For the second year in a row, my co-workers and I made our trip back to Lemongrass in Morris Plains, NJ. Lemongrass is a Thai restaurant with a large array of dishes all of which are executed perfectly. We go once a year for an end of summer dinner, and everything Lemongrass offers makes it a perfect experience.
Seeing as this is mostly a beer blog, you won’t be surprised to find out that this place is B.Y.O.B. Music to my ears, as I now have the ability to pair my beer with my dining experience instead of being limited to whatever limited macro list most places serve. Only two of us really enjoy beer, so we split bottles of Ommegang Witte, Unibroue La Fin Du Monde, Unibroue Trois Pistoles, and Southern Tier Creme Brulee.
Now for some food… We started off with several appetizers for the table including Salted Fried Calamari, Shrimp Rolls, and Vegetarian Spring Rolls. The calamari came with the perfect batter and seasoning which makes eating a dozen or so a rather easy task. The shrimp rolls came out right away and they were wrapped in vermicelli and loaded with steamed shrimp, mint, and lettuce. The best part in my opinion were the Vegetarian Spring Rolls. We chose to get them fried, and they were absolutely delicious.
In the midst of this course, I paired it with Ommegang Witte. This was the lightest, in color and on the palate, that we had to offer and it allowed us to ease our way into the meal. This course wasn’t as spicy as the rest so using the Witte here was wise, allowing for our other selections to enhance the spices of the dishes,
Service was quick and the food rolled out of the kitchen in a timely manner, which lead us perfectly onto our entrees. This year we all decided to order something different and pass it around the table to create a serious smorgasbord. We had dishes ranging from Spicy Basil with Beef, Chili Lemongrass with Chicken, Thai Eggplant, both Chicken and Vegetable Pad Thai, Cashew Nut Shrimp, Sweet and Sour Chicken, and Spicy Basil Fried Rice. Every dish we ordered was phenomenal, but my personal favorite was the Spicy Basil with Beef. It came in a large bowl full of onions, different colors of peppers, snow peas, basil, and beef. The beef looked similar to london broil which was cooked to perfect tenderness, and bathed in a spicy basil sauce. All entrees were served with jasmine rice which helped absorb the sauce.
With dinner I had both Unibroue selections, La Fin Du Monde, and Trois Pistoles.
Being a trippel, we had the Du Monde first. We decided to drink this out of over sized wine glasses opposed to our other option of a Pilsner glass. The color was an amazing orange gold typical of a trippel. The aroma was sweet, and the taste matched it. You could clearly identify the orange aspect in it, but still being held together by a strong alcohol presence.
We followed that one up by having a Trois Pistoles. Wow.. This guy packs a punch. Pouring deep brownish red, it looks like a true Belgian Strong Dark Ale. On first taste it wasn’t nearly as vicious as its appearance and I was able to handle it. Just like its desciption says, you taste the dark fruits and a hint of raisins in it. Seeing as this was our second 9%’er of the night, we drank this one slowly leaving only a little left behind before moving onto dessert.
From the get-go I was very excited for dessert (which is a rare occurrence for me) because I was able to find a bottle of Southern Tier Creme Brulee. I’ve always heard people talking about how amazing it was poured over vanilla ice cream, so of course I had to experience this. Along with the vanilla ice cream we ordered what seemed to be a billion other flavors of ice cream for the table. Served with the ice creams we had fried bananas and mango cheesecake. I had a little taste of each offering but the cheesecake took the figurative cake for sure. The creme brulee poured over vanilla was a close second on the dessert list because the ice cream absorbed the flavor nicely. To wash it down we had the rest of the bottle straight up, unleashing an aroma that can not be put into words. While the stout had a great taste to it, its aroma is out of this world.
Overall I think we can chalk this trip to Lemongrass up as a success. A mix of good beer, great food, and always entertaining conversations made this a night we will talk about for quite some time. This is the kind of place that makes you look forward to going again next year.
Until we rage again.
Cheers