For some reason I was under the impression Pok Pok and its baby sister Whiskey Soda Lounge would never touch the ubiquitous Pad Thai. Then, the other night, I was at the Whiskey Soda Lounge around 12:30am and was handed a late night menu:
- A Late Night Selection of Yum
The alternate spelling fooled me, and I was a bit too drunk and distracted by friends to connect the dots, but when I dug in to the plate of fish sauce drenched rice noodles—with the peanuts and tofu and whatnot—I understood I was experiencing one of the best Pad Thai dishes I’d ever had in Portland. Oh, joy!
Yes, I was intoxicated (so take this with whatever amount of salt you will), but this was a rocking plate of noodles, and just spicy enough. But also, it arrives at the table with a condiment caddy of assorted chilies, more fish sauce, and jalapenos if you want to add more heat.
And please notice the additional trend-bucking varieties.
It’s available from 10pm-1am, along with oddities like an offal stew and standard Pok Pok amazements like those killer Ike’s wings. Go to there. Eat of it.
For more Pad Thai madness check out what the opinionated food nerds at Portlandfood.org are saying on the subject. Tell ‘em PAC sent ‘ya. They hate that.
When I’m drunk, Taco Bell tastes amazing, so…
The original Whiskey Soda Lounge had pad thai as a latenight dish when they were still open latenight. So really this is just a return to what they originally did.
Nothing wrong with pad thai at all. I’ve gotten it on the streets of Bangkok and it was often fantastic, just much more varied than what we get here, and for some reason they don’t use ketchup, like many of the Thai restaurants in the United States. 😉
Thanks for the link.