Thai Iced Tea – Jellybeans in the City

Exciting Thai Flavors at Flower Boy, The Grid Food Market

Craving for some excitement? A taste of adventure? A journey to the new and unfamiliar?

Why not try a cuisine that’s off your beaten path?

One of the eateries managed by Lowbrow Casual Restaurants, Flower Boy, operates a stall in The Grid Food Market and offers diners a peek into the bright and rich flavors of Thai cuisine.

Fried Squid Platter (Php440). Large rings of succulent squid, dipped in Sprite flavored batter then deep-fried to golden brown crispiness. Served with crunchy prawn crackers and Jaew sauce.

Bagoong Fried Rice (Php290). Steamed rice topped with scrambled egg and Flower Boy’s own recipe for bagoong made with shrimp paste, rendered pork fat, crispy ham, and tamarind.

Chicken Pad Thai (Php350). Flower Boy’s version of one of Thailand’s national dishes is made to appeal to the Pinoy palate but still keep to its Thai roots. This stir-fried noodle dish is savory, mildly sweet with lots of umami, thanks to its sauce which is cooked for three hours. It looks gorgeous and smells wonderful, too, wouldn’t you agree?

Mango Sticky Rice (Php250). A classic Thai dessert made with succulent mango slices served with sticky rice topped with toasted coconut flakes and coconut cream.

Thai Iced Tea (Php140). Thailand’s popular refreshment made with brewed black tea flavored with spices and sweetened with condensed milk..

Flower Boy is open for pickup and delivery at thegridfoodmarket.com. It is also available for dine-in at Stall 3 at The Grid Food Market, Powerplant Mall, Rockwell Drive, Rockwell Center, Makati. It also delivers via GrabFood, FoodPanda and Pick-A-Roo.

For more details on its menu items and offers, follow Flower Boy on Facebook and Instagram.

The Grid Food Market is the resident food hall of Powerplant Mall which offers a wide range of flavors to cater to various cravings.

Check out my previous posts on other cuisines available at The Grid Food Market:

Authentic Pad Thai from The Pad by Samyan, now available for delivery

Given how deeply ingrained Pad Thai is to Thai cuisine, you would think that it dates back centuries.

On the contrary, this stir-fried noodle dish was introduced quite recently. Aa the story goes, during World War II, Thailand experienced a rice shortage due to the war and floods. To reduce rice consumption in the country, the Thai government encouraged the consumption of noodles instead. It didn’t take long before the Pad Thai came into being and went on to become Thailand’s national dish.

The good news for adventurous foodies in the metro is that this exotic dish is quite readily available, thanks to The Pad by Samyan.

The online offshoot of restaurant Samyan Thai Street Food, The Pad is helmed by Michelin Star Chef Thitid “Ton” Tassanakajohn, who cooks up different versions of Pad Thai for Thai food fans.

The Pad Thai Pu, also known as Crab Pad Thai, for instance, is a delectable mixture of flavors and textures: slippery noodles, sweet-savory sauce, the crunch from the sprinkling of peanuts, the tang from a slice of lime, some heat from the red pepper powder, and of course, the sweet-briny taste of the fried soft shell crab and tender lump crab.

It is a filling dish, not just for the tummy, but also for the taste buds.

Pad Thai lovers can enjoy a set meal consisting of this dish plus a 300ml bottle of The Grid’s Thai Iced Tea for just Php600.

Other Pad Thai variants available at The Pad by Samyan include Pad Thai Gung (Shrimp Pad Thai), Pad Thai Gai (Chicken Pad Thai), Pad Thai Moo (Pork Pad Thai) and Pad Thai Talay (Seafood Pad Thai).

Clearly, there’s more than enough at The Pad by Samyan to sate your Pad Thai cravings.

So check out the Pad Thai possibilities offered by The Pad by Samyan. Drop by its stalls in The Grid Food Market in The Powerplant Mall or at the Poison Karrivin Plaza along Chino Roces Avenue in Makati.

To order for pickup or delivery, visit its PickUp.ph store.

Disclosure: Product sample was provided to facilitate this feature.

Zomato Tagaytay Food Crawl Second Stop: Lime and Basil Thai Restaurant

The second stop of our Zomato Food Crawl was held at the Lime and Basil Thai Restaurant, tucked away along Sicat Road in a residential area off the Aguinaldo Highway on the way to Mountain Ridge.

Surprisingly, despite the location and the rainy weather, it was still filled with families who want to enjoy a more exotic cuisine for lunch.

Its grounds are surrounded with greenery and garden decor with an Asian, Zen-like feel. Sadly, due to the rains, we were not able to dine outside (but we did hold our flat-lays there, though). It would have been quite enjoyable to feast on the Thai dishes while enjoying the refreshing Tagaytay breeze.

The resto’s interiors also has a distinctive Asian decor, from the bric-a-bracs that line the walls, the proliferation of indoor greenery, and the colorful accessories that accent the place.

Some items in one of the inner rooms are also for sale. These include small mortar and pestle sets, decorative jars, local raw wild honey and more.

Thai cuisine is characterized by the intricate balance of five flavors: sour, sweet, salty, bitter and spicy. An emphasis is placed on the strong aromatic elements and a spicy edge. These flavors came into play with the dishes served to our group which included:

Fresh Spring Rolls (Php270). Rolled herbs, carrots, cabbage, tofu and noodles topped with a sweet chile relish. A hit for those who want to eat something light, fresh and healthy!

Tom Yum Goong (Php410). The dish’s name translates to “lemongrass shrimp soup.” It is a hot and sour soup with large shrimps. It is reminiscent of the Pinoy sinigang but with more complex flavors owing to the herbs and chilis mixed in.

Lime and Basil Salad (Php340). The resto’s namesake salad contains fried egg, basil, lettuce, peanuts and shallots lightly doused with a sour tamaring dressing. I find it a good palate cleanser after tasting the more flavorful dishes.

Stir-Fried Chicken with Cashews (Php380). Sauteed bits of chicken cooked with cashew nuts in a salty sweet sauce.

Kao Pad Saparod (Php360). Fried rice served in a bowl made of pineapple which adds some sweetness to the salty rice.

Pad Thai (Php350). A sweet-savory noodle dish, most commonly served as street food in Thailand.

Kaeng Deng Kha Moo (Php770). The Thai version of the Pinoy Crispy Pata with a red curry sauce. The crackling skin was very crispy while the meat was quite tender. It went well with the pineapple rice.

Kao Neiw Mamaung (Php220). A beautifully presented dish, it consists of glutinous rice, coconut milk and luscious slivers of ripe mango. It is doused with condensed milk for some added sweetness.

Thai Iced Team (Php110). What Thai meal is complete without its signature iced tea? This refreshing beverage is made from strongly-brewed tea with some additional spices and sweetened with sugar and condensed milk.

The dishes were tasty and well-presented, quite excellent representatives of Thai cuisine. These will help in broadening the horizons of the Filipino palate.

Lime and Basil Thai Restaurant is located at 9104 J. Rizal Street, Barangay Sicat, Tagaytay. It is open weekends from 11am to 9pm and weekends from 10am to 10pm. For reservations and inquiries, call +63 915 627 6393.

Disclosure: Together with other Zomato foodies, I was invited to attend a foodie meet-up held in this restaurant. All the food items mentioned here were served to allow us to sample the fare and were not paid for by the attendees, including myself.