Taste of Thai - Water's Edge Magazine Article

From Water's Edge Magazine
May/June 2002
Pages 79-82

TASTE OF THAI

Aurathai Sellas had been watching the clock all afternoon, pacing, prepping and waiting for a delivery that was late. On a slow night, there might have been enough chicken still in the cooler to get by without it. But if things got hopping -- as they are right now -- folks better want fish.

It's 8 o'clock on a Friday night, the place is packed, and Aura -- pausing a moment to glance up from the stove -- finally is smiling. The chicken, it seems, had arrived in time.

She waves to a couple who have just come in, calls out a familiar greeting from the back of the cramped but kinetic kitchen she shares with three others, then quickly returns to the task at hand. There's no time to visit, at least for the moment.

There's no place to sit, either; all 16 tables in the tiny restaurant are full. No problem. Something will open up soon, says Justin Sellas, Aura's son, front-end manager and tonight's laid-back host, while his mom pulls kitchen duty to help get the evening back on track. No one minds waiting, or so it appears. There are smiles all around.

A table clears and the couple are seated, but not before stopping to chat with a bevy of friends already enjoying their meals. The restaurant takes on a familial feel is diners at adjacent tables and across the narrow room exchange hellos and joke with the staff they call by first names.

There's a guy in a suit who's leaning against the cluttered counter, where a bobbing-head dog and a pot of lucky bamboo share space with a pair of carved Buddhas and family photos from a recent trip home to Thailand. You recognize him as the local news anchor you've seen here before, taking a station break, you suppose, to pick up a single order -- unlike the lawyer you know from TV, who's balancing takeout boxes as if they were stacks of legal briefs.

Perhaps it's the warm, communal atmosphere at the small, simple restaurant on Jacksonville's Southside as much as it is the exceptional food that draws weekly regulars from all parts of the city and as far away as Amelia Island, St. Augustine and Ponte Vedra Beach. Despite drives from across town and beyond, they gether here as if it were their own neighborhood eatery. And, at least for the evening, it is. There are no strangers at Aura's place. She makes sure of that. Come once, she learns your name. Come twice, she knows it.

Pinched at the end of a nondescript strip mall that spreads itself along a commercial stretch of University Boulevard South between Interstate 95 and Beach Boulevard, 5-year-old Taste of Thai is one of several restaurants offering global cuisine in a neighborhood fast becoming home to growing numbers of immigrants from Eastern Europe, Asia, Latin America and the Middle East. Next door is a large, Middle Eastern restaurant and market. A Korean restaurant and Laotian grocery are just a few doors down. Across the road are Russian, Mexican and numerous Chinese restaurants, which have opened in recent years, eclipsing the ice cream shops, burger stands and family buffets that once dominated the area's dining options.

"How's the fish tonight?" a diner calls back to Aura.

Heads cock to catch her reply.

"Ooo's good," she croons, the top of her head barely visible over the counter as she leans out the kitchen door to quietly voice here approval. "Snapper. Came in this afternoon. You want it with pork, right?"

She knows the answer, but asks anyway, then relays the order for Pla Lad Prig with ground pork to fellow Thai and talented head cook, Seng Vorachack. Seng's traditional Pla Lad Prig (market price) -- a whole fish, deep-fried and topped with a spicy, aromatic basil sauce and optional pork -- is a dish to be inhaled as well as savored. The intoxicating spiciness of Thai basil, ginger and peppers perfumes the air, the marriage of fresh flavors enhancing the succulence of the snapper and capturing the essence of Thai cuisine.

Though each dish is a feast for the eyes, the emphasis here is on taste, not artistic presentation. Exotic flavors and aromas -- basil, ginger and lemongrass -- bathe our senses as we lose ourselves in each dish.

The key to fully enjoying and understanding Aura's extensive menu is to stray from the comfort zone of what you think you know about Thai cuisine and instead explore new dishes that otherwise would be passed over.

Start, for example, with fresh spring rolls ($3.25), quite unlike their cripy kin ($2.95). The clean, fresh (if somewhat unusual) flavor is enhanced by the thin, spicy, peanut-laced dipping sauce served with them. But beware: What begins on a whim can become an addiction.

Forget too, the standard Padt Thai ($8.95 to $9.95) and opt instead for Lad Na ($8.95 to $9.95), thick rice noodles topped with broccoli, a delicious gravy and your choice of finely chopped pork, beef, chicken or whole shrimp. And, if it's curry you crave, skip the familiar Indian Mas-sa-Mun ($9.95 to $13.95) in favor of Kaeng Kiew Wan ($9.95 to $13.95), or Green Curry, made from spicy, green curry past in thick coconut milk with basil and green, plum-size eggplants, served over jasmine rice. It can be ordered with a choice of shrimp, scallops, squid, chicken, pork or beef.

Other favorites, all served with steaming mounds of jasmine rice, are Padt Kraprow ($9.95), or Chicken Basil, sautéed with mushrooms, onions and fresh ginger; or Padt Prig Pow ($11.95), shrimp, squid or scallps, sautéed in chili oil with onions and mushrooms.

But if anything stands alone as a testament to the menu's fusion of flavors, it has to be soup.

To savor a bowl of Thom Kha Gai ($4.25 to $7.95) or Thom Yum Goong ($8.95) is to saturate the senses. Thom Kha Gai showcases thinly sliced chicken cooked in a coconut milk broth with straw mushrooms, scallions and galanga. Spicy Thom Yum Goong is a traditional hot and sour soup chock-full of shrimp and seasoned with chilies, lemongrass, galanga, lime juice, kafir lime leaves and straw mushrooms. Thom Yum is no less delicious with chicken instead of shirmp (Thom Yum Gais -- $4.25 to $7.95) or as vegetarian fare (Thom Yum Hed -- $3.95). There's no wine list at Taste of Thai, though wine is available by the glass. But there's plenty of cold Singha from Thailand's Boon Rawd Brewery, a hoppy, full-bodied beer with distinctive flavor.

It's a cooling complement to any dish with extra heat -- almost as cooling as a bowl of Aura's homemade mango or coconut ice cream.

As a table clears, Aura darts out of the kitchen to catch her guests as they head out the door.

Hugs and kisses all around.

"Busy tonight," she apologizes breathlessly. "See you next week?"

You bet.

-- Jay Burnett

TASTE OF THAI
3417 University Boulevard South
Jacksonville, Florida
(904) 737-9009

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