Lunch can be an exercise in carb-dodging and the healthy option, like a salad, pales in comparison to the satisfying option: a steaming bowl of noodles.
At SkyIce Sweet and Savory, the struggle ends.
The small but airy café in Park Slope has a “No-Carb Pad Thai” that’s all the satisfaction of a bowl of noodles with none of the guilt. Replacing traditional rice noodles with sautéed, shredded papaya, owner Sutheera Denprapa — who hails from Thailand — has created a dish that’s wonderfully original, surprisingly healthy, and hits all the right spots for the hungry, carb-conscious eater.
Thin, stringy, and mixed with plenty of sweet and tangy tamarind-laced, house-made pad thai sauce, the shredded papaya noodles pull off the role of noodle with no problem. Along with the traditional accompaniments of egg, peanuts, scallion, and turnips, the dish comes with a choice of vegetables, tofu, chicken, shrimp, beef, mahi magi, or Norwegian salmon. And in a borough where Thai food is increasingly easy to find and Pad Thai something of a staple, this version ranks high as much for its ingenuity as it for its flavor and freshness.
But there’s more.
During lunch, the noodles come with a free scoop of SkyIce’s homemade Thai ice cream. The smooth, rich, and creamy flavors — the Thai coffee is intense — are hard to pass up, after passing on the carbs.
So much for healthy.
SkyIce Sweet & Savory [63 Ffith Ave.at St. Marks Avenue, (718) 230–0910, www.skyicenyc.com].
