Thai-tanic success

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This article was published 30/12/2018 (2491 days ago), so information in it may no longer be current.

With New Year’s Eve practically upon us, an American newspaper recently posed a question to its readers, asking why ordering take-out Chinese food on Dec. 31 is such a “thing?”

Responses included its versatility (you can enjoy it hot or cold and it caters to vegetarians and meat-eaters alike) and perhaps most important of all, the fact that scarfing down a whack of deep-fried spring rolls, spareribs or chicken balls helps stave off the after-effects of one too many holiday toasts.

Mick Kongmanisvong and his mother Sumruoy Poomrat operate Siam Thai, the sole Thai restaurant in Winnipeg and one of only 11 in Canada to achieve Thai Select Premium status, a certification granted by representatives of the Thai government to establishments world-wide whose Thai cuisine is deemed to be at least 85 per cent authentic.

Like many of us, Kongmanisvong has heard stories of people placing New Year’s Eve orders for Chinese food weeks, sometimes months, in advance. Still, he’s pleased to report their locale ain’t no slouch when it comes to marking the end of the calendar year, either.

“We’re not at the same level as places like the Marigold yet, but for sure, New Year’s Eve has always been our busiest day of the year,” he says, seated next to his mother in their roomy, 80-seat dining room, located at the far northern tip of a suburban strip mall at 591 St. Anne’s Rd. “Quite a few of our customers have told us they used to get Chinese every year but since giving us a shot, Thai at New Year’s has become their new, family tradition.”

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Poomrat grew up in Bangkok, where her parents ran an eatery called Samachep, roughly translated as “to earn a living from your job,” her son points out. She met her future (now ex) husband, originally from Laos, in Thailand. The two of them moved to Canada together in 1979, eventually settling in Notre Dame de Lourdes, a largely French-speaking community west of Winnipeg.

“It’s funny because after I was born in 1980 on what turned out to be Mother’s Day, practically everybody in town brought my mom flowers and gifts,” Kongmanisvong says, noting Mick is actually his middle name, and that his given name is Bernard, the same as the father of the person who sponsored his parents’ arrival in this country. “She couldn’t figure out why they were giving her all this stuff — she thought maybe they did that every time somebody had a baby — because back home in Thailand there’s no equivalent for Mother’s Day.”

Kongmanisvong’s father landed a job with Motor Coach Industries in the early 1980s, prompting a move to Winnipeg. Poomrat worked at Motor Coach for a spell as well, but after suffering a work-related injury she decided that wasn’t what she pictured herself doing for the rest of her life.

“I mentioned to my husband what I really wanted to do was open my own restaurant, but thought first I’d better go to school to figure out what and how Canadians like to eat,” she says, seated beneath a framed photograph of a bright yellow flower known as a ratchaphruek, the bloom from a cassia fistula tree, the national tree of Thailand. “Back home for example there’s no such thing as appetizers; everything just comes out at once. Or when we’re cooking fish, we use the head, the tail… everything, whereas here it’s mostly just the fillet. So I enrolled at South Winnipeg (Technical College) where I studied culinary arts.”

With her ex-husband’s support, Poomrat opened Siam Thai in October 2000 a few doors down from its present site, in what had previously been an Italian restaurant dubbed Abruzzi Ristorante.

“We made do there for eight years but it wasn’t functional at all,” says Kongmanisvong, who purchased his father’s share of the biz after his parents split up. “There was this huge pizza oven we had no use for smack dab in the middle of the kitchen and we were always tight for space, when we were trying to cook.”

There weren’t many Thai restaurants in Winnipeg, three at most, when Siam Thai welcomed its first customers, he adds. That meant he and the rest of the serving staff spent a fair bit of time early on explaining what Thai food was all about, and encouraging customers to sample dishes they could barely pronounce. Much of that changed after former Free Press restaurant critic Marion Warhaft gave the place a glowing review in 2001, raving about its mee krob (deep-fried vermicelli noodles stir-fried in a mixture of shrimp, tofu, lemon juice and palm sugar), beef-and-potato massaman curry and “lip-tingling” green papaya salad.

Practically overnight, Poomrat, still the restaurant’s head cook, was being run off her feet.

“We used to offer a lunch and dinner buffet and after that (review), sold out completely, every day and night,” she says.

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Not unlike time-tested icons such as the Dairi-Wip Drive-In and Luda’s Deli, Siam Thai has its share of ex-Winnipeggers who make it their first — or last — stop when they’re back home, visiting friends and family.

“It’s interesting to see because we get people who used to come in with their kids, and now those same kids are stopping by with four- and five-year-olds of their own,” says Kongmanisvong, a married father of three. “Last week we had a fellow from Vancouver come in with a big cooler, which he filled with orders of pad thai and containers of our take-home curry sauces, because nothing in B.C. compares to what he grew up eating here, he said.” (Sure, the mother-and-son team know a lot of their clientele by name, but they know just as many by order, Kongmanisvong says, “like that one from Toronto who only orders garent garee gai — that’s yellow chicken and curry — who, the moment he walks in, we say ‘hey, it’s garent garee guy.’” (See what he did there?)

There isn’t a wall of fame at Siam Thai (yet), but if there was, it would include the likes of former Winnipeg Jets forward Chris Thorburn, ex-Blue Bombers Jamaal Westerman and Chris Matthews and not one, but two Oscar winners.

“Forest Whitaker came in twice with his daughter and they both loved our vegetarian curries,” Kongmanisvong says of the 2006 Academy Award Best Actor winner for his role in The Last King of Scotland. “Also, we had Renee Zellwegger (2004’s Best Supporting Actress winner for her turn as Ruby Thewes in the film Cold Mountain) drop by for a late dinner one night right before we closed.” (Yes, she polished off every last drop of Siam Thai’s galangal soup and yes, Kongmanisvong tried to play it cool despite being “super-excited” the moment he recognized the actor, who was in town shooting New in Town, a romantic comedy that co-starred Harry Connick, Jr.)

Also, when members of the Thai national women’s soccer team spent a week in Winnipeg in June 2015 preparing for their FIFA Women’s World Cup Group B match versus Germany, Siam Thai became the squad’s unofficial home away from home, he says.

“Apparently their manager (Nualphan Lamsam) researched our website before getting to Winnipeg,” he continues, motioning to a framed, royal blue national team jersey autographed by the entire team, including star forward Kanjana Sungngoen. “Not only did all the players and coaches come here for their wind-up party (the Thai team was eliminated after Round 1), so did the reporters from Thailand who were in Canada following the action. Some of the TV stations even interviewed my mom, which was great because we still have family (in Thailand) who were so happy to see her, talking about her life in Winnipeg.”

Finally, know how you step inside certain restaurants, take a deep whiff and proclaim, “Geez, does it ever smell good in here. What’s cooking?” Yeah, well, Kongmanisvong can’t help you out, unfortunately.

“We get that all the time, people who come in asking what smells so great. Maybe it’s because I’ve been working here almost 20 years but the truth is, I can no longer smell a thing. So I usually just smile and say thanks.”

David Sanderson writes about Winnipeg-centric businesses and restaurants.

david.sanderson@freepress.mb.ca