Thai Comfort Food in Bay Ridge: myThai

Some people turn to meatloaf, but Pad Thai has been my comfort food of choice ever since we moved to Brooklyn.

I'd never been to a Thai restaurant before moving here, although there was one in Columbus that I'd always meant to try. Instead of sampling it there, however, Thai was one of the first foreign cuisines I remember trying after moving to New York. My favorite Thai restaurant is so good and so near -- less than 10 minutes away by foot -- that I've rarely been tempted to try another.

Each visit to myThai is wonderfully the same. Paul and I each start with a Thai iced tea. Anyone who knows me knows well that I hate ordering drinks in restaurants. For this I make an exception. A tall glass is filled with ice, a dark tea and sweetened condensed milk. Sometimes it's a craving for this alone that will lure me to myThai.

We typically visit myThai with a gift certificate from Restaurant.com in hand. Everything's so cheap that we practically struggle to use it all. So even though I typically don't get restaurant appetizers either, both Paul and I have become obsessed with the myThai pancake. It's kind of like a flaky, savory elephant ear, fried in coconut butter and served with a coconut milk and curry dipping sauce. I could make a whole meal out of a few of these.

But I look forward to my entree all the same. Almost every single time I get the same thing -- vegetable Pad Thai. Along with the appetizer and upcoming dessert, I generally have enough leftover for another night or two. Paul mixes it up -- during our latest visit he ordered green curry -- and I like it when he orders something with rice. It always is served molded into the shape of a heart.

Pad Thai

Green Curry with heart-shaped rice!

Dessert depends totally on what we're in the mood for. Perhaps mango ice cream or fried green tea ice cream. Last time, we ordered friend bananas with honey and green tea ice cream. Each banana chunk was neatly and lightly fried into a sphere. Yummy.

I always leave myThai happy, full and wondering why we don't eat there more often. What more can you ask for? Only, I suppose, that Paul could whip up a myThai pancake at home.