The East Bay has no shortage of Thai restaurants. Newcomer Glom Thai is a standout. Formerly Sistory Thai Kitchen, the cozy space is now run by co-founders Mina Wong and Thanaset “Fin” Charuspornnopphakul.
Wong, with different business partners, previously operated Banana Leaf on the El Cerrito-Richmond border. Fin, a restaurant industry veteran, spoke with me on the phone. He told me that they want to serve Thai food that goes beyond pad Thai and curry dishes. Glom, he said, “is a modern Thai restaurant, but our food stays authentic and real.”
Fin explained that the word “glom” is associated with the idea of a gathering. In particular, a family or group of friends sharing a meal together around a table. “In Thailand, meals are about sharing food, talking, laughing and spending time together,” Fin said. “Our concept: We want to make food like you eat at home. We want people to enjoy great food and share these dishes.”
The menu was conceived by Wong, Fin and their chef, Sivilay, who used to cook at Sa Wad Dee Thai in Richmond. After our conversation, Fin followed up with an email to add, “The dishes are inspired by the food we grew up eating, our personal experiences and the traditional flavors we want to share with the Bay Area community.” The focus on Thai home cooking comes alive when Glom makes use of seasonal ingredients from local farmers.
Glom’s crispy morning glory salad, aka water spinach ($22), is made with leaves that, when cooked, turn the same dark green as spinach or basil. Fin wrote that it’s actually a difficult ingredient to find. “It is only available for a short time during the warmer months, and we honestly don’t know if we’ll be able to source it during the winter. Rather than substitute it with another vegetable, we prefer to wait until we can find the real ingredient again,” he explained.
The cooks deep fry morning glory, stem and all, and then serve it with ground pork, cherry tomatoes and a lime dressing that’s tart and deliciously funky. The restaurant recently posted photos of fresh bunches of morning glory laid out on a farmers market stand. Fin noted that most of the vendors who grow and sell it are “Lao people and Thai people.” Using ingredients such as morning glory and wild basil, Fin wrote, “helps the restaurant maintain the authentic flavors of Thai cooking while supporting the local community.”
Good pad Thai, Fin said, is hard to find. He also doesn’t eat the dish when he’s in Thailand, but they do make it at Glom. Lesser versions of the dish add hot sauce or paprika “to make it bright and colorful.” Chef Sivilay uses a real tamarind sauce. “That makes it brown and pale, but it’s really tasty,” Fin added.
I ventured beyond pad Thai to try khao soi ($22), another noodle dish that contains bolder, spicier and more complex flavors. Chicken, along with a few pickled mustard greens, is served in a bowl filled with noodles and a yellow curry sauce as the base. Khao soi is pad Thai’s more sophisticated older sister, who knows things about the world of adults way before the younger sibling does.
I asked Fin to recommend a dish to a first-time customer. “Kua Kling is from Southern Thailand,” he said. “It’s very tangy and spicy, and also we put stink beans that we import from Thailand in the dish.” Stink beans, or sataw, have a very strong taste but “complement the chili paste we make with white pepper, black pepper, cumin and ginger.” Fin added, “We don’t tone down the recipe or adjust the spice level. It’s cooked the traditional Southern Thai way.”
Glom Thai, 1233 San Pablo Ave., Berkeley. IG: @glomthai.
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