THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, September 10, 1995 TAG: 9509070049
SECTION: FLAVOR PAGE: F1 EDITION: FINAL
COLUMN: BILL OF FARE
TYPE: Restaurant review
SOURCE: BY JON GLASS, STAFF WRITER
LENGTH: Medium: 94 lines
TO APPRECIATE the culinary bounty of his Southeast Asian homeland, you needn't know that Khamky Kham, owner of the New Bangkok Thai Restaurant in Virginia Beach, is from Laos.
Or that as a child in the war-torn 1970s he and his family fled for neighboring Thailand, refugees from a communist regime. Or that he now calls himself ``Danny'' because it's easier for Americans to say than Khamky (pronounced CahmKEY).
It helps, though. Because then you know whom to thank after experiencing the pleasure of the wholesome Thai dishes concocted in the kitchen of his little jewel of a restaurant.
Kham, who runs the restaurant with his Laotian-born fiancee, Baykham Phoutasen, and her mother, brother and sister, opened for business in January. On the corner of a strip shopping center off Indian River Road, it became the resort city's second Thai restaurant. The Bangkok Garden Restaurant in Loehmann's Plaza opened in 1993.
The space formerly housed the Chinese restaurants Blue Hawaii and Captain China. Kham transformed a former buffet area into a parquet dance floor, for after-dinner-hours karaoke and other weekend entertainment.
Bamboo thickets planted outdoors ease diners into an Asian milieu. Inside, recorded Thai music plays softly. The dining room's understated decor of blond cedar walls, green window shutters and glass-topped tables offers a comfortable respite. Kham sometimes tends a tiny bar just off the entrance.
Along with Buddhism and a simple way of life, Laotians share with Thais a rich culinary tradition.
The New Bangkok's head chef, Nipaporn Baker, showcases the creative essence of Thai cookery - dishes redolent with lemon grass and coconut milk, sparked with fiery chili peppers, garlic and curry paste, all tempered by heapings of rice and a cold Singha, the slightly bitter but seductive Thai beer.
The reasonably priced menu features a wide range of chicken, beef, pork and seafood entrees - 87 selections are listed. Also, there are a half-dozen soups, an equal number of appetizers and several noodle dishes, including the popular phad Thai ($7.25), a delightful mixture of rice noodles stir-fried with eggs, bean sprouts and peanuts served with a choice of meat or seafood.
Freshness of ingredients is a key. Kham said that in their back yard, his fiancee's family grows many of the herbs and vegetables used at the restaurant - cilantro, basil, mint, lemon grass and long Thai string beans.
While Laotians savor spicy foods, the dishes can be prepared for milder tastes by leaving out the devilishly hot Thai peppers.
Our dining party started with neau satay (six for $4.95), deliciously tender strips of beef sauteed in a mild yellow curry and coconut milk, and grilled. It was accompanied by a sweet peanut sauce and a sour vinegar sauce with chopped cucumbers, red onions and peppers.
Crisp, tasty spring rolls (six for $5.50 or 95 cents each) were a favorite. They were stuffed with pork, shrimp and vegetables and served with a syrupy sweet-and-sour dipping sauce.
A spicy lemon grass sour shrimp soup ($3.50 a pint) was hearty and good. The broth, rich in lemon grass and cilantro, was tinged red by a pepper paste, and it was chock-full of onions, mushrooms tomatoes and shrimp.
We ordered an entree called pohtack (at $15.95 the most expensive item on the menu); it was listed as one of the ``chef specials.'' It was a smorgasbord of fresh shrimp, scallops, squid, fish and crab meat, all tossed on a cooking plate with mild chili paste, green-pepper strips and fresh basil leaves, covered with foil and steamed.
The puffed-up foil cap on the finished product brought to mind a tray of Jiffy Pop, and our waitress, demure and polite, moved with a flourish as she walked to our table and ceremoniously sliced the foil with a knife. Steam poured forth with an intoxicating scent.
The fish, a sweet white fillet of fresh tilapia, was cooked to perfection. The shrimp, though, were slightly overdone and the green peppers wilted. The chili paste, a little milder than hoped, was an interesting concoction of anchovy-based fish sauce, lime juice, ground peppers, garlic, onions, lemon leaf and tomato sauce.
Phanang gai ($8.50), was tender slices of chicken breast, a bit overpowered by red Thai curry. The deceptively hot sauce began as a slow burn before igniting.
The only dessert offered that night, sticky sweet rice and mango slices, was a delicious treat. To prepare the dish, the chefs soak white rice in water for a day and then steam it and mix it with sugar and coconut milk. The bright orange slices of mango were fresh and succulent.
Other desserts include sweet rice with coconut custard and fried bananas with ice cream.
In a region that likes to promote its diversity and international flavor, Kham and family's New Bangkok is a welcome addition to the mix.
ILLUSTRATION: Color photo
ROY A. BAHLS
Hostess Susan Phoutasen with Chicken Ob Supparoo ($9.95), a
September special at New Bangkok.
by CNB