Faithful Crowds May Follow Thai Restaurateur To Burien

----------------- RESTAURANT REVIEW -----------------

Thai Dusit, 653 S.W. 153rd, Burien, 431-1491. Open for lunch 11 a.m-2:30 p.m.; dinner, 5-9 p.m., daily. Beer, wine. No-smoking area. Wheelchair-accessible. Reservations accepted but not necessary. Credit cards, no personal checks.

Restaurateur Lucia Pramoulpong opened one of the area's first authentic Thai establishments 10 years ago, sparking a culinary trend that continues to flourish through the region.

She left the former Parichad in downtown Seattle to open a new restaurant in Sacramento, but she's back with her latest venture, the 10-month-old Thai Dusit restaurant in Burien, and it's only a matter of time until the faithful crowds rediscover her wonderful cuisine.

The small but charming storefront establishment, attractively decorated in pastel greens and pink, Thai Dusit features quiet, efficient and friendly service. Pramoulpong will gladly advise customers new to Thai cuisine, with its peanut sauces and spicy dishes - even planning a complete course of meals for the entire table.

The menu includes her famous Tom Yum hot and sour soup ($5.25) and the "Moonlight Bay" house special - a fiery stir-fry of green beans cooked in chili paste with a choice of chicken, pork or shrimp ($5.50).

The aptly named "Flaming Flower" special ($7.95) is not to be missed: a superb combination of crab, shrimp, mussels, scallops, cabbage and onion in a red curry sauce that arrives wrapped in a foil flower atop a bed of flaming lettuce. As a Thailand-traveled companion explained his choice of the dish, "How many times do you ever get to eat a flaming flower?" Indeed.

Truth in advertising abounds in Pramoulpong's menu: The Salmon Delight ($5.95) was just so, a small, pie-shaped mix of steamed salmon chunks in curry paste with coconut milk, served at room temperature on a bed of vegetables. The exterior, a custard-like blend of eggs and fish, along with the topping of fresh basil leaves and coconut, was unusual enough to elicit several comments of surprise and pleasure.

Thai Dusit offers an entire page of barbeque specials, all served with soup and ranging in price from $8.25 to $10. The chicken, marinated and seared in a special honey sauce, was deliciously moist, but three of the four pieces served were skimpy in terms of meat. We wanted to sample the curiously titled "Wonder Pork," marinated in garlic, black pepper and Thai spices, but found too many other enticing dishes.

Standard Thai dishes are done well, such as the hot and plentiful Phad Thai ($5.50), small rice noodles stir-fried with egg, tofu, a delicious ground peanut sauce, chicken and prawns served with fresh bean sprouts. The Yum Nua, a yummy appetizer salad of spicy grilled beef, tomato, onion, cucumber, lime juice and lettuce ($5.95), left lips pleasantly tingling and was large enough to feed two. Don't miss the Sa-te Kai, five skewers of moist chicken strips marinated in coconut milk, curry powder and herbs and served with peanut sauce ($4.95), or the delicately fried spring roll ($3.50).

For dessert, try a fried banana with ice cream, or the homemade coconut ice cream, with jackfruit and green chunks of tapioca (each $2).

Discount coupons are available on the back of Burien-area Thriftway grocery receipts, and Pramoulpong hands out others for half-off lunch or four dinner entrees for the price of three to first-time visitors.

Pramoulpong hopes to install a stage soon for Thai classical dances, with live accompaniment from traditional Thai instruments.

"Ten years ago no one knew about Thai food," she said. "Now there are three Thai restaurants in this neighborhood alone." If hers is an example, that's no wonder.

Restaurant reviews are a regular Thursday feature of the South County Life section. Reviewers visit restaurants unannounced and pay in full for all their meals. When they interview members of the restaurant management and staff, they do so only after the meals and services have been appraised.