SukhoThai

For its size and Wisconsin location, Madison overflows with wonderful, ethnic food options. With all the choices, I seem to end up at the same few places over and over. I get stuck on the last great meal. I need to go back and have it again and again, instead of moving on, moving around and sampling something new. I justify the obsessing by telling myself that going back to my latest favorite assures me an excellent meal, while a new place might just be good or even mediocre.

My obsessions lately have been Laotian curry from Lao Laan Xang, Ethiopian mush at Yirgalem and Indian flat bread at Maharaja. This past week I ventured into “new” territory, kinda.

Last summer I fell in love with a Thai food cart on Library Mall. They had the perfect combo box, half filled with a light and tangy pad thai, half filled with a thick, flavorful squash curry in coconut sauce. It was perfection on many summer days. The cart is from SukhoThai. The restaurant has been around since 1994, with a food cart since 1997. Like I said, I’m slow to change my patterns.

For some reason, I had never connected the goodness of the cart with the potential goodness of the actual establishment. It finally dawned on me Wednesday night. I dragged a half full, very tired SB with me to sample the fare.

The restaurant occupies two old store fronts in a largly student area. Directly inside is a little Thai Food grocery store, behind which is a large kitchen, open to see the cooks working on big pots of fragrant food. Right next to the door are crates of beautiful mangos for sale and a sign saying they will slice and serve perfectly ripe mangos to you for only $2. The smells coming from the kitchen and thoughts of creamy mango made me giddy to begin the meal.

The dining room, painted in red and hung with Thai art was everything I would expect, nice, warm but not fancy. As I paged through the hefty menu, I was disappointed to not find many vegetarian items, until I reached the second half, entitled “Vegetarian Menu”. Ahhh… foiled by my cover to cover reading style.

So many options! I went for the Pad Rom Mit -The ultimate vegetable dish! Tofu stir-fried with carrots, baby bok choy, peapods, two types of mushrooms, onions, green onions, napa, broccoli, and bean sprouts, in a mild soy-based sauce.

I’ve had very similar dishes at other restaurants but tend to be disappointed at the greasy, heavy and bland presentation. I was not to be let down here. The vegetables were lightly cooked. The sauce accented the vegetables with a tangy sweetness, just tingling hot. The after taste was equally clean and light, without a hint of greasiness.

SB ordered a pineapple curry with chicken, a favorite dish of his from other restaurants. He was surprised at the runny consistency of the coconut sauce here and the lack of potatoes. Considering it was his second dinner, and he had vowed he wasn’t going to eat it, he polished off half his entree, saying it was light and flavorful.

For dessert we shared half of a fresh mango, cubed and served with forks. A perfect end note for a lovely meal.

I think I’ve found a new obsession, and with so many vegetarian options, I’ll be demanding my veggi friends join me for more thai.