The Takeout

Ruang Thong Thai

942 New North Rd, Mount Albert

Ph: (09) 846 7374 Cost: $53.90 for three

IN:

Eating spicy food in hot weather is known to reduce the body’s internal temperature. Plus, this is the sex issue, so spicy it has to be. On a recent windless evening weeknight, averaging 28C in the shade, we were too weak to cook but could manage a swipe or two on the Uber Eats app.

OUT:

There are roadworks everywhere, in case you hadn’t noticed. So when I watched the little Uber car spinning out on the app like a dumb toy that had lost its compass, I had to look away because it was too painful. Due to works at the intersection of Western Springs Rd and St Lukes Rd blocking left or right-turning traffic, the car had to do a U-ey and travel back the way it had come, then try to get into our street some other way. Fortunately there is another way but it was agony watching that little car trying to work it out. I did wonder about the Uber deliveries and how screwed up they possibly are by the chaos out there.

THE TAKEOUT:

As Tom Petty sang, the waiting is the hardest part. But it eventually arrived. We ordered two jasmine rice which came in four environmentally hostile containers. But the rice was fluffy and hot. One roasted duck curry (the duck had not been cooked in the sauce but had been added later, which might explain the lack of flavour), one roti (crispy and difficult to share with the others), one serving of Thai fishcakes (divine, chewy in a good way, and tasty) one tom kha with prawns (full of vegetables, loads of prawns, coconutty with a bangin’ spicy finish — excellent and also difficult to share). Overall, the offering wasn’t mind-blowing, but just delicious enough.