We love checking out local restaurants in our free time, and in New York there’s so much variety to choose from.  There are a lot of cool places we’ve visited recently, and today we want to highlight two spots that both serve up food from the same country.  These restaurants are good places to get Thai cuisine, with one in Brooklyn and the other in Manhattan – so you can visit either spot (or both!) depending on where you are when you’re craving Thai food.  Check out our recommendations below, but do be warned that we will show some images of meat here.

The first place we went was Bangkok Degree, in Park Slope.  It’s a small, cozy spot that opened at the beginning of this year and serves up a combination of Thai classics plus some dishes that are less common to see on menus.  We started there with the fried golden tofu, which comes with a side of sweet chili sauce scattered with crushed peanuts.

Cyril also tried the papaya salad, which is tossed with tomatoes, green beans, peanuts, carrots, and a chili lime dressing (sadly, it’s not vegetarian).

For entrees, Miriam had the massaman curry with tofu, made with potatoes, onions, peanuts, herbs, and chili paste.

And Cyril had one of their specials:  also massaman curry, with a prime rib as the main protein.

If you head over to the border between the East Village and the Lower East Side, you’ll find MayRee, also a small Thai spot.  This one is recommended by the Michelin Guide and focuses primarily on southern Thai food.  There we started with the park mor:  these colorful dumplings made from peanuts, garlic and coconut milk wrapped in rice crepes.

And Cyril got another papaya salad – this one is the original style, but you can also get it esan-style, tossed with fish sauce and salted crab.

Then Miriam got the roti nam keang:  yet another massaman curry, but this one is served with some lightly fried roti to dip in the curry.

And Cyril had the sour curry shrimp, in a broth made with papaya, bok choy, and green beans, with sides of rice and a Thai omelet.

Looking back on these meals, we realize we kind of have a thing for massaman curry and papaya salad.  Unfortunately, papaya salad is typically made with fish sauce, so it’s off limits for vegetarians – but massaman curry is often a good choice, since it’s not usually made with any kind of animal ingredients.  And we got to try a bunch of different variations:  one classic, one with delicious roti on the side, and one with an entire prime rib in it.  These two spots just go to show that you can always discover new things in Thai cuisine, and you can find some interesting Thai in different boroughs.  Make sure you check back for more food recommendations, in New York and beyond!