Satisfying My Craving for Thai Food Over at Thaipan in Quezon City

Even before I was able to visit Thailand, I have always loved Thai food and the fresh and spicy twists it has. Having visited the country a few times, I came to love more of its food. There is really something about it. Maybe it’s the way they are able to flavorfully use herbs and spices in their food or maybe I just have an easy tummy to please. Either way, I have come to love it immensely. More so when enjoyed with really good friends over wonderful conversations.

Fellow foodie and friend L invited me for a dinner date together with her partner friend C and she suggested a Thai place and I was in. There are quite a few Thai restaurants here in Manila and they are really good ones too. When we met up at Thaipan in Tomas Morato I was already impressed with the restaurant’s exterior. They had a sort of open air veranda set up as well as air-conditioned interiors that seat people comfortably. They had a very cozy set up and I was already feeling good about it that I was so looking forward to the food.

Friend L is very particular about food so I trusted her judgment on this resto recommendation and she was spot on. The food took me back to the streets of Bangkok with its flavor and authenticity. I had all my favorites on this night.

For our drinks we had Thai milk tea and Dalandan juice which were both great accompaniments to our meal.

We had Tod Man Kung for our appetizers but I forgot to take a picture of it because we were busy devouring every piece of the crispy but soft in-the-inside shrimp cakes with the sweet chili sauce. These are a favorite of mine. I can eat a whole serving all by myself and can eat this day and night. These had just the right amount of shrimp and they were cooked just right.

Next up my favorite, Tom Yung Kung, a hot and sour broth with prawns and straw mushrooms and they were very good. The Thai version of our sinigang and this never fails to make me ooohh and aaahh with pleasure.

We also ordered the pomelo salad, Yam Som-O. It was very light and just had the right amount of kick to it. It was very fresh tasting and definitely a good addition to our meal.

For our rice choice, we picked Khao Phad Kaffir. We opted to get this rice since we knew our meal was going to be spicy and a lot of other things so getting the Kaffir fried rice topped with garlic ensured that we won’t overdue it on the spicy part but I would like to try their Bagoong fried rice at another time.

For one of our mains, we chose to have fish and ordered the Pla Lad Prik Sam Ros. These were deep fried fish fillets drizzled with tamarind chili sauce and garnished with fried basil leaves. The fish cooked right. It was crispy on the outside and soft and tasty on the inside.

For dessert of course I had my staple – sticky rice with mango and we also ordered Ta Koh Sakhoo, tapioca pearl steamed cake. These were just too pretty to eat. Everything that we had for our meal was indeed a very lovely Thai dinner for me and the conversation around the table was just heart-warming.