[Ed: This is our newest culture column, devoted to that divine crossroads between art and science: food. Moderated by Katie Mannino. Today, you will find her first two reviews, and the first starts below. Enjoy! or, Bon Appetit!]
Review for the newest local restaurant, Centara Thai Cuisine
“I’m having a bad day—only a lunch break can make it better,” I said, morosely, to Daryl. Daryl is never one to turn down good food, which is why we’re such a good pair.
“I’ve only got about an hour before I have to go back to the lab,” he crackled through the phone. He was likely in his 12th floor office at the hospital, and I was calculating exactly how long it would take to pick him up, navigate through the parking garage and get something delicious to soothe my crankiness.
I don’t like to rush my dining experiences, but knew Daryl was always more flexible when food was involved—He’d sit an extra few minutes.
I had been meaning to try Centara, the Thai restaurant near the Stony Brook train station that replaced Cosmo’s, a pizza and gyro place. I never visited Cosmo’s since I’m too elitist with my pizza, and due to its closing I suspect it was just one of the many mediocre pizza suppliers that pepper Long Island.
As we walk through the glass door with a taped sign reading “Cash Only J,” the breeze behind us seems to follow and transform into a bright, simple décor. I love the light green color of the walls, and the big windows surrounding the dining room allow diners to bask in the sunlight.
I’ve found that a Thai restaurant’s idea of a Thai iced tea is a good indicator of how the rest of the meal will follow. Daryl and I each order one, and it’s decent. Thai iced teas are similar to chai tea in flavor because they both usually feature anise, cinnamon and cardamom—there’s no hard and fast way to make either. I prefer a good Thai iced tea to a chai because of the added sugar and the floating layer of condensed milk on top. Don’t let the “condensed” part get you—it’s wonderful when it mixes with the spiced black tea underneath and turns the whole drink to a bright orange color. I’ve seen variations of the drink that have half and half or coconut milk on top instead, and I’ve always enjoyed the condensed milk best because it gives the best creamy flavor.
Centara’s Thai iced tea has a good level of sugar that won’t hurt your teeth like commercially brewed and sweetened iced teas can, and I believe theirs has half and half as the dairy layer.
The appetizers are only a few dollars each, so we order both the fried spring rolls with chicken and chicken satay. The spring rolls are very pleasantly crispy and not overly oily, and they pair well with the chili sauce accompaniment. However, the little morsels of chicken are few and far between.
“You ever notice how a lot of appetizers come in odd numbers?” I ask Daryl, cutting the fifth in half. It’s always an issue for me, as I prefer my lunch and dinner dates with only one other person.
Fortunately, there are four skewers of chicken satay, seasoned yellow with turmeric and paired with a peanut dipping sauce. The chicken is nicely seasoned, but the peanut sauce is mediocre and tastes too jarred for my liking.
The satay is served with a tiny bowl of equally mediocre cucumber salad. It is far too watered down to taste the vinegary and sweet notes of the dressing over cucumbers, carrots and onions. Luckily, there are only about two big spoonfuls in the bowl.
The “Dancing Squid” entrée I ordered is more of a slow shuffle—the awkward dance at Prom you just wish would end. The dish of squid, vegetables and noodles is saturated with a sauce that is salty and a tad fishy. The fishiness isn’t necessarily a detriment, but the salt accentuates it to a point where no other flavors are noticeable. The small, curling pieces of plump squid aren’t particularly flavorful and the delicate vegetable flavors are muted by the salty, fishy sauce.
Finally, the squid’s dance is over, and I jealously eye Daryl’s lunch. He lets me steal a couple spoonfuls of peanut curry, a nutty and spicy mixture of the spice, creamy coconut milk and peanuts. It is served with rice along with zucchini, carrots and red pepper, and is just spicy enough to merit itself as a curry.
Daryl would later say that it tasted like spicy Jiffy, but I don’t think it was quite thick enough. I learned my lesson, though—stick to what you know at Centara.
