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| - There are only four things you need to eat at a Thai restaurant to know how it compares against all other Thai restaurants:
1) Thai iced tea;
2) Massaman curry;
3) Red curry;
4) Pad Thai.
All else is dross. These dishes will tell you all you need to know. And so when we stumbled across Thai Gourmet on our way back from the Ravenna balloon-launching spectacle, we ate what we could.
The good news is that the food was pretty good overall. There were some odd bits, but we liked it quite a bit.
THE ICED TEA.
A generous glass, I thought I detected a weird stale note at the back of the palate, but my wife didn't. She thought it was yummy; I couldn't get past the weird taste, but it wasn't enough to send it back. It was a three-star iced tea.
THE RED CURRY.
I can't stand the stuff, but my wife loves it. She said it was hot without being overpowering, and the great news is that the ingredients were all wicked fresh. The chicken was top-notch, the vegetables were crisp, and the taste was solid.
THE MASSAMAN CURRY.
This was a weird blend, because it was spicier than most Massaman curries I've had, but less flavorful. It wasn't hot per se, but generally massaman curry has a lot of peanut notes and other complex dishes, whereas this was pretty one-note - you got your blast of flavor up-front, and then a pleasant blast of heat at the end of it.
I wasn't sure what to make of it, because it wasn't what I was used to, but I still adored it. Plus, the sweet potatos and regular potatos were fresh, not the usual overcooked sogstravaganzas you find in most places, and it was light on finely-slivered onions instead of just dumping huge slices into your dish. Plus, did I mention the chicken was amazing white meat quality?
OH, AND....
Though it's not on The Official List, the crab rangoons were perhaps the best we've ever had. There was actual cream cheese inside, which made it very sweet (generally you get some long-curdled version), and there was a hot/sweet sauce that made it sing. I could have just ordered those.
OVERALL
If it was on our side of town, we'd go back fairly often. Recommended.
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