On the side
THAI SPICE ★★★
7441 Paseo del Norte NE, Suite A, 5031521, thaispiceabq.com
On a recent Saturday night, I put in an order at Thai Spice. It was an easy decision: I had been pining for Thai food and its spicy chilies, fragrant curries and savory, chewy noodles for weeks, and Thai Spice is one of the more highly regarded places of that genre in the city.
Speaking of the menu. I can vouch for the egg rolls, as they used to be my go-to option for work potlucks. Both the pork version (three for $6.95), with silver noodles, vegetables and ground pork, and the thinner vegetable version (three for $5.95) are excellent.
Prices at Thai Spice are a generally on the high end for Thai restaurants in Albuquerque. Most of the items are gluten-free, and there are some vegan options.
The salads, priced at $9.95 to $14.95, are not your garden-variety piles of lettuce and tomato. There’s a shrimp version, a squid variation and larb, a fiery salad with chicken, ground beef or pork. Papaya salad ($9.95), a Thai food mainstay, presents the usual shreddings of green papaya with tomatoes and onions heaped generously over lettuce.
As Thai curries go, massaman is a bit of an outlier, with a spice profile that reflects a Persian influence. Thai Spice’s version ($12.95) is a hearty mix of potatoes, peanuts, tomatoes and onions in a pale orange broth that smells faintly of cinnamon. People often add beef to this, but I liked the brininess that the plump shrimp ($1 extra) brought to the dish.
Thai Spice’s version of pad Thai ($10.95) is commendably chewy, if not particularly spicy, with crunch from crushed peanuts and from slaw served with it. The accompanying pieces of chicken, golden-brown from the marinade, were mostly white meat.