This just in—again, Reader, don’t take that too literally; we took this photo a good two weeks ago, but you know, blogs. Anyway, this “just in”, Pok Pok NY—the new(ish) Thai street food eatery that now graces the Columbia waterfront and that we wrote up just last month—has recently added a new dish to their menu that can be done vegan.
Phak Buung Fai Daeng—AKA, Red Fire Water Spinach—(pictured above, back) is on choy, stir fried with garlic + Thai chilies and tossed with preserved yellow beans. And it’s awesome. It seems to have replaced the superb Brussels sprouts we mentioned last time, but we gotta keep it fresh, right?
Also, we just got a chance…again, like two weeks ago…to try our last vegan-ize-able Pok Pok hold-out dish, the Yam Sumun Phrai (above, front), and it’s totally our favorite. A “Northern Thai herbal salad” consisting of carrot, parsnip, white turmeric, betel leaf, basil, lime leaf, lemongrass, sawtooth, fried shallots, cashews, peanuts, sesame seeds, and probably some pixie dust for good measure and then tossed with Thai chilies and a mild coconut milk dressing; crisp, fresh, and an amazing combination of flavors. It 100% raises the roof, knocks our socks off, makes our eyes do that cartoon ‘I am shocked and/or sexually titilated’ thing where they bug out like crazy and then go back…or whatever the kids are saying these days to convey awesomeness. We’re pretty sure it’s that last thing.
So get thee to Pok Pok, vegans. The wait’s totally not as bad as they say. And, even it is, remember the kaffir leaf gin + tonic. Remember.
Below, Pok Pok’s alley and the Columbia waterfront at sunset. Le sigh.
