First Thai

i first read about this place from camemberu's and being a fan of thai food (brings back good memories of bangkok, short and dom!) i had to go and try for myself how authentic the food here can be. i realise that Purvis street is another treasure cove of eats! from the more economical Hock Lam beef noodles and Miss Clarity cafe (ooh, the twin devine chocolate cheesecake there is awesome!!) to the more atas Gunthers and Ying Thai.. if only parking wasnt such a b**** i'd definitely explore this area more. when i excitedly suggested this place to foodclub, i realise i was the slow one cos they already know about this gem!

it was a weekend night and when foodclub arrived the place was packed to the brim. there was no formal queue and people were just standing around outside and i really had to make my presence known to the waitress who was busy and obviously not paying much attention to me BUT when i tried to scout my own seats inside she promptly sent me to the outside saying there are people ahead of me! hrmmmms...

the place has no air con and you'd def smell of food if u do sit inside..and if u do sit along the corridor outside (there are about 2 tables of 4 people each) the hungry waiting masses would definitely hover over your table..pressure pressure! but we managed to get ourselves a table inside...3 of us had to share with another family of 3 so you can imagine how tight the sitting must be

we were given a chit to write our orders down, and we realise upon looking around...there were magazines underneath the table! and so were the utensils, placed in the glass drawer. tissues were plentiful, which we were grateful for because it was really sweltering and our impending spicy feast won't help either..and i think its a good idea to go earlier (we reached around 8 plus but by the time we queued it was close to 9pm) cos the more popular dishes run out (GREEN CURRY!!) There's no GST and service charge (so the prices in the chit reflect net prices) and note that they don't serve free water either.

Mango Salad

The mango salad here was delicious. Chokeful of peanuts and shrimp paste, the tanginess of the mango went very well with the saltiness of nuts and paste, with the shoot-up-your-nose onions providing the last kick. i'd wanna try the papaya salad the next time round.

Tom Yum Seafood soup

There was plenty of prawns(real fresh ones), fish, and sotong..and lots and lots of straw mushrooms. The soup had a full body, and was more sour than spicy. It went very well with the rice (i drowned my rice in soup cos after awhile it got too salty to drink on its own)

Stir fried Kangkong

This was well fried, with the distinct sambal taste.

Basil Chicken

This was my least favourite dish of the lot because I don't like basil and the taste was very strong. It was probably the last dish to be wiped out, proving how my friends aren't fans of this either.

Spicy Claypot Tofu

This was the star of our dinner...and it doesn't come cheap, 15 bucks for this lot here! but it was very very good, the sauce was what made it fantastic, making the piping hot fried tofu topped with minced chicken go well with the rice. Our tastebuds were trying hard to discern what went into the sauce but obviously we weren't blessed with the minds and tastebuds of chefs to know what went into our stomachs =P it was quite salty and spicy and again, went very well with rice.

A very rich meal, washed down with Green bandung (yes you read it correctly it was GREEN) , we were VERY FULL! we paid around 20 bucks each, for the 3 of us and considering how much we ate i think it was quite worth it.. we adjourned to New Asia bar for some good old sangria and beer. And guess what i lugged all the way up to the 72nd storey of swissotel....THIS!! oh my im really an auntie now..

Al carpone donuts, JCo

First Thai Food

23 Purvis Street

Tel: 6339 3123