thai square

i meant to write this last week when my mouth was still burning, but the week was busy, my parents were here over the weekend, and the internet is down in my apartment. alas.

so. thai square. whoa.

it’s a tiny, random place in arlington on columbia pike, right off of glebe road. i came across it in my quest for The Best Thai Food in DC when i was looking for a place to take torie to for her birthday. (yes, she’s a lucky roommate. this was on top of the pistachio cake.) it was the best thai food i’ve ever had, hands down. i’ve been thinking about it since i left to the point where i may be going back tonight, a mere six days later.

we began the evening with green papaya salad, one of my favorite dishes and a thai hallmark. if you haven’t had it before, it’s shredded green papaya — which is crunchy and tangy and not at all similar to the more common orange papaya — with tomatoes, shrimp, maybe scallions, crushed peanuts, lime juice, fish sauce, probably other things i’m forgetting, and chile. in my own experience, the chile is usually downplayed. i actually wasn’t aware that green papaya salad was supposed to make you sweat.

i’m not gonna lie. i borderline cried and it was brilliant. it was especially refreshing to be taken seriously when i said that i could handle spicy food. for years, i went to indian places and asked for my food spicy and my vindaloo would still come out on the level of korma, presumably because i’m white. after waitressing in an indian restaurant, however, i learned to ask for my food “desi spicy” — “desi” is how south asians refer to themselves — and now people know i’m for serious. but i digress. the salad was intense.

we moved on to a plate heaped with fried tofu, which we only ordered because i had read about this particular dish on the forum where thai square was recommended. served with a sweet sauce, they were irregularly shaped chunks with golden brown outsides filled with almost equal parts of tofu and air and they were wonderful. the plate was also a highly imperative relief after the salad. speaking of which, in lieu of what had happened and how i had almost died during the salad, we all ordered thai iced tea to control the impending raging conflagration of our entrees.

torie ordered pad thai, varun got vegetarian pad thai, and i opted for catfish with vegetables and copious thai basil. all three were delicious and wildly spicy, but in such a way that we were all initially tricked into thinking they weren’t that spicy and then realized that we were red in the face and rationing our teas. each dish was complex and fragrant and bursting with everything that makes thai food so good.

i leaked that it was torie’s birthday while she got up to wash her hands and they brought over mango with sticky rice, sang happy birthday, and took polaroids of us, on which they wrote “happy birthday torie!” there was even a candle in the mango. it was so cute.

on top of everything, it was cheap. three people, two appetizers, three entrees, three iced teas, and one complimentary dessert later (well, i think it was complimentary — the bill was in thai, so i really have no idea), we dropped $61, including tax and a generous tip because we were all enamoured with the restaurant and our whole experience there.

basically, you should go to thai square as soon as possible, but make sure you have your wits about you and, for the love of god, don’t forget to order iced tea. don’t go tonight, though, because i’ll probably be there crying again.

thai square, 3217 columbia pike, arlington, va,  22204.  (703)685-7040