RESTAURANT REVIEW : A Fair-Priced Thai Place With Fiery Fare and Chinese Touches

The Chinese have made their mark on the cuisine of practically every country in Asia. Even Thailand.

Thailand is about the only Asian country never officially conquered by anybody (although the Burmese practically burned the place to the ground in the 17th Century). But it seems that the Chinese conquer from within, at least when it comes to cuisine.

So don’t be surprised if the exotic allure of Fair Price, a neighborhood restaurant in Northridge, seems a little compromised. It’s really a Thai-Chinese restaurant, where you can get Chinese dishes such as cashew nut chicken and shrimp with oyster sauce to go with the more fiery, aromatic food we associate with Thai cooking.

The restaurant is not what you would call appearance-conscious. It’s dark and rather informal, with several long tables ideal for large families. The table tops are glass, with green tablecloths--for the holiday season--beneath them. All well and good.

But someone has had the odd idea of decorating the tablecloths with coins, perhaps to bring luck. I actually saw someone slide a few coins out from under the glass and pocket them. Fair Price is one thing, but that is ridiculous.

Personally, I prefer Thai dishes when I go to a Thai restaurant. At Fair Price, that pretty much eliminates most of the sautes, all soups that don’t start with the Thai word thom and any of the “combination house specials,” which have suspiciously familiar names such as bell pepper steak, fried won ton, and sweet and sour pork.

Appetizers and salads are solidly in the Thai corner here. Don’t miss tod mun , a Thai fish cake you can get on any street corner in Bangkok. At Fair Price, you get five to an order, and they are as light as a feather, moist and complex with cilantro, mint and minced green bean. It may be the best dish the restaurant serves.

Then consider the dish the menu calls “crispy golden cup” (the Thai name is kra thong tong ). These are tiny pastry shells that you fill with a mixture of minced shrimp, chicken and corn. It isn’t a lot of food, but it really lives up to its appetizer billing. After popping one of these thumbnail-sized treats into your mouth, you are going to get really hungry.

But not all appetizers here are so ephemeral. “Chicken wings of angel” is like a fine galantine of pork stuffed into a deep-fried chicken wing. You eat it in thick slices with a sweet chile sauce. The mee krob is a great filler for kids. Just see that they don’t get any of the sweet crispy noodles with pork and egg on their clothes (they stick together like cotton candy).

The Thai element in the kitchen really stands up when you get to the salad section. Almost every dish in this section is starred in red for hot and spicy. They don’t pull any punches either.

Larb is the acid test. It’s a dish from the northeast of Thailand consisting of ground meat (beef, chicken or pork) in a chile, mint, onion and lime sauce. If you can stand this one, you don’t have to worry about anything else on the menu.

Yum neua provides another firestorm. It’s the classic Thai grilled beef salad in a spicy lime dressing.

The walls are plastered with specials, mostly printed on white paper. These are primarily seafoods such as a whole pompano, batter-fried shrimp or a dish called mussels Yves (named after a regular customer who was eating them one of the nights I visited). I didn’t find any of them too compelling. Most of them show a strong Chinese influence and tend toward blandness.

Better is pra merk goong paht prik , a Thai mouthful consisting of shrimp, squid, a flurry of mint and a small hill of hot pepper. It’s one of the few dishes that burns and soothes the mouth at the same time, and the squid is especially tender.

You might also try one of the Thai curries. Panang is a rich one made with coconut milk, but there are also kaew wan (green curry), kang kua (mild curry, with some awful canned pineapple) or my favorite, country style--that thick red paste that stays with you long after you have headed for home. As ever, these dishes are available with beef, pork, chicken or, for a slightly higher price, shrimp.

But not much higher a price, since in that respect the restaurant truly lives up to its name.

There are those who might attribute the low prices here to Chinese influence as well, but don’t include me. Put that one down to good old American horse sense.

Recommended dishes: tod mun, $4.75; crispy golden cup, $3.95; larb, $4.75; pra merk goong paht prik , $6.25; country-style curry, $4.50.

Fair Price Restaurant, 8341 Tampa Ave., Northridge, (818) 993-3307. Lunch and dinner 11 a.m. to 9:30 p.m. Tuesdays through Thursdays, 11 a.m. to 10 p.m. Fridays and Saturdays, noon to 9:30 p.m. Sundays. Beer and wine only. Parking in lot. Dinner for two, food only, $18 to $30.