Thai Tanic, Washington, D.C.

Yesterday was my friend Doug's birthday, but between All Saints' Day Mass and him having to go to a meeting at the cathedral where he is on the parish council, he didn't celebrate, so we went to dinner after tonight's All Souls' Day Mass at Thai Tanic. Thai Tanic is usually a reliable, inexpensive place to eat (the Washington Post calls them "dirt cheap," but those Post reporters must be used to some pricey dirt; it's one of the paper's "editor's pick" restaurants, too), however, tonight the restaurant reeked of moth balls, and I've no idea why. The food was good, though, and eventually our noses got desensitized to the odor.

For appetizers, Doug started off with a chicken satay, grilled chicken on skewers served with a peanut dipping sauce. I had the potpourri mussels, a serving which was truly large enough for a main course. The mussels were steamed with slices of fresh ginger root (the surprising source of a great deal of spice heat), slivvered scallions, basil, and horizontal slices of some shiny green leaf which was the wrong size for the menu-advertised lemongrass. There was enough of the steaming broth leftover in the bottom on the bowl to make a small soup course, and I would have drunk the tasty liquid, but the main courses arrived as I was eating my last mussel and I let the waitress take my bowl away.

Doug told me he was going to order the pad thai for his main course, but when the waitress was taking our orders, he requested a shrimp pad see eew, instead. I didn't taste it, but it was a mixed dish with wide rice noodles, bean sprouts, ground peanuts, and grilled shrimp. I had one of their two daily specials, crispy roast duck. To demonstrate the high standards of service at Thai Tanic, I can tell you that I ordered my duck without rice (my ubiquitous diet), and the kitchen peeled an entire tomato in one long strip that was then rolled into a rose for my plate, flanked by two fan-cut cucumber halves, all just to keep me from having an empty looking plate. My duck was delicious. The duck was roasted, then cut into small boneless pieces which were dredged in a spice mixture and then flash deep fried. Tiny juliennes of hot Thai red chile peppers were scatterred decoratively over the top.

Very tasty dinner. Happy birthday, Doug!