This neighborhood gem with a purely Thai menu (no sushi) is a truly a cut above the competition. Chef-owner Panya Amporn deftly turns out favorites like pad Thai as as well as lesser-known specialties including acquired-taste noodle soups (delicious). Friendly, helpful staffers demystify the extensive menu of mix-and-match ingredient curries (seafood with green, beef with red, for example). Bring friends and dine in the smaller room with a communal table. A deuce table in the larger room is just right for date night. Order seductively tasty Thai "pork jerk" (marinated, deep-fried strips of crispy, chewy pork served with lusty garlic tamarind dip), hoy tod (rice flour pancakes embedded with mussels and fried egg bits), spicy beef salad, boat noodles, fried frog legs or succulent fried duck.
Panya Thai is a real Thai restaurant. That means no sushi. Chef-owner Panya Amporn is at the helm, deftly turning out favorites like pad Thai as well as lesser-known specialties including noodle soups. The authentic fare has attracted a mainly Asian crowd since the restaurant opened three years ago.
A veteran of local Thai restaurants, Amporn came to the U.S. 22 years ago from Bangkok, where he had been a drawing teacher. He had always loved cooking, and taught himself the skills he needed to make it a vocation.
Panya Thai has two attractive dining rooms -- one painted cinnabar, the other a mustard color -- divided by a foyer where takeout customers can wait in two massive carved-elephant chairs. The smaller room has a long communal table, the better to share the large portions.
Thai has supplanted Chinese as America's most popular Asian cuisine, winning us over with exotic flavors that mingle influences from Burma, Laos, India and Malaysia. The interplay of hot, salty, sour and sweet is both complex and addictive.
Just like good Chinese, memorable Thai food is hard to find, which makes Panya Thai a real gem. The menu is confusing and the descriptions too scant for the uninitiated, but the wait staff is happy to help.
Start with moo khem phad wan, listed as Thai pork jerk -- gnarly strips of pork seasoned with salt, sugar and pepper, frozen and deep-fried, producing a texture reminiscent of jerky. Served with a lusty dipping sauce of tamarind, garlic, chiles and shallots, this meaty treat (there's a beef version, too) comes with a gorgeous green papaya salad (pictured on Page 7) and khao niao (sticky rice), which you eat by rolling it into little balls.
Another delicious starter is hoy tod (pan-fried mussels on the menu). This brings a platter of crispy rice-flour pancakes embedded with fat orange mussels and bits of fried egg on a bed of bean sprouts with tangy chile sauce. Spicy beef salad featuring a lime-based dressing with onions, tomatoes and cucumber is also good.
For a taste of street-style Thai food, try the kwaytiow rue or boat noodles, a bowl of cinnamon- and star-anise-laced broth with skinny rice noodles, strips of beef or pork, fish balls, mustard greens and cilantro garnished with crispy pig-skin curls. Yen ta fo brings wide ribbons of kwaytiow sen yai (fresh rice noodle sheets) in a slightly pungent pink broth based on pickled red bean curd (fu yee), vinegar, salt and sugar. Shrimp, squid nubs and white snow fungus swim in the soup, topped with big wonton crisps.
There are also coconut-based soups, hot-sour seafood soups and mix-and-match curries -- try green curry with pineapple accompanied by fried duck or frogs legs or ''secret night'' (yellow curry with cashews, hard cooked egg, bell pepper and snow peas) with jumbo shrimp or soft-shell crab.
Amporn pounds all his own curry pastes, and if you call ahead, he will make nam phrik, a popular Thai dip for raw veggies based on fish sauce or shrimp paste with chiles. It's all aroy (delicious).
