C-3: Soft Shell Crab with Garlic and Pepper--off the mini specials menu. Not quite as ethereal as the first time I had it, a couple of years ago, but still delicious. The first time I tasted it, I realized the parallel between soft-shell crabs (tender, not-grown things) and, say, green almonds--also not yet fully formed, but still tasting of their essential almond-ness. Think crabbiness encased in a light cloud (and, in this case, garlic and pepper). Damn good.
OK, so:
O-6: Ground Meat with Chili and Basil over Rice. Great. Tasted like a merging of Drunken noodles (N-5) with the sweet, caramelly pork of Pork Leg with Mustard Greens (O-1). Peter circled this in green in his notes.
N-1: Pad Thai with Shrimp. I don't remember if I've ever actually ordered this before at Sripraphai. Why the hell not? It was good. The shrimp were perfectly cooked.
O-3: Roasted Pork with Special Sauce over Rice. "Special" sounds a little euphemistic, and it was indeed a mysterious sauce--a little sweet, maybe even a little clove-y...all the warm spices. Overall a teeny bit cloying, but what saved this dish was the nice variety of pork bits: shredded meat, some chunks and some crispy bits of skin, which had gotten not-so-crispy by sitting under the sauce--great textural contrast.
