Hot and spicy Thai favorites

Yoong Tong

by Margaret LeRoux

Yoong Tong 278 Main St. (Route 20) Northboro (508) 393-7714 Hours Dinner Sun.-Wed. 11 a.m.-9:30 p.m. Thurs.-Sat. 11 a.m.-10 p.m. Full bar Major credit cards Handicapp accessible

If you're a fan of Thai food, you're probably willing to go the extra mile to experience the unique combinations of herbs and spices that make this cuisine so popular. I have friends who have gone to great lengths to eat Thai in some pretty unusual locales -- they loved the chicken satay served in a little Thai café in Innsbruck, Austria -- so when I told them about a new Thai place in Northboro, a lot closer to home, they were eager to be my guinea pigs.

Yoong Tong has been open since last fall in the building formerly occupied by the Sunshine Café. It's a pretty space with lots of light wood and a glassed-in sunroom. The addition of Asian artwork to the walls , cloth napkins and placemats to the booths and tables is enough of a change to give the place a new character.

The service at Yoong Tong is outstanding. Our water glasses were never allowed to be less than half full and the wait staff was both helpful and unobtrusive. If you don't know your way around a Thai menu, they're the sort who will gladly explain and make suggestions.

Over the years we've developed our own Thai favorites and were pleased to see that Yoong Tong has them all. One of mine is mee krob ($5.25), crisply fried rice noodles topped with shrimp, coriander, scallions and tamarind sauce; kratong tong ($4.95) features minced chicken, onion, green peas, corn and carrots in miniature tart shells. We shared Yoong Tong's fresh rolls ($4.25) a steamed rice pancake filled with a mixture of shrimp, lettuce, mint and basil served with a tangy dipping sauce. These may not be any less caloric, but they certainly taste so much healthier than fried spring rolls . We had to try Yoong Tong's beef satay ($5.25); my friends declared it was as good as the Austrian Thai version they'd eaten, and the peanut sauce here is even better.

Though the four of us like our Thai spicy, there are lots of mild alternatives on Yoong Tong's menu. If yum seafood, ($11.50) a salad of shrimp, squid and scallops in chili paste with mushrooms, onions and mint that merits a two chili pepper rating is too much for you, try their version of a garden salad ($2.95) with fresh veggies and peanut sauce.

Among the specialties, the innocuously named classic salmon ($12.75), a grilled steak topped by stir fried vegetables, merits three chilies. Must be something in that "house special sauce." We tried a different three pepper item, seafood madness ($13.73), another of our old favorites, and gave Yoong Tong's version a big plus for visual appeal as well as taste. A combination of shrimp, scallops and squid is stir-fried with hot chilies, seasoned with basil and lemon grass, and served with mushrooms and onions with steamed mussels as a garnish. This was not one of those overpoweringly huge platters you so often receive in Oriental restaurants. Here, the quantity and presentation are more refined. It may not be all you can eat, but for sensible appetites, it's plenty.

With our leanings towards the hotter items on the menu, we quenched our thirst with Singha (3.95), beer from Thailand, to my mind the best accompaniment for this cuisine.

Among the items described as "interesting pan fried dishes," we chose wild boar basil ($9.50) also given three chilies but not at all too spicy in my opinion. The bite size pieces of pork were fried with mushrooms, green peppers, and Thai eggplant. The combination had a rich, earthy flavor heightened by the sauce. We scooped up every bit of that sauce, even ordered another side of rice so we could finish it.

The Indian influences on the cooking of Thailand is seen in the number of curries on the menu: yellow, green and massam. You can have he first two ($8.95 and $10.75) with chicken duck or shrimp and the massam ($8.95) is available with chicken or beef.

Lemon grass chicken ($9.50) is served here with a light curry sauce and bits of fresh chopped lemon grass in the dish to give it a little extra zip. Red peppers, green scallions and roasted ground peanuts add color and crunch.

Vegetarians have lots to try at Yoong Tong. Tofu stars in a "royal" ($8.25) version with mushroom, snow peas, bean sprouts in ginger sauce; and a "classic"($7.95) with black mushroom sauce over fresh vegetables. Yet another tofu dish has tamarind sauce. Vegetable mixtures are served in a couple of different sauces and there are vegetarian versions of pad Thai noodles and fried rice.

We rounded out our feast with the non-vegetarian pad Thai ($7.25), rice noodles with assorted veggies, fried shrimp and eggs, ground peanuts in a sweet and tangy sauce. We'd run out of steam and weren't able to finish this dish. However, we brought it home to sample again for lunch the next day; it was still very tasty. Next visit we'll try Yoong Tong's special noodle ($7.50), steamed fresh rice noodles over a bed of lettuce with sautéed ground chicken and shrimp with bamboo shoots, mushrooms, cucumbers, garlic oil and tamarind sauce.

Desserts include ice cream flavored with coconut, green tea or ginger ($2.50) and if the weather hadn't been quite so cold, we'd have been tempted. But we found our chili infused dinner just the ticket to get us through another chilly early spring night. The bill for a feast for four was $80.90 before tip.

Margaret LeRoux can be reached at

feedmefeedback@hotmail.com.

Margaret LeRoux can be reached at feedmefeedback@hotmail.com.