Thai Patio: To Thai for!

MANILA, Philippines - Suddenly, it’s summer! And when the temperature sizzles, how do you cool your blazing taste buds? Well, you can mosey on down to Greenbelt 5, let the cool breeze caress you and the scintillating aroma of good spicy food wafting from the kitchen of Thai Patio warm the cockles of your heart.

Hear it straight from the horse’s — er, the food expert’s — mouth: Spicy flavors initially warm you up, but they actually help cool you down. Spicy food brings a surge of ruddy healthy color or flushing, which causes sweating that results in the cooling of the skin.

So off to Thai Patio we go — a hop, skip, and jump away from the Greenbelt Chapel. For starters, among the palate pleasers are the duo of fish and pancakes with cucumber salsa, fresh spring rolls with prawns and crabstick, deep-fried chicken wings with lemongrass and pandan leaves, and the vegetarian satay.

Thai Patio’s Lunch Special set menu: Grilled fish with green mango-paste fried rice served with Thai herbs and fresh fruits summer rolls; pandan and fresh coconut meat jelly Photos by JUN MENDOZA

To calm our raging tongues, we have a generous bowl of winged bean salad with prawns and pork. For a dose of spicy goodness, try the spicy Thai-style minced chicken salad or the spicy beef tenderloin salad on grilled Portobello mushrooms.

Soup Opera

If you like a little drama in your food, let this soup opera unfold before your delighted eyes: Chicken or seafood coconut soup with the pungent, aromatic touch of galangal (a close cousin of ginger, it’s a familiar ingredient in Thai cooking).

Meat treat: Grilled marinated pork with papaya salad

For the main event, there’s a whole repertoire of dishes that has elicited a standing ovation from Thai Patio’s loyal customers. Samples: Deep-fried whole garoupa (which I could have eaten whole with my bare hands) with sweet chili sauce or with lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves; crisp prawns in tamarind sauce; braised seafood in light coconut cream sauce; fried marinated tuna in pandan leaves; steamed salmon with lime and chili broth; assorted vegetables and tofu green or red curry; crispy softshell crab sautéed in chili and basil that’s spicy hot but not so hot as to warrant calling the fire department to douse your simmering tongue.

Our taste buds were also introduced to prawns red curry with pineapple. “The red curry paste with coconut milk is slowly simmered and the chopped pineapples put on top of the fresh prawn,” says Attaya Petrakard, regional operations manager of S&P Global Co., Ltd., as she walks us through the Thai Patio menu to discover the exquisite pleasures of Thai cooking. “You can smell the fragrance of the food.”

Hurry up now and try the curry dory grilled in banana leaves. “You marinate the fish (using coconut milk, curry, an exotic sauce), wrap it up in banana leaves, and then grill it,” Attaya describes as we prepare to demolish our dear dory.

Light is right: Braised seafood in light coconut cream sauce

A Meat-Ing Place

Thai Patio is a good meat-ing place, too, for meat lovers. Instant hits are the honey marinated chicken in pandan leaves, grilled beef tenderloin sautéed in black pepper sauce with asparagus, and grilled marinated pork with papaya salad and sticky rice.

If you’re vegetarian, Thai Patio has a lot of vegan dishes as well as Thai omelette because, so we learned, a lot of Thais like to temper their spicy foods with omelette.

Because rice and noodles are staples on the Thai dining table, Thai Patio has lots of rich dishes and oodles of noodles. Like pineapple fried rice with seafood, black olive fried rice with seafood, traditional stir-fried rice noodles with prawns (phad thai), rice vermicelli with prawns tom yum soup.

After all that food that’s so full of flavor, surrender to some sweet temptations. How about baked banana with Haagen Dazs vanilla ice cream? Cool! Or red ruby and emerald in chilled light coconut syrup. Or taro and pumpkin pearls in coconut cream. Or sweet potatoes in warm coconut cream. Deciding what to order can be sheer torture!

The Thais That Bind

It’s a Thai!: Attaya Petrakard of S&P Global Co. with Thai chefs Danai Narongsak, Sunee Srimon, and TingNang Phowong

“We offer a very different Thai cuisine,” Attaya gingerly asserts. “It’s not the usual phad thai. We want to show everyone the Thai food that’s not available in the Philippines until now. Everything is very special; all the items were kitchen-tested in Bangkok. We have close to 65 items on the menu — from appetizers to soups to main dishes to desserts. We have a new section called Thai omelettes (torta).”

At any given time, Thai Patio has three Thai chefs in its kitchen so you can be sure the quality is consistent.

“We don’t scrimp, we don’t mess around with quality,” Attaya stresses. “And our prices are very reasonable.”

She adds, “We have three new chefs from Thailand now. They’re very good. If you want Thai hamburger, they’ll whip up one for you. Or anything that’s not on the menu, as long as the ingredients are available.”

They Herb It!

Rice and shine: Traditional stir-fried rice noodles with prawns (phad thai)

Asked about the secret to Thai cooking, Attaya is quick to point out, “Partly it’s the sauces. We make our own sauces from scratch; only our Thai chefs know how to make these sauces. It’s a combination of everything: Thai food is not spicy as we commonly think; it’s a mix of a lot of herbs that are good for digestion. And partly it’s the Thai touch. I think if we had the same ingredients, the Thais would always cook it differently or the end result would always be different because of that special Thai touch that makes the food so authentic.”

Even the décor is authentically Thai in this resto that can seat 70 persons and can be booked for functions. Perking up the place are modern colors and lanterns like the ones you’ll see in Chiang Mai, a culturally significant city in Northern Thailand.

Fried and tested: Deep-fried chicken wings with lemongrass and pandan leaves

For the eat-and-run businessmen, Thai Patio has come up with its three-course lunch special. For instance, Set A has chicken green curry fried rice with crisp catfish served with papaya salad, and taro & pumpkin pearls in coconut cream for dessert. Set B features rice vermicelli or steamed rice with prawns and chili sauce served with crispy spring rolls, and red ruby & emerald in light chilled coconut syrup for dessert.

It’s for “budgetarians,” too, as the six set lunches are each priced at P199 + and up.

Starring roll: Fresh spring rolls with prawns and crabstick

Soon, Thai Patio is launching its Happy Hour as well as Thai tapas. As a cool attraction for summer, it will have an all-day dessert buffet. Dessert lovers, take note!

Now, you know why this resto is hot — or, should we say, to Thai for!