Silk Thai offers freshest ingredients

DINING OUT

Silk Thai Cuisine, the restaurant with the clever name on Beach

Boulevard in the extensive Newland Center, has a menu filled with the

smoothest of sauces that run the gambit from fire-engine hot to

baby-bottle warm.

At Silk Thai, the servers are so friendly you feel as if this

place is your home with your private chef. In fact, when five

Buddhist monks came in to eat, the whole kitchen came out to discuss

their order.

The menu lends guidance with asterisks for spicy, tiny hearts for

less than 14 grams of fat and V for vegan with no dairy, egg, fish or

chicken broth. They cook with 100% pure canola oil, no MSG and with

vegetables so fresh you they must have a garden out back. Our

selection began with five Thai Spring Rolls (v $4.95) with the

crispest film wrapped around a filling of transparent glass noodles,

strands of cabbage and carrots with a smooth thin red/orange dipping

sauce. Pick up with care as they are oven hot, prepared when ordered

and delicious. They, like every order, are served on large platters

family style.

My entre Paht Kee Mow/drunken noodles (v $8.50) was stir-fried

with wide rice noodles, al dente green bell pepper pieces, crispy

bean sprouts, onions, chiles and sweet basil -- with the traditional

contrast of sweet and spicy, soft textured and a wondrous sauce like

none I’d tasted before. It had a pungent, verdant taste, latent with

spice and subdued heat. It was a huge serving, one that kept luring

me to eat more.

Stir-fries contain a tablespoon of cholesterol-free canola oil,

and my friend’s choice was Paht Pak vegetables ($6.95) with big

pieces of cabbage, bean sprouts, carrot, baby corn, broccoli,

tomatoes and onions with a sauce so delicious the absence of meat

isn’t noticeable. Freshness of ingredients and those sauces really

put Silk Thai at the top of the list.

Silk Thai has three women chefs Panee Thammavagsa, Salee and

Nongyow who all cook by co-owner Jennifer Jardine’s mother’s recipes.

They have recently returned to Thailand where they will collect new

recipes. The most recently added dish which he recommends is Duck

Curry with no skin or bones, is oven-roasted and served with a red

curry.

If, like me, you can’t leave a restaurant without dessert, try the

homemade coconut ice cream ($2.95) an icy, creamy double-scoop with

big pieces of fresh coconut or the equally satisfying tall glass of

iced Thai Coffee ($1.75).

* MARY FURR is the Independent restaurant critic. If you have

comments or suggestions, call (562) 493-5062 or e-mail

hbindy@latimes.com.