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Since my plans to go to Thailand haven’t quite come to fruition yet, popping to Zaap Thai seemed a good compromise. Initially dubious, due to the inauthenticity of most British interpretations of foreign culture and food, we were assured by our waitress that the food was as good as it would ever be outside of Thailand, and Thai families from all over the shop have been popping in. Sold.
We were escorted to our tuk-tuk-cum-table and left to absorb our surroundings: flashing street signs, rows of multi-coloured bunting and the back end of a tube train. Overexcited, we went for a bottle of La Tierra Roscosa merlot (£17.95 a bottle). If beer’s more your thing, Singha or Chang beer is £3.50 – you get a free t-shirt to fight over if you order four.
To start, we had gai satay (chicken satay, £4.75), gung chup pang tod (battered king prawns, £5.95) and moo yang (grilled pork, £5). The satay was made beautifully crunchy with peanut shards, and the properly-sized king prawns were coated in a fluffy batter, complete with sweet chilli dipping sauce. The champion of the selection had to be the pork; tender, succulent and coated in a sweet soy sauce.
We avoided the usual green curry for mains, going for yum ma muang pla tod (£13.95), deep fried sea bass on a bed of spicy green mango salad, and som tum gai yang (£12.50), two roasted chicken breasts and a papaya salad. Although we could have done with a bigger fish, the meat we did get was salty which, coupled with the tangy mango salad, was a match made in heaven. The chicken dish was our favourite of the two. The warm salad, with papaya, bean sprouts, carrots and green beans, came complete with peanuts and a tongue-tinglingly spicy sauce. A steaming pot of sticky white rice calmed the palate, and a side order of pal louk (steamed veg, £3) was just the dose of pak choi we needed.
Pretty stuffed, we weren't up for dessert but our waitress twisted our arms. Figuratively. We tried the traditional khow niew ma muang (£4.95). Juicy mango specially ordered from Thailand sat atop sticky black and white rice, covered in warm coconut milk. Our brains didn’t want us to like it, but we bloody well did. In for a penny, in for a pound, we went the whole hog and ordered a portion of gluoy chuem (£3.95), caramelised banana with vanilla ice cream, which we couldn’t finish, but provided the sweetest happy ending to our Thai adventure. Lucy Manning
Unit B, Bromley Place, NG1 6JG. 0115 947 0204 zaapthai.co.uk
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