Dining like the King
of Siam at Thai work
By Ruby Wu
Translated by Sho Huang
Photos by Pedro Lucas Teixeira Pinho
36, GongYi Rd, Sec 2, Nantun Dist.; (04) 2319-5252
Hours: 10 am-3 pm; 5 am-12 am
English menu available.
Credit cards accepted.
10% service charge.
Parking lot available.
www.thaiwork.com.tw
Thai Work exudes authentic Thai vibes and atmosphere inside and outside. Its modern, relaxing and cozy interior decor has a strong northern Thai feeling to it, complementing the top-grade royal Thai cuisine that includes sweet and sour soup, salads, curry dishes, Pad Thai noodles, deep-fried items, seafood and desserts. This can be enjoyed by groups of any size, thanks to various set-menu options, from NT$799 to NT$3,000, designed to satisfy a variety of tastes.
 
Left: Thai Mussaman Beef Curry
Thai dining is not only sumptuous but also healthy. All of its distinctive flavors--sour, spicy, sweet and salty--are prepared with fresh, natural ingredients such as kefir leaves, tamarinds, chilies, brown sugar, coconut milk and fish sauce. Besides familiar Thai entrees, Thai Work also serves "private-recipe" cuisine like the famous northern Thai dish, Deep Fried Seabass with Tamarind (NT$480). The success to this dish is the tamarind sauce, boiled for hours to extract its essence. Shredded onions are first fried with the sauce, then covered with the deep-fried seabass and finally sprinkled with crispy onions, garlic and chili bits. The warm, sour and sweet tamarind flavors go perfectly with the fish.
 
Right: Deep Fried Seabass with Tamarind
Another special dish is Thai Mussaman Beef Curry (NT$320), cooked with four kinds of curry, coconut milk, imported US ribs and deep-fried potatoes, and finished with raw onion chunks. Mixed with a thick curry flavor, the ribs have a succulent texture that makes this a very appetizing meal.
Thai Work recommends two more dishes, Traditional Thai Fried Rice in Shrimp Paste (NT$250) and Abalone with Thai Chili Paste (NT$420). Some fried rice ingredients, such as seedless-lemon juice, sausages, cucumbers and shredded fried eggs, can be added according to your liking. After the abalone, specially selected from Yilan county, is boiled a special Thai chili sauce is added to accentuate its flavor.
 
Left: Traditional Thai Fried Rice in Shrimp Paste
Right: Abalone with Thai Chih Paste
For customers who don't handle spiciness well, the spiciness level here can be adjusted to their liking. The restaurant also suggests that each dish can be mixed with rice to tone down hot flavors rather than gulping iced water. Even more effective, bites of spicy food can be accompanied by some sweet milk tea or a banana |
February 2014
