For the Love of Bai Tong

Another book I love to read to The Guys is called "Toad Eats Out", a cute rhyming book with very simple text.  It states quite beautifully in the beginning, "It's my birthday!  I can do what I want!  I want to eat out in a restaurant!" This is our family tradition come birthdays.  Today, we celebrated a couple of birthdays together, including yours truly.

Restaurant name: Bai Tong
Food type:  Thai
Category:  No reason to open the menu... we already know what we're getting. 
Location:  Tukwila, WA
Reason for dining out:  Happy Birthday to ME!  Happy Birthday to K!
Bonus features:  We were joined by my parents and two good family friends.  When you dine out with a 4 extra adults, you get to order more food!  When someone else picks up the tab, you get to go again.  Thanks Mom and Dad!
Food ordered:  Fried Wontons, Moo Dade Deaw, Crispy Garlic Chicken, Phad Thai, Phad Sei-Iew, Mas-Sa-Man Curry, Brown Rice
Items of inspiration: There is no recreating this food.  Just eat and enjoy.  And lick your fingers well.
Chance of repeat visit:  Absolutely!  Can we go tomorrow?

To know me is to know my love of this restaurant.  It has a great story behind how it opened... whether that's fact or fiction I'm not entirely sure.  Nor can I accurately capture it in words here.  The Critic tells the story best, so let me know when you'd like to join us at this restaurant together and he'll tell the story. 

The food is delicious.  If you ask me which item was my favorite I'd likely say "Yes".  It's hard to rank.  This is the best I can do...

Fried Wontons:  A favorite of The Big Guy for sure.  They are deep fried with a bit of pig tucked in them.  (The Guys call all pork "pig" and they will correct you if you tell them it's called pork... forgive me for when you get uncomfortable.  We eat a LOT of pig in this house!).  The sauce that comes with it is a pungent sweet and sour sauce.  Very flavorful.  The Big Guy also appreciates the "purple carrots" that come on the side.  The rest of the world knows that as shredded raw red cabbage.

Chicken Phad Sie-Iew

Phad Sei-Iew:  One star with chicken as well.  I must admit.  This is not our favorite Phad Sei-Iew.  But it will certainly suffice and I will never turn it away.  This is the shining star in The Little Guy's book.  He will eat most of the plate when given the chance.

Phad Thai:  We ordered ours one star with chicken.  It was a bit on the spicy side tonight which is okay except The Little Guy isn't a big fan of spice, so he won't eat it if it's too spicy.  I like spice, but not "kill it" heat.  I like to taste my food.  This was yum to me tonight.  We don't get Phad Thai very often anymore so having it tonight was a super special treat.

Brown Rice

Mas-Sa-Man Curry:  This is a delicious dish that is amazing over rice.  Again, we have it with chicken and I think we asked for 2 stars tonight.  It could have used more.  This was the first dish to be completely consumed tonight and I came very close to licking the plate clean.  For. Real.  This is when I get to talk about Bai Tong's brown rice.  What a misnomer!  If you aren't a fan of brown rice, get thyself to Bai Tong.  It's really a red rice varitey and it is simply delicious. 

Moo Dade Deaw:  Our newest find at this restaurant.  The Critic calls it "Captain Crunch Pork".  My mother disagreed with this name but said it was delicious.  Not being a fan of sriracha, I bypass the sauce.  Actually, it's REALLY good if you mix it with the curry.  Sigh.  I just remembered that.  I forgot to do it tonight.  Ho hum.

Crispy Garlic Chicken:  Probably the dish that first endeared us to Bai Tong.  Definitely the dish that keeps us coming back.  This is De-Lish-Ous!  Uh-Maze-Ing!  I cannot say enough about it.  It's a double deep fried super crispy chicken in a sweetish batter that has a pheonmenal sauce.  And then they deep fry basil and dump it all over the top!  The basil is just like a crisp that disappears on your tongue.  It's CRAZY good!  For the ultimate Crispy Garlic Chicken experience simply spoon up some of the "crispies" stragglers with the sauce and some scraps of basil.  You will finally understand that food critic phrase "It's like a symphony of flavors in my mouth!"  It truly is.  Nom nom!!!

Crispy Garlic Chicken

In my opinion, Bai Tong is Thai food at its best.  And Bai Tong is one of the restaurants that officially turned me into a foodie.  Tonight didn't disappoint.  It never does.  The only downside to tonight is that it's really hard to lick your plate clean when you're sitting across from your mom for fear you'll be sent to your room or something.  But you know what?  If I had done it, she probably would have been grateful that I broke the ice and would have joined right in.  Happy birthday to ME!