Sa-was-dee!

    Sa-was-dee! That's hello in Thai. Today's post is on Thai food from Thai Paradise located at 141 North Atlantic Blvd. Monterey Park, 91755. It's my go to Thai place in the San Gabriel Valley. Is it authentic? Kinda? It depends on what you order. Defintely no comparison to the stuff I've had in Thailand but what do you expect? You are catering to a mostly Chinese or Asian-American crowd, which for the most part don't really care about how authentic the Thai food is as long as its good and decently priced. They have some pretty good deals for lunch and even throw in a free yummy dessert. 

One thing you can't go wrong here is with their Thai Tea Boba. They make it just right!

Our rice came in this contraption. We ordered so much food that we didn't end up eating any of the rice. Thank goodness they don't charge for rice at lunch. Beware though! They do during dinner time.

A must order at any Thai place is their satay. Their satay is a good indicator of how legit the place is. Their satay kinda sucked. Bummer cause I never thought you could go wrong with satay. This is a combination plate of beef and chicken satay. My mother won't eat satay at other places. She likes to tell stories/legends of decades ago when she used to make satay herself. She boasts of her amazing handmade satay sauce. My mother is full of it. She cooks satay once every 10 years and just likes to dwell on the good old days when she actually used to cook. I give it to her though. This satay wasn't that great.

Here's our order of Pad Thai. I'm not a big fan of Pad Thai in general because of its sweet flavor. I prefer ordering Pad See Ew instead. It wasn't bad though.

Here's my favorite thing to order here. The fish comes out on a little heater underneath it. A sweet and sour soup is poured atop of the fish and you want until it simmers to begin eating. The flame keeps the fish hot during your entire meal and you even get to drink soup too. 

Here's another favorite of mine Ong Choi. I didn't like the sauce here. It was too bland. Chinese people always say that eating too much Ong Choi is bad because it tends to give you cramps. Growing up, my mom said that shouldn't go swimming after eating Ong Choi because I would get a cramp in leg and drown. I don't think she was aware that even if that happened that floating in water until the cramp is cleared is also an option. I can't judge their Ong Choi too harshly though, since I went to lunch here with my mom and her friends which told the waitress to not make our veggies spicy. You can't have Thai food without spice in it. It's unreasonable. 

Here's their free dessert they give you. It's deliciously good. I could eat it all day except that would mean that I couldn't order a second dessert.

Mango Sticky Rice. My favorite! I was sad they only had one color of sticky rice. I like when they have both. Oh well... let's not complain about the rest of the meal. At least they didn't spit in our food or something. Well... not that I know of at least.

The mother and I have been coming to this place for over 10 years. I used to really like them. I mean I don't love them or hate them now so I guess that's good. One thing I have to complain about is that we were a party of 4 and being the long term patrons that we are, we knew that our table of 4 would be too small for all the food that would come out. We asked to be moved to a slightly bigger table and they said no despite the fact that the tables around us were all empty. But then again I shouldn't complain. Common sense isn't really common. Word. 

Happy Eatings!