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August 19, 2004 |
| Toledo City Paper |
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Family Thais |
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| Maumee’s Bangkok Kitchen Serves Exotic Treats by John E. Clark | |
| Bangkok
Kitchen 582 Dussel Drive, Maumee 419-897-7777 Mon-Thu: 11am. - 9 pm. Fri: 11 am. - 10 pm. Sat: Noon - 10 pm. Sun: 5 pm. - 9 pm. The Bangkok Kitchen is a family affair. Owner Chiraporn Jookrathok is the driving force of a staff consisting of her daughter, Bo Lehman, and niece, Pranee Schermerhorn. Jookrathok has a long history of restaurant experience in Toledo. Prior to the Bangkok Kitchen, she operated the Bangkok Café which also contained a Thai grocery store. What brought Jookrathok from her native land of Thailand to Toledo? In 1988, working as a television advertising agent in Bangkok, her employer sent her to the United States to study at Purdue University. She fell in love with the country and decided to stay, moving to Toledo because her sister lives here. Most entrees at the Bangkok Kitchen are served with steamed rice — no bread and potatoes generally eaten by Westerners. One of my favorite game meats is duck, and I enjoy discovering the many ways it can be prepared. Bangkok Kitchen prepares duck in two diverse methods — crispy duck ($8.75 half and $16.50 whole), which is fried to perfection and accompanied with a generous side of steamed white rice, and roasted duck, simmered in a red curry and coconut milk sauce with pineapple, bell peppers, tomatoes, onions and fresh basil ($11.75). The marriage of red curry and coconut milk makes a sauce that is not only extremely flavorful, but the aroma overwhelms your senses when it is delivered to the table. Bangkok Kitchen offers traditional Thai appetizers. Jookrathok and her family hand prepare the lightly seasoned princess shrimp wrapped in thin rice paper, deep-fried and served with their homemade special sauce ($5.25). My favorite is the seafood Rangoon ($5.25) served six to an order and stuffed with a cream cheese, onion and seafood mixture, accompanied with plum sauce. The Hawaiian combo highlights shrimp and scallops with pineapple, vegetables and cashews drenched in red sweet-and-sour sauce ($11.95). Also, the seafood combination of stir-fried shrimp, scallops and squid with Napa cabbage, and vegetables in a brown sauce ($11.95) is sure to please. Thai cuisine doesn’t end before dessert. One of the house specialties is the red banana dumpling ($1.95) or the one I most enjoyed, the special coconut ice cream ($1.95). Made fresh by Jookrathok, this ice cream had the texture of an Italian sorbet and the flavor of a Pina Colada. The Bangkok Kitchen offers the real thing from a land far away. The trip to Dussel Road is a trip worth taking. |
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