RESTAURANTS : Thai Twist in Midst of Little Saigon Spices Up Neighborhood

“Whenever you’re stuck for a place to eat,” said Charles Perry, who previously wrote this column, “you can always take a drive down Bolsa Avenue in Westminster. You’re bound to make an interesting discovery.” Last week I decided to heed Charlie’s advice.

One long stretch of this glitzy boulevard is known as “Little Saigon” because hundreds of Vietnamese restaurants and other businesses stand within scant blocks of each other.

Of the restaurants, many of the smaller ones appear quite similar from the outside, and one marvels simply at how locals keep track. That made me doubly curious when I spotted Duang Dara, a Thai restaurant plunked down in the middle of the neighborhood. I wondered how a Thai restaurant could hope to flourish among such fierce competition. And just what was it doing here, anyway?

“I don’t eat too much Thai food myself,” confided owner Beau Dolan, who emigrated from Saigon in the ‘70s. “It’s too spicy. But most Vietnamese people love to go out for Thai food.” Dolan’s wife, Penkae, has a more personal interest in Thai food: it is her native cuisine.

The restaurant is small; just one long, rectangular dining room that is hard to distinguish from those found in most mini-malls. But the sleek, modern tables topped with flowers, black-and-white checkered floor and soft lighting give it a stylish air. There are even French Impressionist prints on the wall.

But the mood shifts when you take your first bite. The eyes pop and the tongue steams. “We don’t get many Western customers,” Dolan says. “Our food isn’t very Americanized.”

He means business. Beware of the little stars on the menu indicating that a dish is spicy; many of Duang Dara’s dishes are strictly authentic, and that means really hot.

Larb, the first thing I tried from a selection in the “spicy appetizers” category, nearly blew the top of my head off--and still brought a smile through the tears. Larb can be made with ground chicken, beef, or pork, which is in turn marinated in nampla (Thai fish sauce) and then seasoned with lime juice, chili and minced brown rice. I had it with chicken, but frankly, it is not going to matter which meat you choose. Just remember to get out the handkerchiefs.

Somp tum is not quite as volatile, and something you don’t see on many Thai menus. The dish is a wonderfully exotic blend of shredded, unripe papaya with tomato, and roughly the same marinade as above. Our waitress informed us that we could have it “Thai style,” with dried shrimp, or “Bangkok style,” with salted raw crab. We chose the latter and found it pungent, fiery, and exciting. Be forewarned: this is an acquired taste.

On the milder side there are the Thai comfort foods most of us come back to again and again. These include excellent sate (skewered beef and pork marinated in coconut milk), Thai spring rolls (similar to Vietnamese cha gio ) and angel’s wings. The latter are deep-fried, boned, chicken wings which have a stuffing similar to that found in the spring rolls--a mixture of ground pork, crab meat, jicama, carrot, bean-thread noodle and spices. They are typically sliced (like a French galantine ), and served with sweet-sour sauce. About the only unstarred appetizer that may be totally unfamiliar is the nuah dad deal , “like beef jerky,” our waitress said. I found them full of gristle and unappetizing.

After eating your way through the wonderful soups-- tom yum gung (an exotic, hot and sour mixture of shrimp, mushroom, lemon grass and lime leaf) and the even more addictive Ransit noodle soup (a traditional rice noodle soup from the city of Ransit with sliced beef, crunchy beef balls, and calf’s liver)--you face an array of main dishes so large it will have you, well, seeing stars.

You are bound to notice many of the Asian families hovering over a large dish with a foil canopy, cut open at the table to resemble a tiny boat. This is auo Thai , a seafood combination containing squid, shrimp, red snapper, bean thread, and cabbage. Why this dish is so popular is a mystery to me. Other seafoods, like delectable ki-mau shrimp, with spicy sauce and baby bamboo, or pla duke path peth (tender fileted catfish sauteed in coconut milk) make much better choices.

Thai curries are superb here: green (with green chili and coconut milk) or red (with a crimson colored-curry paste and lots of fresh lime). Choose between fish, chicken, beef, shrimp and pork. This time you can even taste the meats. Also worth trying is khai yad sai (a stuffed omelet with ground pork, onions, peas and carrots). It is one of the milder items on the menu, and it helps puts out the fire that some of the other dishes ignite.

Duang Dara makes its own ice cream. If you are not feeling very adventurous, try the rich, grainy coconut. But the restaurant’s No. 1 treat is Durian ice cream, made from the legendary tropical fruit with the stench of hell and the taste of heaven.

Duang Dara is inexpensive to moderate. Appetizers are $3.95 to $5.25. Spicy appetizers are $3.95 to $4.50. Soups are $3.95 to $8. The a la carte menu ranges from $3.95 to $10. Complete lunches are a real bargain at $3.75.

DUANG DARA

8924 Bolsa Ave., Westminster

(714) 891-8775

Open daily for lunch and dinner

American Express only