Red, yellow, green, massaman, panang. Any habitual consumer of Thai food knows these to be the types of curries you’ll find on offer in nearly all Thai restaurants in America.
I can’t do all five this week so let’s go with panang, the curry that’s most often top-of-menu.
Panang, which has about a half-dozen different spellings, is named after Penang, a small island off the coast of Malaysia, which borders Thailand to the south. According to Food & Wine, panang is a variant of red curry, but it is richer and sweeter and therefore considered its own type. The primary ingredient is coconut milk. Makrut lime, indigenous to tropical Southeast Asia, is another, plus lots more that I won’t list here.
As contestants, I chose two basic Thai restaurants in St. Pete that have been around a long time: Thai Am Restaurant and Siam Garden Thai. I picked chicken as my protein. As far as spicy heat, I usually go with just a hint, but this time I elected to live dangerously and ordered straight-up “medium.”
I hadn’t used the FFF Lab + Photo Studio™ in a while, so got the Thai curries to go. I added fried spring rolls to my orders.
SIAM GARDEN THAI
The restaurant’s main sign got blown away during the hurricanes. Only “Bring Your Catch. We Will Cook It!” remained, making the place look like a seafood shack.
I hadn’t picked up food at Siam Garden in decades, so — due to the lack of signage, and just to make sure — I asked some people in the parking lot who confirmed that this was the place. The storms had also done a number on the patio’s canvas covering, making it droop sadly on the ground.
Appearance
What can you say about the appearance of Thai curry other than, once you choose your flavor/color, they essentially all look the same?
Texture and Taste
The burning question was: How would I like my panang curry medium hot? Had I have lived too dangerously? As it turned out, no, although it took some getting use to. This wasn’t the type of spicy heat that creeps up on you. Rather, it hit right away, and then kind of mellowed. Or maybe I just got used to it.
I appreciated that the chicken breast was sliced thinly, and in small pieces. The fowl integrated well with the vegetables (mostly onion) and the lush sauce, flecked with red pepper flakes. All told, it was a sweet heat that delivered on the promise of Thai takeout.
THAI AM RESTAURANT
Although I’m not a regular consumer of Thai takeout, this is my go-to place, essentially for two reasons: proximity (4th Street in St. Pete) and consistency. I walked in the door last Friday at 1:30. My order was ready, the woman at the counter was pleasant, I paid and left. To the best of my memory, Thai Am has never messed up one of my takeout orders. They didn’t this time either.
Appearance
This version of panang curry looked much the same as Siam Garden’s. No surprise there. The pieces of chicken were larger, as were the vegetables.
It was remarkable how similar these restaurants’ versions of medium-spicy were. Is there some sort of finely calibrated heat meter in their kitchens?
Thai Am’s bigger and thicker pieces of chicken breast required some more vigorous jaw work, and some fork-cutting. The vegetables retained a lively crunch. In all, a substantial, reliable, meal. Just what I’d come to expect.
And the Winner of the Thai Curry Clash (Panang Edition) Is …
Siam Garden.
A razor thin margin, mosty because Siam Garden’s chicken was cut more thinly, rendering it more tender. Also, Siam Garden’s spring rolls were less chewy, and had a more defined flavor.
Overall, though, the meals were strikingly similar. I originally ate them four days apart, which was not ideal in this case. So being a conscientious Food Fight arbiter — and out of medium curiosity — I warmed up small portions of leftovers on Thursday and ate the curries side by side to see if I could better detect a difference.
Not much. Any contrast in the spice-heat was undetectable. Siam Garden’s sauce was a shade thicker and sweeter.
Bottom line: These curries made for one good lunch, one good dinner, and one good leftover snack.
