Grade: A
Not every Friday night is a night on the town. Sometimes, your living room seems extra comfortable, along with your flannel sweatpants. Without pursuing the cliche “pizza and a movie” night in, I decided to switch it up by ordering Thai food.
With possibly the easiest number in Orono (866-0000) and free delivery, Thai Kitchen was just an easy phone call away.
The delivery man was funny and kind, even though it was only 15 degrees outside. He cracked a few jokes with me, but the smell of deep-fried Thai food filled the doorway. I found myself nodding and smiling, counting down the moments until that fried rice would be in my possession.
First, the Golden Bag: deep-fried, Thai-style spring roll skin stuffed full of ground chicken and mixed vegetables, served with plum sauce. If you’ve never had this sauce before, you might wince at the sound of it, like I did. Expecting a brownish-purple colored paste, it was actually quite the opposite. The sauce was clear and quite thin, with a salty and tangy taste. It paired so perfectly with the bags of gold. Reminding me of the same texture and taste of dumplings, the golden bags were the perfect precursor to the fried rice entree.
When you first order fried rice, and shiver at the $7.95 price tag, you expect the small takeout box normally received with any Asian restaurant. The container that this entree came in is enormous and easily could feed two people comfortably.
The House Fried Rice was a mix of chicken, shrimp, egg, onions, peas, tomatoes and scallions with Thai seasoning. It was served with a wedge of lime, which I highly recommend squeezing over the entire entree.
Each ingredient stood out in the dish, yet they worked so perfectly together — it was a holy matrimony of meat and veggies. Even the scallions, which seemed like such a small part of the entree, added a rich onion taste, giving the dish a sharper bite than if just onions were added. The tomatoes added a sweetness, creating a balance between the variety of veggies. Mixing both the chicken and shrimp in one dish was great for a variety, but it made the dish unmanageable to finish. I was stuffed after eating maybe a third of the plate.
On a calm weekend night of doing absolutely nothing but watching TV and relaxing, Thai food is the way you want to go if you want to steer clear of pizza or the typical Chinese food. For the price, service and quality of the food, you’ll be skipping out on the bars every weekend just to have a taste of some mouthwatering Golden Bags.
