Thai Orchid

Last night, we had dinner with Miss food hunter's cousin and her friend who have flown from Sydney to Brisbane for the nationals synchronized swimming competition. The competition was held over the Easter weekend at the Sleeman Sports Complex and thus, their team resided at Chandler's. Due to the location, we thought we'd head out to Royal Thai at Springwood as we remembered the food to be pretty good...this was about 8 years ago! And so, armed with a bottle of Marlborough Sauv blanc we marched in ready for a feast for four!

Thai Aroy

Miss food hunter used to live around the corner from Thai Aroy and we visited once when they first opened doors several years ago. We remembered the dinner to be good. Since Thai was on the cards, we thought this may be a good opportumity to return for a sunday lunch with the family.

Chat Thai

Chat Thai is a new restaurant in sunnybank having only opened up in the last couple of months. As it was the first day of the lunar new year, Miss food hunter thought it would be good to order dishes with ingredients that symbolically carried good tidings for the new year (in italics).

For a list of symbolic foods look here http://www.nationsonline.org/oneworld/Chinese_Customs/food_symbolism.htm.

We ordered a Thai three coloured coconut drink with red beans and jellies as well as a herbal drink that contained dried longans, jujube, seaweed and lotus seeds.

As for our mains we ordered a Lard Na and a Boat noodle soup. Both were noodle = longevity dishes!

For those that don't know what Lard Na is, it is actually a chinese-thai style noodle dish which was created by chinese people living in Thailand.  Thick rice noodles are stir fried with beef and kailan (chinese vegetable) and then topped with a thick sweet soy gravy.  This version at  Chat Thai is a perfect recreation of those that I have had in Thailand before.

Miss food hunter was intrigued by the name of this noodle dish and thought to give it a go. It was described by the waiter as having fish balls and fish cakes, seafood (mussels and prawns) and chicken mince in a clear soup broth, not quite the beefy version that you see online. Thai soup bases are usually flavoursome on their own but this needed a little kick. It is a good thing that Thais love their table condiments of fish sauce, fresh chilli, chilli powder and sugar which you can easily add and adjust according to taste. This simple noodle dish was packed full of big, fresh ingredients. We think that there is the "Little Singapore" portion size going on here! For those who love spicy and punchy soups, opt for the Tomyam or Laksas.

When we do hanker for Thai food again, we will head back here for their grilled meats and salads prepared right in their open kitchen!

Chat Thai
Shop 8 Market Square
Corner of Mains road and McCullough street
Sunnybank