Bangkok Basil

Indonesian and Thai cuisines meet well at this inspiring restaurant

by Robert Nadeau

1374 Beacon Street, Coolidge Corner, Brookline; 739-1236
Hours: Mon - Thurs, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 to 10 p.m.;
Fri, 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 5 to 11 p.m.;
Sat, noon to 3 p.m. and 5 to 11 p.m.;
Sun, noon to 3 p.m. and 5 to 10 p.m.
Beer and wine
AE, MC, Visa
Handicap access: sidewalk level

The important news here is the admixture of a number of Indonesian dishes with the popular Thai menu. While not everyone feels the need to spice up the usual Thai menu with even more exotic and novel preparations, I think we can all agree that Indonesian food is underserved in Greater Boston. And even if you hold out against the onrush of curiosity about Indonesian food, one taste of ayum goreng will persuade even the fiercest monoculturalist that there ought to be more places to buy it. And if McDonald's doesn't get that ayum MacGoreng on the menu soon, and some of those places have to be Thai restaurants with some Indonesian food - well, so be it.

And what is this ayum goreng ($5.95)? It is only the world's greatest way to make fried chicken. The menu describes it as marinated and fried, but that cunningly leaves out the crucial step, which is that the marinated chicken pieces (here wing segments) are stewed in a rich coconut sauce before frying, for an ineluctably delicious flavor and aroma.

Another Indonesian appetizer that will make a lot of friends at Bangkok Basil is mahtabah, described as "ground beef omelette" ($4.95). I think it is better described as being like cocktail slices of one of the Indian stuffed flatbreads, this time stuffed with hamburger. A sweet-hot dipping sauce with sesame seeds adds a lot to this generous appetizer.

A menu special one day was peredea kentang ($5.95), translated simply as "Indonesian Appetizer," described eagerly as "Deep fried of blended potatoes, chickens, celery, onions fried served with lea & perrins sauce." Obviously, this "Indonesian appetizer" has some had foreign influence. The peredea kentang, when it comes to the table in Brookline, is like a pile of falling-apart potato latkes.

Bangkok Basil serves spring rolls under their Indonesian name, lumpia, and in an unusual style. The vegetarian lumpia ($3.95) have a familiar texture based on cellophane noodles. But the lumpia goong-gai ($4.95) combine shrimp and chicken into a filling with the taste of crab meat. Golden triangles ($5.95) sound like they ought to contain opium, but are, in fact, fried flat dumplings full of shrimp and tasting like the essence of deep-fry with an effective hot-sweet-sour sesame-salad dip.

Sayur asam ($3), a hot-and-tamarind-sour vegetable soup, earns its two-chili rating. Potatoes and navy beans make this an Asian minestrone. The familiar Thai soups are also well-made here. Tom kha gai ($2.75), the coconut-chicken soup, is sweet and rich with plenty of lemongrass aroma and the mustard-ginger flavor of the kha (also called galingal, or laos root).

The most successful of the main dishes we sampled was a fusion dish of the modern kind - salmon in chili ($14.95). The chunks of salmon were grilled, then stirred up with sautéed onions and bell peppers in a thin, tamarind-based sauce that was more sweet than sour or hot. The contrast of the richness of salmon, the charred taste of the grilled edges, and the sweet sauce created a wonderful, barbecue-like effect.

For an Indonesian sampler, one might order nasi goreng ($9.95), the national version of fried rice. This rates one pepper silhouette on the menu, and that's about right - less for the initial burn as for the way the spice lingers with the oily rice dish. The version at Bangkok Basil is fairly simple, with some shrimp and egg, and a few bits of vegetable in white rice. But the platter also included shrimp chips, two pieces of ayum goreng (yes!), and a skewer of chicken satay.

Among the Thai entrees, we sampled Bangkok duck ($12.95), red curry chicken ($8.95), and shrimp choo chee ($12.95) - all of which turned out to have about the same red curry sauce. This was especially confusing on the Bangkok duck, which showed no pepper silhouettes on the menu, where the other two dishes were rated two peppers, medium hot.

It's a good red curry, but I recommend that you clarify with your server what the sauces are like, so you mix in a green curry, a mild masaman curry, or one of the thin-sauce dishes like the chili salmon. The Bangkok duck is first breaded and fried, then laid out over a vast heap of vegetables, including zucchini, broccoli, baby ears of corn, and mushrooms.

Bangkok Basil has beer and wine, which means Singha beer for all but the most spice-phobic parties. It also has a few desserts, although one has to ask for the authentic items. One of the latter worth seeking out is translated only as "sticky rice mango." The plate contains half a ripe mango, neatly sliced, which is a fine dessert in itself. The sticky-rice part is a pudding of bland white rice, topped with an intriguingly spiced, intensely sweet coconut cream. With a Thai tea or coffee (with sweetened condensed milk), this hits the spot, if you have that particular spot.

The decoration of Bangkok Basil is lush without formality, as with so many Thai restaurants. A typical Thai Buddhist shrine to the King of Thailand (pictured in raffish Western clothes) may arouse curiosity - but I have been assured elsewhere that this is no more cultish in the context of Thai culture than would be a picture of Queen Elizabeth in a London tea shop. Many of the details, such as Thai-language glossy magazines in the waiting space, are aimed at an immigrant and foreign-student clientele - which makes an even more appetizing atmosphere for those of us Anglos searching for good Asian food. The food I was served, however, was clearly adjusted for non-Asian palates, especially in the chili-pepper dimension. (That's okay, but the menu should be more accurate. Our salmon in chili was marked a pepper too high, as were a couple of appetizers.)

Our servers on two visits were both attentive and willing to explain the dishes. It may take a few visits to get through the spice censorship. Or one may very honorably decide that the mild versions of ayum goreng and such are entirely perfect as they are.