Roat Osha Thai @ Minneapolis

I'm a big fan of Thai food. I've blogged about Thai food numerous times, and attempted at cooking Thai food countless times... Of course, I still like to go out and eat the American-Thai food once a while. It's still better than me sitting at home eating Thai Tom Yum Flavored instant noodles.

Roat Osha is located on Hennepin and 27th street. It was opened sometime this summer of 2009. Brand new place, same Thai menu I would say. The number of items here is just what people usually expect out of an American-Thai place. The only surprising thing is the Spicy Level. Raning from 1 to 5, with 2 being the basic for all orders. I like to eat spicy food, but a 3 was pretty spicy for me. Not the good spicy, but just the mouth burning swollen kind of spicy. If you know what I mean... this kind of spicy is from the use of cheap spice...

Some of my favorite items from Roat Osha. It's my favorite because it's less common among the American-Thai restaurants, and it's decent enough to make it on my frequent-order-list:

Appetizer: Thai Fried Calamari

The calamari here is very lightly battered, making the calamari very cripsy and fresh. However, the batter/frying oil wasn't hot enough, and you can kind of taste the old/cold oil (?) I am just picky like that, especially when it comes to greasy fried food. But with the Thai-sweet-n-sour and Jalapeno-infused dipping sauces, this is still my favorite item from Roat Osha.

Salad: Green Papaya Salad

This is a classic Thai dish. The most important ingredient here is definitely the Green Papaya. Green papaya is basically an unriped papaya. It's, well, green, and is eaten either raw or cooked. The green papaya is shredded and it tastes like a tard cucumber to an extend. Those we can buy in the US are usually also shredded, packaged and frozen. But hey, that saves some work in shredded that big papaya, not a big ideal to get the packaged ones. Just make sure you thaw it well, so the salad won't start dripping water... ha!
The salad is made of cherry tomatos, dried shrimps, raw string beans, chili peppers... and in Roat Osha, also a wedge of lettuce. The sauce is made of fish sauce, lime juice, salt and palm sugar. Ganish with sprinkles of grounded peanuts. It's definitely a summery dish, and I wonder how much weight can I lose eating just that and nothing else for the summer. Very healthy and yummy.

Entrees: Thai Cashew Chicken

I have been to Roat Osha for probably 3 times already. It's in a convenient location, available parking, and a nice selection of cocktails (Thai-infused) and drink menu. Nice atmosphere and friendly staff. You can expect to see me there again, and again. hehe!