Restaurant Review One City Center's Thai Gardens. By Dennis Gilbert.

RESTAURANT REV lEW

One City Center's Outstanding New ...

Thai Gardens

BY DENNIS GILBERT

ONSIDER the cucumber: snapped off the vine and seasoned simply with salt, ..•••••••••••••.pepper, and cider vinegar, it manifests, like no other raw vegetable, the flavor and fragrance of long, warm New England summer days. Living in a region where the fresh-produce season is all too brief, we more frequently enjoy cucumbers straight from the jar, where they have been left for months in a pickle until not much more of their character is retained than the crunch. In certain other cuisines, notably that practiced at Thai Gardens in One City Center, this gourd-cousin is treated quite differently.

The most striking characteristic of the cookery at Thai Gardens is that the spicy dishes are both very hot and very cool, in some cases literally cool as a cucumber. The Shrimp Susee, for example, makes use of cucumber slices, fresh tomatoes, and lemon leaves to counterbalance a fiery red curry. While these elements of burning and chilling define the outer edges of flavor, at the center rest delicately stir-fried shrimp in a creamy sauce further enriched with coconut milk. In approximate sequence, the dish unfolds like this: first the shock of chilies, then the succulence of shrimp in their buttery sauce, the sweetness of tomatoes, the zest of lemon leaves, and the cool, simple, subtle bitterness of the cucumbers.

As a method, the balance of spicy red and cool green is common to the cuisines of many tropical and subtropical climates, such as the use of jalapenos and avocados in certain Mexican dishes. But here, the balance is more sophisticated and the effect more dramatic. While spicy foods help counteract heat and humidity, in their best or roast duck. Moreover, the cuisine embodies a broad range of influences, including those of India, China, and the nations to the south and east. The green and red curries, the noodle dishes, and the seafood selection in particular allude to their interregional roots through the use of pineapple, coconut, ginger, and cashews in

Thai Gardens, in One City Center, already possibly the finest Oriental restaurant in the state.

forms they also enhance flavors by initially stimulating the taste buds. The sting of chili Pepper is not intended to numb the palate but to open it up so it receives the sparkling aftertastes of green herbs and fresh vegetables. Thai Gardens' Laab is a stir-fry of ground pork (or chicken or beef) and roasted sweet rice which, our waiter warned us, was extraordinarily spicy. But the sharp tang of lemon leaves and the bright flavor of fresh mint, as well as the contrast of cooked onions with scallions and the neutral dry-and-oily character of peanuts, gave the dish a complexity that simultaneously eclipsed and complemented the primary impact of the spice.

The menu at Thai Gardens is by no means limited to spicy dishes, however, but sufficiently diverse to suggest a cuisine where both an abundance of foods and a variety of styles converge. Like many FarEastern restaurants, a substantial number of the dishes are offered with a choice of primary ingredient. The meats-with-vegetables dishes and the curries are available with chicken, pork, beef, shrimp, combination with spinach, basil leaves, string beans, eggplant, and corn.

Everything at Thai Gardens is well-conceived and professionally prepared. A number of first-rate dishes include the pork & shrimp spring rolls with saman noodles and the Tom Kha Kai, an eloquently simple milk & chicken soup. But perhaps the most unusual characteristic of this menu is the absence of sameness in flavor - plaguing restaurants that lean too heavily on standard sauces and employ them across the board. At Thai Gardens, each dish seems to have its own voice because the balance of spice, herb, and vegetable allows each ingredient - even the lowly cucumber - to speak for itself.

Dennis Gilbert has worked as a chef in many restaurants in Maine, including The Vinyard, and written for many New England magazines, including Yankee. He has also worked on the Time/Life "Great Meals in Minutes" series as a contributing writer for the French Provincial cuisine chapters.