Am I in Thailand?!

Two Mondays ago, Manami and I met up with our Thai friends - Air and Pair - for a Thai night together.  We met downtown at a Thai restaurant called BanThai Lanna.  It was owned by a Thai lady living in Sendai, and the waiter was also a young Thai guy who studied at the Tohoku University.  He spoke English as well as some Japanese and Thai.

 

The place was decked out in everything Thai.  Wooden frame ways, intricate drapes, and lots of Buddhist idols and symbols.  It was like stepping into Thailand for a few hours!  Manami even forgot that she was in Japan!


I had never eaten really authentic Thai food before.  The most I've eaten was Pad Thai from Bangkok Chef in Honolulu.  This was also Manami's first experience eating Thai food EVER.  She seemed pretty nervous about it.  I was also a little nervous that it would be crazy spicy.  But everything was just right.  Of course, Air and Pair are experts when it comes to Thai food.  They ordered all the best stuff.

The first course was deep fried chicken wrapped in some kind of leaves.  The next course was a soup that had lots of coconut milk, chicken, spices, and cilantro.  The third course was another soup that was very similar to curry.  A little spicy, and green colored.  The fourth dish was classic pad thai.  It was the best pad thai I've ever had!  Surprisingly a lot sweeter than the others I've had in the past.  This was definitely my favorite dish.  The main course was rice, with chicken, mixed veggies, and a fried egg on top.

Soooo yummy!

Manami and I both took lots of pictures of every dish that came out.

Me taking pictures.  Pair enjoying her food!

The owner of the restaurant was so kind, she gave us complimentary dessert.  Watermelon (big and juicy) from Kumamoto.  Then she gave us another free dessert!  It was sweet rice, sweet potato, and coconut milk.  It was delicious!

Air and Pair were like at home.  They talked with the owner and waiter for a very long time.  It seemed that we would never get out of there.  After saying goodbye about 3 or 4 times, we finally left.

Us with Air and Pair.

At last, Manami and I dropped off Air and Pair at their apartment.  Sadly, this was our last time with them.  They both went back to Thailand.  We had another long goodbye in Manami's car.  And lots of attempts at taking our last pictures together.

Thanks to Manami's keitai and fb!

It was a great, fun night out.  Here's hoping and praying to seeing these two lovely ladies again.  I'm definitely making a pit stop to Thailand to visit them in the future one day.  Can't wait!