Delicious Food for Dinner At Home

We recently enjoyed a wonderful dinner at People’s Palace, our favorite thai restaurant in Makati, but came away slightly hungry. The food at People’s Palace is very good, but a bit pricey, and portions are a little modest in size… but I suppose that’s how they are going to turn a profit. :) There was one thing about the dinner on a busy Saturday night that did perturb me more than a bit. Less than two minutes (literally) after ordering our meal, the first three dishes appeared before our eyes.

 I understand it is in their interest to get clients out as quickly as possible to put more diners into the seats, but for the prices they charge, shouldn’t they try to have a semblance of preparing each dish carefully, say allowing a decent interval of 5-10 minutes before they are rushed to the table so that customers have time to savor a drink and think the chefs are slaving away? Rather than give the impression that the Top 10 dishes are pre-made and waiting around a kitchen counter for the final dressing before being whisked to the table? It’s a quibble, but just as food taking too long is irritating, food coming too fast is likewise food for thought.




With the Thai taste buds on full gear, and makrut limes in the yard, all it took to trigger some thai food fever at home was a visit to the weekend markets that yielded lots of dayap, cilantro, pomelos and chilies and had us inviting friends over for dinner on the spur of the moment.

I will say that People’s Palace had a better handle on the spices and the balance of flavors, they are still our favorite, but this home-cooked meal satisfied on several other levels.
Up top, a grilled beef salad made with rare flank steak, sliced on the bias and served over greens together with some sliced red grapes for sweetness (something I tasted at the dockside restaurant of the Oriental Hotel in Bangkok years back) and a spicy dressing of lime juice and fish sauce with chilies. The second photo, a humongous pomelo salad with shredded chicken, brined and poached shrimp, homemade toasted coconut, fried shallots, peanuts, and a dressing of lime, palm sugar and patis.A rather pallid-looking but incendiary green papaya salad that had been dressed and marinated for an hour in the fridge. Authentically bruised papaya, long beans (sitaw) and tomatoes and a bit of cilantro absorbed the flavors of pungent dried shrimp, chilies and fish sauce.