Photograph by Kathy De La Torre
Chutima (Judy) Thongpreecha, is the owner of Bangkok Taste, a Thai restaurant in Los Gatos.
Bangkok Taste cooks up a culinary tour of Thailand
By Suzanne Cristallo
Tucked in a small, very American, very '70s shopping mall on Blossom Hill Road is a cool and restful spot, reminiscent of another world. The walls are a soft blue and plants flourish in their pots. The aromas of curry and coconut steal into the air--the staples of Bangkok Taste.
The Thai restaurant has been part of the east Los Gatos neighborhood since 1993, when Judy Thongpreecha, a native of Bangkok, Thailand, leapt in innocence--but with the assurance of a self-believer--into her first business.
The small restaurant featured the food of her homeland, which she did not know how to cook. Within a few months, her only other helper, the cook, quit. "So I learned how to cook the hard way," she recalls with a smile, "because I had to do it."
Alone in the business, she took orders in the front, hurried to the back to cook them, served them, cleared tables, washed dishes and ran the cash register. It was a 12-hour-a-day, seven-day-a-week job. It still is, but today she can afford the help of a cook, a cook's helper, a dishwasher and several waitresses. "Business is good," she says. "I've worked myself up until I'm proud of myself and happy about my work."
"Judy," as her customers like to call her (her given name, Chutima, is more difficult to remember) serves traditional Thai, or Siamese, fare. Her customers, she says, are "90 percent American" and, generally, regulars from the surrounding neighborhood. Their favorite soups are chicken in coconut milk soup or hot and sour soup with fish or shrimp. Popular entrees are pork or beef marinated in honey and spices and grilled pork marinated in garlic and Thai seasonings. Entrees average $7.95, and large soups--a meal in themselves--cost around $8.95
For someone trying Thai food for the first time, Judy recommends starting with a chicken satay appetizer. The chicken is grilled on skewers and served with the house peanut sauce and cucumber salad. For the entree, she suggests mussamun curry beef--a stew of beef cubes in curry and coconut gravy with carrots, potatoes, peanuts and pineapple.
Thailand's tropical climate produces the abundant variety of fruits and vegetables reflected in Bangkok Taste's menu, like bamboo shoots, black mushrooms, bell peppers, citrus and coconut. Even the desserts reflect the tropics, such as deep-fried banana with honey, sweet sticky rice with mango, and ice cream with jackfruit and coconut milk.
It's not all work for Judy. She met an "American friend" through her restaurant, who has helped her in promoting the business through ads in local papers and the Internet. Through her website, www.bangkoktaste.com, customers from Mountain View, Fremont and Morgan Hill have discovered her. She's also picked up some big catering jobs, with a special menu designed to serve large quantities of food at special prices.
Although it's not all work, there's still very little time for recreation. Sunday morning is Judy's time off. It's spent at home in Almaden Valley with her friend, or shopping. On special holidays, when the restaurant is closed for a full day, the pair may venture out, perhaps on a drive. Otherwise, "I am in the restaurant always," she says of the place where she feels she has become a stronger person.
"My customers always make me feel good--like I want to be there for them," she concludes happily.
Bangkok Taste, 1769 Blossom Hill Road, Los Gatos. Open for lunch Mon.-Sat. 11 a.m.-3 p.m., dinner daily until 9 p.m. Call for take-out. 408.358.2525.
Saratoga, California Since 1955
