Squid Anyone?


    You never know with calamari. It can be gooey and limp when deep-fried and coated with too much batter; or, alternatively, challenging to the teeth and the patience, with a blandness that’s not worth the chew. To hit upon calamari, marinated or grilled, that is tender and tasty, is a rare treat.
    Neecha Thai’s creative approach—small slices of squid fried in a batter that you hardly notice but with flavor and texture that is quite sublime—takes its muk krob starter ($6.25) way up into the realm of sensational.
    The menu description of this dish says that the calamari is deep-fried with red onions in sweet chili paste and topped with crunchy Thai basil. In fact, these words do little justice to the experience—calamari that is at the same time crunchy, spicy-honeyed-sticky and scrumptious. Chef and kitchen spokesperson Neecha Thian-ngern says ground shrimp, garlic and chili, combined in a “secret recipe,” give the unique flavor that leaves one wanting more.
    Thian-ngern, for whom the restaurant is named, removed her chef’s apron and took a break from the kitchen to talk about the muk krob and other menu items. Her mom, Saronya Thian-ngern, has run a restaurant of the same name in San Francisco since 1988. Thailand-born Saronya Thian-ngern learned to cook from her mother, and is responsible for the menus at both eateries.
    The cuisine at the Oakland restaurant, run by Thian-ngern, 24, and her 26-year-old brother, Arnold, has more of a California influence than the San Francisco one, Neecha Thian-ngern says, because the siblings are both American-born. Both have electrical engineering degrees from UC schools (San Diego and Santa Cruz), but neither found engineering work that was sufficiently creative or social—hence the move to the restaurant, which is both. The training, Neecha Thian-ngern says, taught them to be quick learners—but she couldn’t say it was responsible for the muk krob.
    Neecha Thai, 3236 Grand Ave., open 11 a.m.–10 p.m. daily, closed 3 p.m.–5 p.m. Mon.–Fri.; (510) 451-9419.

—By Wanda Hennig
—Photography by Lara Hata