Mango Thai

Okay, okay, okay.  I hear you already.  You're thinking why don't we rename the blog to talk about our Thai food addiction.  Here's the thing though, this wasn't our pick of where to go tonight.  We were invited by our house guest as a farewell to Washington dinner.  And she loves Thai food!  Did she pick the right family to live with for the past 3 months or what?  And on top of all that, Thai food is just unbelievably delicious.  If you don't already know this, you need to get some.  Call me up!  I'll take you to good Thai food.  I promise.  You'll be hooked as well.  So with that, I give you our dinner at Mango Thai.

Restaurant name: Mango Thai
Food type:  Duh, Thai!
Category:  Our first time going.  K gave us insider tips though, as she had been there with her sister.  Hmmm... the gal from IN introducing the WA family to a Thai restaurant in Seattle.  Talk about a switch-up!
Location:  SeaTac, Washington
Reason for dining out:  Farewell dinner for K
Bonus features:  The Guys also ate a good dinner which still surprises me.  Granted I had packed a ton of snacks to get us through, just in case.
Food ordered:  Sate flight, fresh rolls, Pad Sei Ew (one star), Muu Saam Chan, chicken cashew, cod curry, and both brown and white jasmine rice
Items of inspiration: None.  The food is just too delicious and I would never be able to recreate it. 
Chance of repeat visit:  Absolutely!  A GREAT place to stop if you're picking someone up from the airport. 

K has been living with us since May.  The original plan was she was going to stay until the end of September, but she was fortunate enough to get a great job which starts in a little more than a week and, well, we reluctantly said goodbye to her sooner than expected.  This is the second time we've housed someone for the summer.  They work for World Vision, a non-profit Christian mission based organization, and the internship is unpaid.  So we open our home to one intern each summer and, in exchange, get a little bit of babysitting.  But the real benefit is that we make a new friend for life, one who The Guys love and both The Critic and I enjoy talking with late into the evenings.  It's just NICE to have another person in the house.  We have been so fortunate with both experiences and plan to continue as long as we are able to do so in the future.

So this is our swan song for K.  She went to this place with her sister back when we were in Texas and has been looking forward to going with our family, as well as taking J... her boyfriend who was flying in for the trip back. 

The food was DELICIOUS!  We all thought so.  The decor is super swank but they didn't look at us like we had a third eye for bringing in our two Guys with us.  And it is literally steps from the airport.  Very convenient!

Sate flight:  6 skewers of meat, 2 each of chicken, pork, and lamb.  By far the lamb is the best.  Not gamey at all.  It also comes with a couple fresh salad sides, including a cucumber salad which was really good and some pickeled kim-chee"esk" stuff that wasn't spicy, so I can't really call it a kim chee.  The sate sauce is beautifully presented on a white plate and has such a rich color it's nearly orange!  Deep delicious flavor that has obviously been in the works for a long time.  This place takes sate and makes it special. 

Fresh rolls:  In general, our family isn't spring roll eaters.  The Critic can't eat raw green vegetables which, well, makes for a challenge with them!  But this was K's favorite dish from her first visit, so it was imperative we get them.  I thought they were really good, and the kicker is that The Little Guy kept eating and eating them!  Score!  The dipping sauce for them was HEAVEN!  Very flavorful with a sweet/spicy sauce and crunchy nuts in it.  Mmmmmm...

Next up, the ever necessary Pad Sei Ew.  Before we went to dinner I talked with The Little Guy and said, "If you could have one thing for dinner tonight what would it be?"  He said, "You know!"  When I pressed he said, "It's flat...... and it has NOODLES...." And then proceeded to sing the Pad Sei Ew song again (I love that song!).  This particular one was wonderful and met all expectations. 

Both the chicken cashew and the cod curry were ordered by J and K.  They were both quite tasty, fairly typical for what you would expect.  This was my first time having cod curry.  Always good to try new things!

Finally, the Muu Saam Chan.  Oh. My.  I ordered it based on the description thinking it would be like Moo Dade Deaw at Bai Tong, a dish which The Big Guy will eat.  What we got was quite a bit better, as far as the meat goes.  Here's the description:  Crispy pork belly with Chinese broccoli.  Crispy pork belly!  Pork belly!!  Have you had pork belly?  It's just delicious.  This is no exception and with the caramelizing of it to make it crispy, well, as The Critic said, it's meat candy.  The Chinese broccoli is really bok choy, which was a bit too bitter for my taste.  So mostly I (and the rest of us) just picked out the meat candy.  Mmmmmm... very very good.

Definitely a good experience.  The only disappointment is that eating here signifies that K really is on her way back home.  We wish her the best and thank her for being in our family for the past 3 months.