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Transported to Bangkok-
Dining in North Ranch
Thai Ranch
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If you really think about it, the food of a country
actually seems to define its personality and environment.
Italian food is fun, hearty, simple and accessible. French
food is presented with a feeling of haughtiness
and self acclaimed superiority. Chinese food offers a complex varied
cuisine from a country that has a tremendously widespread and different
population and a very sophisticated 4,000-year-old civilization. Japanese
food is tight, disciplined and bound to tradition. American food with
pizza, hamburgers, hot dogs plus macaroni and cheese as our mainstays
combines with our emphasis on red meat and apple pie to suggest both our
ethnic variety and our short pioneer frontier history.
You can decide for
yourself how English, German and Russian food fit the pattern. |
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 The food of Thailand reinforces the theory. The
country is tucked in near the giants, India and China. The Thais are
attractive and delicate people (though reputed to be fearsome warriors)
who have absorbed and modified the food of their two powerful neighbors to
match their own culture. Thus, their food is attractive, delicate and
infused with spices and herbs that create generally
spicy interesting and different flavors that feature both curry and
stirfry.
We recently returned from a trip to Thailand and thus
had many opportunities to taste the food firsthand. The streets and
canals of Bangkok are virtually one continuous food court with
vendors offering freshly prepared food from propane driven stoves on
the street and in boats. You can not go hungry. Thus we now better
understand the nuances of Thai food |
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 Thai Ranch, at the Pavilion’s Shopping Center in
North Ranch offers the authentic food of Bangkok. Chef Owners Peter and
Patti Konemakeau opened the restaurant almost 9 years ago. They have
transformed a storefront location into a beautiful 60-seat showcase of
Thailand. The walls are decorated with tasteful Thai artifacts along with
the requisite portraits of Thai Royalty. Tables are beautifully set in
lavender pastels with stylish brass flatware. All the servers are polite,
friendly, knowledgeable members of the family dressed in stylish Thai
garb. You will think you are on the Chao Praya River in atmospheric
Bangkok.
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Thai Ranch Appetizer Plate
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Further, there is a wide choice of sophisticated and
fairly priced dishes. Split
a Larb Kai salad as an appetizer (6.95). It has seasoned ground
chicken or beef with roasted rice, which you wrap in fresh cabbage. |
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The traditional dish of Thailand is Pad Thai stir
fried with rice noodles, shrimp, chicken, egg, bean sprouts and topped
with crushed peanut (7.95). Yellow curry is a wonderful, subtle, delicate
dish with chicken and potatoes in coconut milk (6.95). Whole deep fried
catfish is a gourmet specialty (14.95). Shu Shee Pla Salmon comes in a red curry sauce topped with a
scattering of basil leaves, red pepper and kaffir leaves (12.95). The most
fun is to share the food family style with white rice. Order one entrée
per person max.
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Pad Thai
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Complete lunches including Thai entrée, soup, egg
roll and rice are an excellent value at $5.95
Thai Ranch 1145 Lindero Canyon Road, Westlake
Village 818-991-4499
Most Credit Cards
Shopping Center Parking |
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