www.iFoodTrip.com: Chariya's Thai Kitchen

People's Palace in Greenbelt is easily one of the best restaurants in the country. Its fine way of cooking with the freshest and imported ingredients is very evident in the fine taste of their food. The fresh green peppercorns on the green curry is magical. It is a bit pricey too compared to other Thai restaurants but the difference is in the taste and you get what you pay for. In past years, we had flavors and spices and sukothai, two wonderful Thai restaurants that are gone.

In recent years, many people are raving about a small little thai noodle house near Rockwell, non-airconditioned and cheap. Honestly I disagree with most people's take on the noodle house (and how it made it to this year's Miele Guide I don't know). The food is cheap and it tastes cheap. The food lacks taste. I once ordered a noodle soup dish with pork for take out, when i got home which is around 200 meters away, the soup turned red. How does a soup turn red? When the supposedly cured pork was colored with red food coloring! Sometimes we get fooled with the novelty of the restuarant and we want to think it tastes good when it reality, it does not.

Next time you make a trip to this small noodle house, you may want to drive (or walk) a little bit further to N.Garcia street (formerly Reposo street) and try another Thai place that is similar but is much more authentic and tastes much better.

I first heard about Chariya's Thai Kitchen reading Reggie Aspiras column in PDI. Chariya Thaikupt is a Thai cook who apparently used to cater and give cooking lessons and now has her own restaurant. Chariya's is an open air restaurant but very clean. One wall shows pictures of the King of Thailand showing some real authenticity. The menu is small and very simple and I've gone through most of the items already.

The Tom Yung is of good quality. You could taste the flavors of lemongrass and galangal, not too spicy and very savory. Far from what you would get at People's Palace or Thai at Silk in Serendra but still better than what you would get at that overrated place near rockwell. A few cilantro leaves would have made this dish much better.

The red curry is not too heavy and is a bit on the sweet side. I had to add some thai patis to balance out the sweetness since thai (and asian) food is all about balancing our basic flavor senses (sweet, sour, salty). Just a few drops of the patis, the dish became perfect.

The chicken/seafood in thai hot basil is excellent. It was very savory and bursting with flavors from the lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, shrimp paste and basil. This item reminded me of Sukhothai's and this dish is just a notch below People's Palace's and even better than Bengarong's in Dusit Manila. Funny thing was that it tasted better the last time i ate it compared to the first time. This is also the case with the Pad Thai. The first time I had it, it was devoid of much flavor and very dry, the last time, the Pad Thai tasted better.

My first bite of the pork salad, I thought it wasn't good. The pork lacked tenderness and there was something off about the mix of flavors, but then I found myself devouring the whole salad. What was a bad mix in the beginning grew on my taste buds and it a nice balance of sourness, saltiness and a bit of sweetness with the bite of the raw red onions was a great medley of flavors that is addicting.

The saté at Chariya's had huge pieces of chicken. This was far from the best sate i've had. I thought it was a bit dry and the sauce could use some more peanuts but again, I found myself finishing the ten sticks all by myself. I'm beginning to think that Chariya adds a secret ingredient that makes her food addicting.