Lunch at People's Palace

Greenbelt 3 has a concentration of coffee shops, high-end retail stores, and some of the better dining options in the Greenbelt Mall. For lunch we went to an old Thai favorite of the folks we're staying with: People's Palace. The restaurant serves the cuisine of Thailand with the same freshness and attention to detail that have earned Sri Pra Phai its cult following and Andy Ricker rave reviews for his deeply learned efforts on display at his Pok Pok restaurants. The dishes at People's Palace may not dive as deeply into Thailand's pantry as those at Pok Pok, but there is a consistency throughout the menu that suggests you may not be dining in the Philippines, but 1,300 miles to the west.

Thom Kha Gai (320 Pesos = $7.75) - Chicken, coconut, and galangal soup. Buried in the rich broth were a few inedible ingredients, e.g. lemongrass, lime leaf, and coriander root, whose contribution to the flavor of the soup was undeniable. Mushrooms and whole shallots melt in your mouth from braising in the soup all day.

Son-in-law's eggs (180 pesos = $4.35) - Hard boiled and crispy with sweet fish sauce. These were boiled, then fried, and finished with fried shallots and cilantro. Asia's deviled egg?

Spicy squid salad (380 pesos = $9.20) - Chili, lime, and coriander. This fresh salad has a trace of char running through it from the quick visit the squid pays to the grill before it gets lightly dressed and tossed with the rest of the ingredients. Bell peppers, cucumbers, and mint cool off the otherwise spicy dish.

Spicy beef and eggplant salad (420 pesos = $10.15) - Kaffir, lime, and roast chili.  The hottest dish we had.  Roasting the chilies makes for a more pungent, dry heat sensation that can really stay with you.  Again, cucumber helped cool things down while the eggplant gave the dish a touch of sweetness.

Panaeng curry of beef (490 pesos = $11.85) - Peanuts, basil, and kaffir. This was a really well done Panaeng curry. Tender beef is drowned in the layered complexity of a Panaeng curry, comprised of coriander root, lemongrass, coconut milk, kaffir lime, peanuts, and shrimp paste. The server will spoon rice, should you so desire, from a large bowl onto your plate. It'll help mop up the generous amount of curry that makes for a dish seemingly stew like in presentation.

Pork and green peppercorn (390 pesos = $9.45) - Stir-fry with red curry and long beans. Unique to this exquisite dish is the addition of green peppercorns. They're added to the dish still on the drupes, which are essentially the branches of peppercorn plants. If not brined or preserved in some form, the green peppercorns will quickly decay. For that reason they're a rarity in western cooking. Green peppercorns are boiled and then dried to create black peppercorns. If each individual peppercorn is harvested by hand, the boiling process may be eliminated. It is during the drying process when the peppercorns begin to brown, ultimately becoming black pepper. Before that happens, the green version is defined by a fresher and much less spicy profile than the black peppercorn known worldwide.

Greenbelt 3 | 632 729 2888 | www

Comments

[Shiene Lopez]

Restaurants in Greenbelt Makati offers great foods and delicacies that satisfy your craveness. :)