Orchids, for starters.

Thai Thai
110 Old Street,
London, EC1V 9BD

Thai Thai has always been one of those places you walk past every other day but never really acknowledge - the kind of place you just subconsciously know is there but can't really pinpoint exactly where. Well, last week, two weeks before we leave for home, we finally gave it some attention and were pleasantly surprised by its pretty interior and Thai atmosphere. It was another birthday celebration and we were pretty glad that the birthday girl chose to go with something Asian, a nice change from all the stuff we'd had all through the month. Of course, we were even happier when we heard that there was going to be 50% off the total bill.

To kick things off - prawn spring rolls, mussels, tempura prawns, duck spring rolls and crab cakes. The mussels came with some sort of spicy-sour sauce that we absolutely loved. Long after the mussels were gone, we were still having spoonfuls of the sauce all on its own. I really liked the spring rolls, especially the ones with duck in them. I don't remember ever having spring rolls with duck before and I have to say, the duck makes them more interesting probably because it has a stronger, more distinct flavour than the usual chicken or pork.

We truly embraced our Asian roots when it came to the main courses with all our main courses spread out in front of us to share. Pictured here, the green curry (what's a Thai meal without green curry?) and stir-fried seafood. The curry was as expected, very mild but pretty authentic-tasting. What I didn't quite like about it was that the bamboo shoot slices had too strong a flavour than I would have liked.

Creamy, with a nice blend of spices and quite a generous amount of duck, what I thought was the best dish of the evening - duck curry (again, the duck). I think it's a very Malaysian thing to want to have our rice in a mix of different types of gravies, curry or otherwise. I know I've always liked things that way - the diverse flavours fusing to make everything more interesting. Along with our curries, we had steamed fish, stir fried vegetables and tofu. One would notice that we stayed away from tom yam - simply because tom yam has to have a certain kick to it and we were pretty sure that it would be missing from the tom yam that they would serve at the restaurant.

"This is really good! Can you really just buy this?"
-James and his favourite part of the meal - the orchid that garnished his starter-
He promised to report on the status of his stomach the next day.

The food was like a little prelude, a preview even, of what's instore for us when we get home. Now, I'm really looking forward to some sweat-inducing tom yam!