10/1/08 - Greetings on the first day of this very fine, new month! And it is on this day that we're starting off with a bang - Thai-bang, that is. Oh, yes - all of those wonderful, spicy, herb-filled, aroma-laden Thai foods, the ones that set off fireworks on your tongue, heightening your culinary sensations like few other cuisines can.
One of the most hauntingly exotic foods to the western mind - that is, without getting into the realm of Andrew Zimmern, with monkey brains, still-beating cobra heart, and six-inch-long, pulsating grubs fresh from a rotting tree stump - Thai cuisine is the perfect embodiment of the term explosion of flavors. This tongue-titillation comes from rich coconut milk, pungent fish sauce, fragrant jasmine rice, galanga, tamarind, lemongrass, Thai basil, chili peppers of all shapes and sizes, and every herb and spice known to man, and that's just to get you started. Don't worry, when you see the dishes coming in just a bit, they'll tell you the rest of the story in themselves!
There are many great Thai restaurants on the island, and one of those I've already had the pleasure of experiencing is Champa Thai at the Pearl Kai Shopping Center. There is also a location out in Kailua and in Kaimuki, as well. For today, wifey and I'd be trying out the much less-busier Kaimuki location, which sits on the main strip running through the neighborhood, at 3452 Waialae Ave, right on the corner intersecting with 9th Ave.
Parking is either on the street or directly behind the restaurant, whose entrance is where that red dumpster is. As you can see, beautiful Palolo Valley provides a stunning backdrop just up the road.
Gorgeous little valley, it is. And there's a really spectacular hike in the back, as well. It starts off as a relatively level valley hike that runs alongside a river, then turns upward towards the ridge, where you can go all the way to Ka'au Crater, a huge bog up in the mountains few people have ever seen in person.
I know a decent rain means definite flash-floods in certain areas, but this hike kinda reminds me of small-kid days, when our entire gang of fellow elementary-age, neighborhood terrors would dream of heavy rains so we could go play in the drainage ditch and mountain waterfalls just behind our homes. It was only a few years ago we would re-live our childhood with the Palolo Valley hike, done on a rainy spring day.
Before reaching the crater, there are several waterfalls, complete with small ponds for swimming. Another reason I like to go after or during a good rain is that the water isn't stagnant anymore, and left sitting to collect whatever rotting matter that happens to fall in upstream. Lepto (spirosis) is one nasty bug I never want to catch! As you can see, the biggest of the ponds has a little nook you can climb to literally get behind the falls.
Further upstream lay the biggest waterfall of the hike. On its left side was the trail, which was sheer enough that a series of ropes were provided for all, courtesy of the little Menehune's that come out and work only at night. Or maybe the Hawaii Hiking Clubs. Not too far from there was Ka'au Crater, something I never saw on this day because, despite that being me up at the top, I scurried back down to stay behind with one of our crew, who got a little banged up and had to stay put at the base of the falls. No worries, brah... Plenty of negative ions there to keep me on a natural high no matter what!
Getting back to civilization, I wasn't sure if this little Kaimuki branch of Champa Thai would have the same great flavors I experienced at their Pearl City location. Only one way to find out...
Walking in at a few minutes past noon, wifey and I were a bit surprised to see a completely empty dining room. From outside, it looks a bit run-down, but step in and the place is reasonably clean and well-kept, with crisp, white linen, shiny silverware, glossy ceramic plates, and multi-faceted glasses, all of which give it a few more points as far as general feel and atmosphere go.
Right at the entrance sits a few items found in every Thai restaurant I've ever been in before, a couple of Buddha-related deities. Hey, it's all good, man... Peace to the world. If we were all like him (or is it her?), we'd have no war. Of course, if we were all like Jesus, we'd have no war, either. Mohammad? Uh, that's another story... Mohammad killed a lot of infidels. But then again, to be fair, so did the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob - before the advent of Jesus, that is. I guess it goes into the matter of justified or unjustified killing, or murder. Are the two different, or both the same? I have my own conclusions, but I'll let you decide for yourselves... Food site, you know.
Moving on to the grindz, wifey held back from her usual custom of ordering a bowl of tom yum, a tangy-sour soup that is probably the most popular soup of Thailand. After all, I can't be taking a pic of tom yum every time we hit a Thai place, right? Thank you wifey! I know how hard it is for you!
She instead went with a bittermelon soup, much to my delight. I love the green, cucumber-shaped, "brain-looking" vegetable. Anything that bitter-tasting has gotta be good for you. And that it is. With twice the beta-carotene as broccoli, twice the calcium of spinach, twice the potassium of bananas, and especially large amounts of blood-enriching iron, bittermelon has been used in ayurvedic and other natural healing traditions for generations.
Wifey always makes goya champuru for me, an Okinawan dish made from stir-fried pork, bittermelon, and egg - absolutely delicious with rice and some hot chili sauce! Here at Champa Thai, it came stuffed with ground chicken and sliced into rolls, along with a hearty broth and onions, green onions, cilantro, garlic, and noodles of bean thread. Not exactly as stimulating to the senses as the ever-ebullient tom yum, but a good, hearty, straight-foward soup I can imagine eating next time I'm feeling a little under the weather.
And here's a better shot of the transluscent noodles, along with a clear view of that ground chicken stuffed inside the bittermelon slices.
The next dish was a beautifully-presented garlic chicken. Swimming in a coconut milk-based gravy and sitting on a bed of cabbage, we were both definitely looking forward to chowing down on this festive, fun-looking plate. The taste, however, was a bit of a dissapointment, the only garlic flavor coming from a handful of last bites where a few garlic chips had been hiding away.
And watch out when you ask for something hot in a Thai restaurant, something that's always a given for us unless we happen to forget, and we didn't happen to forget today! The ones you really gotta watch out for are those small red chili peppers, especially the ones not yet cooked enough for some of the heat to leach away into the rest of your dish - those buggahs should be considered lethal weapons. When raw, stay very fah, is what I say. And don't be having any kids anywhere near a Thai-hot meal, allright?
Our final dish was the best of all, and the prettiest - red curry with shrimp. Only it wasn't shrimp at all, actually. When our kind waitress put an already-made chicken curry on our table after we asked for shrimp, I had to weigh my options. Grumble and demand a new dish, like I did at the Canoe House on the Big Island? Or just be quiet and eat? Hmmm...
I decided to go with my natural reaction to most things - no worries, easy-easy. We just smiled, said thank-you, and enjoyed a great bowl of curry, is all! With an empty dining room, I didn't want to see them wasting good food and losing any more profits. Now, if we were at an expensive restaurant, yes, I'd send it back. If the waitress was snotty or rude, yes, without a doubt. Or, if wifey or myself didn't like chicken, by all means! But in this particular situation, aaah, it was aaall good - No worries!
It turns out that our kind waitress actually came back herself and apologized profusely, showing us the check where she lowered the spot price from shrimp to chicken. Honest mistake, ey? We all do it sometimes. Not including me, but especially me. Mom always calls me absent minded and pon-kan (space-cadet, kind of). Wifey just calls me bo-ke (senile). Oh, the abuse, I tell you...
The colors on this dish were absolutely gorgeous. Various types of green, red, orange, yellow, brown - both entrees were like a celebration of vibrant, contrasting shades, perfect with the many layers of different tastes that ran through our palates, as well. Despite this fact, however, there were a few main players that were rather conspicuously absent. I saw no obvious signs of Thai ginger (galanga), lemongrass, or kaffir lime leaves. Who knows - Maybe these were all dishes that just didn't call for them. After all, these were only three out of several pages of different choices.
For appetizers, there are stuffed chicken wings, sateh's, calamari, mee krob, and more. For salads, how about green papaya, grilled beef, cabbage, or long rice? There are also different noodles, fried rice dishes, vegetarian options, and other soups like seafood and lemongrass (aaah, there's one of the items we missed seeing!). Then, of course, there are a slew of curries like Panang, Mussamun, and sour bamboo, along with various other ala carte offerings, such as flounder with garlic, Paradise chicken (cornish game hen), pla rad prig (deep-fried mahi in spicy chili sauce), and calamari unchoi, to name a few.
Getting back to our earlier question - does this Kaimuki location stack up to the one out in Pearl Kai? Well... Maybe. The presentation was top-knotch, the flavors varied and complex, and atmosphere comparable. In the midst of many positives, the only matter both wifey and I noticed, and just by a hair, was that the tastes were just a wee-bit less exotic and strong, maybe because of the absence of the three ingredients mentioned earlier. It was still an enjoyable meal, however, and never did we lose sight of the fact that these were Thai meals in every way. Maybe it'll take another trip to get a clearer impression, something I wouldn't hesitate doing again, not in the least bit. As always, I would rather you come out and find out for yourself. Forget about living vicariously, as food can so easily be divided by subjectivity. That is, unless it's really bad - there is such a thing - in which case I will surely let you know.
And on that note, I guess I'll call it a day. Make sure to remain positive (unless your food is really bad - then you can sulk, but only for a moment!), believe for the better, and always keep it real.
I didn't know Thai folks love the Superbowl so much!!!
Why, as far as it goes with my fellow employees at work, Superbowl Sunday is Christmas and New Year's Eve all wrapped into one grand occasion, but I had no idea Thai restaurants would close down for the day, as well! Hoping for a few quick take-out plates from Chiang Mai, Kumi and I quickly found the windows shut, lights off, and chairs upside-down on the tables there at the popular S. King St. location. We tried calling first, but only got an answering machine response, so we figured they may have just been busy or something. But nooo... Rejected, we next called Siam Garden on Nimitz, Siam Palace in Kaimuki, and missed the Mekong while driving down Beretania St. (not sure if they were open or not, but we didn't bother calling). Finally, we found Champa Thai at Pearl Kai open for business - thank God!
Champa is one of the most popular Thai restaurants on the island, with several locations available, this one perhaps being the busiest one. Come weekends (perhaps not Superbowl Sunday's, though!), there's often a line extending down the sidewalk!
Inside, it's simple and clean, with a long row of tables opening-up to a wider dining area towards the back.
But we were all about take-out on this fine Superbowl Sunday, already late to the party after plan A, B, C, and D didn't materialize!
Though I prefer deep-fried spring rolls, Kumi always falls for the healthier summer roll variety, with paper-thin rice wrappers surrounding rice noodles, carrots, cucumbers, lettuce, and, of course, steamed or boiled shrimp.
It's hard to screw up raw veggies, pre-made rice wrappers, and rice noodles, so the biggest variables on this particular dish are whether the shrimps are big and fresh enough, and also the condition of the peanut sauce - glad to say, both were fantastic! Though there could have been more than one half-shrimp per section (each whole shrimp is usually sliced in two pieces down the lengths of the tails), I was glad to see that they were large and beautiful, as seen from behind the partially transluscent shells. The peanut sauce was also delicious, not overly sweetened nor overly thick, as can so often happen.
For a nice salad, I was kinda hoping for a jellyfish salad, but they didn't carry one (maybe that's only Vietnamese restaurants?). Instead, papaya salad is usually a safe bet.
The greenest of papaya are used to create these white, daikon-looking slivers, with a spicy, tangy fish sauce vinaigrette used for flavor, while tomatoes, onions, and chopped peanuts are also added. On the side were a few beautiful slices of green leaf lettuce, along with a section of head cabbage.
I gotta agree with Reid at Ono Kine Grindz (link above), who said that the papaya pieces were soaked a little too long. They were very, very strong and potent with fish sauce, when it would have been better if the sauce were added just before presentation and in lesser amounts, allowing for a crisper, lighter dish over-all. And be careful when requesting hot at any Thai spot! Kumi did just that, and she paid the price later, lemme tell ya! However, it was a good pain, so no worries!
After having appreciated the delicious Thai fried chicken at Thai eateries like Phuket Thai and Maile's Thai Bistro, I was kinda hoping for the same thing here at Champa, but the style was very different. Still good, by the way, but here, unlike the crispy, boneless pieces at the above locations, they take a whole, small chicken, then split and deep-fry it all at once. By the time we got to our party, the skin had already substantially softened, with only select parts still crisp, making me wish I could have sampled it fresh, right there at the restaurant. Though it was cut only into four pieces, each section hand-ripped easily, revealing a soft, tasty, yet skosh dry meat inside. A tangy fish sauce-based pour all over the chicken added a bit of zing, along with an Oriental taste, while a dip of sweet chili was also served alongside in a separate container:
Dang, I wish I remembered that the last time we came here, we ordered a red curry, just like we did again today! Oh, well. Like the first time, this time their red chicken curry was once again good, coming with tender strips of chicken, fresh basil, bamboo shoots, onions, and that luscious coconut milk curry sauce. Nix the exotic Thai ingredients mentioned above in the first Champa Closer Look, but still rich and tasty, nonetheless.
Been a quick one!
Looking forward to another second look (I already did a first Closer Look!) in the next couple of days, this one from guest blogger Tony Kawaguchi at one of the best Hawaii Regional Cuisine restaurants on the island!
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