For the second week in a row, the fate of my weekend family chowdown rests in the hands of the kids again! This time, my daughter is taking the lead. Since, beside her, none of us live downtown nor have we heard of this proposed ‘Thai‘ venue of hers. Our outing this evening became shrouded with a certain amount of mysticism and involved a leap of faith on our part. Keeping our fingers crossed and placing our trust in her taste and enthusiastic endorsement of the place, we braved the traffic jam of the 404, drove from way up north and met up with her downtown.There, we skittishly followed her into the unknown!
The place in question is a Thai restaurant by the name of ‘Maya Bay‘ on Carlton street, Cabbagetown. Smallish and casual, the decor of this hip restaurant can be described as ‘ industrial rustic ‘.
Our party of 5 ordered the following:
- Salted Duck Egg Yolk Fries
- Tom Yum Fried Chicken Wings
- Pad Thai Maya ( perfectly al-dente rice noodle, egg, tofu, bean sprouts, chives,
Tamarind sauce, ground peanuts, Crispy Pork Belly ) - Mii Clook ( Dried egg noodles, peanut, onion, Mussels and Shrimp )
- Karee Soft Shell Crab rested on top of a pool of vegetable medley,Turmeric
Curry, Egg and Onion served with rice - Dessert: Mango Cheesecake with mango syrup and diced green mangoes
OMG! One bite into the first piping hot dish delivered to our table and I immediately realized we are eating in a special place. Subsequent dishes easily confirmed my initial deduction. This is no ordinary run-of-the mill Thai outfit! Every aspect of the food was skillfully conceived and prepared and the taste profile elevated to level a few notches above the norm. To call some of the above captioned, deeply complex, intense and packed full of flavor dishes as ‘out-of-this-world‘ good is somewhat an understatement. A few stand-out, mind blowing creations like the lip-smacking, hot and ultra-crispy salted egg-yolk fries ( so $^&**#@ing addictive!! ), the soaked with thick, yummy Tamarind sauce, Crispy Pork Belly Pad Thai ( the best Pad Thai rendition I have tasted here in town! ) and the Karee Soft Shell Crab on top of that pool of most delicious and appealing Turmeric Curry were all so insanely tasty, calling them ‘out-of-this SOLAR SYSTEM‘ good, IMO, is way more appropriate!
Wow! What a stunning and totally unexpected experience
. For my upcoming European food crawl vacation with her and my son, maybe I’ll just lay back, relax and let her take the lead as well?! Ha!
An absolute treat to have spent such an enjoyable and delightful dinner surrounded by loved ones on lunar new year!! Oh!..and forget about tradition! Who said one has to eat Chinese food on Chinese New Year?! 
Ha!!!
