MARY FURR -- Dining Out

When you think of Thai cuisine, don’t think spicy hot, think satiny

smooth as in Paht Thai/Siamese noodles -- a stir fry with chicken, shrimp

and noodles in a blended sweet and tangy sauce. It’s one the dishes from

the $5.50 lunch special (11 a.m. to 3 p.m. Monday through Saturday)

served at Silk Thai Cuisine, an authentic and wonderful small restaurant

on Beach Boulevard, in the Newland Center, in Huntington Beach.

There are 17 stir fries, curries and noodles served at the lunch,

which are smaller portions of the great variety offered at dinner. For a

good sampling, have each diner order a dish, plus one or two extra for

the table. At lunch, everyone gets a small iceberg lettuce salad with a

very good spicy lime dressing and a cup of clear broth filled with al

dente tomato, tofu cubes, baby corn and bok choy -- great color and

texture variety, important to Thai preparations.

For the table we ordered Crispy Rice ($5.25), the best I’ve ever

tasted. It’s a mix of sticky rice so crisp it crackles when you bite into

a serving with bits of minced chicken, onions, cilantro and ground

peanuts -- and those hot red chili peppers to watch out for. It’s marked

to indicate that it can be prepared 100% vegetarian, as are many of the

dishes at Silk Thai, without using eggs, fish or chicken.

Our server suggested we wrap spoonfuls of the rice like a taco in the

big lettuce leaves at the end of the platter -- messy to eat by hand but

a tasty combo of crunchy rice, bits of peanuts and crisp lettuce.

Paht Pak (lunch $5.50, dinner $5.50-$7.50) served with steamed rice

can be ordered vegetarian or with chicken, shrimp, calamari or beef, as

we did. It’s filled with cabbage, carrots, baby corn, tomatoes and

broccoli with a pile of crisp bean sprouts at one end of the casserole

and topped with strips of beef. Prepared in a tablespoon of canola oil,

it’s wonderfully fresh and healthy, a mild garlicky dish with depth of

flavor.

Paht Thai (lunch $5.50, dinner $6.50-$7.50) with narrow Siamese

noodles was ordered with firm tail-on shrimp and lots of bean sprouts

mixed with vegetables, all sprinkled with ground peanuts -- this combo is

very Thai, quite distinctive from other Asian cuisines.

The dessert menu has some excellent homemade choices, such as Thai

Custard ($2.50) served with sweet sticky rice -- the custard is a

quarter-inch, soft-baked wafer covered with a light white sauce and

sprinkled with sesame seeds. It was a different presentation of a

familiar dessert and not too sweet.

Another is more usual -- a bowl ($1.85) of white Thai fruit called o7

“longanf7 ,” with pitted white cherries covered with crushed ice. The

coconut ice cream ($3.95 a pint, $5.95 a quart) is homemade with bits of

coconut in any icy confection -- a wonderful cooling treat if you’ve had

any spicy dishes.

Manager Jennifer Jardine says her mother, Jintana Rungthirakul, who

directs the kitchen, has recently visited Thailand collecting recipes to

bring back to Silk Thai. Huntington Beach is in for a treat.

In the meantime, it is serving some of the best food around, fresh and

healthy -- an authentic taste of Thailand.

* MARY FURR is the Independent restaurant critic. If you have comments

or suggestions for her, call (562) 493-5062.

FYI

o7 Silk Thai Cuisine

f7 (Newland Center), HuntiWHERE: 19690 Beach Blvd., Huntington Beach,

in the Newland Center

HOURS: 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Monday through Saturday, 4 to 10 p.m. Sunday

CALL: (714) 964-1151

FAX: (714) 964-1152

MISC.: Credit cards accepted.