The Brooklyn Paper: THE HEAT IS ON
The current issue
Neighborhood Map
Bay Ridge
  • Bensonhurst, Dyker Heights
Brooklyn Heights
  • Downtown, DUMBO
Carroll Gardens
  • Cobble Hill, Red Hook, Boerum Hill
Fort Greene
  • Clinton Hill, Crown Heights
North Brooklyn
  • Williamsburg, Greenpoint, Bushwick
Park Slope
  • Prospect Heights, Windsor Terrace, Greenwood Heights
GO Brooklyn
Dining Guide
Where to GO
Events calendar
Classifieds
The Brooklyn Wire
Not Just Nets
Police Blotter
Perspective
Parenting
Politics
Transit
Podcasts
Brooklyn Cyclones
Merchant news
About The Paper
RSS Feeds
CNG Boro Politics

THE HEAT IS ON

Tuk Tuk serves up the right Thai spices

By Tina Barry
for The Brooklyn Paper
The Brooklyn Papers / Greg Mango
Transport-tasting: Pad pra ram long-song, chicken, steamed broccoli and peanut sauce, is served at Tuk Tuk restaurant on Smith Street. The eatery is named for the Thailand cabs (in the background, above), which make a "tuk-tuk-tuk" sound.

Tools

Print this story
digg
del.icio.us

"How much curry can a girl eat?" I asked my husband when he suggested Thai food for the third time in a week. I adore Thai food. The smell of lemongrass and chilies makes me swoon. But how many times can you eat it?

If you’re a Thai food junkie: the answer is seven - once a day isn’t a bad place to start.

Finding restaurants in Brooklyn that serve authentic Thai food when we need a fix isn’t always easy. Some have turned the spice down so far that the food has a "McThai" quality - in other words, no one in Iowa would notice the heat. And I was told recently that a chef in a local Thai place was using goat cheese as an ingredient - a sort of "nouvelle Thai." That’s fine; I’m for creativity in the kitchen. But when I need Thai food, it isn’t goat cheese I’m after.

What I want are the clean, bright flavors of Thai cooking at its best: the astringent tartness of lime; the anise-like quality of basil; the freshness of mint. When a dish balances all those tastes perfectly - it is a magical experience. Not every dish I tried at Tuk Tuk, an attractive restaurant in Boerum Hill, had that magical quality, but a few of the dishes I sampled were vividly seasoned and had the heat I crave.

Walk into Tuk Tuk, open less than a year, and you’re met with the pungent aroma of garlic and lime and the hissing of oil sizzling in hot woks. The restaurant is one long, narrow room seating 30. The wood-on-wood decor is casual - bleached wood floor and wooden tables surrounded by an assortment of neutral-colored chairs and sofas. There’s a bar but no bar scene. I’ll call Tuk Tuk a family place and hope that my description won’t turn anyone off. It is easy for anyone, with or without children, to eat comfortably.

Tuk Tuk was named for the ubiquitous three-wheeled Thai vehicle - akin to a taxi - which makes a "tuk tuk tuk" sound.

The waitstaff runs gracefully from table to table and never seem to loose their ear-to-ear grins. A waiter who appeared to be servicing 20 parties at once, stopped at our table, scribbled our orders and returned seconds later with our bottles of Singha - a light beer that’s a must-have with Thai food.

Everything on Tuk Tuk’s menu looked appealing except the American fried rice, an American chop-suey-Thai hybrid that must have been included for the amusement of the chef. This amalgamation of East and West featured raisins, frank (not capitalized so I’m assuming it’s a frankfurter and not a customer with an unpaid bill) drumsticks, sriacha (a hot chili and garlic sauce) and ketchup topped gracefully with a sunny side up egg.

The tom yum soup was everything it should be: heavily scented and citrusy from the lemongrass, the shrimp tender and the mushrooms earthy and silken. The glass noodle soup, though, was one odd bowl of flavor. The broth had a musty aroma and the tough slices of calamari, stuffed with mealy ground chicken, were unpleasant.

The chef makes no concessions for the American palette when spicing a mussel pancake appetizer. Made from rice flour and filled with tender mussels and soft chunks of onion, the pancake is liberally dosed with fiery sriacha. It’s hot, but the heat only intensifies the brininess of the mussels and the sweetness of the onion.

Tuk Tuk’s green curry also packs a slow burn. Hot it is, yet the fiery chilies are tempered by the creamy coconut milk, while the flavors of the shrimp, soft eggplant and basil leaves remain vibrant and distinct.

Pad rama long-song, an entree of pork in a peanut sauce served over steamed broccoli, carrots and string beans took awhile to grow on us. At first, the sauce tasted like peanut butter - heavy and cloying. As we ate, the flavors of coconut milk emerged, as did the nutty flavor and saltiness of crushed peanuts. Crisply cooked vegetables seemed to lighten the dish.

At owner Tassanee Boonmongkol’s suggestion, we ordered the Thai ice cream dessert. A huge bowl with several scoops of pastel-colored ice cream was placed before us. We liked the coconut and the litchi ice creams more for the heat relief they provided then their mild flavor. The scoop of palm nut ice cream (also called luk taan, an opaque sap extracted from the nut of a Palmyra palm) with its chewy, gelatinous bits and dusty aroma is an acquired taste.

When we return to Tuk Tuk we’ll order the noodle dishes and a Yum-Yum (in Thai "yum" means salad.) The nam-tok, which includes grilled beef, lime juice, hot chilies and mint sounds like it would be worth a try.

Tuk Tuk aims for authenticity and I applaud that. With so many restaurants in our area serving tame "Thai-like" versions of the real thing, it’s a pleasure to find a restaurant that isn’t afraid to turn up the heat.

 

Tuk Tuk (204 Smith St., between Baltic and Butler streets) accepts cash only. Entrees are $7-$9. For reservations, call (718) 222-5598.

©2002 Community Newspaper Group


Reader Feedback

Enter your comment below

By submitting this comment, you agree to the following terms:

You agree that you, and not BrooklynPaper.com or its affiliates, are fully responsible for the content that you post. You agree not to post any abusive, obscene, vulgar, slanderous, hateful, threatening or sexually-oriented material or any material that may violate applicable law; doing so may lead to the removal of your post and to your being permanently banned from posting to the site. You grant to BrooklynPaper.com the royalty-free, irrevocable, perpetual and fully sublicensable license to use, reproduce, modify, adapt, publish, translate, create derivative works from, distribute, perform and display such content in whole or in part world-wide and to incorporate it in other works in any form, media or technology now known or later developed.

First name
Last name
Your neighborhood
Email address
Daytime phone

Your letter must be signed and include all of the information requested above. (Only your name and neighborhood are published with the letter.) Letters should be as brief as possible; while they may discuss any topic of interest to our readers, priority will be given to letters that relate to stories covered by The Brooklyn Paper.

Letters will be edited at the sole discretion of the editor, may be published in whole or part in any media, and upon publication become the property of The Brooklyn Paper. The earlier in the week you send your letter, the better.

Brooklyn Paper Parent
Water Street Restaurant