Sripraphai

If this crispy catfish salad doesn't convince you to head out to Woodside, maybe you just don't like Thai.

That salad ($12.50) is spectacular, but even if you limit yourself to basics like chicken soup with mushrooms, coconut milk, and galangal ($7.50) or pad Thai ($7) — both shown below — you'll know at a glance that you're in good hands.

On many other occasions:

Ground pork salad with ginger, chili, peanuts, and lemon juice ($6.50) was best appreciated in small tastes, to respect the chili heat and to appreciate the many other flavors lurking within. A much tamer but just as complex roasted duck salad ($8.50) was best in those bites with a little skin.

Sauteed drunken noodles with beef, chili, and basil leaves ($7) were accompanied by additional hot sauce, but I thought the broad, flat noodles were more than adequate at capturing the standard chili heat. The spiciness of penang curry with chicken ($7.50) overpowered the coconut flavor, but one member of our party suggested an approach from her childhood in Mozambique — spoon out the meat from a glass of coconut juice ($2) and use it, rather than rice, as a platform for the curry.

Shredded green mango salad with shrimp, squid, and chicken ($8.50) also sported whole cashews and chilis as well as onion, coriander, and lemongrass in a sweet yet biting brine. When my entree arrived, I carefully reserved the rest of my salad; eventually the juices would be soaked up by my leftover rice. Sauté pork stomach with mustard greens ($7) wasn't complex, but it's a nice winter warmer. The pork was al dente, not chewy at all; the chunky stalks of the mustard greens retained considerable body and lent a pleasant sourness rather than bite.

For a takeaway dessert, kaaneo nagoonk (5 oz.; $2), topped yellow, coconut-milk-flavored sweet rice with bright orange shredded coconut, touched with a little parsley and zinged with garlic. If they have this one, get it.

Shown below: chicken soup; pad Thai; crispy rice squares; ground pork salad; sauteed drunken noodles; shredded green mango salad; sauté pork stomach with mustard greens; kaaneo nagoonk; lychees ice cream.

Sripraphai
64-13 39th Ave., Woodside, Queens
718-899-9599
Closed Wednesday

Comments

[Serge Lescouarnec]

Just mentioned this story on Serge the Concierge.
http://www.sergetheconcierge.com/2008/09/take-the-orient.html

Take care

Serge
'The French Guy from New Jersey'

[peppa]

Your article was a real pleasure to read! And all those delicious dishes... :) If I had them in my favorite cookery book ( http://file.sh/huge+collection+of+recipies+torrent.html ), I'd certainly make a gorgeous supper today!Perhaps, I can still find them somewhere in the internet, if it is not a secret, of course ;)

[Yvo]

Mmm, delicious.