I’d (Maxine) heard about this restaurant from several sources including friends and family who read Food and Wine, Ruth Reichl at her speech on Wednesday night and Portland Monthly magazine’s “Best of 2008”, Oregonian 2007 Restaurant of the Year. It’s definitely a hot restaurant and, some say, one of the best Thai restaurants in the country. (http://www.pokpokpdx.com/)
It turns out that Pok Pok is less than ten minutes away from our rental house. It’s in an up and coming neighborhood and is the kind of funky place we’ve seen often here in Portland. It’s a converted house with picnic tables in the front yard and grills in the back. We sat on the front porch and I ordered the sour plum vodka sour recommended by Portland Monthly. It was a tangy drink with pieces of plum and a sweet-sour taste which worked well with the spicy food.
Since Pok Pok specializes in grilled food, we ordered a variety including Kaa Yaang, its signature grilled guinea hen with cilantro, lemongrass, and garlic and a wonderful sweet and sour dipping sauce. The dipping sauces for all of the meats we ordered were different flavors that complemented the meats and were absolutely delicious. We also had the Muu Sateh, pork skewers with peanut sauce and a tangy, spicy cucumber salad. My favorite meat was the Sii Khrong Muu Yaang which was baby back ribs marinated in whisky, soy, honey and ginger with two dipping sauces. I would have preferred ribs cut lengthwise rather than crosswise but I suppose that’s the American rather than the Thai way. Tom ordered the Khao Soi Kai, a chicken noodle soup with curry and coconut milk, his favorite flavors at a Thai restaurant.
All is all, it was a very good dinner. I enjoyed the food and the very vivid flavors. I also wish that I’d had a chance to try the green papaya salad and the flank steak. So, even though my expectations may have been a little unrealistic given the hype, I hope we’ll have time to go back so that I can try other dishes.
It turns out that Pok Pok is less than ten minutes away from our rental house. It’s in an up and coming neighborhood and is the kind of funky place we’ve seen often here in Portland. It’s a converted house with picnic tables in the front yard and grills in the back. We sat on the front porch and I ordered the sour plum vodka sour recommended by Portland Monthly. It was a tangy drink with pieces of plum and a sweet-sour taste which worked well with the spicy food.
Since Pok Pok specializes in grilled food, we ordered a variety including Kaa Yaang, its signature grilled guinea hen with cilantro, lemongrass, and garlic and a wonderful sweet and sour dipping sauce. The dipping sauces for all of the meats we ordered were different flavors that complemented the meats and were absolutely delicious. We also had the Muu Sateh, pork skewers with peanut sauce and a tangy, spicy cucumber salad. My favorite meat was the Sii Khrong Muu Yaang which was baby back ribs marinated in whisky, soy, honey and ginger with two dipping sauces. I would have preferred ribs cut lengthwise rather than crosswise but I suppose that’s the American rather than the Thai way. Tom ordered the Khao Soi Kai, a chicken noodle soup with curry and coconut milk, his favorite flavors at a Thai restaurant.
All is all, it was a very good dinner. I enjoyed the food and the very vivid flavors. I also wish that I’d had a chance to try the green papaya salad and the flank steak. So, even though my expectations may have been a little unrealistic given the hype, I hope we’ll have time to go back so that I can try other dishes.
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