Coconut Thai’s Pad Thai and Drunken Noodles are menu mainstays. Photo: Chris Emeott
Explore authentic flavors that satisfy a a variety of cravings.
Quick—pick one word to describe Thai cuisine. Complex is a strong choice. Healthy and diverse are great contenders, too. Perhaps, the best choice? Flavor. Thai food, with its harmonious blend of sweetness, sourness, saltiness and spiciness is flavor to the nth degree. We are fortunate to have two amazing Thai restaurants in our area.
Coconut Thai
“What makes Thai food so special is that all the flavors can be found in the same place,” says Apple Richards, Coconut Thai Edina manager.
Thai cuisine offers a healthy balance of vitamins (from vegetables), proteins and carbohydrates—all in one dish. Coconut Thai has been offering Thai cuisine for nearly 10 years at 50th & France.
Sriwaluck Topeng, better known as Chef Nong, began cooking with her mother in Bangkok in the early 1950s. She launched her professional culinary career in the 1970s and moved to Minneapolis in 1991. Her family recipes, passed down through the generations, are still at the heart of the restaurant’s menu. Nong’s son, Pallop Ratnasingha, one of the owners of Coconut Thai’s Edina location, prepares the sauces for these treasured family recipes in the early morning hours. Even the chefs don’t know the full recipe secrets. Among the most popular dishes at Coconut Thai are Pad Thai and Drunken Noodles, while green curry and red curry are the top curry choices. “Masaman Curry (potato, tomato, onion and roasted peanuts) is the most popular curry in the world,” Richards, Chef Nong’s granddaughter, says.
Coconut Thai is Chef Nong’s second location. Her first restaurant is Nong’s Thai Cuisine in Golden Valley, and her third is Coconut Thai On Grand in St. Paul.
Naviya’s Thai Kitchen
Naviya LaBarge learned to cook in Bangkok, Thailand, and learned about restaurants on Minnesota’s North Shore. Naviya’s husband, Kim LaBarge, was the food and beverage director for Hilton Hotels. In 2004, the LaBarge family moved to Grand Marais to open a new venue. On a whim, a teacher asked Naviya if she would prepare food for a school fundraiser. “It sold out,” Naviya says.
Deep-Fried Chicken Wings are a popular appetizer at Naviya’s Thai Kitchen. Photo: Naviya’s Thai Kitchen
Soon Naviya’s food, to go and only one day per week, was featured at Holiday gas stations in Tofte, Lutsen, Grand Marais and Two Harbors.
It was the talk of the towns. Eventually, that same talk would persuade the LaBarges to move south and open their own restaurant. “We opened in the Linden Hills neighborhood in 2010,” Naviya says. “We did it together. Kim would take care of the front of the house, and I would take care of the back.”
At Naviya’s, the constant is freshness. “We cook fresh from scratch, and we don’t freeze anything,” she says. “We cut vegetables, cook them today and they’re gone.” Food is prepared with minimal oil and without MSG or food enhancers, on an extremely hot wok. “One hundred thirty thousand BTUs. It’s intense,” she says. “The heat opens the vegetables. Try ours, and you’ll understand why they’re so different.
“Everything is handmade, even the egg rolls. We roll it today, sell it and do it again tomorrow,” she says. “I love making good food.”
Coconut Thai
3948 W. 50th St.; 952.288.2888
Instagram: @coconutthai_mn
Naviya’s Thai Kitchen
2812 W. 43rd St., Mpls.; 612.276.5061
