Rhong-Tiam

Michelin’s 2010 guide for New York City was recently revealed. Last week, I started on my lofty goal of eating at every Michelin-starred restaurant in NYC (if I’ve gone to the restaurant before, I will most likely not go to the restaurant again). Rhong-Tiam is a new Michelin-starred restaurant located by the NYU campus that serves Thai food (by way of Bangkok). The restaurant is actually kind of easy to pass (I walked by it twice before actually seeing it):

The restaurant was empty on Wednesday night but it seemed like the waitresses weren’t in a rush to take our order (usually I don’t like slow waitresses, but the menu at Rhong-Tiam is pretty extensive so the extra time to talk over the menu was okay). When the waitress finally came around to take our order, I was disappointed to learn that some of their salads weren’t available. We ended up starting with the Thai sausage:

The Thai-style chorizo sausage had a nice crispy skin and was infinitely better when paired with the little peppers. The ginger, on the other hand, didn’t pair well at all (too fibrous and difficult to chew).

Our drunken noodles:

The drunken noodles tasted like beef ho fun that you order in Chinatown at a place like Big Wong. The lime added a nice flavor to the otherwise mediocre noodles.

We also ordered the pork-on-fire (Moo-Na-Rok):

I was ready to drink a lot of water for the pork-on-fire, but it wasn’t spicy…at all. I don’t think I have a high tolerance for spicy foods, but the pork-on-fire had more of a basil and lemongrass taste than spiciness. The pork-on-fire actually reminded me of a dish I used to eat in Champaign (at a Chinese restaurant, Mandarin Wok), translated as Three Cup Chicken (San Bei Gi – one cup of soy sauce, one cup of wine, and one cup of water with lots of basil). The dish was good, but the name of the dish was very misleading.

Finally, we actually ordered a little dessert – steamed sticky rice wrapped banana:

The sticky rice is similar to what my mom makes, but instead of adding savory items like mushrooms and pork, the restaurant added sugar and wrapped it around a banana. There was also lots of coconut cream and strawberry syrup topping the sticky rice. The dessert was super cheap ($2.50!) and actually really delicious.

Our meal was about $40 (for two people) and pretty enjoyable, although the amount of MSG used in all of the dishes was definitely extraordinary because I think I drank about 2 liters of water once I got home from dinner. I don’t think I’d return to the restaurant, but if I work late, I might be tempted to order take-out.