Thai fried rice at Thida Thai

Even though I grew up in a very small town in New Brunswick, I was able to develop a fondness for fried rice at quite a young age.  Any time I would go out to a Chinese restaurant (pretty well the only ethnic food available in northern New Brunswick outside of North American), I ordered what was called “chicken fried rice” from the menu every time, and it was so delicious: nice light brown in color, and perfectly textured and flavored.

When I moved to Vancouver in 2003, one of the first things I noticed was that the Chinese food here is quite different compared to the Chinese food in Eastern Canada. It seemed that all the fried rice was white or yellow in color and the taste was quite bland compared to what I was used to. Besides that, some of the other Chinese food items I was used to were missing from the west coast Chinese restaurant menus, such as Chop Suey and even another one of my favorite food items: the egg roll (haven’t seen one in Vancouver yet, and on a few occasions, the Chinese server at a restaurant pointed out a spring roll from the menu when I asked if they made egg rolls).

Anyway, the purpose of this post is to tell you about a delicious plate of fried rice that I discovered at a restaurant on Davie Street. It’s actually at a Thai restaurant on the north side of Davie Street, just east of Bute called Thida Thai.

The Thai fried Rice, like all of their lunch combos, comes with a spring roll and a small side salad. The fried rice can be ordered with chicken, beef, pork, or tofu, but I always choose chicken. The chicken is good quality, too, and just the way I like it: generous portions of high quality white meat (very rare I will find gristle, but it has happened a couple of times), and just the right texture. Also within the rice, you’ll find around 4 sweet tomato wedges and onion slices. It’s a very nice tasting lunch that I go back for again and again, and it definitely satisfies my “chicken fried rice” cravings in Vancouver.

Another of their items I like to indulge in once in a while is the Thai Yellow Curry lunch combo:

All in all, it’s a pretty good little Thai restaurant with extremely reasonable prices, and a super friendly staff. It’s quite quiet and cozy inside with some pretty nice Thai decor.

If you would like more information about Thida Thai and its menu items, try visiting the Thida Thai website at http://www.thidathairestaurant.com/.

Update: since posting this article, I was able to try out some Thai fried rice dishes at many other Thai restaurant around Vancouver. As it turns out, they are all basically the same as the rice I got here with a bit of variation in flavors (yes, I use the North American spelling of words rather than British English). In other words, I’ve yet to be disappointed, and now I know I can get it at pretty well any one of the dozens of Thai restaurants in the Vancouver area. 

One Response to “Thai fried rice at Thida Thai”

1. holly says:

   March 10, 2011 at 2:46 pm

   I too grew up on east coast Canadian Chineese cusine, and am still looking for egg rolls ‘Garden View’ style (Spring Garden Rd, Halifax)This looks like a great place for some tasty snacks here in Vancouver, thanks for recommending
   Have you any suggestions as far as the new street food available in Vancouver?