Currying Flavor

Bangkok House

360 W. 46th St. (betw. 8th & 9th Aves.), 212-541-5943

Sripraphai

64-13 39th Ave.

Woodside, Queens, 718-899-9599

Is this Restaurant Row?" a girl asked her friends on 46th Street. "No!" said one. "I'll place a wager! I'll place a wager!" said another, who clearly knew it was, in fact, Restaurant Row.

My associations of the area are somewhat removed from dining. Right nearby, on 9th Ave., is Fountain House, a residence for the quite mentally ill, and I used to have a little friend there. "Do not fumigate-it's injurious," appeared on an apartment door there one day, written in a careful scrawl. Further down the street on 9th Ave. is the Westway Diner, where one late night I was thrilled to see them "marrying the ketchup," which is the under-practiced art of combining the ketchup from two half-empty containers to make a full one.

Restaurant Row would normally be out of my league, but the prices at Bangkok House, a sister restaurant to Yum Yum on 9th Ave. between 41st and 42nd, are pretty good. I used to enjoy the busy Liberace-type plates and bowls one got at Thai places, but Bangkok House, run by Nira, who once studied hotel management, is a clean and glossy space with a full bar. Her father has installed the one busy touch, a huge flat-screen that was playing a DVD of sea life.

The clientele is a combination of tourists, who rush out at 7:40 to get to their shows, and lucky locals, though I'm sure Fountain House residents don't hit the block much (they have their own hang-out spot, and benefits don't stretch too far.) I asked Nira how she can tell who the tourists are. "Simple," she said, "they look like they're happy."

I got Chu-Chee ($16.95), a whole red snapper deep-fried, topped with a subtle curry and lemongrass sauce. It was curved in a becoming way, so that it looked right at me; they bend it before cooking to create this tableau vivant. The fish melted in my mouth, falling off the bone. It was hard to waver from my usual order of Tom Kha-Gai, Pad Thai, and Chicken with Green Curry sauce, so I ordered the Pad Thai ($8.95) and Green Curry Chicken ($9.95).

The Green Curry had a nice kick to it, the dumplings ($4.95) a combination of shrimp, chicken, herbs and water chestnuts with a chili dipping sauce I was fond of.

The owner of Chelsea Thai recently made me aware that American-style Thai places use a lot of sugar in their curry, which is probably why I liked it, but now I've switched over to that nice post-bite tang. Bangkok House has specials that change daily, including one with lamb, which isn't usually a Thai thing at all. The fried ice cream, with a vodka raspberry sauce, kicked my ass, opening my mind even wider.

It's not as hard to get to Queens as you may think. Sripraphai, acknowledged by many to be the best Thai place in the city, is on 39th Ave in Woodside; you can take the 7 train to 69th street, or the F to Roosevelt, which lets you off at 73rd and Roosevelt. Sripaphai is a mere left turn from 65th and Roosevelt. Like all great places it has its own schedule, closing all day on Wednesdays only, and it's well worth the schlep.

I met Chowhound Dave Sprague there at lunchtime, since there's a 45-minute wait at night. He stumbled on Sripaphai about eight years ago while on his way back from the Belmont Stakes, and immediately called a food-writer friend. "Oh, I know all about it," his jaded friend replied, but it was still a few years before the customers were not almost exclusively Thai.

They've since expanded, gotten rid of the Formica, and are hard at work landscaping the garden. Sprague suggested the A8, a crispy Thai catfish meat salad ($11.50). Just as he promised, it was decorated with catfish shredded into a loofah-sponge appearance and texture. It was pretty good, but I was busy with the Saute Drunken Noodle ($7), which is sort of like lo mein but better, and the Green Curry Chicken ($7), which was spicier than any I've ever had. I don't believe I'll ever be able to go back to the sugary, mild green curry of old.

"This is the kind of place where the staff would actually eat the food they're serving," Sprague pointed out. "A lot of places really dumb it down."

Plus, they have dishes like Pig's Offal Soup with mustard greens, and Stewed Beef Tendon, which I'm saving for my fear-factor column.