Every once in a while I have a meal that is so alive with flavours that every bite makes me quite emotional. Thai food is famous for their unabashed expression of flavours but I rarely get to experience it in its finest form in my hometown. My dinner at Sway in Austin was a fine example of why Thai food grabs the attention of so many. Sway takes a modern approach to the cuisine and it was one of my 2013 dining highlights. M and I still talk about their food to this day (and M doesn’t really talk about food like my food loving friends do). Yesterday I visited Chat Thai in Westfield Sydney. Had I not been dining alone, I’m sure it would be another of my most talk-about meal as well. Had I not been dining alone, I would get to sample so many more different dishes!
I began my meal with a icy cold glass of cha nohm rorn, iced red tea sweetened with condensed milk. I am normally not a fan of sweetened tea but I make exception for Southeast Asian style iced tea. Condensed milk adds a delicious richness to everything.
I sipped on my tea and took my time reading the menu cover to cover. Chat Thai is an extremely popular eatery located on the 6th floor of Westfield Sydney (a very fancy mall) and it is known to be packed. Luckily, I wandered in after the lunch rush. Not only was there no line up, I could take all the time I wanted without feeling rushed. The hardest part of perusing the extensive menu was narrowing down my choices to just a handful. Like most Asian cuisine, the dishes are meant to be shared so chowing down all by my lonesome required a very hearty appetite and very shrewd mind. Well, at least I brought my appetite along since I did not have any breakfast and only a light dinner the night before.
I began with a Ship & Shore spicy salad. Calling it a salad was really a stretch since there were only a few symbolic leaves of greens. The protein-fest salad was packed with chicken, pork, prawns (oh juicy juicy prawns), and fried egg dressed in smoked chilli jam. Sweet, spicy, sour, and salty all danced and mingled on the palate at the same time. I was going to only eat half a plate to save room for other dishes but it was so good I could not bear to leave any behind.
Just the salad itself was enough for a satisfying lunch for one. It speaks volume that I proceeded to polish off a huge bowl of khao soi next. Egg noodles and braised chicken in a northern region coconut curry with smoked chilli oil were garnished with crunch deep fried egg noodles, pickles, and shallot. So simple yet so comforting. The curry broth was rich but lightened with lemon juice. It coated the noodles effortlessly and infused every bite with its taste. The garnish really made the dish memorable. No two bites were the same with a mix of crunchy noodles, smoky chilli oil, crispy anchovies, sour pickles, savoury shallot, and tender chicken. I was hooked.
I came to Chat Thai after hearing raves about their dessert. How could I not be excited with the dessert kitchen located at the front of the restaurant showcasing the intricate work? The dessert menu was two pages long with warm dessert, cold dessert, items available at all hours, and teasing diners with selection only available on certain days of the week? I ordered a Sunday special khao dtom mud. It was a parcel of steamed coconut milk soaked glutinous rice with banana wrapped in banana leaves. Warm and comforting, it tasted like a sweet zongzi, a Cantonese dessert I am familiar with.
My second dessert was a plate of khanom buaing. Sweet thin wafers were made to order on the griddle and filled with meringue. They came in two different flavours. The yellow ones were threads of candied egg yolk. The orange ones were topped with candied herbs and dried shrimps. I absolutely loved the play of sweet and savoury between meringue and dried shrimps. So addictive I could easily pop them in my mouth one after another.
Chat Thai has multiple locations across the city. Dining out in Sydney is more expensive compared to Toronto and Chat Thai is an affordable gem. When you factor in the quality of the food, I cannot recommend enough the great value this restaurant offers. I just may have to return for a second visit before I leave Sydney!