Taste

inside: Light, Fresh Thai / Tools of the Trade

Fresh Choice

BY MARYBETH BIZJAK

If a chef I respect raves about a restaurant, I tend to take notice. So when Kathi Riley Smith—once the executive chef at San Francisco’s Zuni Cafe—told me about Paste Thai in Davis, I suggested we go there for lunch. “I don’t think I’ve ever had Thai food made with fresher ingredients,” she said.

We were joined by a mutual friend, longtime caterer and cooking instructor Roxanne O’Brien. Kathi let Rox do the ordering—“as long as we get that cashew thing,” she said. That cashew thing turned out to be stir-fried cashews with onions and roasted chili sauce, which Roxanne ordered along with a crazy-long list of other dishes: fresh spring rolls, fried tofu, salt-and-pepper calamari, Thai fi sh cakes, stir-fried Chinese eggplant, and green curry with shrimp and scallops.

I learn a lot when eating with industry people like Kathi and Roxanne, with their sharp palates and extensive food knowledge. Kathi complimented the freshness of the fried fi sh cakes and calamari. “I’m really picky about fryer oil,” she said. “Look at the color of this calamari—no dark bits from old oil.” She was equally impressed with the delicate fried Thai basil leaves that garnished one of the dishes—“I’ve never had that before.” Both Kathi and Rox noted with approval that Paste Thai makes its own curry pastes from scratch. Summing up her impres- sion of the meal, Kathi said, “Everything is super fresh tasting.”

A few weeks later, I was in the kitchen at Paste Thai to meet the owners and fi nd out how they do things. Douangchay Luanglath, the chef, makes all the restaurant’s curry pastes—red, green, yellow and panang—by hand twice a week. She demonstrated the process for me, using an enormous clay mortar and pestle to grind fresh galangal root, ka r lime leaves, garlic, shallots, dried Thai chilies, shrimp paste and salt into a thick, smooth puree that she would later stir-fry in oil and combine with coconut milk to make red curry sauce. Co-owner Penprapa Athiprayoon explained that the paste’s texture is better when it’s made by hand, rather than in a food processor. Most Thai restaurants don’t bother to make their own, she said; they buy it premade.

THEY SERVE THINGS YOU WON’T FIND AT MOST THAI RESTAURANTS, SUCH AS CRISPY HOUSECURED PORK BELLY STIR-FRIED WITH GAI LAN, EGG CUSTARD OVER STICKY RICE, AND CURRY PUFFS.

The two women opened Paste Thai last June. Before that, it had been a casual spot called The Chicken Hawkers, serving takeout Thai street food. Luanglath worked as the chef there for owner Deo Suwan.

Athiprayoon moved to the United States from Thailand with her family when she was 20 and learned to speak English working at a restaurant her parents owned in San Francisco’s Mission District. She later got a job in the airline industry, and for a brief while, she and her then-husband owned a Thai restaurant in San Jose. Retiring early from the airlines, she moved to Davis, where she met Luanglath (who goes by the American name Kim). When Suwan closed The Chicken Hawkers, the two women decided to team up. “I opened this restaurant because I loved Kim’s food,” said Athiprayoon. “I couldn’t see Kim not cooking anymore because her food is so good.”

They serve things you won’t fi nd at most Thai restaurants, such as crispy house-cured pork belly stir-fried with gai lan (Chinese broccoli), egg custard over sticky rice, and curry pu s, a laborintensive appetizer of laminated pastry dough fi lled with curry chicken or sweet taro paste. For a while, they o ered house-made coconut ice cream, served Thai street food style with bread and sticky rice, but American diners didn’t go for it, so now they serve Thai coconut pudding and sticky black rice with mango for dessert. The house specialty is something called “chicken rice,” another popular Thai street food. Paste’s version features poached Mary’s Organic chicken, served over rice that is cooked in chicken broth with lots of garlic and ginger. Luanglath recently returned from a lengthy visit to Thailand and Laos, where she went to soak up new culinary inspiration.

While there are plenty of Thai restaurants in Sacramento, Kathi Riley Smith is happy to drive to Davis to eat at Paste Thai. “This is so di erent from the heavyhanded Thai food you usually get,” she said.

Tooling Around

Ask any serious cook if they have a favorite kitchen tool or gadget and you’re liable to hear plenty of strongly held opinions about the best silicone-tipped tongs, the perfect sauté pan or the ideal immersion blender. For fun, we asked three local chefs about the one kitchen item they just can’t live without. Here’s what they had to say about the indispensable implements that make working in a hectic restaurant kitchen easier.—CATHERINE WARMERDAM

Deneb Williams

Executive chef, Allora

For Deneb Williams, who helms the kitchen at upscale Allora in East Sacramento, there is no separating him from his most reliable tool: a 10-inch chef’s knife with a folded Damascus steel blade. “I’ve had it for something like 30 years—so long that I don’t know the brand because the markings have long ago worn off,” he says. “When it’s in my hand, it feels like it’s part of me. It goes where I go.” In fact, Williams transports it back and forth to work in a Craftsman toolbox. He can’t imagine working with any other knife. “The weight and balance of a knife is the thing you get used to the most. I’m far more precise with this knife than any other. It fits my hand perfectly. I’ve used this tool more than anything else in the world.”

Janey Tozier

Head chef, Lola’s Lounge t Lola’s Lounge, the eclectic panLatin restaurant on the edge of midtown, chef Janey Tozier swears by the ostonera that owner Lola Serrano-Class picked up for her on a recent trip to Puerto Rico. The small, paddle-shaped device, made of wood with brass hinges, has one job: to smash plantains for making tostones, those heavenly fried plantain disks that are a staple of Latin American cuisine. “I love this thing so much. It has become my favorite tool,” proclaims Tozier, who had previously been using a metal tortilla press for the repetitive task. “We slice the plantains, then smash them and fry them again, and this thing really helps the whole process go so much quicker.” As for Serrano-Class, she loves that the simple gadget keeps her eatery “authentic to our Puerto Rican heritage.”

Greg Desmangles

Culinary director, Urban Roots Hospitality Group he kitchen tool most favored by Greg Desmangles is perhaps underappreciated by home cooks: a scale.

“It’s a humble tool, but simple things like that are the cornerstone of our kitchens,” says the chef, who first started using a scale to portion out roast turkey for sandwiches at Pangaea Bier Cafe a decade ago. Today, scales are used regularly at Urban Roots Brewery & Smokehouse to measure everything from the smoked meats for sandwiches to the cheese that goes into the mac and cheese sauce.

“In my opinion, measuring by weight is the most accurate way to keep a recipe the same, because doing t by volume can get a little subjective. The scale always works, so we don’t have to guess,” explains Desmangles. “In this business, consistency is key, and our scale is our biggest tool when it comes to consistency.”