I thought I would never see the day.
Seven or eight years ago, in our pre-parental days, I took my beautiful wife out to eat at a nice little Thai restaurant. The food was delicious, but warm.
Very warm.
Lots of curry paste.
You needed a rhythm to enjoy this heat: deep breath, take a bite, exhale flames, swig some milk, repeat all over again.
Very tasty, but very spicy. It was exactly what I had always expected Thai cuisine to be: food that would make you sweat like you had just run five miles through Bangkok at high noon in August.
My wife’s dinner that night was my lunch for the next couple of days. I ended up going through a Burger King drive thru to get her something to eat.
“Never again,” she swore. “Never again.”
Last night we had dinner at Ketsana’s Thai in Plymouth MN. We haven’t stepped foot in a Thai restaurant in all these years. I could tell my wife was nervous about it (she kept repeating the fact that she had been told there was Chinese fare on the menu, and she clung to that promise like a drowning woman to a log). In fact, had we not been going out with my son’s gymnastics team and parents, she would never have set foot in a restaurant with the word “Thai” in it. The mere mention of the word makes her forehead start to sweat.
Thanks to Ketsana, my wife is no longer afraid of Thai food. In fact, our dinners were so wonderful, we will be returning.
Jennie had the beef and broccoli. She said the sauce was light and a little sweet. It was a wonderful compliment to the meat and vegetables, and did not overpower. She savored every morsel.
Jen also got a pot of the best hot tea I had tasted in a long time. Very gentle. (Before last night, the best tea I had ever tasted was at the White Swan Hotel in Guangzhou. We asked our server what brand it was, thinking we would bring home some of this fantastic tea from China. The lady very enthusiastically led us over to the bar area and showed us the huge box of tea – imported from France. So much for the best Chinese tea on earth.)
As for me, I ordered the Roast Duck Curry, mild (above). (You can order your dishes mild, medium and hot). The curry had some bite to it, but was just warm enough that it added a little zing to the dish. The sauce (made with coconut milk and red curry paste) was smooth and sweet and absolutely comforting. The duck was tender and delicious. The whole dish practically melted on my tongue. And the basil leaves gave it a special added touch of taste.
The kids dove into the noodles, cream cheese puffs and Chicken Satay like nobody’s business.
The next time you’re hungry for some Asian food, give Ketsana’s a try. (I’ve already decided to try one of her pad noodle stir fries on my next visit.)
The prices are good, and the food is delicious. Ketsana’s gets the Austin thumb’s up (and that ain’t easy!)
Thank you Ketsana! Now I can take my wife out to a Thai restaurant again.
The Bouville Diarist 