Tom Yum Koong hits the sweet spot
"Next time, please come in and sit," Tom Daranuwat tells a customer who is picking up a takeout order from Daranuwat's Medford Square restaurant, Tom Yum Koong Thai Cuisine. Daranuwat has been saying this a lot lately.
While it didn't take area residents long to figure out that Tom Yum Koong was a great place to get Thai takeout when it opened two years ago, some habits die hard; it has taken customers a while to realize that the little storefront has expanded into a bright, cheerful, 38-seat dining room. That's a shame, because the food at Tom Yum Koong, made by Daranuwat's wife, Siriwan, is even better when eaten right where it's made.
The Daranuwats are from Bangkok, where Siriwan learned to cook, but she never prepared food professionally until they came to the United States four years ago. "My wife loves to cook and create new things," says Tom Daranuwat, a very polite man who runs the front of the restaurant with an unfailing smile.
Siriwan's version of traditional tom yum soup ($3.50) is a clear broth with shrimp that is perfectly balanced between spicy and sour; each mouthful is deeply flavored with chili, tomatoes, scallions, and mushrooms.
Steamed shumai ($5.95 for six) are tender little dumplings bursting with shrimp and chicken. And little wonder why crispy chicken basil ($10.95) is Tom Yum Koong's most popular dish. Chunks of chicken are battered and deep-fried until they're golden outside but still juicy inside and served with fried basil leaves that add a bright burst of flavor. The chicken is a little greasy, but who cares?
The tender and sweet seafood in scallop bamboo ($12.95) is served in an oyster sauce with a little kick from chili peppers, the heat cooled by mild bamboo shoots.
Spicy eggplant with tofu ($9.95) boasts thick slices of the vegetable, first deep-fried, then stir-fried in a chili sauce and served with meaty browned tofu. The earthy eggplant flavor is a great complement to the spicy chili.
Various curries - avocado, black pepper mango, and yellow - can be ordered with beef, chicken, tofu, duck, or seafood. Massaman curry with chicken ($9.95) is a lovely rendition of the southern Thai dish, with carrots, sweet potato, and chunks of the bird in a curry that's sweet from coconut milk balanced by layers of spicy flavor.
Portions at Tom Yum Koong are generous, but no matter how full you are, don't make the mistake we almost did: passing on dessert. If we hadn't reconsidered, we would have missed the best part of the meal.
Fried bananas ($3.95) are a satisfying combination of softness and crunch, with sweet, ripe yellow fruit and shreds of coconut wrapped in egg roll wrappers and deep-fried. The little golden cylinders are drizzled with a honey sauce, and they're full of deep banana flavor, but they're not cloyingly sweet.
They get top billing until we try sweet sticky rice with Thai custard ($5.95), a favorite in Thailand. The sticky rice gives the dessert a pleasing chewy consistency, and the eggy custard, coconut bits, and mild rice flavor add up to a dish that disappears off the plate way too soon.
Tom Yum Koong delivers to Medford, Somerville, and parts of Cambridge, Winchester, and Charlestown. But the best way to satisfy a craving for Thai food is to take a seat at the restaurant and let Siriwan Daranuwat send her specialties from the kitchen to your table. It'll make Tom Daranuwat's day.
