Restaurant review: Sugar and spice Hanan Radwan discovers what Thai life is all about A wise man once said: "Life is like Thai food. Sometimes it is sweet. Other times, the heat and spice are enough to blow your brains out." Seven vivacious girls and myself can vouch for that adage. Succumbing to my choice of Sabai Sabai restaurant for our girls' night out, most of my friends were hard hit by the facts and flavours of Thai cuisine. Their experience with the food reminded me of their coping mechanisms with the vicissitudes of life. Sounding similar to its Arabic synonym " showaya showaya," Sabai Sabai -- according to the head waiter -- is the Thai version of "take it easy." In a month or so, this Thai- cum-Japanese restaurant will undergo a name and interior design change destined at underscoring its Thai origins. The Thai Elephant is the proposed new name. More Thai lanterns, paintings and other trimmings will be added to the roomy interior.\ Such additions may well be justified. With the exception of a few Thai umbrellas acting as wall lampshades, a couple of wall engravings on top of two corner couches, and woolen table mats with Thai motifs, the décor is simple but lacks identity. When it comes to the food, however, there is no mistaking. The flavours are, in a word, authentic. And the chefs and waiters make no apologies for the unfamiliar taste. Egyptian or no Egyptian, your Pad Thai and curry will not be tailored to your local taste buds. Abhorring raw fish, most of the girls flicked aside the tiny sushi menu and soberly studied the descriptions of the Thai dishes on offer. I shared the Tom-Yam-Kung-Nam- Sai, a light hot sour soup with shrimp and herbs, with one of the girls. Arriving in a big bowl, the piping hot clear broth was a mini-pond where five crunchy prawns floated lazily between lemongrass, coriander and kafeer lime leaves. Although I found the citrus-flavoured soup a heartwarming delight, my friend cringed as she extracted the sturdy lemongrass leaves from between her teeth and scrupulously deposited them in a remote corner of her plate. She was soon consoled by the Thai papaya salad, a fiery concoction of papaya strips sprinkled with whole peanuts and doused with a chili-lemon dressing. Bleary eyed and coughing from the heat, we nevertheless polished off the fruit noodles in no time. Another starter -- the Chicken Satay -- did not disappoint. Threaded in four wooden skewers, the chicken cubes -- marinated in coconut milk and curry "power" -- were moist and delicious. The sweet richness of the accompanying peanut sauce was adequately balanced by the fire and crunch of its sister accompaniment, a cucumber salad marinated in a dressing of sugar and chili peppers. One of the restaurant's most popular dishes is the Pad- Thai-Kung-Sod, a heap of creamy flat noodles stir-fried in soy sauce, jazzed up with minuscule bits of fried tofu, omelet and chili peppers, and crowned with a handful of succulent prawns. Prawns are always big and plentiful at Sabai Sabai. In the Pad-Priew-Wan-Kung, the scrumptious shellfish curl up cosily in a deep pool of sweet-and-sour sauce that teems with chunks of green and yellow peppers, slivers of lemongrass, and large half-moons of pineapple. I ladled spoonfuls of the sauce on my Pad-Thai noodles and reveled in a fantasy of sugar and spice. Meanwhile, the girls were busy passing around the Nuer-Numman-Hoi, a mound of buttery slices of stir-fried beef bathed in a creamy oyster sauce spiked with ginger. To most of them, that dish was a winner. One of the more adventurous girls ordered the crispy noodles and was then undecided about her choice. She liked the crunch of the fried strips, but in the end pronounced the dish "too sweet -- like candied popcorn". All in all, however, the girls survived the experience and braved the barriers of taste with grace and patience. For example, one of them, to distract her two-year-old son, ordered lemon juice for him and then had a harder time calming him down after he took a sip of the "juice" -- a sickly sweet blend of sugar and lemongrass. But she bore her troubles with quiet resignation. Another one asked for French fries and was not fazed when the waiter responded snidely: "Madam, you are not at McDonald's. This is a Thai restaurant." She accepted the facts and ordered fried rice. C'est la vie, after all. Sabai Sabai 21 Al-Maahad Al-Swisri St, Zamalek Tel: 2735 1546 Dinner for eight: LE807
