More Visitors Plus a Thai Restaurant!

Soon after Laurie’s sister Bonnie and her husband Bill departed for St. Louis Missouri, 2 other house guests arrived.  This time it was a former high school classmate of Laurie’s that she hadn’t seen for 42 years! 

Here is Laurie and her friend Linda… They were photographed by Linda’s husband Jon while they were perusing Maplewood Missouri high school yearbooks and reminiscing about the ‘good old days’.  They were like good friends that had actually been with each other many times over the intervening years…

Linda and Jon currently live in the San Francisco Bay area of California.  One reason for this trip was to check out what the retirement possibilities are like in East Tennessee.  They learned that we have low housing costs, a low cost of living, low taxes, low gasoline prices, quality health care, a minimal chance for natural disasters and plenty of natural beauty as evidenced by the lakes and rivers, forests and mountains.   

So...it was dinner time.  Jon and Linda wanted to take us out to eat and we all agreed that we would try a Thai restaurant that Laurie and I had never eaten at before.  This is Little Bangkok Thai Bistro.

Our friends Joel and Holly had recommended this restaurant…and when they talk about food, we listen!  They’ve lived all over the world with their last residence prior to retiring to East Tennessee being in the Washington D.C. area… D.C. is of course loaded with restaurants serving quality ethnic foods.

As Joel and Holly had told us, the interior of Little Bangkok is nothing fancy… Its décor is straightforward and simple.

Our waitress was thoughtful enough to offer to take our group photo… This is one of the few photos that included both Laurie and myself.  She’s usually on the business end of the camera!  It was a great visit as Linda and Jon are both great house guests…

We started out with a couple of appetizers.  These are the Crab Rangoon…deep fried ‘pastries’ filled with crab and cream cheese. ($5.99) The filling was quite good and that is the key to quality Crab Rangoon…

These are Fried Pork Pot Stickers. ($5.99) They were very nice…one of my favorite Thai/Chinese appetizers.

Among other items, the list of appetizers includes Shrimp or Vegetable Basil Rolls; Bangkok Stuffed Wings; Satay Chicken; Bangkok Lettuce Wrap, and Tom Ka Kai, a coconut milk based soup with chicken and mushrooms simmered in lemon grass, lime juice and fresh Kaffir leaves.

To learn about Kaffir leaves and Kaffir limes, you can go to https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Kaffir_lime.

OK… Here’s the problem.  I didn’t pay for dinner and I didn’t take notes.  In addition, 3+ weeks have passed and my short term memory has failed me.  Consequently, I don’t know what most of our dinners were called and I haven’t been able to match our photos up to the items listed in Little Bangkok’s on-line menu.  We are pretty sure that this is Laurie’s entrée, Yellow Curry with Chicken. ($8.99)

FYI… Yellow curry is Khaeng Ka-Ree, red curry is Khaeng Phed and green curry is Khaeng Keaw-Warn.

Either Jon or I ordered the Pa-Naeng…a thick version of red curry with beef, potatoes and broccoli. ($8.99)  I think that this was probably my entrée as it looks and sounds like something that I’d enjoy.  I do remember that I ordered brown rice with my entrée and everyone else went with the white rice.

If you are in or close to Knoxville’s Turkey Creek and it happens to be close to the lunch hour, Little Bangkok is located just across North Campbell Station Road at the west end of the shopping area.  The reason that I mentioned this fact is that this restaurant has a 24 item Luncheon menu…and 23 of the items listed only cost $6.99 each!  

We believe that this was Linda’s entrée… As I recall, it was some type of dinner salad with veggies and chicken. 

If anyone would like to show off their knowledge of Thai and Chinese food, feel free to try to match the food to Little Bangkok’s menu, just click on the following: http://littlebangkokknoxville.com/?page_id=8.

This is obviously either orange or honey glazed chicken…with some red pepper flakes for a little heat.  The Honey Glazed Chicken on the menu is $8.99. 

I have to admit that I failed to gather the data I really needed in order to adequately review this restaurant. However, since we all really liked everything that we ordered for dinner, I wanted to put this restaurant out there for others to consider!  Joel and Holly were right… Little Bangkok/Thai Bistro is a good restaurant with good food and reasonable prices… Laurie and I will return for another meal and I will provide more complete feedback! 

Little Bangkok – Thai Bistro is located at 603 North Campbell Station Road in Knoxville Tennessee.  It’s just off of I-75 at the Campbell Station exit.  Phone: 865-675-3688.  Website: http://littlebangkokknoxville.com/.

One final note… Linda and Jon LOVED East Tennessee!  They even did a bit of house hunting when they were here… This is a great place to retire!

Just click on any of the photos to enlarge them…

Thanks for stopping by for a visit!

Take Care, Big Daddy Dave