Changes coming to popular Thai restaurant in Kits
Credit to Author: Mia Stainsby| Date: Wed, 19 Feb 2020 19:13:03 +0000
Unchai
Where: 2351 Burrard Street, Vancouver
When: Open for lunch and dinner, Tuesday to Saturday
More info: Instagram: @unchairestaurant, 604-559-6484
When I first visited Unchai for lunch last September, I got a table as a walk-in. But more recently, I noticed a wait list sign-up sheet at the door. It points to a couple of things. They do damn good Thai food worth a patient wait but also, Unchai is a modest 16-seater that quickly fills up.
However, the couple behind it are set to make changes — Narong Yumonkol and wife Warisara Unchai are searching for a larger space in Kitsilano but the much bigger change?
“I’m five months pregnant,” Unchai said. “That’s why we’re hiring new staff.”
Right now, it’s the two of them in the small galley kitchen which shrinks as she enlarges. When chilies hit the wok, the air in the dining area becomes pungent and testy.
Yumonkol started cooking at 12 to help out his family and eventually went on to cook at the luxury Sukhothai Bangkok Hotel and Le Meridien Dubai. The couple worked at Maenam — he in the kitchen and she in the front of house — and had earlier met at Salathai. As testament to how hard Yumonkol has worked those woks over three decades, he has neck and shoulder problems and his doctor ordered a week off cooking last summer at a very busy time.
Boat noodle soup at Unchai,.
The dishes are from throughout Thailand and Yumonkol offers dishes you won’t find in most Thai restaurants in Vancouver, attracting a lot of the local Thai community.
“He wants Vancouver to try new things,” says Unchai. “He creates new dishes and makes changes to the menu. Sometimes, all the guests are Thai.”
For instance, you’re not likely to see Boat Noodle Soup ($14.99) in many Thai restaurants. It has pork meat, pork balls, and pork blood — a couple of spoonfuls in each serving to thicken and sweeten the broth — green onion, bean sprouts, Asian celery and after Thai customers requested it, fried pork rind. The broth, a symphony of flavour with pork bones, a whole peeled pineapple, ginger, galangal, pandan leaf, palm sugar, oyster sauce, soy sauce, fish sauce, fried garlic, fried shallots and herbs takes seven hours to prepare. With the noodle soups, guests choose from won ton, rice sheet, thin rice or vermicelli ‘glass’ noodles.
Pla goong at Unchai.
I’d suggest starting with Plaa Goong ($13.99) a spicy shrimp salad, a very lively dish with prawns, mint, coriander, green onion, shallots, fried shallots unified by chili jam (mango, lemon grass, herbs, ginger, garlic, Thai herbs, chili, palm sugar).
Roti, which comes with a curry sauce dip ($5.99) has a crunchy exterior and a bit of a chew as you bite in. A slower, longer time in the pan nails this texture.
The curries (gang kua) have the same sauce given the kitchen space but ooh la la, what flavour. It’s mellow compared to the shriekingly hot chili levels one can encounter in Thailand. You’re asked what level of heat and it’s easy enough to turn it up to a shriek or scream. His paste involves garlic, galangal, turmeric, coriander roots, ginger, makrut lime, fish sauce, chili, shallots — he balances it beautifully and makes it intoxicating. Coconut milk soothes.
But the curry noodle soup with a free-range chicken leg has a somewhat different composition. The khao soi sauce from Chiang Mai is more strongly flavoured even without the galangal and makrut lime. Thai omelette with crab ($14.99) drapes over a hillock of rice. It could be bland were it not for a sauce with bite a sweet, sour, spicy, acidy, herby sauce.
“In Thailand the omelette is often eaten with ketchup,” Unchai says.
Pad ki mao at Unchai.
Pad ki mao (drunken noodles) can be ordered with crab, chicken or vegetables and a choice of noodles. It’s soy sauce forward but the sharpness is blunted by oyster sauce, chili and aromatics but no alcohol is added.
Unchai says Beef Cook Foon ($12.99) isn’t a dish you’ll see in most local Thai restaurants. “It’s a little more special and you don’t often see it in Thailand anymore.” It’s a dish of grilled beef mixed with rice powder, dressing and herbs.
Once in a larger space, they’ll offer beer and perhaps wine. For now, they need to turn tables quickly. With alcohol, people tend to settle in. And there will be desserts and not the usual lineup of mango sticky rice, deep-fried bananas or ice cream.