MenuPlease

Back in the 1960s and '70s, an unimpressive cinder block building on South Market Street was a liquor store. Later on it became, variously, Asian markets, Chef Paul Trout's Experience, and now Kanya Garden. Located virtually across the street from Racha Noodle, Kanya Garden had to offer up value and food to distract customers from the already-established local favorite.

Femme de Joie remembers her first visit about six months after their opening. What she thought would be a dish of curried fish turned out to be a entire overcooked and very mushy fish with cilantro-laced sauce glopped on top. It was grim. She was sure Kanya Garden was doomed. But nearly three years later it's going strong, so she stopped by again to give it another chance, and is glad she did.

The long dining room is lined with booths on either side and a few cafeteria-style tables in the center. Enter through a door from the south parking lot, or through the front door facing South Market Street. Service is generally friendly and efficient.



Fried sweet potatoes served as an appetizer were nicely crunchy and nongreasy but not very flavorful. Cucumber salad on the side, on the other hand, had fresh crisp dice of cucumbers in a sweet-spicy vinegar sauce. The salad overwhelmed the sweet potatoes; for M. de Joie's taste, they could have skipped the potatoes altogether and just served a larger dish of salad.



Tom Yum soup (Thai Spicy and Sour Chicken Soup) might be too much heat unless you're already a fan of Chinese hot and sour soup. This was unabashedly hot but exotic and luscious, filled with sliced field mushrooms, straw mushrooms, and generous amount of white chicken meat in a very flavorful lime-scented chicken broth.

As M. de Joie was slurping up her soup, an odd thing happened. The side door opened and a young Japanese man came in to solicit funds for tsunami victims. He hit up every table, got nothing, and went out the front door. About 1 minute later the front door opened and a different Japanese youth comes in for the same purpose. A disembodied voice from the back called out, "He already was here and left." Obviously the staff knew the young men; this seemed to not be the first time this had happened, but what a way to make you feel greedy and selfish when all you want is to have some lunch.



Fresh spring rolls were colorfully stuffed with rice noodles, Thai basil, shredded carrots, cilantro and shrimp and served with a bowl of sweet Thai chili sauce. Though they looked very appealing, the shrimp was without any taste or texture and was lost among the rest of the filling.

Kanya Garden serves a great lunch deal - a different curry every day with salad, rice, and an eggroll for $6.99. After tasting a couple of curries, M. de Joie would like this to be served to her in heaven, please.



There wasn't a surplus of chicken in the red chicken curry. No matter: the curry sauce itself was delicious enough to drink as a soup. It was filled out with loads of bamboo shoots, red bell peppers and had a moderate heat. An eggroll on the side was crisp and crunchy with a curried vegetable and pork filling. That ubiquitous leaf salad with sweet yellow dressing, common to so many Asian restaurants, was served beforehand - not breaking any new ground there, but pleasant enough.



Kanya Garden also offers pho, that comforting and warming dish of beef, noodles, and fragrant herbs in a star anise-flavored broth, and theirs is one of the better versions offered locally. The first bite of steak in this serving was still a bit rare, indicating it was prepared to order with boiling broth poured over razor-thin slices of beef.



The only disappointment at Kanya Garden was the Thai iced coffee. Toothachingly sweet and cloying, it did tame the heat of the curry but contained far too much sweetened condensed milk.

Kanya Garden has proved they can compete with Racha Noodle across the street. While they offer many of the same dishes, Kanya focuses on curry and they may have the edge there. They also accept debit and credit cards (Racha is cash only). M. de Joie isn't going to choose a favorite here, but she is craving another bowl of Kanya Garden's curry.

NOTE: Kanya Gardens has closed and unsubstantiated rumor has it that they are looking for a new location. Thai House now occupies this location.

Kanya Garden Thai Cuisine, 2825 South Market Street, Redding, CA. 530-246-3830. Open daily at 11 am; last orders taken at 7:45 PM. Lunch specials. Parking on site. Credit and debit cards. Vegetarian and vegan options. No alcohol. Call ahead for larger groups.

When you travel to other countries, you find that foods that seem completely bizarre to you are just ordinary, everyday dishes to the people of that culture. In Malaysia, for example, curried hard-boiled eggs are a very common Muslim street food. Whenever I saw people selling them, I would make a face, until finally the guy who was showing us around politely pointed out that we Westerners also eat some pretty strange things. Cheese, for example, appeared to him to be nothing but milk that was so rotten it had become solid, a totally disgusting thing.
I appreciated his insight so much, I grabbed a couple of the eggs. They were really tasty and reminded me of the curried deviled eggs that were a highlight of my grandmother's Fourth of July picnics. - Chris Schlesinger, "Big Flavors of the Hot Sun"

On a recent visit to Pho Saigon, Femme de Joie could not help but overhear the - loud - conversation of two middle-aged men who were reviewing the menu.

"They're got some pretty weird things here."
"What's that - soda with egg yolk?"
"Oh man, I tried that. It's - ugh. Awful."
"What about that herb drink, what's that?"
"Aw, man, it's - it's - you'd hate it."
"Ever tried that red bean drink?"
"Man, that stuff was nasty."

And on it went. The Vietnamese owners would have been hard put to not hear this blanket negative review of drinks that are everyday and normal to them but disgusting to the two Americans. It's one thing to eat a familiar food, such as a cheeseburger, and not like how it was prepared; it's quite another to describe another culture's food as weird or disgusting just because it is unfamiliar to one's palate or has connotations that are personally unattractive. It's insulting to those preparing your food and doesn't reflect well on the speaker - it's like hearing a child say, "Yuck!" repeatedly when offered a new food.

M. de Joie, for instance, would have to be exceedingly intoxicated before she would even consider eating rattlesnake. However, she personally knows people who think nothing of killing one, cutting it up, and frying it like chicken, then snarfing it down with plenty of beer on the side, and more power to them. M. de Joie has a lifetime of prejudice against snakes of every stripe; for her, rattlesnake is a loathesome creature in every respect and the mere thought of eating one makes her queasy, yet it is a not-uncommon food in certain segments of America. The same people who dine on a rattler would probably turn green at the thought of eating a cobra - but what's the difference?

But back to Pho Saigon, a little Vietnamese restaurant that opened this summer in a far-off corner of a strip mall on Hartnell. Pho (pronounced "fuh") is Vietnamese beef noodle soup, and if that reminds you of a can of Campbell's, you ain't tasted nothin' yet. As Proust had his madelines, Vietnamese have their pho. As restauranteur and cookbook author Mai Pham says, "But mention pho -- our beloved beef noodle soup -- and immediately our differences vanish. Our eyes shine, our faces beam. All of a sudden we've become an agreeable family with a love for one another that's as strong, compelling and reassuring as the beefy steam that billows and curls from a bowl of pho."
.

.
This little cafe is sparkling clean with new tables and chairs. It's a bit short on atmosphere - the better to concentrate on your food. Pinned to the wall are handwritten menus of vegetarian dishes and color photos of featured items.
.

.
Every table has a selection of condiments including soy sauce, fish sauce, red chili paste, hot chili oil, sugar, with fresh chiles in vinegar upon request; a dispenser of green chopsticks and soup spoons.

.

.
Cafe sua da - Vietnamese iced coffee with condensed milk, $3.00. A few years ago this virtually unknown in this country, but the proliferation of Thai restaurants has made this sweet, delicious drink popular. It goes especially well with hot and spicy foods.
.

.
Goi cuon - fresh spring rolls with shrimp, pork, lettuce, vermicelli, cilantro, served with hoisin sauce with chopped peanuts. This was an amazing cold appetizer, an explosion of contrasting flavors and textures wrapped in soft rice paper.
.

.
Bowls of pho always are accompanied by a plate of crisp bean sprouts, hot fresh chilis (in this case, Jalapenos), lime wedges, and either fresh cilantro or fresh basil, for the diner to add to the soup as they please.
.

.
Tai sach - Pho with rice noodles, thin slices of steak, and tripe, topped with bean sprouts and cilantro (small bowl $6.99). Huge amounts of meat are not the norm with pho - it is primarily a noodle soup in a meat broth, flavored with star anise and herbs, with a small amount of meat. And the meats used may include brisket, flank steak, meatballs, or more flavorful but lesser-used cuts such as tendon and tripe. Flavor your soup with table condiments and the dish of fresh accompaniments - this will cure whatever ails you.
.

.
Banh xeo - crispy crepe with pork and shrimp, $6.99. The waitress explained that the shredded salad ingredients (carrot, cucumber, sprouts) are to be wrapped in the fresh leaf lettuce, rolled up, and dipped in the spicy-sweet sauce. The crisp fried crepe contained a bare minimum of shrimp and pork - not filled like a French crepe, but served more as an accompaniment to the greens.
.

.
Pho hai san - shrimp, squid, fish cake, imitation crabmeat with rice noodles, small bowl $7.99. Again, noodles are the primary ingredient. The fish cake is strongly flavored but not really pungent; it tasted rather like a strong salmon-flavored pate.

In addition to a wide selection of pho, rice plates (such as com ga nuong, grilled chicken with steamed rice for $9.99) and vermicelli plates (bun thit nuong, grilled pork, lettuce, carrot, peanut with vermicelli, $9.99) are offered.

It makes M. de Joie's heart sing to see an independently-owned restaurant deservedly succeed and she hopes this little place will get the business to survive. The food is inexpensive, delicious, and healthy. If you're looking to branch out from Thai or other more familiar Asian cuisine, visit Pho Saigon.

Pho Saigon, 236 Hartnell Avenue, Redding. 530-223-9888. Open Tuesday-Saturday, 10 AM to 9 PM, Sunday 11 AM to 7 PM. Cash and cards. No checks. No alcohol. Ample on-site parking.