Saturday, January 21, 2012

Dok Bua: Thai food, from the exemplary to the fickle


I'll admit it: I'm confused.

Dok Bua Thai Kitchen, nestled in on Harvard Street, has the feel of a roadside Thai joint—plain wooden tables and chairs, with the kitchen enclosed in a wooden hut.  It’s one of those much-lauded local favorites, proclaimed a "hidden jewel" with great value, and the 2011 Best of Boston winner for best Thai restaurant.  

If you're familiar with good Thai food, you'll know that it balances four core flavors: salty, sour, sweet, and spicy. This balancing act is key to the complexity in such famous Thai dishes as, say, a bowl of Tom Yum soup, or Som Tum, that remarkable papaya salad, crunchy and soft and sweet and spicy all at once.

1 comment:

  1. I once went to a Thai restaurant in NYC. I let my sister who had lived there for years order for me. I tasted the soup and nearly choked to death. Everyone in the restaurant was in a flurry of activity, thinking I was going to die. I thought so, too. My sister thought the whole thing was too funny for words. I will never eat spicy Thai food again,,,,,,,,,,,,,just the regular stuff which is great.
    G Tep

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