Lemongrass Thai - Brooklyn Park, MN

I finally made it to Lemongrass Thai! Mr. C and I met Tuesday evening in the small eatery. The interior is pretty standard, but they have a lot of beautiful, framed pictures and asian decorations.

Upon arrival, I waited for my company while watching some live performances of Bird on the large flat screen TV on the wall. (http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Thongchai_McIntyre). If you don't know who he is, I suggest you immediately You Tube him. Kooky asian entertainment galore! They don't serve booze, so I ordered some tea. Fitting for our gloomy weather.

Mr. C arrived and we immediately decided on some appetizers. We ordered the Sai- Oua E-sane, which I have heard raves about, (Fresh homemade - style sausage filled with ground pork, chopped lemon grass and other flavorful spices.$5.95 ) and Golden Triangle (4)
(Cream cheese, diced onions, and crab - wrapped in wonton skin and lightly fried.
$3.95.)

Lemongrass Thai has about 32 things on the menu that I need to try, so it took awhile for us to decide. They have some pretty unique stuff, this is definitely not your Chef Boyardee sweet and sour chicken joint. For example, my intial interest was in the Lemongrass Spaghetti (A Thai twist on an Italian dish - ground beef, shrimp, sliced mushrooms, and basil - in a spicy garlicky marinara sauce. $9.95.) However, I've only had a red curry once before, and curry was really calling me. They have a lot of curries here - red, green, yellow and massaman. And many different varieties and combinations of each. I finally decided on the Flamin Chicken (Tender slices of chicken breast - sautéed in coconut milk and red curry paste with bamboo shoots and basil. $9.95) and my friend ordered the Wild Curry (An exotic fusion of Indian and Thai curries, traditional curry with an added kick, coconut milk, bamboo shoots, basil, and butternut squash. $10.95.)

10 minutes later: (i apologize for the terrible pics. If you follow my blog, you know my phone camera SUCKS, especially in dim light or anytime at night. I need to start having my companions take pics instead!)

Sai- Oua E-sane (quite offensive looking-but lightened up by Mr C, hand model extraordinaire!)
Golden Triangle


Let me start with the sausage. This is unlike anything I've ever tasted before. My first bite was extremely salty and spicy. Very bold flavors in this little food. I found that the dipping sauce was the source of the salt (it was VERY salty alone) and advised myself (and you, if you order it) to use it sparingly. When eating these plain, they are better. The lemongrass is very prominent, and the texture of the meat is a little rough - though not dry at all. My companion put it quite nicely by saying - "Let me be a suburban d-bag for a minute and say that it's...interesting."

The wontons were next. These were also different from the wontons I'm used to. No thick sugary red sauce with lots of hard kill-your-mouth wontons, and smidgen of cream cheese. These look and act like wontons, but taste..different (Can't believe I'm saying that.) The skins tasted like they were fried in...beef oil? I struggle to describe this simple, much americanized food. The wontons were very savory tasting. The crab flavor was distinct on the inside, as were the onions. One strabge thing - they used WHITE onions in the filling, which I've rarely seen in asian cooking. The cream cheese was a good amount, and as expected. I liked these, but they were a bit heavy on the onion flavor for me.

Flamin Chicken

Wild Curry

I admit I am not a curry connisouer. These curries were different (there it is AGAIN) from what I'm used to. I leaned down to inhale the aroma before tasting, and let's just say the smell was...not pleasant. It's a standard Thau curry, thin, watery, and simple in appearance. Appearances (and sometimes aroma's!) are deceptive. This curry was AMAZING. It was very sweet, but not in a sugary way. A sliver of coconut milk sunshine cutting through creeping heat and spice. Enough to make your nose run, but not your eyes. Simple, sweet, spicy and light. Yes, light. This is not your heavy Indian curry. I took a few spoonfulls plain, as if eating soup. But a soup it is not. There is such a punch of flavor, it's a crime to eat it alone; imbalanced. Mr. C's curry was also amazing. More savory than mine, but just as spicy and wonderful. Mine was so good, when I ate the leftovers, I ate part of them cold. Sounds weird I know, but it was very NOM NOM.

Overall, Lemongrass Thai gives us something to think about. I appreciate that it challenged me with it's twists on classics, and introduction of unique combinations. I will definitely be making more trips, and will conquer the Lemongrass Spaghetti!

http://lemongrassthaicuisine.net/

Greats
-Flamin Chicken
-Wild Curry
-The tea has loose tea in it - not bagged
-Bird

Not so greats
-The location bites it
- The place was completely empty
- Golden Triangle
- Too bold flavors on the sausage appetizer