FiPS Food Throwdowns: Thai Edition

FIPS Food Throwdowns is a series where we order the same exact thing from two different Park Slope restaurants and evaluate which was better. It's a culinary smack down...a triumph of the will of sorts.

Oh Park Slope. Home to what has to be more Thai restaurants per capita than anywhere else in Brooklyn. Two or three isn't enough for your insatiable craving for Thai. No no no. You need a dozen Thai restaurants to calm your bloodlust and for every one that collapses & dies, another one always springs up to take its place. For me, my heart still bleeds for the first Thai restaurant I ever visited in Park Slope, over a decade ago--T Thai (RIP).

For today's Throwdown, we're pitting one of the neighborhood's older Thai joints--Song--against one of the relative newcomers to the hood--Nahm Thai. When we're done, they'll have smacked each other so silly that one will eventually drop to the mat and the other will be declared ULTIMATE VICTOR. That is unless, after sampling food from both, we end up in a THAI.

Song, 295 5th Ave (btwn 1st & 2nd)
This past weekend was one big, long noodle fest for me as, early Saturday evening, I strolled down 5th Ave to Song, where I grabbed an order of Vegetable Pad Thai with Veggie Spring Rolls to go. I sat at the bar with a Brooklyn Lager as the dining room buzzed with people coming in and out. Ten minutes later my order was ready. Total Cost: Veggie Pad Thai ($7.95) + Veggie Spring Rolls ($2.95) + Tax = $11.95

Veggie Pad Thai
As far as Thai dishes go, you really can't go wrong with pad thai. It's totally the gateway noodle of Thai food, with its stir-fried mix of Pho noodles & fried egg & fish sauce & bean sprouts & chili & peanuts & whatnot. I know many a man & woman who, upon moving from the suburbs to some hip college town, started off their Thai restaurant journey with pad thai. I mean, it's one of Thailand's national dishes for crissakes.

Song's pad thai tended toward the sweeter side of the dish, and at times, was a bit sweeter than I'm into. Their veggie version featured tiny, essentially insignificant lil' blocks of tofu amongst the average broccoli & scallions & veggies of your everyday pad thai. There was a good amount of fried egg throughout, which was cool I guess. By the time I was full, I ended up with another meal out of the remains, so...VALUE N' SHIT.

Veggie Spring Rolls
For $2.95 at Song, you get two Veggie Spring Rolls. As soon as I picked one up, my fingers were covered in grease. I understand that that's sort of par for the course with fried spring rolls, but c'mon now.

The outside was crispy enough & the innards were tasty enough, with a satisfying mix of rice noodles & veggies. The plum sauce it came with is your average plum sauce but when I first tried it, I got a strong vinegary taste that I totally wasn't ready for, resulting in a hearty cough. Luckily, I was by myself and nobody saw.

Nahm Thai, 194 5th Ave (btwn Berkeley & Union)
Last night, I initially stopped by Beet to see how their Veggie Pad Thai and Veggie Spring Rolls stood up to Song's. I walked in and stepped to the counter near the front door. About half the tables were full, but nobody came to greet me, so I picked up a menu and perused it for a few minutes...still nothing...so I left and walked down to Nahm Thai. 

The place was about half full when I arrived and someone instantly greeted me. I ordered up the Veggie Pad Thai and Veggie Spring Rolls. While they made up my order, I quickly ran across the street to Bierkraft and by the time I returned seven minutes later, my order was ready. Total Cost: Veggie Pad Thai ($9.25) + Veggie Spring Rolls ($4.95) + Tax = $15.45

Veggie Pad Thai
Though the portion size was the same as that of Song's, it went for $1.30 more. There were a few differences that made it worth the extra buck & change though.

First off, it wasn't as sweet as Song's. It had a more balanced flavor that wasn't special in any way but wasn't annoyingly sweet in spots. Second, Nahm Thai's contained little puffs of tofu, puffs that had enough flavor & texture to make them actually worth eating, especially when they'd soaked up the pad thai fluids. Song's tiny cubes were lame by comparison.

To top it all off, maybe it was because I'd already eaten a shit ton of noodles this weekend but I felt fuller faster with Nahm Thai's pad thai, which is probably better in the end for a fatass like me.

Veggie Spring Rolls
When it comes to the Veggie Spring Rolls, the only obvious difference here was in the portion I got and the price I paid. Instead of paying $1.50 per roll at Song, I paid $1.25 per at Nahm Thai.

Like Song's, they had the same level of greasiness. Like Song's, they were sufficiently crispy. Like Song's, they had the same insides with semi-sweet rice noodles and a few carrots & green onions mixed in. To be blunt, they were basically the exact same thing as what I got from Song. I guess the difference was in the plum sauce, since it didn't make me cough.

OBVIOUS WINNER: Nahm Thai. While Song's pad thai was a little bit cheaper, Nahm Thai's came with much better tofu and a flavor that wasn't occasionally annoying. Sure the spring rolls were way too similar, but Nahm Thai's were a WHOLE QUARTER CHEAPER per. VICTOR DECLARED! Look's like Song is singing the SONG OF SADNESS!!!...something by Morrissey, probs.

Read way more from Shawn at eatdrinksnack.com & eatdrinktaco.com.