Papaya Thai and a Ben & Jerry’s Stopover, Neutral Bay
On a balmy 30c Saturday, what else is there to do in Sydney but go to the beach! Unfortunately as I woke up around midday I missed meeting up with chocolatesuze and a few other foodbloggers who had the intention of going to Manly to check out the launch of Ben & Jerry’s in Australia. Undeterred I roped up P for a leisurely dinner with a stopover at Manly to check out what all the fuss was about.
There’s a distinctly Asian vibe to the Neutral Bay scene, more often than not I’ll find myself at yet another Thai or Japanese restaurant for dinner. As friend P actually works in the area I decided to let her decide and we ended up wandering inside Papaya Thai, a rather lush looking Thai restaurant.
Dripping Chandeliers inside Papaya Thai
The decor of the restaurant was a rather dark velvet look, with wooden tables, hidden alcoves with couches and chandeliers dripping from the ceiling. As the night was early the restaurant was relatively empty and we were quickly seated and handed a set of menus. When eating with P I somehow always manage to over order, and the spread we eventually ended up with could have easily fed another person, between the pair of us we ended up with an appetiser, a soup, a salad, a curry and a stir fry! Never say that I do things in moderation…
Tom Yum Koong - $7.90
Despite the weather (or should I because of the weather?) we ordered a starter of Tom Yum soup. I think it’s a very Asian attitude that you should eat hot food to combat hot weather, the sweating is somehow supposed to be beneficial. Or maybe, I just really like eating soup. The chilli sour kick of the soup is the perfect way to kick off the meal and I adore that there are whole cherry tomatoes in the soup, giving us a burst of tomato goodness.
Po Piah Koong Ped Tod - Parcel of golden crispy pastry filled with chopped prawns and roasted duck, served with plum sauce - $6.90
Our appetiser is described as a parcel of golden crispy pastry and I’m expecting a Wonton and am a little surprised when what looks like cheese sticks arrive at the table. They’re a great starter with a wonderful crunch with little to no oil residue left on our fingers, the accompanying Plum sauce is actually clear and has a texture and taste much more similar to Honey than the plum sauce I’m used to with chinese cooking. I enjoy the dish but can’t help but wish for a little bit more filling to compliment the pastry.
Som Tum - Shredded Green Papaya tossed with dried shrimps, cherry tomatoes. Pounded in mortar served with sticky rice - $16.90
There’s no way that we could go to a Thai restaurant called ‘Papaya Thai’ without ordering a version of its namesake. The Som Tum salad comes with a choice of meats, and knowing that we have chosen a Chicken Curry I opt for Beef as P is sadly allergic to Crab. The salad comes out with each of the components separated on the plate, although when I see the cabbage leaf holding the salad I just think that George from Masterchef would have removed the offending vegetable immediately. The salad comes with a serving of sticky rice and I’m gleefully eating mouthfuls of the glutinous rice with the tart sour Papaya. The serving size is generous and I could easily see eating the salad as a main.
Kaeng Kari Kai - Whole chicken leg coasted with tumeric curry then slow cooked with whole onions and baby potatoes, served with cucumber dipping sauce
Shocking at this point we’re already struggling to continue, a theory someone told me about sticky rice was that it continues to expand in your stomach making you even fuller… Whatever the case we were in more than a little despair when our mains come out, but I’m immediately taken by the simple plating of the Curry. The entire leg is clearly visible in the bowl and I’m more than a little curious by the whole bulb of garlic sitting in the dipping sauce.
The chicken simply falls apart when we stab with our forks and I’m rather enamoured of the rich coconutty tumeric base. My stomach protests but I can’t stop myself from eating mouthful after mouthful! On the menu the dipping sauce is simply listed as ‘Cucumber dipping sauce’ but comes out as a clear honey-like syrup, and when poured over the chicken it helps brings out the natural sweetness of the meat and coconut milk without being cloying.
Sweet Coconut Milk Chilli Basil Sauce Stir Fry with Prawns - $15.90
The stir fry comes out soon after the curry and at this point we are in literal pain but persevere! On the menu the stir fry list consists of 8 different choice of sauces with our choice of meat, we decide on the Sweet Coconut Milk base simply as I’m curious as to how the sweet would work in a stir fry. In hindsight knowing that we’d ordered a Coconut based curry we would have been better off with a Peppery base to cut through all the fat. The stir fry is probably the biggest disappointment as the various vegetables simply seemed drowned in the sauce and the crispy (almost burnt in some cases) basil leaves aren’t as appealing as you would think.
Papaya Thai Table Settings
We’ve decided against dessert knowing that we’re headed towards Manly and it’s all for the best as we roll ourselves out of the doorways! It’s about 7:30pm at this point and the restaurant is getting busy with waitresses rushing about. Despite this the service was quick and efficient and our glasses of water barely reached the halfway mark before being topped up by our ever vigilant wait staff. As a restaurant Papaya Thai is definitely within the ‘Trendy Restaurant’ genre oh so common to this area, but it’s backed with some good dishes and quick service.
The weather has thankfully cooled down at this point but it hasn’t kept the punters away from the Ben & Jerry’s launch, the lure of free ice-cream too strong for anyone to ignore. I’m not sure what the line must have been like in the middle of the day but the line is well organised, going across the street to the next block! The line is kept entertained by staff members popping by the line passing out wrist bands, pens and ice-cream menus and we find ourselves inside within 10 minutes.
Ben & Jerry's ice-cream choices
I’m rather torn as to the choice in flavours and settle on ‘Chunky Monkey’ having a strange affinity to Banana Ice-cream, P is set on the ‘Peanut Butter Cookie Dough’ but changes her mind at the last moment and ends up with the ‘Chocolate Fudge Brownie’. I have a strange liking for the Black & White cow pattern and find myself lusting for one of the bags that the staff members are carrying… I’ll just have content myself with the ice-cream. The entire shop is done out in a Cow-like theme with my favourite touch being the Milk Bottle lights!
We settle at the beach with our conquests and proceed to tuck in. I’ve known about Ben & Jerry’s for years but never tried it before, the Chunky Monkey has a definite banana flavour to it although after a few bites I find myself wishing that the flavour was a bit more distinctive. It does however live up to its name with a more than generous ratio of Walnut and Fudge chunks to ice-cream! P has the ‘Chocolate Fudge Brownie’ which is decadently rich and I adore the swirls of Fudge Brownie.
Remains of the day
I’ll be honest though, Ididn’treallylikeit! While I have nothing against the actual flavour of the ice-cream, I prefer my ice-cream, chunkless. Towards the end of my serving I found myself pushing aside the rather large chunks in search of more of the elusive banana ice-cream. To the ice-cream fans out there who adore making sundaes drowning in toppings, this is definitely the ice-cream for you.
All in all, not a bad way to spend a Saturday at all.
The Ben & Jerry’s Free Ice-cream offer was an opening day special and available only on Saturday, 28th of November 2009.
Papaya Thai
Shop 6-9, 307-309 Military Road
Cremorne, NSW 2090
Ph: (02) 9953 8992
Web: http://www.papayathai.com.au/
Ben & Jerry’s Scoop Shop
Shops 5 & 6, 25-27 South Steyne
Manly, NSW 2100
Ph: (02) 8966 9219
Web: http://www.benandjerry.com.au/
Author
By Minh
Minh is a food, photography, tv loving girl who on occasion likes to think that she can cook. I can't hold my drink for what its worth and have an unhealthy obsession with green tea products.
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This article was written on 30 Nov 2009, and is filed under Dessert, Dinner, Sydney, North, Thai.
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Refreshing to hear such honesty in confessing you don’t like chunky icecream, neither do I!
.-= Moya´s last blog ..Birthday lunch number…uhmmm =-.
Kaeng Kari Kai looks so delicious! Thanks for the review! Neutral Bay is not a place I’d normally head to for food, but there are obviously some great places there.
hehe the peanut butter cookie dough was awesome! like, SUPER awesome! 4 outta my 6 scoops were pbcd!
.-= chocolatesuze´s last blog ..Ben and Jerry’s Scoop-a-thon, Manly [7] =-.
I went to Papaya thai 2 weeks ago without much expectation and some of the dishes turned out to be surprisingly good. The killer dish is their appertizer deep-fried chicken wrapped in pandan leaf. Their pad thai is very good too (wrapped in a giant eggnet!). I am glad you had a good experience with them too! I am yet to try B&J. The queue was too long when I was there. I am going to wait for a few weeks until the hypes die down a little.
.-= Ellie´s last blog ..Christmas Coconut Ice / Candy with Pandan and Rose Syrup =-.
Aww you guys really should had tried the PB cookie dough!! It was le awesome ^^!
Hmmm should I try Papaya thai and risk being teased by others? The food does look reasonable except for the po piah koong ped tod which is size-fail
.-= FFichiban´s last blog ..Glebe Street Fair – Glebe, Sydney =-.
Ooh I walked past Papaya the other night and had a look at the menu. Good to know the food is decent, you could easily find worse Thai restaurants nearby!
.-= Steph´s last blog ..Bourke St Bakery, Surry Hills =-.
Not into chunkies huh? I don’t mind chunkies but those pieces left over look huge!
Thai food looks nice enough but would you say a tad exxy considering what you’d gotten?
Papayathai looks good! I’ll have to swing by there and try it out one time
I’m the same as you Minh, a bit on the meh side of chunky ice creams. But that said, certain flavors are much better when chunky.
Ooohhh, must take my friend-in-eating to Ben & Jerry’s then as she absolutely loves bits and chunks in her ice-cream!
.-= mademoiselle délicieuse´s last blog ..Takeru, May-Sept 2009 =-.
Hahahahaha left over chunks
I’ve got to agree with you on that one, My BuzzBuzzBuzz (coffee one) got way too much chocolate chunks that I had to put aside.
Papaya Thai looks like a decent place!
I don’t like choc chips in my ice cream but chunky of pretzels and and peanut butter a la’ Chubby Hubby are my kinda thing for sure! I think you had the right idea – queuing up for ice cream at night for dessert. But what, you didn’t line up 6 times? lol.
The Som Tum salad looks really good! I’ve heard some good things about this place before so I might give it a go next time I’m in Neutral Bay. The peanut butter cookie dough ice cream and Ben and Jerry’s was SO GOOD!! You should have got it!
.-= Jacq´s last blog ..Ozeki Sushi, Chatswood =-.
aahhh..the Ben & Jerry’s frenzy has begun! I still remeber my first bite of its goodness in NY…good times.
.-= Adrian @ Food Rehab´s last blog ..Recipe Time: Chocolate Fix Cookies =-.
The Thai dinner looks good. And I do like Ben & Jerry’s. Chunky monkey is fab. I do like the chunks in ice cream. Actually, I just love ice cream.
.-= penny aka jeroxie´s last blog ..Yim Yam =-.
Papaya looks wonderful! Can’t wait to try it out. Lovely photos as always guys
.-= Christie @ Fig&Cherry´s last blog ..Thanksgiving: Outrigger, Morro Bay =-.
Nice photo of the chandelier, and the curry sounds beautiful. I like the whole tomatoes in the soup too.
.-= Arwen from Hoglet K´s last blog ..Slow Food with Carlo Petrini =-.
I find the problem with chunks (especially chocolate or toffee) is that the ice-cream makes them really hard and you end up having to chew through them (not good for chocolate lovers!!). I do like crispy or chewy chunks though!
Moya: Glad to see I’m not the only one!
joey: I’d definitely recommend checking out Neutral Bay, there are some real gems up there.
chocolatesuze: I gotta try that next!
Ellie: We were this close to getting the Pad Thai but decided not to! Damn, wish I’d gone for that now.
FFichiban: Haha doooo it
Steph: Yep definitely!
Simon: The left over pieces were ridiculously large. I felt like an entire chocolate bar had been left in my cup. In regards to the price I think in terms of value it can’t compete against a place like I-San (RIP
), but is probably up there with Chat Thai.
Noel: I think if the chunks were easier to chew I’d have liked it more, I didn’t mind the walnuts just the huge chocolate bits!
mademoiselle delicieuse: Definitely recommended for her!
Yas: lol shush! There were too many for me! Ooh I wanted to try coffee too.
Helen: Haha not all of us are crazy like some who shall remain unnamed… Was nice and balmy by the time we got there, much preferred!
Jacq: Som Tum salad is my favourite! I think I order it at every Thai restaurant I go to. Haha peanut butter is next on my list to try!
Adrian: Haha sadly it’s a little too far out for me, I’ll probably try it again from a supermarket.
Penny: lol I hear you, Ice-cream in all forms is awesome.
Christie: Thanks
!
Arwen: Thanks arwen! The tomatoes were my favourite part, whenever I cook it myself I always throw them in early to suck up as much soup as possible.
beets: I agree with you 100%! That said I tried the Chocolate brownie and it had mushy brownie chunks in it which were much easier to eat. I think I’m just a lazy ice-cream eater
Dropped by Papaya Thai – great atmosphere and service! The dishes we ordered are definitely better than the average Thai restaurant. Serving size is little on the sparse side, but you know how I eat