Dining Reviews	Lunch Counter	Restaurant Guide

E-mail story

comment

Printer-friendly version

Thai

Deidre Schipani

Grace Beahm
The Post and Courier

Basil.

The foods of Thailand are seductive. They begin the attraction by their visual appeal — they get you at the "look" — then they burst forth in your mouth, a melange of salty, sour, sweet and crunchy.

They combine peanuts and coconut, ground beef with mint, bright lemongrass with kaffir lime, tamarind for souring and more varieties of basil and mint than you can imagine.

As a people, they were cultural "borrowers" from the Malays, Chinese and Indians, which lent to their cuisine a remarkable variety of ingredients, techniques and combinations that make your mouth dance.

Basil

460 King St., downtown

724-3490

www.basilthairestaurant.com

$$

Owners and brothers, Chai and Henry Eang opened Basil nearly six years ago. The crowds still line up at the corner of King and Ann streets to wait for a table; the lines form for lunch and dinner in the off-season and the tourist season. They take no reservations but now an electronic paging system alerts you to your table's readiness. Soon they will have a second location in Mount Pleasant.

There is a freshness and aliveness to their food. None of the fluorescent and Formica experience of many other Asian restaurants, just a simple space with an open kitchen and limited bar area.

The food is irresistible. You "hear" the snap of the shrimp, you taste the sweetness of the fish, you feel the unctuous pleasure of the coconut milk in tom kha gai. Notes of cilantro, ginger (galangal) and lemongrass strike up a culinary chorus of refinement and refreshment.

The spring roll is "pretty in pink" with a line of basil snaking down the center of the chewy cellophane wrapper, enclosing the pale shrimp, mung beans and crisp lettuce shards. The peanut sauce is addictive and, like all the sauces, made in-house. The curries are not cloying; the Masaman is the one to try.

Basil is the kind of place you want to come to often, just come early to avoid the wait.