Thai Paradise

It has been a few months since we’ve had any Oriental cuisine. I decided on Thai Paradise because I had been there years ago at their previous location and remember it being very good. It worked out that we chose something fairly close as the weather was not the best, with heavy downpours and high winds. We got lucky in that it calmed down when we were out on the roads.

Arriving early as we always do, we were seated right away. We took a look at the appetizers while we waited for our drinks and found some good ones! The kids really like the dumplings so they ordered those. Their biggest decision was steamed or fried, which they went for fried. I wasn’t planning on getting anything but when I saw lettuce wraps on there I had to get some. Unfortunately Chloe can’t eat peanuts because they cause her pea allergy to act up, so only Alex and I could have them. They were delicious. I may just get that as my meal next time.

Chloe took a little while to decide. I think she was going back and forth between noodles or a rice dish. She finally decided on the Orange chicken, which I think she had for the first time at Panda Express and liked it. This was much better than Panda Express. I obviously had to try it and it was the orangiest orange chicken I’ve ever had. I don’t know how they infused that much orange flavor into it but they did. So if you like orange, I’d highly recommend this one but if you’re just “ok” with it, you may want to choose something else.

I wasn’t sure what Alex was going to go for. He asked a few questions and was all over the place. He ultimately decided on a Korean dish called Bulgogi. This was strips of sirloin marinated in a Korean BBQ sauce with scallions and onions. It came out sizzling hot in a skillet like fajitas. I thought it was really good, but Alex didn’t truly care for it. He commented about how the pieces of steak that are soft and easy to chew are good but that there are some tough pieces. Maybe I’ll remind him next time that steak from an Oriental restaurant is not the filet he’s used to!!

I wanted to go with something from the Thai section since after all, we were at Thai Paradise. I almost went with the Sweet Medley, which is pork and shrimp in a sweet and sour sauce with onions, bell peppers, pineapples, cucumbers, and tomatoes. But then I noticed something similar that was labeled with the spicy symbol so I went for it instead. The dish I went with was Island Chicken, which was chicken tossed in a brown coconut sauce with carrot, onion, pineapple, and red bell peppers. I’m not sure why it’s labeled as spicy as I didn’t think it was at all, but it was still very good. It was basically your traditional sweet and sour chicken.