Coconut Curry Noodles

(Original post August 15, 2012 @ mtable.wordpress.com.)

One of the things I miss about living in a large, dynamic city like Atlanta is the food. Atlanta has sooooo many restaurants. And I don't mean places like Applebees or Ruby Tuesdays. I mean quality authentic non-chain hole-in-the-wall restaurants. Whenever we had friends or family visit, we had a wealth of eating establishments in which to partake. From the Richard Blais' famous Flip Burger to the lesser known, yet always busy, Thumbs Up Diner, we never wanted for a place to eat in Atlanta. A favorite of mine, was a Thai restaurant called Amaryn's*. My sister-in-law brought us here on our first trip to the city. I thought it was good but nothing special. We ventured back a few weeks later, and that's when I discovered their Chicken Panang Rice Bowl. This dish is possibly one of my favorites of all time. The sauce (or perhaps you'd call it a broth?) was thick and creamy. It was the perfect amount of sweet and spicy. I've never found another panang or any sweet curry dish quite like it. Thus, when I came across this dish, I was hoping that maybe... just maybe... I'd find a similar flavor.

The Pin: Coconut Curry Noodles by Considering the Campbells

Difficulty: 4ish (1 = Canned Soup, 10 = Turducken)

Even though I've been eyeing this pin for a while, it was ultimately my husband who chose it. Let's see how he did! The ingredients.

Olive oil not pictured here.

The olive oil is not pictured above because the list of ingredients on the website didn't include olive oil, so I wasn't aware I needed it until I'd already snapped my picture. I guess you'll just have to use your imagination.

There were a few vague points in this recipe. I had to use a bit of common sense. For example, when using the skillet, the site does't specify how hot the pan should be. I went with medium. It's hard to go wrong with medium heat, right? Also, the ingredient list calls for "a handful of baby carrots." Well, is that a figurative handful or a litteral handful? And if so, who's handful? Mine, my husbands, my sons? Maybe I'm being persnickety (yeah, I just went there), but to be fair it was unclear. I decided to match the amount of carrots to the amount of peppers.

Did I do good?

Just a side note on the carrots. The only reason I gave this recipe a  difficulty level of 4 instead of a 3, was those damn carrots. Let's just say my knife skills are... lacking. I have a tendency to cut the corners of my fingernails when doing "fancy" knife work. (I suppose that's better than cutting through my finger though.) Not to mention, my knives are awful. They were the $29.99 special over five years ago! Hells yeah! I know, I really need to upgrade. So, thin slicing carrots is a difficult task for me.

The recipe called for 1/4th cup of soy sauce. Now, when I'm testing these pins, I try to be as true the recipe as possible. Having said that, I only used 1/8th cup of soy sauce. I like soy sauce, but 1/4th a cup sounded like way too much. I figured I could always add more later if it needed it.

Despite my substandard knife skills (I didn't cut my finger nail!) and the recipe's imprecise directions, I somehow managed to complete the dish. And here is the final product.

Left: Mine - Right: Considering the Campbell's

I'm no plating master, but I think it came out pretty. But how did it taste? Have you ever eaten a dish that seems okay at first but tastes progressively worse after the first bite? It's one of those, at least for me. I started out thinking it was okay, but about 1/4th of the way in, I just couldn't finish it. I hate wasting food, but I had to dump it. My husband just plain didn't like it. I think he ate maybe two bites.

How best to describe it? It tasted like slightly spicy chicken broth with soy sauce in it. In a way, it was almost bland. The coconut milk was almost non-existant. I could barely taste it. The carrots and peppers were nice. They added a nice crunchy texture to the rice noodles. My husband and I both agree that the cilantro looked pretty but didn't go with the dish.

Needless to say, Coconut Curry Noodles didn't match up to the Chicken Panang Rice Bowl. This is definitely something I would not make again.

Final Rating: 2 (1 = Terrible, 10 = Awesome)

*In Googling the link to Amaryn's I've discovered they've closed. QQ.