Stopped off at Sap’s on Sunday and ate some more fantastic Thai food. We started with Ton Mun Gai, S-A6, or chicken cakes seasoned with red curry paste and Thai lime leaf. They are basically the same as Thai fish cakes, just made with chicken instead, and not quite as spicy. They get cooked to a deep golden brown and served with a sweet-sour shallot and cucumber sauce-relish with peanuts and cilantro (achat). A delightful way to get those taste buds warmed up.
We ordered “Amazing green beans”, S-P31, the green bean version of Amazing Mussels, Squid, or Shrimp; we got it with ground beef and added fried tofu cubes. The name is apropos. The sauce is amazingly complex for its simplicity, made with Thai pepper, garlic, basil, herbs, fish sauce, jalapeño slices, and an advanced degree of culinary alchemy. This is a spectacular dish, available also with bamboo shoots instead of green beans.
Pla Jian (S-P38) has become a big favorite lately. I tried it a few weeks back and became hooked. It is moist chunks of tilapia deep fried and topped with a sweet-sour tamarind sauce with palm sugar, fish sauce, shredded ginger, jalapeño chile, and green onion. When TV foodies refer to the term “fish caramel”, they are talking about this taste, of caramelized palm sugar and fish sauce together. Superb.
We wanted a soup, so decided to be unconventional and get the Guay Teaw Moo, but with no noodles, and rice on the side instead. It features a rich pork stock holding pork slices, sealeg, and fish paste dumplings (AKA “fish balls”). Mung bean sprouts, scallion slices, and cilantro round out the flavor profile. A spoon of the roasted chile sauce and a dash of fish sauce and it was ready for my gaping maw.
Someone sent over a bowl of homemade vanilla ice cream for us to try out. The texture is sensual and the taste absolutely perfect. I had fried the taste buds a tad with a fresh green chile and roasted chile paste overload, and the fat in the ice cream sucked the capsaicin right off of my tongue, offering instant relief, with great taste.
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Sap's, rocking the Thai food scene in ATX.
Mick Vann ©
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