Chanpen Thai

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Chanpen Thai
Hell's Kitchen



We stopped by this thai joint because it was in the vicinity of Terminal 5, where the Thievery show was held last week. It looked pretty crowded, which is always a good sign.

Mixed apps: clockwise from top: fried veggie spring rolls, potato curry puff, veggie dumpling (I like how it looked like a little goldfish), fried shrimp roll, veggie side.

Chanpen offered Chang beer, which was a smooth, flowery pilsner that went well with the food.

For our main, DJKung got the pad ped (of course) and I had the red veggie curry. We thought it was such a crime that rice was extra. I think it was $3 for a small cup, which was just too much.

Red veggie curry. I do not remember what it was exactly called. Nice spice mix, but nonetheless, it was not satisfying. I think I was expecting a coconut curry.




Pad ped (duck salad). It came on a nice bed of beans and veggies. DJKung said it was pretty good (although I've never heard him nix any pad ped yet).

DJKung's friends got the fish with curry sauce, which we liked. You could taste the kaffir lime in the curry... very nice. They also ordered a noodle dish in a hot pot which we did not get to try.

It appears that Chanpen Thai gets a lot of foot traffic from Times Square.

Brookside Thai

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Brookside Thai
Bloomfield, NJ



Brookside Thai is one of the joints that we used to go to back then. We decided to check it out recently. One of the things we noticed is that they have undergone a significant redo of the interior---it looks more polished now.

Illustration of songkran, the water festival. Getting splashed looks like fun!

There was a time we liked coming here a lot. It fell out of our rotation when the food kept turning out too much on the sweet side.

We got a nice selection of apps.

Papaya salad. This was excellent---crunchy green papaya with a salty-spicy-sweet sauce.


Curry puffs. The filling is potato curry. Amazingly, this was very light, despite being deep-fried.

DJKung's poppa got the chicken soup. He was nice and full after this.

Pad ped (duck salad). This is always DJKung's fave. The fried duck slices are crispy on the outside, succulent on the inside. Comes with loads of veggies: carrots, lettuce, onions, scallions, and even some sliced apple.

For our mains, we got seafood fried rice and noodle soup (guay tieu gai). The waitress steered us to the fried snapper, which she said was fresh that day.

The seafood fried rice was excellent, with that nice wok taste.

Noodle soup (guay tieu gai?). I call it "pink soup." It was sweet, spicy and salty, with emphasis on the first element. We did not like it; it tasted very unbalanced and rather harsh. DJKung and his pops actually poured their soup bowls back into the main bowl.

Fried red snapper. It was prepared well--- deep-fried and crispy. However, we all agreed that it was not the fresh; the flesh just did not have that firm, clean taste.

I am quite 50-50 as to whether we should put this back on the rotation. On my more generous moods, there are not really a lot of Thai places around, so it seems that we should. On the other hand, I can count the few dishes here that I actually enjoy. DJKung felt that it doesn't quite make the cut.