THAImarket, Amsterdam north of 107th

After a day visiting David's mother in the hospital, I walked alone through the heavy rain, almost knocking a man with my umbrella that shielded me from seeing what or who was in front of me, shook out my umbrella in the entry way to THAImarket, and was seated by the window at a cafe table. The waitress came for my drink order and returned almost immediately with a glass of Cote de Rhone served in a thin lipped, long stemmed glass which I sipped as I read last week's NY Times Book Review.

THAImarket is a neighborhood Thai restaurant with pizazz -- great food -- an ecclectic, garage decor -- that is, cement floors, brick walls, folding glass windows that open to the street in warmer weather. The bar is above fluorescently lit red and white glass, above that open red umbrellas lined with twinkling lights. Behind the bar, bells hang over rectangles of gold leaf looking something like a recent Guggenheim exhibit. Huge photographs of Siamese foodie scenes are back-lit behind a line of tables. The smallish restaurant was rather empty and quiet (we'd been there on busier nights) for this Saturday following Christmas. I sat down alone about 6:45.

I tried to order a delicious pancake-tortilla- crepe concoction I'd remembered -- that was served with a dark sauce filled with chicken. Except that the dish I was remembering did not exist on the THAImarket menu. (Only later did I realize I was trying to order something I'd had at Malaysian Grill.) So first I ordered the Curry Puff -- curried chicken and potato in puff pastry. That wasn't it. But it was delicious -- crispy on the outside and smashed potatoey on the inside.

So I tried again, explaining to the waiter that that wasn't what I meant to order. He was quite willing to take the Curry Puffs away and replace them or take them off my bill, but I wanted them (yum) and ordered the Thai market Crepe, thinking maybe this is what I had in mind.

It was not. But it, too, was delicious. Eating the Thai Market Crepe is like eating lace-- a thin, crispy, eggy rice crepe folded around shredded shrimp, coconut flakes, beansprouts, and fresh leaves of cilantro. A feast of textures and tastes.

I also ordered an appetizer called Tao-Hoo Todd. This was fried tofu -- not at all oily -- just crispy and dry on the outside and soft and succulent on the inside covered by a thai version of a latke: strips of taro and peanuts fried into a flat pancake. Again -- no oily sensation -- only the crispness of well fried food. And those fried peanuts -- I'd never tasted anything like them -- almost peanut buttery on the inside and crisp on the outside. This came with an apricot and chopped peanut dipping sauce.

And then (yes, I was already almost full -- and I'd only eaten half of each of the appetizers) -- my order of vegetarian pad thai with tofu arrived. It was the best pad thai I'd ever had. A squeeze of lime -- and the dish came alive. Soft, al dente rice noodles that twirled around my fork, morsels of delicately flavored broccoli, spinach, cabbage, cabbage, egg, and silken tofu. Not too spicy, no residue of oil. And yes, more than half of that came home with me, too.

The bill for three appetizers, one entree, and a glass of wine came to $37.

December 29 we returned with friends. This time, four of us ate (no wine) for 64.00.

I ordered the Pla Rad Preeg for which they substituted steamed snapper (at my request) for the fried catfish. The lovely fish was served smothered in a hot coconut milk-red chile sauce, long eggplant, red peppers, and lemongrass. I was so concerned about substituting the snapper for the catfish, that I ignored the 3 star "hot" rating -- which was unfortunate, because I loved the flavor of the sauce -- but found it too spicy-hot for my palate. My lips and tongue burned from the "heat" and were not quite soothed by the bowl of white rice.

David ordered the Kow Moo Deang, sliced pork and bits of pork sausage served over white rice with a brown aromatic sauce. Succulent and good.