Ploy Siam - Robbinsville, NJ (Dine at your own risk)

It’s Friday night, and we went home and did the usual Friday ritual of cleaning, then taking a shower before heading out. Unfortunately, it is a work weekend for me, so we figured it would be an early night, and opted for something quick and easy. That said, we headed over to Delorenzos Tomato Pies in Robbinsville, only to see that there was a long wait. So from there, we headed down Route 33, to see what else we could find.

Moments later we remembered that we had heard of a Thai Restaurant from someone, somewhere, right down the road in the next shopping center, so we figured we’d give it a try. I think this actually came from someone that we met at the Farnsworth House in Bordentown, so we figured we’d give her recommendation a try.

As soon as we walked in, all I could think to myself is WOW! They dropped some serious money into the interior of this place, or should we say palace? From the gorgeous stone work around the waterfall and pond, to the tile work around the restaurant, to the huge wooden apron coming down from the ceiling on the left side of the restaurant. The décor really was gorgeous! We were sat along the long, narrow water feature, and I sat on the bench side, which went the entire length of the water feature. This was adorned with nice Asian inspired pillows. The tables looked nice with their dark stain, and even the silver wear was meaty and expensive looking. All these touches were done with class.

Ploy Siam is BYOB, so I opened up the wine bag, pulled our glasses, and popped and poured a 2005 Chateau Malmaison Bordeaux. This would have been perfect with a tomato pie at Delorenzos, but definitely not my choice for Thai. No worries though as we are not big believers in food pairings.

We looked around the restaurant as we perused the menu, and there were about 14 tables seated. Not bad at all for a Friday night, and this place could seat quite a few more. The couple next to us had the most well behaved kids we have ever seen, and they were just so proper. It was actually quite refreshing to see…

Our server came back to the table to take our order, and we started tonight with the Thai Spring Rolls. These came out a few minutes later, fried up golden brown, and nice and hot. The vegetables tasted good and fresh, and you really can’t go wrong with these. Unless of course your ingredients aren’t fresh. That said, these were very nice.

On the entrée front, Zelda went with the Pad Cashew Nut with chicken, which was stir fried with green bell peppers, pineapple, scallions, carrots, mushrooms, zucchini, baby corn, onion, etc. These had nice flavors too it, and the chicken was tender. This wasn’t a knock your socks off kind of dish, but it was as good as anywhere else around here.

For my entrée, I ordered the Pad Thai, and it looked very nice, with a giant mound of noodle, shrimp, scallion, bean sprout, egg, crushed peanut, and tofu. I went to take my first bite, and as I raised it to my mouth, I got a horrible smell. As brought my nose closer to my plate, and I hate to say this, but the smell was almost a cross between smelly feet (I know, this is a terrible descriptor, but it is honest), as well as dry cat food. For those of you with pets, imagine a double bowl, where the food and water are right next to each other, and the water has been spilled into the food, making it swell and crumble. This is exactly what it smelled like, and I just could not get past it!

I put the smell aside (the best I could), and took a small bite of the pasta, and it tasted off. I also took a small bite of the shrimp, and it too tasted off to me. The colors on it seemed very dark, and it was very fishy. Yes, I understand that shrimp is seafood, and it is supposed to be fishy tasting, but these just did not seem right to me. It was actually a bit scary, as in Thai cuisine, shrimp is served by the ton, and I hope this was an isolated incident. Even so, my stomach turned, and I just couldn’t eat, and really lost my appetite.

So my question is, where did this dirty smell come from? Was it something in the sauce? Was the oil bad that this was cooked in? We thought maybe it was the tofu, but I don’t think that that was it. It just smelled dirty and sour. There was zero freshness here whatsoever, and all I can think is that one of the ingredients was spoiled. But what ingredient could it have been?

At this point, we were a bit disgusted, and asked for our check. Our server and the staff could tell that there was something wrong, and I really didn’t want to make a scene. I could have complained, but what really is the use? It’s not like these were expensive entrees, so we’ll take it as a lesson learned. Had the restaurant not had a lot of tables within ear shot, I probably would have said something, but again, we didn’t want to cause a scene.

That said, we hopped in the car, and took a drive down the road. I knew that we needed to eat something, and laugh as you will, but we stopped at Pizza Hut to get our annual Pizza Hut craving taken care of. Once or twice a year, we crave some good old fashion down and dirty Pizza Hut. Is there anything wrong with that? Oh heck no, and I do love me some stuffed crust! That said, Zelda opted for green pepper on her half, and I went with sausage, and it was just what the doctor ordered. Maybe we should have come here in the first place. Either way, we won’t be back to Ploy Siam.

Ploy Siam
Foxmoor Shopping Center
1041 Washington Blvd
Trenton, NJ 08691
Phone: (609) 371-9600
http://www.ploysiamthaicuisine.com/

Pizza Hut
630 New Jersey 33
Trenton, NJ 08619
Phone(609) 587-8342

2003 Château Malmaison Baronne Nadine de Rothschild

Brought to La Mezzaluna - Princeton tonight, and allowed to open up for about an hour on the table. Nice dark color in the glass with hints of dark fruit, mainly blackberry.

On the palate, this wine has really mellowed out from the first one that we had, which I find a little hard to believe, but maybe it was bottle variation, or maybe it was because of the rumor that others have stated, that there are different bottlings done at this Chateau, and the labels are then put on later. I wish I knew.

This wine did a complete 180 from the last one that we had. The acidity and tannin were nicely integrated, and the fruit was shining with more dark fruits, with hints of jammy raspberry, strawberry, and a bit of oak.

The finish was much smoother than the last bottle, and I actually would not have guessed that this was an 80% merlot to 20% cabernet sauvignon blend. I thought that the cab had dominated. All in all, a nice wine with a smooth finish worthy of 90 points. Cheers!

2000 Chateau Malmaison

This is a classic example of a great QPR (Quality to Price Ratio) Bordeaux! Pulled from the cellar, stored at a perfect 55 degrees, and decanted through the Vinturi, this wine displayed great notes of raspberry jam and other dark fruits on the nose. Hints of earth, pepper, and straw also evolved with other floral notes. We enjoyed this "on the bistro" with an incredible antipasto that Zelda created, accompanied by K-Fed and M-Dog.

On the palate, the fruit shined, with more hints of raspberry, currants, and tons and tons of fruit. This wine was very jammy, and continued to evolve in the decanter and in the glass with time. Notes of plum later shined. The fruit was definately the star, and this wine was not shut down to say the least. It is drinking beautifully now, and the tannins were very supple, almost non existent. Hints of cherry on the 30 second finish, and this bottle was a true treat at $20. I would love to find more at this price. Overall, 90 out of 100 points, and a great value!