del.icio.us
Digg
Reddit
YahooMyWeb
Google
Facebook
What's this?
|
| Sherry Kinsella, left, and her cousin, Kelly Dolan, talk over lunch at the Siam Square Resturant in Great Barrington. |
GREAT BARRINGTON -- With someone cutting sushi on practically every corner, Great Barrington's love affair with Japanese food has long seemed to eclipse other Oriental cuisines. So, Siam Square's appearance offers a welcome digression into the spicier kitchens of Southeast Asia -- Thailand, to be precise, with the name taken from a fashionable hotel and shopping district in the heart of Bangkok.
Chartmane Yang Yong, a co-owner and manager, along with Dome Na Song Khla, said that this is her family's fourth restaurant, with two in Providence, R.I., and one in Northampton.
The Main Street location is highly visible, and though parking is catch-as-catch can on busy weekends, a short stroll only sharpens the appetite.
The interior is understated in a tasteful way with tawny tones of exposed brick, carved
The night that we arrived, a Saturday, almost all of the 22 tables were full, and yet we were pleasantly surprised by the way the carpeting absorbed the noise, and a sense of calm prevailed.
Our busy server, though courteous, seemed responsible for a bit too much of the dining room, and it was quite some time before she arrived to take our orders. In the meantime, however, we had plenty to do perusing the menu.
Within its strikingly carved covers were pages and pages of choices, including soups, specialties, dinner salads, dream-up-your-own combinations, noodles, seafoods, vegetarian entrees and more.
Helpful explanations translated such otherwise unfamiliar (to us, anyway) offerings as Larb Gai, Yum Moong Yang and Plar Koong into chicken, pork and shrimp dishes and gave definition to such fanciful imponderables as "Fisherman Madness," "Chicken Volcano" and "Dancing Squid."
We got a chuckle out of items called "Three Friends" and "Four Buddies," the former incorporating pork, beef and chicken in one dish, and the latter adding shrimp to the combo. Intriguing, perhaps, but they sounded a little too close to a leftover-lover's end-of-the-week catch-all to me. Call me parochial, but I prefer distinguishable tastes.
Our waitress may have been long in arriving, but she was quick to return with hot, mildly flowery Thai tea ($1.50) and the first of our appetizers, Tod Mun Pla ($6.50).
This proved to be a mixture of seafood, pounded to a paste, patted into about a dozen quarter-size medallions and fried until golden. They were decorated with carrots in delicate flower shapes and accompanied by a piquant, coriander-flavored dipping sauce flecked with shredded carrot, diced cucumber and crushed peanuts.
We also shared Steamed Thai dumplings ($6.50), five plump morsels filled with savory chicken and black mushroom filling, with a whiff of roasted garlic and thick, sweetish soy sauce on the side.
Our daughter Clara, meanwhile, enjoyed a bowl of Tom Kar Gai ($3.95) a thin, nicely flavored broth of chicken and coconut milk, spiked with lime juice and dotted with snippets of scallion, chicken and mushroom.
I chose my entrée from the chef's recommendations list. Called Chili Chili Fish ($16.95), it was rated "two peppers" (out of a possible three) on the hot and spicy scale.
Large chunks of white-fleshed fish were fried until crispy and presented with a confetti of red and green pepper and red onion in a chili sauce, spiced with galanga (Thai ginger), lemon leaf and lemon grass.
The sauce was not as hot as I'd anticipated, and more than a little too sweet for my taste. A bowl of steamed rice ($1) was a necessary foil.
My husband selected a house specialty, the Beef Macadamia ($15.95), which was a hefty portion of sliced beef -- on the chewy side -- glazed with pinepple ginger sauce and studded with mushrooms and macadamia nuts.
The highlight of the dish was the addition of emerald green spinach, steamed just until tender. My bowl of rice easily sufficed to keep this company, too.
Clara opted for one of the better-known dishes, Pad Thai ($10.95). The heaping helping of noodles was stir-fried with un stinting chunks of chicken, tofu, shrimp, scallions and peanuts. A side of crunchy bean sprouts and shredded carrot added freshness and texture.
In order to conserve her ap petite for dessert -- a priority with Clara -- more than half of her order was containered for next day's lunch.
For dessert, we shared a large scoop of green tea ice cream ($3.50). It was quite green, with the tea flavor competing with that of condensed milk.
I preferred the simple refreshment of an iced goblet of rambutans ($2.95). These were mellow lychee-like tropical fruits, with slivers of pineapple where the seed had been removed. The flesh was pale white, with a texture not unlike that of a peeled grape.
Siam Square is bustling and seems likely to do well in this food-loving town, even after the novelty wears off.
It is well-placed with an exotic, but not intimidating menu and reasonable, though not inexpensive, prices. And it expects to obtain its liquor license shortly.
Yang Yong laughed when I asked if this food differs in any way from that in restaurants in Thailand.
"Oh," she said, "There it is much spicier! If we made it so spicy here, people couldn't eat it."
Siam Square, 290 Main St., Great Barrington, 02130. Telephone: (413) 644-9119
Style: Thai cuisine
Dress: Casual
Prices: Starters: $3.95 to $9.95;
Entrees: $9.95 to $21.95;
Desserts: $2.95 to $5.95.
Hours: Lunch: daily, 11:30 to 3:30, except Sunday, 12:30 to 3:30;
Dinner: daily, 4:30 to 10, extended to 11 on Friday and Saturday; takeout available, as well.
Credit cards: Mastercard and Visa
Bar: Liquor license expected soon
Accessible: Yes
Smoking: No
Reservations: Advised, especially on weekends and for larger parties
Oct. 3, 2002
