Review: My-Thai

Let me start off by saying that I was not paid to do this review. I am reviewing this restaurant because I ate there and would like others to know what it is like. You can view their website here.

I had originally intended on going to a new restaurant in Uptown Waterloo called Ish and Chips, but they were closed :( So that review will have to wait. Instead we went to My-Thai. And we were not disappointed.
My-Thai has most of the common Thai dishes that everyone knows of and loves, such as: spring rolls, summer rolls, pad thai, thai curries and more.
Because I went to eat there with a friend we went with the daily 'two can eat for 24.95' deal. We decided to go for the 'Traditional Meal' which consisted of:

Thai Spring Rolls

Pad Thai with Vegetables

Emerald Curry with Chicken

Thai Jasmine Rice (And a view of everything on my plate)

Now that is a lot of food for two people! If you have a big appetite then you will not be disappointed in My-Thai.

The spring rolls were pretty standard, and seemed a little over fried to me. But they were still tasty. The Pad Thai was delicious. It had a very authentic flavours and the tofu in it was the perfect texture. It was sweet and tangy and not overly spicy like most of the crap Pad Thai I've had at other restaurants. The crunchy peanuts were a nice addition and was a welcomed texture and taste in the Pad Thai.
The Pad Thai was my favorite part of the meal.
The Emerald Curry with Chicken was also very good though. It had a nice creamy coconut milk taste and I used the rice to eat all of the liquid in the curry. The veggies were cooked perfectly (not too soft not too hard). I also like the variety of veggies they choose for both the Pad Thai and the Emerald Curry.
Jasmine rice is definitely not an uncommon thing for me so that is just a normal staple you need with dishes like these. In fact, Jasmin rice is my favourite type of rice :)

The service was also good; a prompt greeting, we received our drinks quickly and our spring rolls arrived with enough time to finish them before receiving the main courses.  

Overall, I was happy with both the food an the service from My-Thai. Though the decor could use a little more work. I would eat at My-Thai again.

My-Thai's rating is:  3/5

My-Thai Restaurant Waterloo
51 King Street North Waterloo, ON 
(519) 954-8424
http://www.mythai.ca/
 


Something I will start doing on my reviews now is rating. I think a rating system will make it easier to show exactly what I think of the restaurants I am eating at.
My scale and standards will be this:
0/5 Terrible; do not recommend at all.
1/5 Capable cooking, but some inconsistencies
2/5 Decent cooking, but occasional inconsistencies
3/5 Good cooking, using quality ingredients
4/5 Great cooking, showing attention to detail, balance and high quality ingredients.
5/5 Exemplary cooking, I'm excited by what I have ate and dream about eating it again and again.

Hot Wings and Blue Cheese Dip

When I was trying to come up with something for dinner I asked Martin if he had any ideas. He said he was really craving some baked potatoes with sour cream and bacon. I quickly agreed that it was a great idea and suggested we added some 'bar food' to make it a full dinner. First thing we thought of for the 'bar food'? WINGS! Of course!

Now, this isn't just any wing recipe. It's Martin's secret wing recipe. He used to work at a sport's bar so I was inclined to go with what he thought was the best way to make wings (and also because he has more experience cooking ;). These wings are tender and spicy. Just delicious! Serving some home-made blue cheese dip with carrots and celery is a great way to cool your mouth off ;)

As for the baked potato? Well I'm sure you all know how to do that! So I'll skip on that recipe :P

 Hot Wings
Serves 2 (depending on your appetite)
(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients:
9 full wings (once cut up this will make 9 'wings' and 9 'drumettes')
vegetable or canola oil, enough to cover the wings in a pot
1 tbsp butter, melted
1/2 cup of Frank's Red Hot Sauce or regular cayenne pepper sauce
1 tsp salt

Directions:
1. Wash chicken and pat dry with paper towels. Cut chicken so you have wings and drumettes (or you can leave them whole at this point if you want and pull them apart later).
2. Heat oil in a medium pot on low heat. Add chicken once oil is heated. Make sure the chicken has enough space to not stick to other chicken. Cook for about 10-13 minutes or until cooked through. The chicken should not be too brown or crispy! This will probably take 2 batches.
3. Take chicken out and let cool down on paper towels to absorb excess oil. Once cooled down, put in freezer (I used wax paper and a ziplock bag).
4. Heat oven to 200C. To prepare the sauce combine in a medium bowl the melted butter, Frank's Red Hot Sauce and salt.
5. Take chicken out of freezer and add to the sauce bowl. Coat well with sauce and arrange them on a grill rack on a baking tray (they need to be above the baking tray to cook all over). A cooling rack for baked goods also works well. Cook for about 10 minutes (may take longer if frozen for a long time or if your oven is different). Baste with more sauce if desired.

Why do you put the chicken in the freezer? I have no idea! That's part of Martin's secret recipe! And if it makes the chicken taste this good, I won't complain! It also makes making these ahead of time easy. You can cook the chicken and put them in the freezer. All you have to do is sauce them and bake after that point. Easy, peasy!

If you want extra saucy wings, then make extra sauce.

Blue Cheese Dip
Serves 2-4
(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients:
1/4 cup of mayonnaise
1/2 clove of garlic, minced
1 tbsp parsley, finely chopped
1/3 cup sour cream
1 tsp lemon juice
1 tsp white vineagar
1/4 blue cheese, crumbled
salt and pepper

Directions:
1. Combine all ingredients and mix.
2. If you would like the dip to be smoother then use a hand mixer to beat it to a smoother consistency.

Serve with carrots and celery.

The blue cheese dip will get more blue cheesey in flavour the longer you let it sit in the fridge (So if you love blue cheese I would suggest making the dip the day before).

Asian Chicken Wrap

I seem to get stuck in a rut sometimes always eating the same thing over and over. In this case, I've been eating far too many sandwiches and I'm getting sick of them. I wanted something new to eat that was healthy, tasty, and exciting. I saw a recipe on Pioneer Woman Cooks and I was inspired to make something a little different. Since I'm trying to purge the house of all the food we have (since we are moving back to Canada in 23 days and leaving for Iceland in 17 days), I didn't want to go out and buy new ingredients. I was also really craving something with Asian flavours. This recipe is the result. Feel free to add different vegetables or what ever you need to use up.

Asian Chicken Wrap
Makes 1 serving.
(Printable Recipe)

Ingredients:
1/4-1/3 cup of cooked chicken, diced
1 stalk of celery, chopped
1 small handful of shredded cabbage, carrots, beets (julienne rauwkost from AH)
1 romaine lettuce leaf
2 tbsp green onion, chopped
1/2 of 1 lime, juiced
1 tbsp olive oil
1 tbsp soy sauce
1 tsp sesame oil
1 tbsp brown sugar
1 tsp ginger, minced
1 tsp garlic, minced
1 tbsp cilantro, chopped
1 tortilla (I used multigrain)

Directions:
1. In a small bowl combine chicken, celery, shredded cabbage/carrots/beets, and green onion.
2. In a small bowl or jar combine olive oil, soy sauce, sesame oil, brown sugar, ginger, garlic, and cilantro. Whisk together in bowl or shake jar to combine.
3. Add dressing to chicken mixture and stir to coat evenly.
4. Heat tortilla on stove or in microwave so it is more pliable.
5. Place lettuce leaf on tortilla and spoon chicken mixture on lettuce and wrap however you would like.

Round up of the last week.

I made several nice meals in the past week but only ended up taking a few pictures.
So I'll post the few pictures I have as well as the links to the recipes I used.

Hope you guys try some of these out! :)

Firstly is the Magret de Canard with Apples and Maple. Don't be afraid my Dutch friends! You can buy this meat at the Rotterdam market! And you can get maple syrup at Dille and Camille. This is a great meal if you're trying to impress someone ;)

It was delicious! I liked it so much that we've made this 3 times so far!
Though I should confess that I didn't actually do any of the cooking for this dish (Martin did it all! I didn't even help a little!).

Next up is the Potato Salad I made for the BBQ at Wayne's place.

I was going to make something a little more fancy, but in the end I settled with a classic recipe (that most people should like/be able to eat). Next time I would use less mayonnaise as I found that there was just a bit too much sauce. I also skipped on the hard-boiled eggs.
It is best to make this the day before, as the flavours really get into the potatoes better :)

Next up is one of my all-time FAVOURITE recipes! Seriously, I love this dish.
The dish is Jamie Oliver's Proper Chicken Caesar Salad.


Sorry for the half eaten food picture, but I had already scarfed all of mine down and this was all that was left on Martin's plate.
We usually use the whole chicken leg with the thigh, but AH was out :( So we used smaller chicken legs instead which led to a quicker cooking time and less fat. But you do want the fat as the fat is what makes the croutons so delicious!
The dressing is also really tasty! It's a nice change from the usual caesar dressing. I would highly recommend actually buying the book this recipe is from: Jamie at Home. It has tons of great recipes in it (Or just rent it from the library!).

And last but not least was Pasta alla Vodka! I served the pasta with some steak and garlic bread to round out the meal.

This recipe is from one of my favourite bloggers, Pioneer Woman! Her recipes are never low fat (she loves using butter!), but everything I have cooked from her recipes has turned out really good. Her blog is also great if you are interested in photography.

I'll try to be a better blogger and actually remember to take pictures! I'd also really like to start writing posts in more detail. So hang in there while I get used to blogging! I'm sure this blog will get better with time ;)