Finding the Right Size

I've actually been to the Silk Elephant twice now. It is one of the only restaurants in my neighborhood of Squirrel Hill that I've been to more than once because I'm trying to really explore my neighborhood's cuisine, but the food at Silk Elephant is just too good and it called me back for seconds.

Silk Elephant is a Thai tapas restaurant, and I must say that I love the idea of Thai tapas. Something that Americans don’t really understand is that most Asian food you order in restaurants is designed to be served family style. You and your table (food is intended to help create community and a sense of togetherness) order a few dishes and then you share everything. In America, though, it seems as though we all order our own gigantic entree to eat ourselves, end up taking home over half our food. Small plates, however, are a perfect way of enjoying a food, a flavor, or a regional specialty. It doesn’t require you to commit to once taste for the entire evening and you can also be adventurous. Ultimately, if you don’t like it, you give it to someone else or just stop eating it, because each dish only cost $3-$6.

The Silk Elephant is warmly elegant, light tapestries are draped from the ceilings and ornate sculptures of white and gold are scattered around the room. If you look really closely you can also spot a rather uncomfortable photo of Thai dignitaries waving to a crowd. Obviously they’ve never had the food at Silk Elephant or they would be much happier. There are two halves to the restaurant, a bar side and a dining side. I’ve sat in both and loved both experiences.

The service is good, though a bit sporadic. They tend to be super crowded on the weekends, so be prepared. Our server was really sweet, but a little out of it. After we ordered our beers she asked us if we wanted anything else to drink. We were confused if she was trying to get us to double fist our drinks, or if she just wasn’t paying attention. Her friendly attitude made up for any lack of attention span and she was always there when we wanted to order more food.

Now, as much as I hate day-long menus, this is an exception. They have a few proteins and then variations in spices and simple sauces. The menu is divided up into rolls, dumplings, vegetarian tapas, simple meat tapas, fish and seafood tapas then a bunch of entrees that I didn’t even look at. As a mostly veg-head I had tons of choices, and I think vegans can find options as well, though I know a few of their sauces have honey in them.

Last time I was there I went with my dear friend Josh and we ordered five plates and it was perfect. We started with the Fresh Rolls, containing fried tofu, rice noodles, carrots, lettuce, mint leaves, and basil leaves wrapped with rice paper served with a sweet brown sauce with ground peanuts. These were light and delicious, the perfect way to ease into a meal.

Next it was onto the Silk Elephant Rice Wrapper Rolls. These are delicious little nuggets of cucumber, carrot, lettuce, cream cheese, and crabmeat in rice paper wrap with a sweet chili sauce. I know adding cream cheese to a Thai dish makes it unauthentic, but my love for cream cheese is so great that I will give any restaurant a free pass to use it in my dishes.

The corn fritters were the highlight of our meal. Small, silver dollar-sized fritters were lightly coated in a thin crispy batter and served with the most delicious sweet chili paste you have ever tasted. I think I could eat these with every meal. We tried to bribe the waitress to give us the recipe for the sauce, but we were out of luck. She told us “pineapple, honey, chili paste and some secret ingredients.” I look forward to trying to recreate this at home.

For our final course we ordered the Taro Crunch and the Chili-paste Crowned Scallops. The first was so interesting you must try it. It is fresh taro (a root vegetable that, incidentally, is toxic until cooked but then has tons of vitamins and minerals in it) coated in a really thick batter of black sesame seeds that is then deep fried and served with a delicious sweet and sour sauce and crushed peanuts. Super yummy and really different than anything I’d had before. Get them. Please.

The Chili-paste Crowned Scallops were probably the lease interesting of the dishes we had. It consisted of three large scallops with a chunky chili paste that was supposedly accented with kymer lime leaf, but the spicy chili paste overpowered any flavor the scallops or lime leaves had. The smooth butter texture of the perfectly cooked scallops really cut the spice of the paste, but I wish I could have detected even a hint of the kymer lime leaves.

On another visit I had the Salmon Roll with Sriracha and bean sprouts, which tasted exactly as it was described and isn’t interesting at all. The Vegetable Spring Rolls stuffed with cabbage and carrot light deep fried and served with a sweet and sour sauce were fantastic, but again not unlike anything you could get at any Asian restaurant. The Fish Cakes were interesting, if not a bit too fishy. They are small, lightly deep friend patties of king fish meat mixed with a mild curry paste shredded green bean and Thai seasonings, served with cucumber sauce.

This is the second best restaurant I’ve been to in Pittsburgh, right behind Legume. It is the perfect restaurant for both the comfort eater and the more adventurous foodie. But if you want my two cents, get something you’ve never even heard of. Chances are it will be the best dish of the night.

Happy eating!