New Favourite: Southern Thai dining at Koh Lipe

 

Koh Lipe Scarborough

I love love love Thai Food. I am always in search of some good Thai restaurants especially since my previous favourite, Pai, is such a pain to make reservations (for our group) and get to. Chiang Rai has replaced Pai’s spot in my heart (and stomach) for a while now, but it looks like we have a contender! The fam and I checked out the Michelin Guide’s Koh Lipe in the Scarborough/Markham location! I have heard good things about the Chinatown location but am so glad there’s one a tad bit closer! And we are soooo glad to have discovered this! Now, I understand that Pai specializes on Northern Thai and that Koh Lipe specializes in Southern Thai, but it is Thai to me and I love all of it 😊!

 It took a while to choose what we wanted to try since everything on the menu looked so good! We finally settled on a couple of specials and some classics.  

The staff was friendly and the service was fast. It did not take long to get all of our dishes served!

 To start, we got the Crispy fried smelt which was so yummy! It got us excited about all the other dishes to come! The smelt was topped with crispy garlic and it was delightfully tasty! The green chili dipping sauce gave the perfect sweet and sour taste to balance out some of the oil.

Crispy Smelt @Koh Lipe

 We then got Tom Yum hot pot which was pork bone in Tom Yum soup. The serving was generous and while broth was good, I could use a bit more kick. After a while, we had to ask them to turn off the flame so that the boiling broth does not all evaporate.

Tom Yum Hot Pot @Koh Lipe

 We also got the Chef’s Special Luok Jhim platter which featured steamed mussels, shrimp, squid and fish, rice noodles flavoured with fried garlic, chili-lime sauce and lettuce wraps. We were thinking, after some very good (junk) eating the previous days, maybe we should go for some steamed food. We reminded ourselves later, to make no pretentions going forward! While it was still delicious (seafood tends to always delight this family), this was our least favourite dish. It was just, well, steamed seafood with lettuce wrap and dipping sauce. What did I really expect? Anyway, we vowed to try the Prik Pao Talay (Stir-Fried smoked chilli platter, shrimps, mussels, squid, and clams) next time!

Luok Jhim platter @Koh Lipe

We all definitely enjoyed Mas Sa Man which was a tamarind coconut red curry with peanuts and potato. We got Braised Beef (instead of the Veggies/Tofu version—see why we felt we needed to have the steamed seafood?).  It was just an explosion of flavours in our mouths! Curry with tamarind was something we don’t usually get to try and we really enjoyed the sweet, sour, mildly spicy sauce with the very tender braised beef. It will be a challenge not to order again even if we want to try so many other dishes when we come back.

Mas Sa Man @Koh Lipe

 Of course, we got our usual Pad Thai (with chicken) and it while it was not the best, it still had all the elements we love about this dish--chewy noodles, good sauce (not too much tamarind to make it sour and not too sweet). They didn’t scrimp on the chicken and did not drown the dish with bean sprouts. Will try their Pad See Ew or Pad Kee Mao on our next visit.

Pad Thai (with chicken) @Koh Lipe

 We also got a Honey Longan drink and Thai milk tea which were good to balance out the rich flavours in between bites—and allowed us to eat some more!

drinks @Koh Lipe

 We ended the meal with the mango sticky rice dessert. It came with half a mango atop wonderfully chewy sticky rice and coconut cream. The mango jelly topping was cute but doesn’t really do much to add to the already delightful dessert. It was a wonderful way to end our meal!

Mango Sticky Rice @Koh Lipe

There were Southern Thai specialties we have not tried so we would definitely go back. We think this will now become our new favourite Thai place!

 

A different kind of Thai: Paddler Thai Boat Noodles

 

Paddler Thai Boat Noodles

I have fond memories of getting Pad Thai from street carts in Bangkok. It is still my favourite noodles of all time. In Bangkok, I also had the hottest curry in some hole in the wall joint, where every bite required a sip of Pepsi. And while I have visited the floating market, I have not tried boat noodles before. In fact, I have not heard of boat noodles until I was looking for a place to eat in the Parkdale area where we were going to find ourselves during dinner time on a weekday. While I wanted to try some Tibetan cuisine in Little Tibet, I couldn’t resist not trying the boat noodles at Paddler. Kuaytiaw – Rua or boat noodles are  sold by vendors in the floating markets. Vendors would cook noodles on board small boats and sell them to people on shore or on other boats.  How could I not try that?

Hubby started with Crisp Fried Quail Egg Wonton. Nicely deep fried and served with house plum sauce. It was a nice appetizer and tastes exactly as the name of the dish—it was quail egg wrapped in wonton wrapper and crisp fried. There was simply no other way to describe it.

Of course, we got their Signature Boat Noodles. We first chose the type of noodles (small rice, medium rice, flat rice or egg noodles). Then, we chose our protein (beef or pork). I got medium rice noodles with beef (braised, sliced, and beef balls) which arrived in this beautiful broth (made by using pig or cow blood and dark soy sauce, well balanced with some coconut milk and chili oil). Thai herbs, sprouts, cilantro, fried garlic and dried chili peppers bring it all together. It was served with pork rind which provided a nice crunch. The broth was just absolutely delicious. It was tangy, spicy and full of flavour. It definitely hits the spot. DD#1, a soup lover, has declared it to now be her favourite soup. Ramen and Pho have now been dethroned.

Boat Noodles at Paddler

Grandma, who was not in the mood for soup, got the dry boat noodles, which is also very traditional. The noodles also come with protein and is brought together by chili oil and dried chilies, cilantro and also some dried coconut.

Dry Boat noodles at Paddler

Service was good, though there was a bit of a wait (20-30 min). Overall, super worth it. And while we talked of coming back to the area to have a Tibetan meal, I wager we will end up here in Paddler again.