West Seattle because I dont drive but on the few occasions that I do, I rather enjoy the restaurants. Perhaps because its something new, but I also like to leave cap hill and the pretentiousness that awaits you at several of the new restaurants.

I picked up B & B music factory from the airport and they wanted to eat. We stopped by their place to drop off their stuff and began calling around to find a place to get a reservation. It was Saturday and lots of places were packed for the evening. However, we were able to get in at 7:45pm at Buddha ruksa. My brothers favorite Thai place, so he claimed. The place is small with low lighting and every table was packed with diners. This is a comfortable spot and you could tell it was going to be good, the mood in the restaurant was very chill.

Prior to arriving at Buddha ruksa we had a few wild turkey's down the street (in honor of our band) even though our 4th member was off gallivanting in LA. We poured a little out for him. When we sat down I realized how hungry I was and the wild turkey was eating my stomach. I quickly reviewed the menu, satay, calamari, egg rolls, tom yum, fried tofu, crab wonton...we needed something quick. B said the best app was the crab wontons, so we ordered them immediately. The crab wontons were very hot and perfectly crispy. I love anything with cheese and the cream cheese to crab ratio was right on. Nice spicy sweet dipping sauce on the side too.

When it came time for ordering the meal, big B. took the lead. He decided to go for the pork green curry, which is one of my favorites. My only complaint is that we didnt order it a bit more spicy. Very tasty and again came out really hot. Perfection.

We also got an order of fried rice, which again had great balance of seasoning. It was a nice additon to our meal and the cabbage was my favorite part of the dish besides the grilled rice.

Alas, the reason B & B like to come to this spot is for the Crispy Garlic Chicken and now I know why...it was amazing. I could have gotten a whole plate of this for myself. The fried chicken topped with rich spicy garlic on top of some basil leaves made me unable to stop eating. Damn! B knew what he was doing when he ordered, because lucky for us he got two for the table.


I will certainly go back and sample more of their menu. I was interested in some of their other signature dishes including the wonton pad thai and the prawns & pumpkin curry. And for those of you who like crispy duck, they have six different ways.

Check it out. Its fairly reasonable prices too, you know if you've heard about the economy.

Buddha ruksa
Thai cuisine
3520 SW Genesee Street.
Seattle, WA 98126
T. (206) 937 - 7676
F. (206) 923 - 6470

Tuesday - Friday
Lunch & Dinner 11am - 10pm
Saturday & Sunday
Dinner 4pm - 10pm
Closed Monday

Brian's Grille

bailey: worlds smartest puggle

This summer we started a Sunday tradition of going to my brothers for dinner and band practice. Yeah, Im in a band...called Wyld Turkeyz, we have like thousands of fans and have been on tour for months from Paris to LA. Watch for us. The posts on this site have been slow, and I have so many pictures in my phone I decided to go back and start getting some new content on this sweet blog. Below are some pictures from a summer Sunday when my brother prepared thai lettuce wraps and a spicy peanut noodle salad. I dont have a grill but I have made these a few times at home since watching him. I am a fan of anything you can put sriracha on...which is pretty much everything!

the meal started with brian cooking the chicken on his awesome wood grill.

brian perfectly cooking the chicken

brian prepping the meal, the peanut noodle salad in the back

the final plate on b & b's awesome patio

little thai: a u-district favorite

a little while back, i had the craving for thai food, and where else would i go but little thai, an underground (literally), family-owned restaurant i've been going to for years. i needed that green papaya salad!!!

this photo doesn't do it justice, but the green papaya salad is the bomb. shreds of crunchy papaya are mixed with iceberg lettuce (yeah, so what, i like iceberg), carrots, tomato, cucumber, onion, red cabbage, and green beans. the salad is super simple; topped with peanuts and dressed with chilies and mirin (rice wine vinegar + simple syrup). damn, it was so perfect.

m was in the mood for rice noodles, so he ordered another oldie but goodie, the phad see iw, which is basically wide rice noodles stir-fried with broccoli, beef, and egg in a thick soy sauce. i love this dish as well; shoot, i even eat the egg it's so deliciously-imparted with that sauce.

instead of ordering my usual (crispy fish in red curry or broccoli in basil sauce), i selected the green curry with white fish. i'll be forthright and tell you that i have no idea what kind of fish i ate, but it was damn good. the curry was immaculate; the fish was tender and clean-tasting; the coconut milk sauce was light, tangy (galanga root), and complex; and the bowl was full of bamboo shoots, green beans, carrot, mushrooms, spring onion, and zucchini. the green curry was a fantastic choice. after i had eaten all of the "stuff," i dumped my side of brown rice right into the bowl to sop up all the curry juices. delicious.

little thai
4142 Brooklyn Ave NE # 105
(206) 548-8009