A lot can be learned about a city from its food, and I don’t mean the glossy, hatted restaurants. The low-key restaurants in the burbs are what makes a city. If there aren’t easy, delicious food choices near by your home for those nights when you simply couldn’t bear to be a slave to the kitchen, then life can look grim. And what a luxury to have food delivered right to your door, huh? It’s the simple things. Sometimes coming home after a taxing day (looking at used cars is no picnic) there can be nothing more gratifying than flopping in front of the tv and eating food you didn’t even have to leave the house to obtain, especially as the rain teems down.
According to the reviews, Thai Phoenix do a pumpkin soup so good it will make you doubt everything you thought you knew about soup. I needed this soup. I also needed curry and a stir-fry of some description.
The revered soup arrives. I spoon it into my new happy-yellow bowl. It is so thick and spicy. It coats your mouth with its delicious pumpkiny wiles, then slaps your mouth a little with its chilli fingers. This will not be my last encounter with this soup.
For the weak-hearted in the chilli arena, the Mussaman curry proves to be a worthy choice. The hunks of beef are soft and flaky. Yes the meat is a secondary cut, but it is full of flavour.
I chomp into some Pud Prik Sod Bai Ho-Ra-Par, or chilli basil stir fry with chicken. The flavours are bold and the vegetables are still crunchy, not the sog you can sometimes wind up with.
Thai Phoenix has set the bar high for suburban Thai with their fresh produce, and big flavours… And has left me understanding how the characters on Seinfeld felt when they tasted the soup from the famed Soup Nazi – “You can’t eat this soup standing up. Your knees buckle.”
