Notes from a Food Diva: Am Yours

Lunch at a Thai café - sound exotic?  It is and it's in Douglaston, on Northern Boulevard just off Douglaston Parkway. 

I guess you could say, “What took so long? I reviewed the original Thai restaurant at the same location under the original management during the time I was the restaurant reviewer for the TimesLedger Newspapers for 13 years.

A local schoolteacher told me of her son's college buddy who visited the neighborhood many times, liked the community and was opening a restaurant for his wife, who had a restaurant in Thailand, in Douglaston.

So, last Friday, there we were lunching at the re-creation, known as Am Yours. It looked spacious. The tables and 28 mahogany seats were well placed.  With curtains and bamboo, there was a degree of privacy and screening from Northern Boulevard. We gave a thumbs up to the sophisticated décor: the charcoal ceiling, the sand colored tile floor, the burnt orange walls and the lotus blossom outlined on the brick wall. Good taste is evident. 

I was told that the owner, Chef Oudy (Punsak Puncharoen), had been a pastry chef and created elaborate ice carvings at one point in his career. The artistry carried through.

 As we sat there, the fans overhead rotated slowly. There were nice little touches: the wine holder on the wall with bottles inserted horizontally and the two highly polished coconut shells on the bar.

The banner attached to the awning outside proclaiming a $7 lunch special had seduced me. It certainly proved to be special. For the first course, there was a choice of seven appetizers. We chose the green summer roll with brown sauce and crushed peanuts as well as the fried chicken dumpling with the house soy sauce.

I must say, the chef’s artistry showed in his presentations as well. The fresh cucumber roll was halved diagonally and the two halves stood, ever so chicly, back to back. Dipped in the nutty brown sauce, it was delicious. The dumpling was most delightful as dumplings and, again, most attractively presented on smart white china. Next time, the Shiitake spring roll with sweet chili sauce will be a must. 

And for our main course, we tried the pad Thai noodles, probably the most popular Thai dish, with egg, bean sprouts and crushed noodles. We also sampled drunken noodles with egg, chili, garlic, and fresh basil. I chose the fresh ginger dish with three types of soy sauce and jasmine rice. Again, decisions -- chicken, beef, pork, tofu or vegetable, shrimp, vegetarian chicken or duck? Beef! I loved it and their jasmine rice was pure perfection - each and every kernel. It was molded with black sesame seeds on top.  

Craig Brock, my son, had curry. He debated the red curry or green curry with green beans, bamboo, basil, and jasmine rice. Green won out. And beef. It was a bit on the hot side, but that’s the way he likes it.

We ordered a Thai iced coffee that I simply adored. In Thailand, it is served with condensed milk. Here, it is made with half-and-half and a bit of syrup. Actually, it looked quite exotic. The glass is tall and slender with curves. The cream floats on top like the crème de cocoa my Dad would sip in the living room after supper. We were told that the mint tealeaves were grown in northern Thailand.

This would have been a perfect finale for a summer luncheon, but the foodie in me wanted to sample the desserts. I tried the Thai taro custard, which was something new for me. It was served in a most shareable way - two rectangular pieces on a swatch of banana leaf on a rectangular plate. Craig’s shareable pumpkin custard, two squares on a banana leaf, was a bit of a disappointment. It wasn’t the pumpkin custard I had in a Thai restaurant that used to be on Fourth Street near New York University. I wish he’d chosen the fried banana with ice cream or the mango with sticky rice. Happily, my taro custard was like a delicate bread pudding. Perfect.

Next time.  I'm now going to go all out and choose from the chef specials, curries, noodles, fish and fried rice dishes on the regular menu and have a glass of Australian wine - Yellow Tail white Chardonnay or red Cabernet Sauvignon. Or maybe a Merlot or Pinot Noir.

Have you, like I, been pondering the name of this Douglaston Thai café? Oudy explains it thusly: “In Thailand I was a private chef, now I am yours.” Hence, Am Yours.