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Monday, September 9, 2008
Sawasdee Restaurant Review (Thai Food Watered Down for the Vietnamese Palate)
LATE LAST WEEK I HAD MY FIRST CHANCE TO EAT THAI FOOD IN HO CHI MINH CITY, AT THE SAWASDEE RESTAURANT, ON LE LAI STREET, IN DISTRICT 1. I was there with my girl Nga, my Mum and Dad, and their firends from Australia, whom I call Uncle Phil and Auntie Heather even though they aren't really my relatives. I was hoping to drink some Singha beer but they had run out at Sawasdee, and because my Mum and Dad were there, I was only allowed to drink two and a half cans of Tiger Beer from Singapore. The beer was cold... if only the food was hot enough to match it! Sawasdee occupies an entire building on Le Lai Street overlooing the park, with seating comfortably spread over a couple of floors. Beautiful Vietnamese girls wai you as move from floor to floor, something which impressed my Dad, when we visited in the dying days of the Fill In the Blanks vacation. We settled on the balcony on the top floor, where some white dude was on a date with a brown, brown Viet girl. We ordered a table of dishes, which was mostly bland, unexciting fare, big on visuals but sorely lacking on the heat factor. This is Thai food tempered for Vietnamese tastes, and somewhat pretentious to boot. I had to lecture my Auntie Heather not to eat the food with chopsticks, but how could I be so anal, when all the Viet's in the place were using chopsticks too? I was going to order the duck curry but thought I should add a bit of diversity to the table, and went for a spicy beef salad instead. I had memories of the scorching salads I had enjoyed one stoned, cloudy morning in Bangkok in August 2002, but this bland nisemono at Sawasdee HCMC didn't even come close. We all enjoyed the seafood curry in a coconut, but it eventually gave us the shits (well me, anyway.) Maybe it was from all that tuna.
As you can see, an extensive menu, with plenty of curry dishes on offer, all coming in roughly under 100,000 Dong a pop. I am still yet to devour a duck curry, which Thai's apparently go ape over. I don't think Vietnam is the place to do it though. For complete Sawasdee Thai Restaurant story, click here.
