When it comes to board games, we’ve yet to meet anyone more fanatic about them than D’s colleague. Indeed, an afternoon of board games easily sneaks into the evening, and it’s almost midnight before we know it. Time flies when you’re having fun, but hunger doesn’t wait. So to get us through the evening, we ordered take away from Baan Raun Thai Restaurant in North Strathfield.
This here is the Kana Moo Krob ($18.00), Thai stir-fried crispy pork belly with Chinese broccoli. The overwhelming amount of greens in the photo belies the delicious morsels of pork belly underneath – the skin is deliciously crispy, while the pork is tender and juicy.
Next up is the Duck Salad ($19.00), a roast duck salad mixed with chilli, lemon juice, onion, coriander, mint and toasted coconut. I’m a huge fan of the delicate balance of flavours and textures in Thai salads and this one is no exception with sweetness from the coconut, tomato and cucumber, sourness from the lemon juices, bitterness from the coriander and mint, and savoury from the duck. The spiciness is manageable and for some reason, we don’t mind the onion in Thai food when we’re eating it (our breath afterwards is another matter though…)
This is the Gai Tod Nahm Prik Pao ($16.00), a Thai-styled deep-fried chicken. The chicken pieces used here are juicy thigh that has been deep-fried to give it a crispy skin. This dish no longer featured on their menu but D’s colleague is a long time customer who’s on good terms with the owner so gets special treatment in the form of fried chicken. In terms of taste, it very much resembles the duck salad, but with the added crispiness and juiciness of the chicken thigh.
Finally, for carbs, we had the Spicy Fried Rice ($15.00), fried rice with fresh chilli, basil and vegetables. This is Thai-style spicy, by which I mean it is fiery and mouth burning, and not sweet and barely warm like most Thai restaurants. Personally, I’d prefer a non-spicy fried-rice for some intermittent relief from the other dishes with chilli.
Overall, the food from Baan Raun Thai Restaurant was tasty, although it did take over 40 minutes before our order was ready for pick up.
Baan Raun Thai Restaurant is located at 157 Concord Rd, North Strathfield NSW 2137.