Som's

After last night's badminton tournament, we had to replenish our depleted energy stores so we went out and had a good dinner. Lester has been recommending this Thai restaurant near the Mandaluyong circle called Som's for quite a while now and I guess last night was the best time to try it out.

Because all of us love Thai food (Thanks to Mama Thai in UP Diliman), we all felt that it was a good idea to try out this "new" place.

Perhaps it was because we were so hungry (after the badminton tournament, what do you expect?) that I was not really that picky about the food but now that I think about it there were actually some points for improvement.

Even before sitting down, we already have an idea of some of the food we will order, like the staple tom yum and pad thai. Their Shrimp Tom Yum Soup was barely enough for 4 (heck there were only two (but large) pieces of shrimp in that soup. While there's quite limited shrimp, the soup was to die for what with the mixture of spicy and sour flavors. You can actually taste the flavor of the lemon grass and the other spices in the soup. Still, I feel that if you're really looking for that authentic thai food with all the heat, their Tom Yum soup needs to kick up the heat factor.



While the Tom Yum was barely enough for 4, the rest of the dishes were sufficiently good for 4. Their servings were large enough so that we were able to eat to our satisfaction. After the Tom Yum, we attacked the Pad Thai. To me, a Pad Thai gets passing marks if there are crushed nuts in the dish. And boy o boy, this one did. In fact, there are so many making a very good contrast to the soft rice noodles. So no complaints about that... A bone to pick though on the dish is the softness (close to being mushy) of the bean sprouts. Still, over-all it is quite a good dish.

  
We partnered shrimp fried rice and fish curry. The servings of the fried rice was also good enough for 4. Am not so sure about the fish curry. Again, as a minor point of complaint, the dishes were lacking heat, the level you'd expect from Thai food...  the one that burns your tongue and make the tip of your nose sweat. Despite the missing intense heat, I found the combination of the fried rice and fish curry sauce very pleasant. They compliment each other with the creamy sauce binding the grains of rice into a risotto-ish type of mixture on my plate... yum yum.


We also had the Som Tam which was a salad of green papaya, peppers, tomatoes served on fresh lettuce leaves. This is the dish that almost brought in the heat that I was looking for. If one is careful enough to eat (or don't eat) the slithers of green peppers that were camouflaging in the mixture of papaya, then one might find (or not find) the heat one is looking for (or avoiding).

And what's the best way to fight the heat? They said that the best way to fight the heat of the spicy dishes is to drink something that is milk-based because the milk is able to mix with the spicy oils (as the old adage goes water and oil don't mix) and wash it down. But since most of the dishes were not really spicy, the Thai Milk Tea that we ordered served no purpose except to make a sweet and refreshing end to our meal.

So will I eat again at Som's? I guess if I am looking for a truly delicious Thai meal, then Mama Thai (Ortigas Home Depot) would still be the best for me. But if I am looking for a good Thai meal that is tweaked to match the Filipino palate, then Som's will do. Heck, after badminton, anything will do.