Our Man Sietsema: 'A Real-Estate Jinx has been Broken
Categories: Our Man Sietsema
This week, Our Man does what he does best, discovering what sounds like a real gem in Astoria. Poodam's Thai Cuisine specializes in Issan regional cooking, which might as well mean "delicious," because a lot of dishes that we know and love originate there, but have become less spicy and pungent in other parts of Thailand and especially here. some Issan staples are meat salads (larb), sticky rice, papaya salad. We enjoy hot, skanky, fermented flavors, and Sietsema's description have us ready to run to Astoria:
Sausage abounds on the Isaan menu. Another variety resembles the paté in a Vietnamese banh mi sandwich. It comes in thin slices in "pork sausage salad" ($10.95), tossed with purple onions, holy basil, shredded screwpine, shiny lime leaves, and tiny pickled bird chilies. Originating in the city of Chiang Mai, which lies northwest of Isaan near the Chinese border, "Thai sour sausage" is notably less sour than sai aua. In fact, it tastes a lot like a Polish kielbasa, which means it's made with pork and loaded with garlic.
POODAM'S THAI CUISINE
44-19 Broadway
Astoria
(718) 278-3010
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