Authentic Vegan Thai in Santa Barbara

If there's one thing about me that's true it's how picky I am about Thai food, because most of it outside of Thailand is either a poor excuse or only just good enough, and that makes me sad. How can it be that one of the world's greatest cuisines has been exported in such a uniformly mediocre package the world over? I did not enter Satdha with high expectations, but I left a very pleased customer indeed.

Immediately impressed upon seeing miang kham on the menu, a Thai street snack rarely heard of outside its native country, my excitement about the impending meal began to grow. Traditionally this snack comes wrapped in wild pepper leaves, but the chard substitution was more than adequate for these gorgeous parcels of toasted coconut, cashews, shiitake bacon, lime, shallots, ginger, chilli, and tamarind.

Laap is one of my favourite Thai snack dishes, whatever its regional variation, but I opted for its sister dish of nam tok (which features larger sliced chunks of protein). Satdha's vegan variation utilised grilled trumpet mushrooms and had the perfect balance I expect out of this dish: salty, sour, spicy, with toasted ground rice. Also worth noting is the use of a reasonably sized serving complemented by a plate mostly full of salad vegetables. That heap of crunch is an important part of this dish, to temper it and add texture. It's rare, however, to see more than a small side salad accompanying it in many restaurants outside of Thailand.