Getting high on Thai seafood
The best part about eating out is that when you think you’ve done the rounds and tried everything that’s available, the restaurants come up with something new. You give the places you weren’t too enthusiastic about the benefit of a doubt and check if they’re better the second time around. With places like these, it is win or lose. You’re either happy that you gave the restaurant a second chance, or feel let down and suckered when the flavors remain as meager as they originally were. However, new dishes at favorite restaurants are always cause for anticipation. Knowing that food is consistently good at a certain place gives you confidence to try out the new stuff and forgo tried and tested favorites. There is a tacit understanding that in good restaurants, the drive to up the ante and prepare something that could qualify as another favorite dish is a constant endeavor.
Such is the case at Crustasia’s Thai Shrimp House. Although the restaurant’s catfish salad and calamari with chili plum sauce are always good, the steamed crabs and salt pepper shrimp are excellent in their pristine simplicity, and the salt and pepper jumbo belly chops will satisfy even the most dedicated carnivore, there was no tinge of regret that we didn’t order these in lieu of new dishes on the menu.
We started with a seafood tom yum that was outstanding for its juicy and tasty mussels. Chef Chaiyong, the restaurant’s seasoned Thai expert claims that he cut the usual chili seasoning by half due to the fact that most Filipinos are not too keen on extremely hot food. I appreciated the move. Although extremely spicy food can be very good, I don’t indulge in it on tasting excursions. It numbs my sense of taste and prevents me from distinguishing the subtle nuances of flavor in the other dishes that I set out to try.
An eggplant salad stack (P225) consisted of soybean curd, fresh tomatoes and onions arranged lasagna style. Seasoned with a light sweet-salty dressing, this is a nice main dish for vegetarians. For those who embark on diets and are starting to feel the pangs of deprivation, this item should also prop up the conviction that healthy food can really be very good.
The same is true for the char-grilled prawns on a bed of shredded kangkong (P375). The prawns come with hollandaise sauce, but are just as good alone. I initially thought that the tender strips of crisp shredded kangkong were slightly blanched, but they turned out to be fresh. Perhaps, laying the hot grilled prawns partially cooks the top layers, but the bottom layers remained crunchy, tasty and light. The shredded kangkong was tossed in a Thai dressing with a hint of citrus that made it refreshing. Very, very nice.
For our starch dishes, we had Thai seafood spaghetti (P295) liberally decked with tender strips of squid and whole shrimp and khao pad talay or Thai seafood fried rice (P265) that was already a complete meal with shrimp, cuttlefish and a covering of scrambled egg. The dishes emphasized that Crustasia’s Thai Shrimp House knows their shrimp so you get the best quality, robust shrimps in all the dishes where it is an ingredient. There are no wimpy, pappy-shelled specimens that taste just as limp.
The unfortunate folk who are allergic to delicious crustaceans will be glad to know that other entrees are available at Crustasia’s. We tried the new Thai Chicken pizza (P265) with cilantro and a peanut base and found it an enjoyable alternative to the usual tomato sauce-topped pizza, while the Thai osso buco (P398) is proof that when it comes to important matters such as food, there are no strict international borders. The meat was served with mashed potatoes made even tastier with the addition of cilantro and roasted garlic. Yummy.
However, this particular expedition to Crustasia’s was very successful because I found something I really, truly like. Grilled pork in lemongrass (P195) was seasoned ground pork that was molded into a sausage shape, skewered with the hard base of a lemongrass stalk and grilled just right. The flavor that the lemongrass imparts is refreshing, so this dish is probably best described as a “refreshing meat.” Best of all, the dish is served with crisp greens that you can use to wrap up the pork. So it just occurred to me that if my doctor mom calls my attention to the fact that I’m overdosing on meat again, I can easily hide the delicious morsels of pork in the leaves and say, “What? What meat? I’m eating my greens!”
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Crustasia’s Thai Shrimp House is at the 6th level, Shangri-La Plaza Mall, Ortigas. Tel. no. 910-4096, MO 2087 Trinoma Mall, North Triangle
