When Sirirat Bunmee and her husband decided four years ago to come to Canada from their native Thailand, they were trying to make a better life for their two children.
But unlike other stories where highly trained immigrants come to a new country and have to settle for menial, lower-skill jobs, Bunmee had a plan to open her own Thai restaurant.
That restaurant, called Chad Thai, is located at 4010 Hastings St. in the heart of the Heights. It opened on Oct. 5, after extensive renovations to the spot that housed the former Tom Yum Thai restaurant.
"I knew the former owner, and I think he did a good job cooking, but we wanted to do something a little more elegant, but with a casual, clean look," said Bunmee, who spent most of September getting the place up to her standards.
Bunmee, who worked in a commercial bank in Thailand, and her husband, formerly a police officer, said their goal in opening the restaurant was to have a place where friends and family could earn a living and people who enjoy authentic Thai cuisine can get a chance to sample what Bunmee calls the "five spirits of taste."
She said Thai cuisine is renowned for it harmonious blending of five major flavours: sweet, sour, salty, spicy and creamy. And it's that combination of flavours that punctuates many of the dishes at Chad Thai, which means Thai taste and pride - it combines the Thai words for taste (rod-chad-Thai) with pride of the Thai nation (chat-Thai).
Bunmee also uses the name of the restaurant as an acronym: Customer satisfaction, Healthy, Affordable and Delicious Thai food.
On a recent weekday, I sat down with Bunmee to talk about her journey to Chad Thai.
Bunmee grew up in Nakhon Pathom province, about an hour away from Bangkok and home to the Phra Pathom Chedi, the first religious landmark that signified the influx of Buddhism into the country.
What Bunmee remembers most is all the fresh food.
"You could always smell food, either fresh or being cooked," said Bunmee.
"And then when we went to the floating markets, you could buy all these fresh foods right off the boats."
It's that attention to detail that Bunmee is bringing to North Burnaby, and she generously explained to me the thinking behind three of her favourite dishes.
We started with the Mee Grop appetizer, featuring crispy vermicelli with sweet and sour caramelized tamarind sauce, dried shrimp, crisp tofu, crisp egg, chives and bean sprouts.
The vermicelli is incredibly light, and the tamarind sauce is sweeter than I expected, but a great complement to tofu. The dish can be shared and is a great lead-in to our Tom Yum Goong (tiger prawn) soup.
"You will taste all five flavours in this," said Bunmee, and it was also a visual treat.
The spiciness of the tom yum soup was milder than I expected. The sour flavour comes courtesy of the kaffir lime leaves, while the sweetness gets a nice lift from the coriander and lemongrass. The saltiness, which isn't all that salty, come from the large tiger prawns while the creamy base comes from the coconut milk that I saw being slowly added to the wok during the cooking process.
The soup is another great item to share, and when you add white rice, it can even be your main dish on a cold, drizzly autumn or winter night.
I was pretty full by this stage, but Bunmee had me try her palm seeds and vanilla ice-cream dessert.
The palm seeds were chewier than I expected, but mix them in ice cream, and who can really complain?
After only two months in business, Bunmee is happy with the good word-of-mouth she's already received - in fact, I was tipped off to the place by someone who works nearby and swears that it's the best Thai in the area.
Who are we to argue? Chad Thai is open Tuesday to Friday from 11 a.m. to 2: 30 p.m. for lunch and 4: 30 to 8: 30 p.m. for dinner (until 9 p.m. on Friday). On weekends, it is open from 2 to 9 p.m. for lunch and dinner. For more info, call 604-677-1489 or go to www.chadthai.ca.
