In a real departure from most Thai restaurants, which have few desserts, Thaitation offers nine. Mango with sticky rice ($7.95) is a familiar favorite, with a reasonably ripe mango and rice thickened with coconut milk. The real knockout is sticky-rice mousse with mango ($7.50). It comes as a little square of fluffy coconut mousse with bits of rice that add a texture similar to tapioca pudding, plus chunks of mango. Fried ice cream ($9.95) is lovely: vanilla with a thin crust glazed with honey and studded with sesame seeds. Thaitation crispy mango rolls ($7.50) are mango-rice spring rolls with a coconut dip.
All my favorite Thai desserts are of the fusion persuasion, but then again, most famous Thai dishes are fusion food. Only when you encounter something like "Old Lady Spicy Chicken" do you think it might be pure Thai, and even then the chili peppers are an obvious post-1492 substitute for some native hot spice.
Service at Thaitation is excellent. The room is square with a high ceiling, big café windows, bright yellow walls with gorgeous Thai folk-art pieces, a quarry tile floor, wood wainscoting, and granite-look laminate tables. The visuals don't clash, but they do echo sound, so it gets a little loud. The current crowd runs to young couples. I figure them for already coupled pretty well, since you can't attractively eat stew. I suppose you could just keep ordering appetizers all night, though. I could. A couple of Changs, sticky-rice mousse, and then onto somewhere a little quieter?
Robert Nadeau can be reached at robtnadeau@aol.com.
