Alice Mama Thai Café has been winning over hearts and stomachs at 4104 Gulf Breeze Parkway with homemade recipes from a husband-and-wife team, Chanwiroj Chokwiratchanan and Praweena Inthra, since opening this summer.
Their cozy new restaurant – named after their daughter, Alice, a 4-year-old lover of wonton soup and her mother’s cooking – offers a place that is intended to feel like home with warm-colored walls, fresh plants, and plenty of leftovers.
The two opened the restaurant to offer Gulf Breeze a taste of Thailand, including some dishes traditional to what their own families would enjoy around the table in Northern Thailand. While the two met in the United States, they both grew up in similar regions, and both had memories cooking with their own mothers, according to Inthra.
She recalls one soup that her mother would often make for her – a spicy Tom Yum soup filled with fragrant lemongrass and lime, which is now a staple on their menu. However, she found a way to also transform the soup into a sauce for her signature Pad Noodle Tom Yum dish, which combines all the comforting flavors of the soup with stir-fry egg noodles.
For Chokwiratchanan, he thinks back to the Kao Soi, a curry unique to Northern Thailand, which is combined with egg noodles, scallions, cilantro, peppercorns, Napa cabbage, cooking wine and crispy egg noodles.
While their menu spans much of the country, the Kao Soi brings him home.
Darrell Merrell, a customer who is quickly becoming a regular, tried the dish on his fifth visit on Aug. 8, and his thoughts were apparent after the first bite.
“I’m a cook, I’m not a chef. These folks are chefs,” Merrell said. “It is an art.”
For dishes like the papaya salad, the two work in symphony, with Chokwiratchanan cutting green papaya into thin slices and Merrell preparing an aromatic, spiced paste using her mortar and pestle.
Once finished, the salad becomes a vertical tower of crisp string beans, fruit and peanuts, and the dish delivers flavors of sour, sweet and salty, according to Inthra.
While the Pad Thai is a common order and bestseller, Chokwiratchanan is also proud of several other dishes, including the Pad Crispy Duck Broccoli, basil fried rice and the many ramen varieties, such as Japanese Miso, Shoyu and Tonkotsu (Japanese pork bone broth).
Whatever you order, be prepared to take a box home with you to enjoy later.
“I hope and pray this place takes off and they can open another one,” Merrell said.
For more information and to see the full menu, visit their website at alicemamathaicafe.com/ or call the restaurant at 850-733-9012. The restaurant is currently open from 11 a.m. to 2:30 p.m. and 4 p.m. to 8 p.m., Monday through Friday, and from noon to 8 p.m. on Sundays.
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This article originally appeared on Pensacola News Journal: Get a taste of Northern Thailand at Alice Mama Thai Cafe, from papaya salad to Kao Soi curry
Reporting by Brittany Misencik, Pensacola News Journal / Pensacola News Journal
USA TODAY Network via Reuters Connect
