One of the nice things about going out to eat with friends for Thai food is that I get to try new places, and new things. I certainly have my standard dishes that I like to stick to for main courses. I think that’s because I like to be able to compare the places I eat easily. This drunken noodle dish was better than this drunken noodle dish. But sometimes it’s nice to veer off course and when a friend wants to try something new, I’m happy to jump in. It’s rare that I order appetizers, but my friend Heloisa, from Brazil, is just getting acclimated to Thai food, so she jumped on the chance to order a curry puff at Potjanee Thai.
I was extremely impressed by the texture and the flavor of the puff. Extremely similar to an empanada, this was large enough to be a meal, which is why I didn’t finish it. The potato and chicken inside were cooked to perfection, but it was the curry flavoring that added that little something extra and gave the dish a kick at the end. Dipping it into the thai cucumber dipping sauce offset it nicely.
There is a chance that before going to dinner at Pojantee, I had eaten Thai for lunch. I’d say actually that there’s a pretty good chance that happened. There’s also a chance I had it for lunch again the next day, but we won’t go into that. In order not to put myself into a total thai food coma, I decided to order the Pad Kra Prow, my go-to for a somewhat lighter dish. Simple flavors of chicken, peppers and onions, there’s not a lot to this dish, and I like it when they add some extra chilis to make it extremely spicy. I didn’t ask for it to be extra spicy, so I’ll admit I was a bit let down by the spice level, but they wouldn’t have known to crank up the heat unless I told them.
I’d say this was pretty much a middle of the road thai place, but it was packed by the time we left. Directly next to Fatty Cue in the West Village, I assume that those who can’t get a table at the hottest malaysian restaurant in the city, pop over to Pojtanee for a less exotic, but still Asian inspired experience.
