Thai on Washington?

gs3677 · November 2007

Via Brownstoner:
http://www.brownstoner.com/brownstoner/archives/2007/11/streetlevel_new_2.php

Anyone know anything about this? Looks like the corner of St Marks from the picture.

whyfi · November 2007

There have been a few mentions of the place in various threads.

They've been working on it for a while and it looks like they're getting close - the FOH looks pretty much done and it's not lookin' like a crappy take-out place, which is good...

ltjbukem · November 2007

imo, this place will be as authentic as every other thai place in bklyn, which is to say, not authentic at all.

but i'm sure not too many of the ppl who will be going to this new place will care or know the difference...

apollonia666 · November 2007

ltjbukem wrote: imo, this place will be as authentic as every other thai place in bklyn, which is to say, not authentic at all.

but i'm sure not too many of the ppl who will be going to this new place will care or know the difference...

Geez! I'm grateful for another food option closer to my part of the neighborhood. We all talk about the importance of supporting local businesses -- why not at least give this place the benefit of the doubt until it's open and you've tried it?

armchair_warrior · November 2007

now this area only needs a star bucks.

sweet tea · November 2007

i don't really care if it's "authentic" -- why should it be? plenty of "inauthentic" food tastes great. (i use quotation marks because i find authenticity a funny concept to apply to food, given that people have been adapting and modifying each others' recipes, trading ingredients, and learning new cooking technologies for thousands of years.)

i care if it has good food, good service, and reasonable prices.

happy to see a new business on washington, too.

carnivore · November 2007

Sorry , sweet tea, but I disagree. I think it's pretty disrespectful to a culture that's been developing a cuisine for hundreds of years or more to say that authentic does not mean better. It's true that in very rare cases, a brilliant chef can create a new riff on a traditional idea that many people may like better than the original. However for the most part, when food is inauthentic it tends to be a schlocky version of the real thing that's dumbed down for the lowest common denominator, not something that attempts to elevate the cuisine.

I'm certainly looking forward the new place, and will definitely give it a chance, but so far all the nearby Thai places are pretty bad.

What I wouldn't give to get the Sripraphai people to open a restaurant near here! :?

sweet tea · November 2007

warning: soapbox ahead.

obviously, on some level, i agree with you -- i'm not going for a kind of culinary moral relativism that sanctions velveeta on ravioli.

but i find "authentic" a tricky concept.

where do you draw the line? 500 years ago, there were no capiscum peppers in India or south asia, no tomatoes in Italy, no potatoes in Russia -- at what point do those foods become "authentic" to a culture? (and what of spam and kimchee? sure tastes good.

)

if my guatemalan neighbor in chicago makes me tamales (oh, those were the days...) and they have atypical ingredients, are they authentically the food of a guatemalan woman responding to a new environment, or are they "inauthentic" and somehow lesser? either way, they taste wonderful. no one ever seems to mind my biscuits, even though they're made with yogurt instead of buttermilk -- i like them better that way, and i'm the one baking.

food ingredients -- particularly plants and spices -- and cooking techniques have historically moved around the world more rapidly and efficiently than hard, breakable goods. like language or textiles, they travel better than architecture or pottery. new information has very often been seized upon by local cooks because it has added variety or sometimes a better way of cooking. why should that exchange be expected to freeze in time now? sounds like the academie francaise trying to freeze language. a losing battle.

now, all that said, of course this restaurant may prove disappointing. there may be gluey noodles and goopy sauce and sawdust meats. but i'll base my judgment not on whether it tastes like i'm in thailand, but whether it tastes good in brooklyn.

doctorj · November 2007

I'm with Carnivore on this one; grew up surrounded by Thais (prefer the Northern Esan style) and I just can't do the regular syrupy gooey Western version. Haven't been back to any nearby Thai place (other than Rice @7th&;8th which is ok). I'll give it one chance.

MOD · November 2007

Humm... I think the underlying idea that's I'm getting is that we don't want crap food and bad prices. Traditional maybe a better word.
Traditional recipes or not, as long as the chef is talented and inspired (aka no gummy noodles, bland sauces, indistinguishable sauces) then you're good.
It may not be everyones cup of tea, but if it's an excellent mixture of old and new then I can't complain.

Lot of times when I hear that a mexican place is not authentic, it really just means it's not good. Flavors are not powerful or ingredients are half-assed.
Shortcuts are taken on usually complex sauces etc... preparation leaves everything to be desired....

:? I feel like I'm rambling anyways!

:oops:

alafairnadia · November 2007

I'm on both sides of this one. I'll put up with not-perfect Thai or Chinese or Indian just to get a fix - though I'd rather have something that I know is more 'authentic'. but you'll never catch me ordering a classically Cuban meal in one of these Dominican restaurants in NYC - they are so disappointing that I'd rather long for something I know I can either make or obtain somewhere else than have a mediocre approximation. similarly, since living in the middle of Vietnamese-town in Houston, I can't eat most Vietnamese food in NYC - it just doesn't taste right. not fresh enough, not spiced correctly, too salty, etc. bleh.

and, yeah, I guess I am pretty unwilling to eat lousy approximations at restaurants - I barely eat pasta in restaurants anymore b/c I'm so spoiled by the Babbo's and Franny's of the world.

but, like sweet tea points out, I do like the idea of cheap, good food. Rice, for instance, the pan-Asian place in nolita and various parts of Brooklyn, is almost all fusiony type food, but damn if I don't love lots of it. the tofu meatballs, the Mongolian jerky, the Mexican avocado salad. the food is delicious, even if it bears tons of probable misnomers and inauthentic ingredients and preparation.

oh, and it's cheap. too bad we don't have one in PH.

whyfi · November 2007

I'm with sweet tea - food has to be good first, everything else is secondary. Even if monkey shit in a bowl is authentic someplace in this wide world, I'm still not going to like it...

apollonia666 · November 2007

From the Brownstoner.com comments thread:

The thai place is being done by the same people who run AM Thai in Kensington. It's not Sripraphai, but it's waaaaay better thank Mango, or any of that other Park Slope slop.

Anyone familiar with AM Thai?

sir_eccles · November 2007

I think unfortunately it comes down to basic economics and business sense. While we all may laude the chance to try authentic Thai food (whatever that may be) common sense suggests you tailor your menu at least a little bit to your potential market.

A good restaurant will offer a range from bland westernised versions on to more authentic dishes, or will say ask the chef if you want it authenticly spicy for example. But in the end if all the customers order the bland westernised versions, that's what is paying the bils.

guvna · November 2007

sweet tea wrote: warning: soapbox ahead.

obviously, on some level, i agree with you -- i'm not going for a kind of culinary moral relativism that sanctions velveeta on ravioli.

but i find "authentic" a tricky concept.

where do you draw the line? 500 years ago, there were no capiscum peppers in India or south asia, no tomatoes in Italy, no potatoes in Russia -- at what point do those foods become "authentic" to a culture? (and what of spam and kimchee? sure tastes good. )

if my guatemalan neighbor in chicago makes me tamales (oh, those were the days...) and they have atypical ingredients, are they authentically the food of a guatemalan woman responding to a new environment, or are they "inauthentic" and somehow lesser? either way, they taste wonderful. no one ever seems to mind my biscuits, even though they're made with yogurt instead of buttermilk -- i like them better that way, and i'm the one baking.

food ingredients -- particularly plants and spices -- and cooking techniques have historically moved around the world more rapidly and efficiently than hard, breakable goods. like language or textiles, they travel better than architecture or pottery. new information has very often been seized upon by local cooks because it has added variety or sometimes a better way of cooking. why should that exchange be expected to freeze in time now? sounds like the academie francaise trying to freeze language. a losing battle.

now, all that said, of course this restaurant may prove disappointing. there may be gluey noodles and goopy sauce and sawdust meats. but i'll base my judgment not on whether it tastes like i'm in thailand, but whether it tastes good in brooklyn.

Well said. I agree. I get this with Indian food alot. Also West Indian. For me though, if it tastes good, I'll eat their food. Even at home I substitute ingredients to suit my taste, as my mother, and grandmother have also done over the years. The food is still authentic, in its own right. Years ago a curry chicken patty wouldnt have been considered "authentic" Jamaican food. Now, you can find them in most patty shops.

santa · November 2007

i know people who have lived in Thailand and Korea and they say that the majority of food you get there isnt the amazing "authentic" orgasm most people think it is. Theres shitty food everywhere and some good food everywhere.

Some poor bastard comes here from China and eats a steak at some shitty steakhouse and hes going to be pissed even though its "authentic".

ive walked into many asian resturants throughout the country in strong ethnic neighborhoods and been the only white person in the place and thought the food wasnt that great.

even authentic doesnt mean good.

so yea

nynicegy · November 2007

I think the point here is that we're getting another restaraunt in the neighborhood and it's not some garbage little store front. I have also heard that there was some nice African restaraunt coming too (again, not a store front) and a Mexican restaraunt by the same people that are on 7th ave in park slope.

smokin joe · November 2007

NYnicegy wrote: I think the point here is that we're getting another restaraunt in the neighborhood and it's not some garbage little store front. I have also heard that there was some nice African restaraunt coming too (again, not a store front) and a Mexican restaraunt by the same people that are on 7th ave in park slope.

you said it! if it's good food, well prepared and reasonably priced, bring it on. it would be so great to have a decent thai place around here. and i'll be happy to debate the authenticity issue after my belly's full of pad thai.

teddy's and gen prove good restaurants can survive--and i hope do well--on washington. with any luck there'll be more.

doctorj · November 2007

It's not the authenticity per se that's the issue as far as I'm concerned. There are plenty of other fusion or modified cuisines I'll go for when done well, including Asian-inspired dishes. It's just that since developing a taste for genuine Northern Thai after being pointed to it by Thais, there's nothing you can do to it in the direction of unbalancing and/or cutting back on the spices, and loading up on sugar, coconut, oil, and pineapple, with the aim of making it more palatable to Joe Average, that makes it more palatable to me.

In another city, I watched a main street go from one good to twenty-seven bad Thai restaurants in the space of a couple of years in the 90s, when the formula for mass-appeal was discovered. Life's too short for mediocre Westernized Thai.

santa · November 2007

^ whats a recommendation for a thai place in nyc

doctorj · November 2007

I want to try Zabb (Jackson Heights, LES). It's Esan/Isaan/Isan cusine.

carnivore · November 2007

doctorj wrote: I want to try Zabb (Jackson Heights, LES). It's Esan/Isaan/Isan cusine.

Have you tried Sripraphai?

c balla · November 2007

Judging by some posts on Chowhound, if this place is anything like AM Thai, it will be be considerably better than any other Thai in the area (meaning considerably better than crummy Slope Thai).

Thai on Washington?

Comments

Howdy, Stranger!

Categories