Back To Bangkok Delight: Thai That Was One Of The Places That Tied Me To Howard County

The tingle on my tongue makes me remember Thailand and remember that Bangkok Delight still stands out.

The Columbia restaurant was one of the first restaurants that I visited in Howard County.  Mrs. HowChow lived off Rte 108, and she knew Jesse Wong's Asean Bistro and Bangkok Delight when we went on early dates.

At one point, I thought this was one of the best restaurants in Howard County.  It won't make that list when I run my annual "Best Restaurants" post next week, but Bangkok Delight's kitchen does put out fresh, flavorful food that make it worth driving past most of the Chinese places around.

We have always loved the curry dishes.  Green curry is bright and spicy.  On our most-recent visit, brown curry was slightly sweet and deeply rich.  It has little "hot pepper" spice, but it thick with the flavors of our honeymoon in Thailand.  Sliced chicken comes with potatoes, raw peanuts, and carrot.  I always cherish some extra rice -- or some rice cooked fresh with leftovers -- to soak up the curry sauce.

Mango sticky rice

In contrast, the special eggplant had a real spicy kick from slivered hot peppers.  It left that tingling tongue.  This isn't as aggressive as Bon Chon's spicy fried chicken.  It's the talented touch where spiciness complements crunchy baby corn, earthy mushrooms and eggplant cooked to that perfect point where it is fork-tender, but not mushy.

Save room for dessert if you like mango.  The mango sticky rice comes warm and sweet -- almost like risotto of rice and sweet coconut milk.  Sliced mango adds sweet tanginess, and you have the dish that made me first notice how much Mrs. HowChow loves dessert.  One early take-out evening, I brought home two mango sticky rices.  That may have been when she decided that I was a keeper.

Bangkok Delight has a cute look with paper umbrellas hanging from the ceiling.  I assume they do a big takeout business because I have never seen it full.  Crowds of Indian folks in House of India and Mango Grove always make me feel confident that the food meets the standards of native palates.  But Bangkok Delight does a good job for me.

If you like Thai, you should also check out Bangkok Garden in Oakland Mills in Columbia. We also need to try Thai Aroma in Ellicott City which I always think about when we're walking into Shin Chon Garden or Tian Chinese Cuisine in the same shopping center.  They're wonderful for Korean (ie. barbecue, rice bowls, etc.) and Korean-Chinese (black bean noodles), respectively.

Bangkok Delight
8825 Centre Park Drive #A
Columbia, MD 21045
410-730-0032

NEAR: The Giant off Rte 108 just west of Howard High School and east of Rte 29. Bangkok Delight is in the shopping area just north of Giant. Look for the Burger King on the corner.

New Lunch Buffet At Bangkok Delight

Bangkok Delight now offers a weekday lunch buffet

A new lunch option comes under the spotlight thanks to David Hobby, the local behind the Strobist Web site.

Bangkok Delight in Columbia is a casual Thai spot that was one of our regular when we lived off Rte 108.  We keep forgetting the place when we are planning dinner.  We really need to go back.  I miss the green curry.

But you should hit the place for lunch because David reports they're introduced a Thai buffet -- $9.50 for six or so entrees, including curries, lo mein, pad thai chicken, etc.  Plus, you get salad, rice, wonton soup, and vegetarian spring rolls with a cherry/chili sauce that David recommends:

It's pretty much a buffet of many of the lunch specials they have always offered, so you can choose as you go. The food is very good, IMO.

The addition of pad thai is nice, as that is almost never on the lunch special menu. The lunch specials are still there. That's nice if you normally have them and bring home a doggie bag, which you obviously can't do from a buffet. 

But HoCo now has fast, decent Thai food for people who do not have much time for lunch. And being two blocks from a Rte. 100 on-ramp will make it convenient for many. 

The attendant said not a lot of people know about it, so they kind of let it wind itself down after 2pm to avoid wasting lots of food. She suggested getting there between 12p and 1p for best quality and selection.

Bangkok Delight
8825 Centre Park Drive #A
Columbia, MD 21045
410-730-0032

NEAR: Bangkok Delight is just up from the Giant off Rte 108 west of Howard High School and east of Rte 29. Bangkok Delight is in the shopping area just north of Giant. Look for the Burger King on the corner.  Centre Park Drive connects to Rte 100, so this is really easy to reach.

Bangkok Delight: Today's Best Restaurant in Howard County

Today, I think the best restaurant in Howard County is Bangkok Delight just off Rte 108 in Columbia.

I already posted that I normally can't even rank my Top 10. But Wednesday night Mrs. HowChow and I drove to Bangkok Delight for dinner, and I ordered three entrees because I honestly couldn't pick just two. The Malaysian brown curry with chicken. The drunken noodles with tofu. And the special eggplant vegetarian stirfry, which was pricey for vegetables at $17 but absolutely delivered.

Bangkok Delight qualifies as a best restaurant because the food is beautifully cooked and because it is subtle and wide-ranging enough to compete with any other kitchen around. The vegetables were exquisite. Stirfried with a light sauce, but they were mostly delicious because someone cooked them perfectly -- cooked through, but still firm. Eggplant. Zucchini. Onion. A few hot peppers that really carried a wallop.

This isn't mere shopping center food. Thai hot peppers are disaster in unskilled hands, but Bangkok Delight serves up just enough for zip and flavor and serves them on pretty plates with a carved-vegetable flower decoration. That skill crosses a broad menu -- laab with its minced chicken and lime flavor, soups that balance lemon grass and coconut milk, stirfries, noodles and curries. Bangkok Delight serves five curries, and they're each unique. This week's brown curry tastes of coriander, cinnamon and cloves in a sauced tinged with coconut milk and peanuts. At the other end, the green curry leads with hot peppers that bring the perfect fire -- except for the few times that it has actually been too hot for me. This kitchen shares the skill and range of places like Iron Bridge Wine Company -- a yardstick for great dining around here.

On top of all that, it's pretty with paper umbrellas hanging from the ceiling. This isn't the gravity of Jordan's Steakhouse or even the decor of Jesse Wong's Asean Bistro. But it's pretty enough for a date, and it's perfect for a night out or to please visitors who love food. All at prices below almost every other great restaurant around. (We spent $50 on a dinner that would have fed three at least.)

In the end, I blew the budget Wednesday because I couldn't pick just one dinner. The eggplant was a special. I wanted a curry. I was amused by a wing appetizer, enticed by some duck options, and finally couldn't leave without

noodles. But pad thai or drunken noodles? We ordered three entrees, then packed a meal's worth of leftovers into containers so that we would still have room for the mango sticky rice. Mrs. HowChow has it every time. Like the kheer at Akbar, Bangkok Delight's sticky rice converts humble grains into a rich, sweet pudding. Simple, normal enough to please even someone without an adventurous palate. And the perfect way to end the best meal in Howard County this week.

(Update:  In 2010, I wouldn't say this is the best restaurant.  We had a few less-perfect meals.  It's nice, but it didn't make my Best Restaurants list for 2009.)

If you like Thai, you should also check out Bangkok Garden in Oakland Mills in Columbia. If you want other Asian, try Korean at Shin Chon Garden or Mirocjo. Click here for my take on the best restaurants in Howard County. Click here for my prior post about Bangkok Delight and how it captures the authentic flavor of Thailand.

Bangkok Delight
8825 Centre Park Drive #A
Columbia, MD 21045
410-730-0032
http://www.bangkokdelight.com/

NEAR: The Giant off Rte 108 just west of Howard High School and east of Rte 29. Bangkok Delight is in the shopping area just north of Giant. Look for the Burger King on the corner.

Bangkok Delight: Thai in Columbia

This is the one place that I can actually say tastes authentic.

Our honeymoon in Thailand was the only trip in which I came home without craving some familiar American food. Bangkok Delight captures the feel of Thailand -- from the pretty paper umbrellas hanging from the ceiling to the mango with sticky rice that we eat every time.

Start with chicken laab -- minced chicken dressed with lime juice, celery, red onion and herbs -- or one of the lemon grass ("tom yum") soups. Those capture the Thai flavor that balances salty, sweet and sour flavors and takes special advantage of lime, herbs and sometimes hot peppers. A first-time visitor will enjoy a chicken or pork satay -- skewers of meat served with a peanut sauce. The adventurous will savor spicy yum salads -- beef, chicken, squid other choices mixed again with lime, spices, celery and scallions.

Then order whatever entree looks good. You're choosing between noodles and rice dishes, picking different curries or stirfries, and deciding whether you want veggies, chicken, pork, fish, etc. Everything has been delicious, and there are specials that extend Bangkok Delight from a basic joint into a creative restaurant. Squash dishes, soft shell crabs and special curries. This kitchen wants to impress you, and entrees from $11 to $20 make it easy to come again and again. It's also great takeout, especially the noodles and curries -- most surprisingly the brown curry that we only tried recently because, well, it was called "brown" curry and "ruby," "red" or "green" sounded more appetizing.

Again, my post about the mango sticky rice.

(Update: My thoughts on Bangkok Delight have changed. For a while in 2008, I thought it was the best restaurant in Howard County. But I have been disappointed several times in 2009. There are comments below from The Minx, who was really disappointed in November 2009. I really don't know what has happened.)

If you like Thai food, go check out H Mart or check out (literally, from the library) "Thai Food and Cooking" -- the cookbook that I carry around the H Mart.

(If you want Thai, many other people -- including a handful who disparage Bangkok Delight -- swear by Bangkok Garden in the Oakland Mills Village Center. Check out a note and see the address is below.)

Bangkok Delight

8825 Centre Park Drive #A

Columbia, MD 21045

410-730-0032

http://www.bangkokdelight.com/

NEAR: The Giant off Rte 108 just west of Howard High School and east of Rte 29. Bangkok Delight is in the shopping area just north of Giant. Look for the Burger King on the corner.

(I promised myself that I wouldn't write many negative comments, but the Mexican restaurant next to Bangkok Delight is one of the worst that I have ever eaten. Eat at Burger King first.)

Bangkok Garden

5810 Robert Oliver Place

Columbia, MD 21045

410-992-9553

http://www.bkkgarden.com/

NEAR: They're in the Oakland Mills village center.

Delicious: Mango Sticky Rice at Bangkok Delight

The sweet taste of coconut milk, the dense texture of a pudding, and fruity bite of mango slices spread across the top.

Mango sticky rice is a wonderful dessert that you'll have after a great dinner if you order it at Bangkok Delight. It's sweet and delicious, exotic enough to be exciting but normal enough to please even someone without an adventurous palate. And light light enough to enjoy even if you gorged on Thai dinner.

And it travels well, so it's great for takeout. We have hosted several dinners where we served Bangkok Delight curries, then mango sticky rice. Don't refrigerate it because the rice gets hard.

Check here for a full post about Bangkok Delight or check out the H Mart for Thai ingredients and other eating spendors.

Bangkok Delight
8825 Centre Park Drive
Columbia, MD 21045
410-730-0032

NEAR: The Safeway on Rte 108 near the entrance to Rte 100. Bangkok Delight is in the strip shopping center up from the Safeway's center. Look next to the Burger King.

http://www.bangkokdelight.com/mainHome.html