Tup Tim Thai

By Northern Virginia Living

Tucked away in the corner of a nondescript strip mall, Tup Tim Thai serves up flavorful and enticing Thai food. The decor is sparse, but tasteful and each table is topped with an orchid. The service is absolutely outstanding. The staff is extremely friendly and attentive yet not hovering. For starters, try the savory grilled chicken satay, the best part of which is the mouth-watering peanut and cucumber relish sauce. The "golden bags," lightly fried sacks of tofu skin stuffed with minced pork and spices, is a lot better than it may sound and well worth a try. Tup Tim Thai offers all the standard Thai favorites such as pad Thai, red and green curries, and drunken noodles, but it you're looking to expand your palate a bit, go for the wonderful Goong Ob Woonsen, a delicious symphony of black tiger shrimp, cellophane noodles, fresh ginger, mushrooms, celery scallions, and Napa cabbage all topped with crab meat and a tangy red chili sauce that rounds out the dish nicely. The Pattaya noodles were fiery and came overflowing with shrimp, mussels, squid, and scallops. Order the banana honey rolls for dessert, which are egg rolls with bananas inside and lightly drizzled with honey, sesame seeds, and powdered sugar. While they're good alone, pair them up with the coconut ice cream, and you've got a heavenly dessert. Tup Tim offers beer, wine, and a large selection of exotic drinks. The Thai iced coffee is a great finish to any meal.

Tucked Away in Cedar Lakes Plaza, Tup Tim Thai is a World Apart

By Bobbie and Tom Wilkinson

In the end, noted one in the party, it didn't feel as if you were eating in a place hard by a nail salon and a vacant big-screen TV store. In the end, if you're a fan of Thai food or just like exploring, this is a restaurant to put on the list.

The restaurant is Tup Tim Thai in Cedar Lakes Plaza off Route 7 in Sterling. It's a little difficult to see from the road, tucked away as it is from the rjoad, tucked away as it is in the corner.

But the anchor store, as the real estate folks like to say, is a Food Lion, readily visible on the right as you go west. Head toward it, hang a right, pass the nail salon and there you are, on the end.

This is a no-nonsense, practical place with five booths along one wall, perhaps a dozen tables in the rest of the room. No strolling violins, although you do get a spray of miniature orchids on the table.

There are large windows in the front, which overlook the slivery beaches and rolling surf that Cedar Lakes patrons find so attractive.

Oh, no, wait, that must have been a momentary apparition or odd relection. What you actually see is the side of the IHOP across the street from Tup Tim Thai.

The menu lists a dozen martinis and such drinks as Seaform Blue (Myers rum, Blue Curacao, triple sec, apricot brandy) or The Abyss (Chambord, Blue Curacao, vodka, cranberry and lemon juice). They come with a pineapple slice and an orchid.

Thay also have Miller Lite. Or iced coffee. A couple of us had Singha, a pretty good Thai beer.

The restaurant has been open nine months and is owned by husband and wife Aziz and Leck Krachangsai. They met in London, where Aziz, a British citizen, was in the restaurant business. Lek, an American, was from the Washington area and catered events at, among other places, the World Bank.

They managed a commuting marriage for many of their 12 years together, then decided to consolidate. Aziz sold his London business, and they looked around the area for a while before opening their restaurant in Loudoun County.

They believe that their restaurant is the only Thai one in the county, one reason for choosing this locale.

Lek and her sister are responsible for most of the recipes, and Leck takes a turn in the kitchen when needed.

The menu is extensive, with curry, noodles and fried rice offerings in addition to 32 entrees. We also wandered among the many appetizer selections for a bit.

Here, as with the rest of the menu, one must pay attention to the pepper symbols. They clue one into how hot the dish is, and the menu tells you that extra spice is yours for the asking.

Satay, skewered and grilled chunks of chicken, was served with toast points. The peanut sauce (one peeper) was tasty and fairly mild, and a cucumber, pepper and vinegar relish accompaniment provided a pleasant, tart contrast.

Dumplings, filled with crab meat, proved too dense for some and had a prepackedaged feel. Num tok (two peppers) turned out to be marinated slices of grilled beef, tossed with red onions, scallions, cilantro, other spices and fresh lime juice. This had a nice, enjoyable kick.

The favorite, by acclaim, was the yum talay (one pepper) salad, a colorful combination of shrimp, scallops, squid, mussels and mixed vegetables with spiced lime dressing. It was a pleasing basket of flavors.

We were all over the lot with entrees as well - suggestions made, rejected, reconsidered. Pad Thai, the traditional Thai noodle dish, was in and out of the running several times, for instance. It ended up in because, well, it's a traditional Thai dish. It was abundant and received generally good marks, although it seemed a little light on the expected peanuts.

The special, pattay seafood, provoked delight among the assembled. Aziz said specials are run for a couple of weeks to gauge popularity. If well accepted, they are added to the permanent menu.

Votes around the table this night clearly preferred that outcome for this dish. The toss of shrimp, mussels, scallops and squid worked well in combination with chili paste and coconut milk.

Drunken noodles (two peppers) was another choice, with chunks of chicken sauteed with basil and chili sauce added to onions and peppers, all heaped atop wide rice noodles. This was a favorite of one of the party, who liked the combination of flavors but would have preferred a bit thicker sauce. Tough crowd.

Green curry, aromatic and nicely presented, gained high marks. We chose chicken -- beef and pork are also available -- and serveral agreed that the kitchen got it right with the mix of coconut milk, spices and herbs. Bamboo shoots and Thai eggplant also make an appearance here.

Pad broccoli, which came with our choice of beef, did not quite stand up to the competition around the table. It was mild and pleasant, several diners thought, but also unassuming.

Finally, we chose the whole rockfish, which, one noted, looked very festive for a dead fish. It was deep fried and arrived topped with fresh basil, peppers and garlic sauce. It was crispy outside, but the meat was firm and quite satisfying.

"The fish is delish," said one in the party. That was greeted by groans, and the speaker added that she probably shouldn't say things like that. Nods of agreement around the table.

We did not overlook dessert, choosing sticky rice with Thai custard, mango with sticky rice and Thai tea ice cream.

Making sticky rice is a rather complex operatiojn, involving soaking and then steaming the rice in a bamboo contrivance, mixing it with such things as coconut milk and a Thai herb that Lek identified as bai tery and said was something like vanilla. It is then covered, and one waits until the stars align. Then the proper sticky rice emerges.

These desserts are quite colorful. The custard is quite thick, in fact thick enough that it comes in thin green strips, an unusual presentation. The sticky rice was warm, and mango slices accompanying it in one of the desserts were cool, a nice compliment.

Thai tea ice cream tastes like iced tea but doesn't look like it. It's coral and festooned with whipped cream and a cherry.

Although the setting of Tup Tim Thai is more or less Utilitarian Shopping Plaza, it's what's inside the place that counts. What's inside has persuaded many of the merely curious to become regular visitors.