New Thai restaurant opens in Havertown

HAVERFORD » The perfect combination. That is what Huong Bui has found in her new endeavor, the Sugar and Spice Thai restaurant which opened in early January.

Bui is combining her expertise working in Thai restaurants for the past 25 years with her love of for making desserts.

Bui, is a native of Vietnam, came to the United States in the early 1980s and has lived in Upper Darby for the past 20 years. During those years she and her husband, Ted Tassanapark, who is from Thailand, have worked in multiple Thai restaurants and ran their own takeout place in 30th Street station.

“Call me Kim,” said Bui, as she took a few minutes to talk about her new business. “I worked for many, many restaurants including catering at the Westin, in Philadelphia. I do banquets, weddings and meetings. I’ve been working in Thai restaurants many years.

“We’re starting out slowly,” Bui said. “Heng’s Express was here for past seven years. I used to work for Heng. He sold it to a couple of people, the last person was my neighbor who retired. They went back to Thailand and sold it to me. It’s good for a small family business.

“I love making desserts. Homemade macarons are a favorite. We also have creme bulee, chocolate and vanilla,” Bui said. “In the summer we’re thinking of doing mango with sticky rice but I have to wait until summer because mango is best in the summertime. In the winter you can’t get really good sweet mango. So that is why we don’t do it in winter”

The restaurant, which focuses on takeout, has a contract with UberEats. but does have a small seating area.

Bui said some of her most popular best dishes include Drunken Noodles, which are stir fried flat noodles with chili, garlic, carrots, onion zucchini, bell pepper, tomato and fresh basil. Another item she thinks will be popular is her Pad Thai, pan-fried Thai rice noodles, eggs, tofu, bean sprouts and peanuts tossed in a sweet tangy tamarind sauce.

Appetizers she thinks will be popular include the chicken curry puff, which includes chicken potatoes, carrots and curry powder that is wrapped in a flakey flour dough, and Thai nuggets, which consists of crab meat and shrimp with shallots, garlic powder wrapped in tofu skin and served with cucumber salad and peanuts.

“My desserts and more quality food, I think are the main reason to have people come back,” Bui said.

PETE BANNAN - MEDIANEWS GROUP Sugar and Spice Thai food & more opened on West Chester Pike in Havertown this January. While the shop has a few tables, it will focus on takeout.

PETE BANNAN - MEDIANEWS GROUP Huong Bui Sugar and Spice Thai food & more opened on West Chester Pike in Havertown this January. She is seen here on the left holding homemade macarons with her daughter Kristine Tassananpark.