43Mengrai Gourmet Thai

Sasi Meechai-Lim, chef / owner of Mengrai Thai, gives us the food of her home in northern Thailand. She deep-fries morning glory in tempura batter with rich-tasting pumpkin soup and sweet/hot chili sauce. Her tender lamb curry is sweetened with whatever local fruit is in season. Sasi's also adds al dente local veg to her curries, which tend to be fragrant with coconut and sweet/sour with tamarind. Thai cooking in Toronto tends to the heavy, often rendered boring and too fat thanks to excesses of coconut cream; not chef Sasi, who has a light hand and a great sense of how to use local ingredients to make her Thai point. This is the best Thai cooking in town.