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Stuff Magazine
Hot Stuff: Try spices to warm a winter night
by Louisa Kasdon | January 08, 2008

Excerpt:

Go Thai. When you go to a Thai restaurant, ask your server to make your food “Thai hot,” otherwise the result will be as if Rachael Ray made your pad Thai. If Thai hot is too much for the whole meal, just start with the soup. By the time the chicken basil comes, you won’t even notice the sub-freezing blast every time the front door opens. For my taste, the best local Thai restaurants are Brown Sugar, Dok Bua, Tamarind House, Bangkok Café, and Khao Sarn.

Awards

Best of Boston Award

Best Thai Food 2005
Order pad thai, if you must. But what makes Khao Sarn worthy are its specialties from the northern reaches of Thailand—miang kum, for example, is a do-it-yourself dish that lets you wrap a few flakes of baked coconut, roasted peanuts, and tiny dried shrimp in a spinach leaf and finish with a dollop of sweet sauce and a squeeze of lime. It’s a flavor explosion—and your new must-have at any Thai meal.

Best Thai Food 2003
Unlike the now-ubiquitous Asian fusion restaurants it resembles, this Coolidge Corner newcomer serves food that is authentically exotic. Fortunately, the knowledgeable waitresses excel at coaching diners who might otherwise steer past the northern Thai specialties and play it safe with spring rolls and Pad Thai. The miang kum appetizer (roll-your-own packets of baby spinach leaves filled with bits of lime, coconut, peanuts, fresh ginger, onion, and dried shrimp) reveals a different texture and flavor combination with every bite. The haw moak (chicken or salmon seasoned with red curry and coconut milk and steamed in a banana leaf) brings a hint of heat, but not too much. Spicy dishes—and there are many here—are rated on a scale of one to three chili peppers, and the kitchen doesn’t sacrifice subtlety when adding fire. If you still manage to torch your taste buds, you’ve got an excuse to order the soothing mango sticky rice for dessert.

Zagat Rated
Featured in Zagat Thai Tops