Give Me Some Food

Sometimes I get annoyed with eating in San Francisco. Why do restaurants here think they can add $17 to a piece of lettuce just by putting the word “organic” or “heirloom” next to it on the menu? When I get sick of this, I go over to Berkeley because I know this simple equation:

Poor students = cheap good eats.

I have already acknowledged Cha Ya in Berkeley for its Asian Noodle Soup. Now I want to talk about Sunday Thai Brunch at the Thai Buddhist Temple and Community Center. My Berkeley PhD student friends, Joanna and Padriac, introduced me to Thai Brunch a few months ago and as we left that first time with our bellies full of mango and sticky rice, Joanna said these sentimental words to me:

“If you ever go to Thai Brunch without me, I’ll kill you.”

This last weekend, since I was craving Thai Brunch but didn’t want to die, you can guess who I invited (though Joanna and I were already going to the Asian Art Museum later so it was really a mutual decision).

The Thai Brunch experience begins before you arrive at the glistening temple. Where else can you see a sign like this but in Berkeley?

 

Though it made me think- there are some people that I don’t want to be able to just go down the street and borrow a pneumatic screw gun. (I actually don’t know if they lend pneumatic screw guns…but if they do, tell me, because I need to borrow one for my theater department.)

Then you come upon the temple:

 

You don't actually get to enter the temple, you walk down an alley beside the temple. I don't know why. But if I have hundreds of visitors to my house, I might put them out back too.

So there is a long procedure that accompanies Thai Brunch. Ok, it’s not long. Mainly, it’s just you can’t hand a Buddhist Monk cash or coins, so you must exchange your money for tokens:

 

Then comes the difficult part- you have to decide what to eat. There are many different lines but I saw someone with Asian Noodle Soup on the way in and my choice was made (sometimes I think I should rename my blog Givemesomeasiannoodlesoup.com). Here is the soup station:

 

You can see three tubs. Those are the three widths of noodles you can choose from. The choices stop there. I picked the thinnest noodles because the person in front of me picked the thinnest noodles. Not a great reason. But I couldn’t decide. Yes I probably would jump off a bridge if everyone else did…

 

 
What were especially good, and I didn’t think I’d like these at all, were the fish/mystery meat balls in the soup. They were spiced well and even though the texture and bounciness of these balls is always suspect, they were quiet good. Soups like these are usually pretty bland, in a good way, and these guys added a lot of flavor. My only complaint about the soup was there were too many noodles and not enough broth. Once I got finished the broth, the noodles by themselves were pretty boring.

But soup isn’t even the reason I come here. You could easily guess that my flirty affair with this soup was nothing serious compared to the marriage I have with mango and coconut sticky rice. I’m afraid this marriage contract prevents me from trying any other dessert if mango and coconut sticky rice is available. Sorry readers. I read somewhere else that they don’t serve this dish in the winter: well, it’s January and I ate it so it’s there. Yes, I know Mangos aren’t local or in season and I’m a bad person.

 

 But this stuff is worth the sin.

 Depending on your appetite, you could spend between $5-$10. I didn’t finish half of my soup, took home half of the mango and coconut sticky rice, had a Thai Ice Tea (they are a little sweet for my taste so I only drank half of that as well) and I spent $9. You could easily spend less.

Oh, and get there early. We arrived at eleven and there were moderate lines, but also Berkeley hadn’t started up yet. I hear it’s best to arrive by ten if you want all of the choices and none of the lines.

Om.

Thai Buddhist Temple (bet Milvia and MLK)
1911 Russell St
Berkeley, CA 94703-2221
(510) 849-3419