Araya's Place-Vegan Thai Food: Restaurant Review

After a disappointing meal and food selection, my friends and I decided to walk around and see what would be another good alternative for lunch. At first we were skeptical about this place, because they were doing Thai food but Vegan! I love Thai food, and I know they use a lot of fish sauce and different meats and seafood, so I was curious to see how the dishes would turn out to be.

Walking into this place was even a nice experience. From the street, you're not quite sure what to expect, but when you walk further into the path to the restaurant, you see a beautiful deck space with seating available along with lovely decorations surrounding the space.

Inside is nice and bright with white walls and seating and open spaces for natural light. It was a very warm and welcoming place.

The Salad bar right by the entrance with different choices of condiments, salads, kimchi, fruits and different pickled veggies.

We absolutely loved the Thai iced tea/ iced coffee. Since this is a vegan restaurant, the 'cream' that was used for this drink is either soy milk or coconut milk, whichever you prefer! I had the Thai iced tea with coconut milk and it was really good and tasted almost as if it was a regular Thai tea, just with a hint of coconut to it.  Of course, since it was iced, the coconut milk would solidify a little bit, but it's nothing a little stirring can't fix. PLUS, the drinks were served in little mason jars with handles!!! How frikken cute!

 

 

We went during lunch so there was a special deal going on where you could choose either; Pad Thai, Pa-nang Curry and a couple other entrée courses, and you get rice, egg rolls, and the salad bar all for around $12. Not a bad deal!

 

 

I got the Pa-nang curry and loved the sweetness in it. It was interesting to see how the flavor would pan out without any fish sauce, but it was pretty legit! I liked the addition of the coconut milk too for a creamier touch. The only downside was the amount of zucchini in this dish. I'm not a huge fan of zucchini, so this made a good left over for my mom. The tofu was good and this was enough food for me to bring for lunch the next day.

 

 

 

 

And of course, what is a trip to a Thai restaurant without some mango sticky rice or black rice

pudding?!

The mango was nice and sweet, not too tart, and the rice wasn't mushy or too hard and was flavored just right with the right amount of saltiness.

As for the black rice pudding, it was a nice change because it had coconut ice cream on top (made vegan of course out of coconut milk).

 At one point of my life (like a couple years ago), I was addicted to the black rice pudding and would have to eat it once a week. It was just something I would crave and had to have. This definitely satisfied any craving I would have, but I just wishes the coconut milk they pour along with the ice cream was a bit more salty.

 

Overall, this was a surprisingly great experience. Everything from the atmosphere, to service to quality of food was awesome. If you are looking for a Vegan restaurant and want to try some Asian food, then this is the place for you! This will definitely cater to those who have a stricter diet, without lacking flavor! Of course I miss my dishes with shrimp and what not, but this is a good change of scenery from the usual Thai food I eat. Plus, the whole neighborhood around this restaurant is just so nice and relaxing to walk around in.

 

Do you like Thai food? What is your favorite Thai dish?!

 

 

Malay Satay Hut: Restuarant Review

Growing up with the occasional Malaysian food (my mother's family is from Malaysia), sometimes I get cravings, especially for items that remind me of the different trips I have taken to Malaysia. When my family gets a particular craving, we will go to one of the only, more authentic, Malaysian restaurants in Seattle, and that is Malay Satay Hut.

 

Located at the outer edges of the International District, Malay Satay Hut brings a slice of Malaysian flavor to the area. Ever since I was a little girl (I want to say around 15 years ago), my family and I would come here more frequently. However, over the recent years, we just never went back (not sure why?) Maybe the food quality wasn't as good or it just fell off our radar, but more recently, we have been going back and have been enjoying it.

 

 

As you can see, their menu has a lot of options, and these are just a couple pages.

The interior is reminiscent of wood and long houses in Malaysia and has pictures of a local resort, street markets and this cheerful one of a man making the every popular Teh Tarik aka Pulled Tea (I love getting this when I was in Malaysia!)

 

We started off with a favorite, Roti Canai (a buttery, crispy soft layered bread of sorts) with curry (In Kuala Lumpor, I remember having it with the sugar crystals for breakfast and that was bomb!).

The roti was good and nice and light, but the curry alongside it was only so-so. As you can see we only had one potato piece per order and the curry itself was a little salty.

 

My cousin and I both wanted the Teh Tarik (pulled tea, black tea with cream and sugar) and I have to say it was pretty decent, for not being from Malaysia. It obviously isn't the best Teh Tarik I have tasted but it definitely satisfied the craving for the tea.

 

Now for our main courses. We of course love the Hainanese Chicken rice. My mom and my aunts will make this specifically for special occasions (like Chinese New Year) or sometimes on some random weekend, but they don't make it often because it takes a lot of work. You have to cook the whole chicken a specific way to make sure the flavor and texture is right. Then you have to take the fat from the chicken to use to flavor the rice and you have to cook the rice Juuuust right. Eating this at a restaurant is a nice treat because we get the great flavors without the work! Their rice was especially good. The texture wasn't mushy or too dry and the chicken flavors were perfect and it wasn't too salty. The chicken was nice and firm without being to chewy, yet it was nice and moist. This dish was on point!

 

 

We had another Malaysian (and my personal favorite) dish called Nasi Lemak which is a flavored coconut rice dish with eggs, peanuts, anchovies, and some type of curried meat ( I think this is lamb) and some sambal (a type of chili paste/condiment). I mainly like this dish for the coconut infused rice and when you mix it with the different sauces, it just makes for a flavorful combination!

 

 

We then had Fish Head Curry which I didn't really care too much for, besides just to have the okra. My mom really enjoyed it so it must've been good. I just wasn't in the mood for fish this day!

 

 

We had a salt & pepper frog leg dish. Not really sure that this is a "Malaysian" dish, but Malaysia cuisine has a lot of strong influences from Chinese cuisine so this may just be that typical salt & pepper combo used in a lot of Chinese dishes. This was a little too 'fresh' tasting for me. It was definitely better the day after. I just don't think the frog legs had enough time to soak in the salt to add flavor to the meat. Definitely not one for the faint of heart (especially when you tell people) but they really do look like mini chicken wings! The texture is similar too, just a lot more chewy.

 

 

This next dish is something translated to Buddha Taro Bowl, or Buddha Yam Pot which is basically fried taro (to act as the bowl) with stir-fry veggies and seafood in the center. I personally like the fried yam/taro part the best, I don't care too much for the items inside, except maybe just the shrimp. The presentation on this is definitely fun to look at though!

 

 

One of the last dishes we had was the Belacan okra, which is by far one of my most favorite dishes of all time! #1) I love okra, #2) I love shrimp and #3) When both are combined with onions and the belacan (which is a fermented shrimp paste that is fried) just makes for the most aromatic dish that is intense in tasty flavor. If you're not into 'fishy' items or are picky about it, this is definitely different than that and just smells and tastes amazing!

 

It was good coming back to this restaurant and I plan on going back again soon! My mom had already brought home food to-go from here including another one of my favorites, Char Kuey Teow, which is a wide rice noodle stir fry dish with a thick gravy. The owner even remembers my mom from coming that long ago and they talk about going 'back home' all the time and sort of reminisce also. Everything is reasonably priced, nothing super cheap, but nothing too expensive either. I would probably avoid rush hour times at lunch/dinner, but other than that, our service was good and we got our food in a timely manner.

 

Have you ever tried Malaysian food before?