La Moose Cafe - Thai Fushion Food

I got a phone call at noon time while shopping at the mall last Friday.  My friend had called to ask me to have lunch with her at a Thai restaurant.  It only took me five minutes to arrive this Thai fusion restaurant.

I was really surprised to see the small cafe was already packed with customers when I got there at 12:30.  My friend and I decided to share the dishes so that we could try a few dishes together.  I ordered a fresh coconut drink which was really sweet and refreshing.

My friend had tried the Pad Thai before and she said the way they made it was very different from other restaurants.  I decided to try the dish.  The Pad Thai was made with crab meat instead of shrimps.  It came with a salad on the side. I was really disappointed with the dish because it was very salty and fishy.  My friend said the last time she tried the dish it was very good.  



What was so interesting about this place was that there was a station where they made all kinds of French crepes from savory and vegetable to sweet desserts. French crepe in a Thai restaurant?  Who would have thought?  According to Yelp, this place is the place for great crepes.

My friend ordered a Thai curry crepe.  There was chicken, mushrooms, and vegetables with melted cheese inside the crepe and green curry sauce on top.    

It had an interesting combination taste.  It tasted little sweet on the outside, a salty filling inside, then it was also spicy.  It was rich with cheese and we could only finish half of it.  It was not great, but not bad.  When I went to talk to the owner whom my friend knew, she was making a vegetarian crepe.  It looked very delicious.  But I think I will order a dessert next time, for i like eating dessert crepes.

Another friend came and joined us for lunch later.  She said she had been here many times and the place was always busy.  She also said the salad here is really good.  She ordered a fruit salad and  let me try some of hers.  After the rich dishes I was really happy to have this refreshing dish to end the lunch before I left.

It was so delicious that we asked the owner how to make it.  She told me the secret was to use Ken's Asian salad dressing.  I looked at the salad and did a mental record of the ingredients.  The ingredients included lettuce, crunchy fried noodle, sliced strawberries, oranges, pineapple and cucumber with Asian dressing mixed in.  This is one delicious salad I will definitely order next time I go there or make it myself at home. 

 There are many interesting dishes on the menu for under $10.  Even though their food had not met my expectations, I would still go back and try their other food to experience the interesting combination.  This is a nice little cafe to go to with friends if you want to experience something different.

La Moose Cafe

5014 Mowry Ave.

Fremont, CA

(510) 745-7288

Thai Stir Fried Shrimp

Another Thai dish my friend taught me.  It is the sauce that makes this dish tasted so good.

Ingredients:

2 Tbsp shrimp paste soya bean oil

1 tbsp fish sauce

1/2 tsp sugar

Green onion, chopped

2 gloves garlic



 Direction:

1.  Heat pan with oil.  Stir fry garlic until fragrant.
2.  Add shrimp and stir fry until cooked.
3.  Add the remaining ingredients one at a time.
4.  Stir well and serve with rice.

Note:

This shrimp paste can alos be used for shrimp fried rice.

Thai Chillie Asparagus

Some freinds came over for lunch at my house last week.  This is one of the traditional Thai food my friend cooked on that day.  She bought all the ingredients and showed me how to cook this.  The food tasted sweet and salty at the same time.  It might be better to leave out the sugar the next time I try cooking it.

Ingredients:

2 gloves of garlic, chopped
2 tbsp Thai Chillie paste with soya bean oil
1 tbsp oyster sauce
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp salt
1 tsp sugar
1 pkg asparagus


Direction:

1.  Wash and trim asparagus, discard ends of asparagus.
2.  Heat oil in the pan, stir fry garlics until fragrant.
3.  Add in cut asparagus and fry for 5 minutes.
4.  Add the sauce one at a time. Stir well with asparagus.
5.  Cook until asparagus are tender, then serve with rice.

Note:

Fish sauce is salty, adjust the salt depends on the amount of fish sauce is used.  This chilie paste can also be used for Tom Yum Gong.

Green Curry Chicken

Curry is one of the foods I grew up with, but not until I hit my 30's had I had my first taste of Thai green curry.  I learned this dish from a Thai friend who always made this at home whenever I visited her.  If she had not shown me the ingredients, I would have never known how to make this Thai dish.  Warning:  It is so good that you will eat more rice than your usual.

Ingredients:

1 tbsp Mae Ploy brand green curry paste
1 can coconut milk
1/2 cup water
1 can shredded bamboo shoot
1 lb. Thai eggplant, quartered (or orkra, sliced)
1 lb. chicken
3 gloves garlic, minced
1 tbsp fish sauce
1 tsp of sugar
1 stalk Thai basil (optional)

Directions:

1.  Heat oil in pan and stir the garlic and curry until fragrant.
2.  Add in the chicken pieces and cook until golden brown.
3.  Add in the bamboo shoot and stir.
4.  Pour in coconut milk and water.  Mix well.
5.  Add fish sauce and sugar.  Cover and simmer for 20 minutes or until chicken is cooked.
6.  Add Thai eggplant (or okra) and continue to simmer for another 5 minutes or until eggplant is soft.
7.  Add Thai basil.
8.  Serve over Jasmine rice.

Note:

I also added some okra along with the eggplant this time.   Dilute it with more water if you think the soup is too thick and add fish sauce instead of salt.  Green curry paste is very hot, adjust to your prefer taste.

Thai Basil Pork

My friend gave me some fresh cut basils from her garden.  I couldn't wait to use it on this Thai dish, basil pork.  I didn't have a recipe to follow.  It didn't taste exactly like what I ordered from the Thai restaurant, but it was still very tasty over Jasmine rice.

Ingredients:

2 tbsp cooking oil
1/2  onion, chopped
5 gloves garlic, minced
1 lb. ground pork
3 tbsp Thai sweet chilie sauce
1 tbsp black soy sauce
2 tbsp fish sauce
2 hot chilies
1 bunch fresh basil leaves
1 green onion, chopped

Directions:

1. Heat up cooking oil in a pan.  Stir in onion until fragrant.  Mix in the ground pork until the meat is crumbly and no longer pink, about 2 minutes, then stir in the garlics.

2. Stir in the Thai sweet chillie sauce, sliced chilies, black soy sauce, and fish sauce.  Mix well and then add the basil, continue cooking until the basil has wilted.  Serve over white rice.

Note:

If you like eggplants, you can stir in the eggplants after the pork is cooked.  Adjust chilie or soy sauce to your  own taste.

Thai Baked Shrimp Noodle

My friend loves to cook and she invited us to her house for lunch a couple days ago.  I was very happy to see that she had made my favorite dish.  This dish was flavored with pepper and onion.  She said this was from a recipe she found from a cook book.



Baked Shrimp Noodle

Ingredients:

Shrimp
Onion
Pepper
Fish sauce
Oyster sauce
Vermicelli Noodle, soak in cold water until soft
3 tbsp Wiskey or cooking wine

Direction:

1. Heat pan with oil, stir fry onion until fragrant.
2. Add shrimp and stir fry until cooked.
3. Drained the noodle and put them in an oven baked pot.
4  Pour cooked ingredients on top of noodle.
5. Add wiskey, oyster sauce and wiskey wine and mix well.
6. Bake noodle at 350 degree for 20 minutes.

Beef Noodle Soup

I made the family's favorite noodle soup last night for dinner. My friend, who taught me how to make this dish, used to own a restaurant just selling noodles.  This is her recipe:

Ingredients:

2 packages Beef Neck Bone or Oxtail
2 packages Beef balls
2 Cinnamon stick
3 Pickled Garlic
1 Bunch of Cilantro, separate roots and leaves
2 stalks of Celery
Noodles (Rice Stick Noodles)

Sauce：

1 tbsp Brown Sugar
Salt
Fish sauce
Dark soy sauce
Light soy sauce

Garnish mix:

Cilantro leaves, chopped
Green onion,chopped
Crushed peanuts
Dried chilie flakes

Steps:

1. Put the oxtails into boiling of water first, let cook for one minute, then drain the water.
2. Add a fresh pot of water into the pot with all the rest of the ingredients (Add cilantro root only)
3. Turn on high heat until it's boiling, then turn to low heat to cook for 2 hours.
4. Cook noodles according to the package instruction. I used rice stick noodles with this soup.
5. Scoop the soup and meats over a bowl of noodle.
6. Serve with bean sprouts,spinach or any vegetable.
7. Add garnish on top and mix well.
Note:
Adjust the soy sauces to preferred taste. Chili sauce goes well with it.

Thai Noodle - Pad Thai

Over the phone, my Thai friend taught me how to make this Thai dish. All these ingredients can be found in any asian supermarket. This delicious recipe serves 4 people.

Ingredients:

1 pkg.  rice stick noodle
1 clove of Garlic
1 lb.  Peeled shrimp
2 eggs
1 pkg. fried tofu - sliced into tiny slices
1 pkg. bean sprout
Green onion

Mix sauce:
1 jar  Pad Thai Sauce
1-2 tbsp Dark soy sauce
1 -2 tbsp Oyster sauce

To serve:
Crushed peanuts
Pepper flakes
1/2 Lime

Steps:

1. Soak noodle in cold water for few hours or over night.
2. Heat 2 tbsp of cooking oil on high heat
3. Blanch shrimp in boiling water until cooked.
4. Stir fry garlic and sliced tofu.
4. Add egg and stir fry until cooked.
5. Add in the noodle and stir fry.
6. Add half of the mixed sauce and mix well with noodle
7. Add a little of water at a time if the noodle is too dry
8. If the noodle is not softened to your satisfactory, keep adding a little water and cover with lid and simmer at low heat, the water dry up easily, make sure to check on it so it's not burn.
9. When the noodles are done, add the cooked shrimps back and stir well together.
10. Fold in green onion and bean sprout.
11. Serve with crushed peanuts and pepper flakes.  Squeeze some lime juice on top.

Note:

Always taste and check the noodle before adding more water and sauce. Add any oyster or soy sauce to prefer taste.  Fresh noodle can be used and omit adding the water when cooking.