Purple Haze
Located in the new China View Building 3, room 201 (second floor), Sanliturn area, is the new Purple Haze Bistro, sister to the original Purple Haze. The original offers traditional Thai food, while the new Bistro's menu incorporates about half of the first restaurants line but adding a creative blend of other South-Asian and fusion dishes.
The Bistro reflects the owner's interest in jazz in the choice of decor: contemporary/hip, with table cloths, velor-covered chairs, cloth napkins with chop sticks and a fork and spoon, a large mural of a jazz club scene with a sofa and pillows beneath and nicely modulated jazz on the stereo. And, yes, a good deal of the color purple.
Wednesday nights at around 9 p.m. features a live jazz band on their intimate stage. A recent visitor was the international jazz band Blood Drum Spirits, who have a CD release and have been touring China.
The whole atmosphere is one of "cool": relaxed and sophisticated, with an undercurrent of driven rhythm: perfect for a quiet business lunch. A lunch set menu is offered daily from 11:30-14:00, from RMB 38/RMB 58.
The restaurant's manager, Paka Lee, was kind enough to spend some time with us and order a sampling of Purple Haze's dishes. The menu offers a wide range of dishes, from appetizers to desert, from RMB20-128, most falling into the RMB40-50 range. The menu has pictures of red chili peppers next to menu items for spiciness, though everything we had was not overly hot.
Paca's choices for us included Thai Beef Salad In Cucumber Bowl. These were peeled cucumber cylinders, seeded and hollowed out, then stuffed with a beef, basil and red pepper minced filling. The cool, crisp and juicy cucumber and savory mince made for a nice finger food salad combination (RMB 42).
My epicurean partner, Tina, insisted on ordering the classic Thai Tom Yum soup. Yum, indeed. Coconut milk, ginger, red pepper, lemon grass and, perhaps kiffir leaves, along with prawns in the shell, made for hot/sour dynamite. Kaffir (lime leaves) and lemon grass drive the citric sour flavors. The aromatic oil in lemon grass is citral. However, be warned: some of these intensely flavored herbs are not edible, but they sure add the punch that drives the dish (RMB46).
We had two curry dishes. One was a Red Beef Curry with bamboo shoots and coconut milk, placed over a flame, in a thin mild curry with slivers of red and green bell peppers and tender slices of bamboo and beef (RMB 42). The Yellow Fish Curry with chunks of firm white boneless fish, mussels and squid was sweeter and thicker; perhaps its richness came from using coconut milk cream (RMB 62).
Lastly, we had a vegetarian Pad Thai: lightly fried rice noodles (though not crispy), bean spouts, green onion and scrambled eggs, with a mild sour sauce (RMB 32). A generous portion of rice was served earlier on to soak up the delicious sauces. The relaxed sophistication of decor and music, and the deft handling of Thai/fusion cuisine, make the Purple Haze Bistro a decidedly non-traditional alternative for a comfortable business lunch or a more contemporary dinner. And, live jazz on Wednesdays.
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