Maenam ~ Thai fine dining
priss | June 15, 2010Being a foodie, the best thing that can happen to you is to be surrounded by foodies – people that truly appreciate food, people that are willing to travel far and be adventurous for new cuisines and restaurants, & people that you enjoy being with. =)
Thank god beau is as a big foodie as moi!!! @( ‘ o ‘ )@ <– koala~
A friend of mine suggested a night out @ her new discovery in town – Maenam, located where Gastropod used to be on West 4th. Interesting enough, I’ve never tried Thai in a fine dining setting. Plus it’s BC’s spot prawn season, and they have a spot prawn menu @ $65 per person featuring 8 dishes served in 3 courses family style, AND AND AND I’m a CRAZY spot prawn lover!!!! Sounds delicious! So why not!
Tip on keeping your live spot prawns fresh on your way back home from the market:
- Ask for a bag of ice and put them underneath/beside the bag of the prawns so they can be iced
- Then examine if there are any dead ones. If so, REMOVE THE HEAD immediately! Or else it will spoil the tail meat and ruin your beautiful prawns! They’ll become mushy. I learned that BC prawns are trapped in deep water, and when they were brought to the surface, their livers burst. So that’s why the prawns’ heads will turn black within 48 hours.
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Dish #1 ~ goong chae nahm pla - ceviche with fresh coriander, mint, nahm jim sauce
Wow… it was probably the best ceviche I’ve ever had! All 5 of us seriously wanted a couple of rounds on this dish!
Dish #2 ~ satah goong - spot prawn satay with turmeric, coconut cream, cucumber relish, peanut sauce
Mouth watering gigantic spot prawns!!!!!!! I was in heaven!!!!!
Dish #3 ~ tom yum goong- hot & sour soup with lemongrass, galangal, chili jam, lime juice
Very well done. You know it’s good Thai when they can make delicious tom yum goong.
Dish #4 ~ lon naam- coconut cream relish with prawn tomalley, fermented pork, kaffir lime, long leaf coriander
This one was all right, but it did refresh our palates among the spicy dishes.
Dish #5 ~ geng mussaman goong - mussaman curry with halfed prawns, roasted onions, toasted peanuts
A good mixture of flavor, but the prawns tasted kinda mushy… as mentioned before, the fresh prawn meat probably got infected by the heads!
Dish #6 ~ goong pad prik thai dam - stir fry battered prawns with sea salt, black pepper
At this point we were simply enjoying being served with loads of prawns over and over and over again… =D
Dish #7 ~ yam tawai - salad with blanched prawns, fried shallots, fried chiles, toasted chile dressing
Again, the meat was kinda mushy… but the dish was still delicious!
Dish #8 ~ kanom gluay pao - dessert! Char-grilled baby banana, toasted shredded coconut, chocolate panna cotta
uhmm…. Banana is the only fruit that I’m not a fan of, so I wish I could more prawns! hahah!!
Maenam
(604) 730-5579
Kitsilano
1938 W 4th Ave
Vancouver, BC V6J
