I’ll admit that I’ve never been the biggest fan of fish in general. Growing up, when we ate out my mother often wanted to go to Catfish Cabin, and I’d recommend “anywhere else” as an alternate suggestion. So when Thai Bistro opened Downtown and I checked out its menu, catfish dishes were not at the top of my list to try.
A recent blog post by Kerry changed my opinion. She and a friend went to Thai Bistro last week. The friend raved about the Pla-Dook, a dish of deep-fried catfish and mixed vegetables topped in chili sauce. It seemed to me that a nice, spicy sauce would accentuate the taste of the fish, so this afternoon I gave it a try. As with most of their dishes, you can order it mild, medium, spicy or fire. I was very tempted to go with “fire” but held back because it was a Saturday. With a long night ahead, I didn’t need an upset stomach if the fire sauce turned out to be too hot to handle. I went with my default setting of spicy.
I’ll say the same thing I said about the Seafood Pik Pow earlier this week: Darn near perfect. The catfish came with carrots cut in the shape of flowers, green and red peppers, broccoli, onions, squash and zucchini, as well as a bowl of rice which I used to soak up the sauce. The fish was absolutely delicious and the sauce had exactly the right amount of spice: Enough to make my nose run a little, but not enough to make me breathe fire like a dragon. Service was excellent as usual, with my server bringing my a new Coke halfway through my meal because he thought the old one might be getting warm.
I would absolutely get this again. If, like me, you’ve gone through life with a prejudice against fish, put it aside when you visit Thai Bistro. You will be rewarded, trust me. Their other spicy fish dish, Fish Supreme made with tilapia, is now on my list of things to try next.
By the way: They don’t have their liquor license yet, so no dollar mimosas tomorrow. If all goes well, they will have it Thursday, so Sunday a week from now will be a Fun Day indeed.
