Herald rating: * * * *
Address: 468 Manukau Rd, Epsom
Phone: (09) 638 8005
Cuisine: Thai
Open: 7 nights
From the menu: The usual suspects Vegetarian: Of course
Wine: BYO; their list is limited
KEY POINTS:
We call ourselves a "wine club" but it's really just an excuse for a bunch of chaps to get together every month or so, chew the middle (or later) aged spread and drink slightly too much wine for our GPs' liking. The lady who works next to me says her "book club" has pretty much the same rules. We gather at one another's places. The host chooses the wine style and cooks food to match.
Except last week's host, who believed the builders who promised his new kitchen would be in before his Big Night. He'd suggested Thai so the Hon. Sec. decided we'd meet at a local Siamese and B our O.
Which wine goes with Thai? Some say there's no answer to that question and the ideal match is a local beer. Most plump for an aromatic to reflect the spices, usually gewurz. David Thompson, the Australian who has re-defined Royal Thai cuisine to Michelin-star level, advocates pinot noir. I consulted the very nice bloke who writes the food and wine column for my day job and he reckoned viognier.
We met at Mae Glong, a newish place near the ginormous Greenlane-Manukau Rd crossroads, where you can map an atlas of eateries including the remarkable KK Malaysian and Sake Bar Nippon and an odd combination, the Epsom Turkish Kebab house. The shop looks pretty much like Auckland's 214 or so other Thai places: framed photos of home, silky tableware, golden Buddha statues and the obligatory portrait of the royal couple.
Our wines were varied, in variety and quality: there were some aromatics and not a few reds. My viognier was not a winner, which I put down to two things: most of the lads like reds and none of them heard the Frenchwoman in the wine shop pronounce "viognier". No one brought gewurz.
The food? We pretty much left the orders to Stuart, because he'd been here several times and he's been there several times and he speaks a bit of the language, though I'm not sure if "Number 17 with pork" and "Number 13 with chicken" is, strictly speaking, Thai. Whether it was those choices, or the opportunity to try several dishes at one sitting, or simply the quality of the cooking, the meal was rather good. In a traditional, no-surprises sort of way, for if you've been to any of the other 214 or so examples of the cuisine around Auckland you've got a fair idea of how Gaeng Kiew Wan or Tom Yum Gai or Gai Pad Pak will taste.
Where Mae Glong's interpretations come one step ahead of many is that the vegetables are cooked so you can feel the crunch as you bite, the sauces are not too cloying, and the curries have flavour and subtlety rather than being overwhelmed by chilli, just for the sake of heat. We lashed (lushed?) into half a dozen entrees and about the same number of mains. Rather less than the 72 or so dishes on the menu, but it gave a fair idea. It was the best of Thais, if not the gewurz of Thais.
