By Amy Van Veen (The Cascade) – Email
Date Posted: October 18, 2011
Print Edition: October 12, 2011
#107-20542 Fraser Highway
Langley, BC
604.514.8886
Prices: up to $16.99
Hours: 9 a.m. to 5 p.m. daily
There are always rumours of places that look like a dive on the outside, but the food on the inside is a haven to unsatisfied palates everywhere. These rumours are often difficult to test out and these secret jaunts are better heard of than found on your own, otherwise Tums will be your ally and distrust will be your only companion. You’ll only ever frequent the dull tastes of chain restaurants for fear of being duped by yet another “potential diamond in the rough.”
Seek rest from your weary culinary toils and find solace in My Thai. Situated in a building between Everything But The Groom and the empty shell of a now moved-on credit union on the one-way in downtown Langley, My Thai has become famous as one of these private little haunts. The restaurant itself is located in a rather awkward place. Upon opening what is thought to be the front door to the restaurant itself, a suspicious jaunt is required down a rather institutional hallway with a dentist on the left and a nail salon on the right. While walking down it, I reached that point where I thought, This is a front for something, this walk has been too long, and then I found it.
This restaurant that may keep away the dubious has captured the hearts and mouths of many. After seeing the outside and the hallway leading to it, there are no grand expectations of immaculate décor or enhanced dining ambience. This is the kind of place where the food speaks for itself and little else is required. There’s no pretence, no desire to trick the mind’s eye into thinking the mouth is tasting more than it does.
It’s quite clearly a family owned establishment, with children enjoying the space as much as the patrons are, and the staff are both friendly and attentive. That being said, there is the possibility of a language barrier both in speaking with the staff and in reading the menu. The regular menu had some basic translations, but the take-out menu forced me to brush up on my googling skills and what I found was the exact same Thai menu with full descriptions – apparently the dishes are quite common across this cuisine, but the quality is what defines it.
I ordered – with a group of people, not by myself – the chicken (gai) pad Thai, the gai with cashew nut (chicken with cashews), the panang neua (red curry beef) and the Thai spring rolls. The pad Thai was delicious and, except for the kick of spicy pepper sprinkled on top, offered a nice neutral dish in the midst of extreme flavours. The chicken cashew was sweet with a distinct nuttiness that made it stand on its own – rice would have detracted from its brilliance. The spring rolls came with what seemed to be a homemade plum dip (since it was a little runny) and they struck a perfect balance between outside flakiness and inside flavour. Finally, though, the red curry beef acted as the perfect partner to the sweetness of the cashew chicken. Theirs was a marriage of sweet and spicy that made for a happy union on my plate. The red curry beef definitely required the blandness of the rice to counteract the kick in the face of flavour (and a pitcher of water), but I never knew I could love a spicy dish as much as this. The more my mouth burned, the more I wanted to eat.
One thing that really stood out for me was the fact that I could not stop eating. Usually I’m able to take a step back from a meal when I feel full. This meal, however, forced me to change from jeans to sweatpants (the beauty of take-out dining that can be savoured in the comfort of your own home instead of the politeness of a restaurant). I could not stop reaching for more cashew chicken and once that portion was finished, the red curry beef called my name, and then the pad Thai, and then another spring roll and soon all the food was gone.
Most of the main dishes are about $11, and though they could be enough on their own, it would be a shame not to experience the plethora of incomparable flavour of Fraser Highway’s unassuming little eatery. Take a step down the out-dated hallway and into the goodness that is My Thai cuisine.
