Siam Smiles - Lots of Good Choices

Siam Smiles on Route 34 South in Aberdeen has a dinner menu with over 65 authentic Thai dishes, appetizers, soups, and salads to choose from. Not to mention the nearly two dozen lunch selections.

Lest you find yourself in foreign territory when gazing upon their menu for the first time, here is a brief guide to the basic categories, as well as a sampling of individual items and prices. I've included the numbering you'll find in the dinner portion of their menu.

Appetizers (1 - 9)

Try one of their interesting appetizers, which run from $5.50 - $7.50. They include:

• Mee Grob consists of shrimp, raisins, and scallion with tamarind sauce and crispy rice noodles topped with shredded omelette.
• Satay is grilled marinated chicken or beef on a skewer that is served with peanut sauce and cucumber salad.
• Vegetable Spring Roll, Shrimp and Scallop Dumpling, and Shrimp Roll are served with peach, soy vinagrette, and a special house green sauce, respectively.

Soup and Salad (10 - 18)

They serve a wide variety of soups and salads that run between $5.50 and $7.50.

• Their soups include a choice of chicken or shrimp hot and sour soup with mushrooms, bell pepper, scallion, cilantro, lemongrass, and galanga. Glass Noodle Soup comes with ground pork, Asian vegetables, tofu, mushrooms, scallion and cilantro in clear broth.
• Their salads include one with roasted duck tossed with shallot, carrots, green apples, pineapple, scallion, cashew nuts and Thai dressing. Their House Salad contains cucumbers, tomato, onions, carrot, tofu, and potato chips over lettuce with a peanut sauce dressing.

Main courses (19 - 66)

They have 7 recommended dishes (34 - 40). I recently enjoyed their Pad Panang Moo Tod, which consists of sauteed crispy fried pork with string beans, carrots, and lime leaves in their house special chili sauce for $12.50.

They serve five popular Thai curry dishes (29 - 33). You can pick from red, green, yellow, massaman, and panang curry with chicken, beef or pork at $11.50, or with shrimp or squid at a few dollars more.

They have a section labeled simply entrees (19 - 28) that, like the curry dishes above, have different prices based on the choice of meat. Prices range from $10.50 to $14.50. Pad Num Mun Hoy, for example, comes with your choice of meat sauteed with mushrooms and asparagus in an oyster sauce over white jasmine rice.

They have noodle or rice dishes (57 - 65) that are reasonably priced at between $8.50 and $9.50. My wife recently enjoyed Siam Noodle, which consists of sauteed thin rice noodles with chicken and shrimp, egg, onions, bell pepper, scallion, bean sprouts, and curry powder for $9.50.

Their shrimp, scallop, fish, and duck dishes (41- 56) are exotic but premium priced. Enjoy them on a special occasion if your budget is tight. Here are only a few of the many choices:

• Pla Prew Wan is fish with tomato, cucumber, pineapple, onions, and scallion in sweet and sour sauce for $18.50.
• Double Delight is sauteed shrimp and scallops with onions, bell pepper in Thai basil and chili for $17.00.
• Scallop Curry is pan fried scallops topped with bamboo shoots, eggplant, bell pepper, basil in green curry paste and coconut milk for $17.00.
• Ped Khing is duck served with ginger, celery, onions, scallion, mushrooms, and bell pepper for $18.50.

A vegetarian dish (66) includes vegetables with tofu with your choice of red or green curry; Thai basil and chili; garlic and black pepper sauce; or oyster sauce.

Siam Smiles is at 1016 Route 34 South. They are open Tuesday thru Thursday and Sunday til 9 pm and Friday and Saturday til 10 pm. They are open weekdays at 11:30 am and 3 pm on weekends. They are closed on Mondays.