Andrew Kay talks take-away after the delivery of a fine meal from Kemp Thai

Well tempered spice

Nothing hits the spot like a decent take-away when the cares of the day have worn you down and the lure of the kitchen is lacking. Yesterday was such a day, brought on, not by being too busy, although I should have been, but by some berk reversing his car into my leg on London Road. Now, I am from the generation that looks left, looks right and looks left again, but nothing can predict someone shoving their vehicle into reverse and powering into your knee – the bad one.

I spent the day on my back and called for a take-away. Fortunately a few days before we had walked (not much hope of that this week) past Kemp Thai in St George’s Road and picked up a menu. The far end of Kemp Town is surprisingly lacking in restaurants and hostelries so the occasional carry out is a godsend. Who would have known that two days later I would be calling on their services.

One thing I expect from a delivery is that it arrives within a reasonable time of the promise and that it is hot. We don’t own a microwave, for various reasons, so a cold take-away is not acceptable. Kemp Thai delivered promptly and everything was piping hot.

I opened the carriers and inside everything was packed in waxed card cartons. It looked like a scene from an American TV series and I have to say that everything seemed to be fresher and hotter than the usual foil containers. Added to this I did not cut my fingers opening them. Each carton was clearly labelled too with the menu number of each dish, an excellent idea.

But all of this would be as nothing if the food did not make the grade. Fortunately it more than satisfied on almost every level. Firstly with those nice pink prawn crackers that make lesser prawn crackers look and taste like packaging. next out was chicken satay, very good chicken, propery seasoned before grilling and with lots of creamy peanut sauce. It also looked good, even in a carton!

Thai sausages were a new one on me and although interestingly spiced and savoury, especially with the slivers of fresh ginger, they were not my favourite. I’m glad I tried them and I’m sure lots of people will love them.

Green chicken curry was very rich and mildy spiced, but what impressed most was the presence of lots of holy basil and kaffir lime, a flavour that too many lazy Thai cooks seem to leave out, despite it being pretty readily available these days. The steamed jasmine rice was good too, light and fluffy with just the right amount of stickiness.

Pad thai noodles with prawns were superb and plentiful, more than enough for two even if we had not had the rice. In fact I will be eating the left-overs for lunch in an hour or so. Again there was a sense of generosity to the dish, plenty of egg, plenty of flavour and plenty of fat prawns too.

Nua yang is one of my favourites, a salad of beef with a thai herb salad and in this case a sriracha dressing which was served on the side. Often the beef in this dish is sliced very fine, probably because it lacks the required tenderness to eat easily if any thicker. These slices were thick and the beef rare. I popped in the first slice and my heart warmed. It was as tender as could be, as good a slice of beef as I could have hoped for. The salad too was crisp and fresh and the dressing added just the right amount of fire, really first class cooking.

Steamed broccoli with ginger and oyster sauce was equally tasty and the broccoli had retained the much needed crunch to make this much abused vegetable palatable.

Our final dish was ped yang namun hoi, crispy roast duck on a bed of mixed greens topped with ginger and oyster sauce. Now crisp is an adjective often used with regard to duck but when it comes to take-away seldom achieved. I don’t know whether it was the cartons or a kitchen trick but this duck was crisp outside and succulent in. I was impressed, very impressed.
Kemp Thai is now top of my take-away list and to be honest, I can’t wait to be exhausted again. Oh, and I love their loyal orchid scheme where you collect points towards free dishes. Prawn crackers are £1.95, starters £3.95, side dishes around £2.95, Pad thai with prawns £6.95, main courses from £5.95 to £9.95 for sea bass fillets.

Kemp Thai, 40 St George’s Road, Kemp Town, Brighton BN2 1EF open Tuesday to Sunday 5pm to 10.30pm 01273 698585
www.kempthai.co.uk