RuuThai in Bridgeport is where people who have traveled to Thailand go to eat. This funky, friendly place in Bridgeport serves herb-filled dishes that balance Thai flavors, heat, sweet and sour. RuuThai is where we go to order new things.
Garden rolls wrap sweet mango, crunchy cucumber and carrot, ground pork, juicy sausage, fresh lettuce leaves, mint and basil, in a see-through-thin rice paper. Dipped into a fiery sweet sauce — damn! this food makes you feel alive; it delights and invigorates.
The chicken larb, a room-temperature salad of ground meat, minced onion, lemongrass, mint and basil, is imbued with a spicy and sour sauce that wilts the lettuce beneath.
Fish curry, steamed and served in banana leaf cups, blends fish, red curry and coconut milk into a light-textured custard. We eat it with white sticky rice.
We don’t have to stick with our usual pad Thai or drunken noodles (though the drunken noodles, elastic, smoky-sweet and spicy, are the best we’ve had outside of Queens, N.Y.). Boat noodles, silky rice noodles in a big bowl of boldly flavored broth, fragrant with licorice-flavored Thai basil, cilantro, and scallions. It’s served with a choice of meat, beef, pork or sausage. Thai people doctor boat noodles with the spice tray, dipping little spoons into the pots of hot peppers and sauces.
Mango is in season, and dessert of sticky rice and mango pairs the sunny fruit with pale-green sticky rice, flavored with pandan, a mild, aromatic herb, and drizzled with sweet-salty coconut sauce.
>>RuuThai Kitchen, 648 Beechwood Ave., Bridgeport, is open Monday through Saturday, 11 a.m. to 3 p.m. and 4:30 to 9 p.m.; and Sunday 4:30 to 9 p.m. Information: 475-282-4600 and ruuthaiskitchenbridgeport.com.
