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| curry puffs! |
We visited Green Basil on a warm spring Saturday evening. Sandya checked ahead of time to see if it is BYOB (it is), so we picked up lots of beer and headed over with our respective SOs in tow. Ari and I arrived first, and were able to get a table for 4, even though the restaurant is on the smaller side. Our waitress was very friendly, and as it turns out, may be stalking Sandya and Steph (but just so she can hang out with their dog Pavlov). In any case, they soon arrived and we spent a good deal of time chatting and catching up, but finally decided it was time to order food. We were all pretty hungry so we ordered a couple of appetizers in addition to our main dishes. I wanted to order a Thai iced tea, but because we were getting ice cream later and already had beer, I decided against it. But I kind of wish I had gotten it, because I do love Thai iced tea...
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| this is "thai sausage" |
For appetizers, we ordered the papaya salad, curry puffs, and thai sausage. What is thai sausage you ask? An excellent question. It is basically pork sausage with thai seasonings - lemongrass, lime, soy sauce, etc. It was pretty crispy on the outside and chewy on the inside, but almost a little too salty. Which was fine with me, but I don't think the rest of the table enjoyed it as much. I thought the papaya salad was refreshing, but it felt like it was missing something. It also had little mini dried shrimps in it, which is probably a normal way to prepare this dish, but not something I'm a fan of (because yeah, seafood is not really my bag, as I think we've all established at this point). I really liked the curry puffs, I thought the filling of chicken, potato and curry was delicious and flavorful, and the puff was fried and crispy. Spoiler alert: I thought the appetizers were the best part of the meal. But more on that later...
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| pad thai. a nice presentation at least. |
..Or now, because I'm onto the next paragraph. So, I had wanted to order the green curry friend rice with chicken, but when I asked the waitress, she said it was super spicy. After trying some of the spicier dishes that were ordered by others at the table, I think I probably could have handled it. But alas, my spice intolerance got the best of me, so I went for the pad thai instead. Someone had to order it, right? When I first tasted it, I found the sauce a little off-putting, but over time it grew on me. It was a little too sweet and did not have enough spice (of the flavor variety, not the heat variety). But, I was hungry, and it wasn't terrible or anything, so I ate most of it. I know that Ari and Sandya also weren't super impressed with their meals - they were decent, but not outstanding. Steph really enjoyed her massaman curry and I totally agreed on that front - it was rich and creamy and I liked it over my pad thai. If I remember correctly, this is a newer restaurant, so I think they have some room to try out and improve their recipes. The service was great, but I think there are better thai options in the near vicinity (like Circles, even if it's on the pricier side).
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| ICE CREAM AND CATS. THE BEST. |
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| Sorry Sandya. It's too good not to post. Plus we are honoring the memory of Tangier <3 |
Ari departed, and we took a break to prepare our amazing wedding gift for Lee (of Tangier fame). After a few beers, our amazing art skillz came through and we had drawn what can only be described as a headless camel with a very buff rear leg. We decided it was time to reward our hard labor with some ice cream (and it was time for Pavlov to go for his nightly bathroom stroll). While Sandya went in and ordered, I kept watch of Pavlov while the drunken masses oohed and awwed at how adorable he is with his cute fluffy face and 3 legs (they're not wrong). I was still rather full from dinner, so I got a single scoop of caramel cone ice cream in a cone. It was good ice cream, a nice balance of pieces of cone and chocolate mixed in with vanilla ice cream and caramel swirls. Häagen-Dazs is one of the better "chain" places around, but nothing that blew me out of the water. What can I say? Even though I dislike seafood, I love the never ending supply of homemade ice cream on Cape Cod. It's hard to compete with that.
Green Basil
240 South Street
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 644-8180
Häagen-Dazs
242 South Street
Philadelphia, PA
(215) 925-3373
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