By Nuria Chantre

Amid various restaurants and coffee shops on Teele Square and at walking distance from Tufts University, a restaurant that looks a lot like a dining room focuses on serving Thai food at its most authentic.

Tip Top Thai is family-owned and specializes in Thai food, noodle dishes and Japanese Sushi for eat-in and take-out.  This month, Nung Bunaiamsri, manager, and Monk Sakthanaset, owner and chef, who are married, celebrate three years of business in the city.

‚ÄúI know it looks like a home.  We‚Äôre just a small business and I need to take care of my kids; customers, they know, they understand,‚Äù said Bunaiamsri. 

The couple‚Äôs three children, on break from school, run in and out from the back room of the restaurant which boasts of decorative pieces from Thailand, like a carved elephant, and where Thai music is playing. 

When it comes to cooking Thai food, Sakthanaset said, preparation is key.  He worked in the restaurant business for 15 years before he launched his own, he said.  Chefs don‚Äôt typically spend a lot of time preparing food and often take the faster way out.  It takes a lot of time and gas, he said which can cause some restaurants to make instant soup instead of traditional Thai soup.  For this reason, he said, Thai food is often cooked in ways that it resembles Chinese, Japanese, Italian or even American cooking styles.

‚ÄúI try to make things different.  If you‚Äôve gone to Thailand and you‚Äôve tried Thai food and you come here, you are going to love our food,‚Äù Sakthanaset said.

Part of what he does to retain Thailand’s original flavors has to do with his ingredients he usually imports from places like Florida and Hawaii; especially basil leaves because they are grown in hot and hazy weather, he said.

Cooking Thai food is not easy when the chef isn‚Äôt Thai, the Thailand native said. Some dishes, like the curry, must be cooked 24 hours before serving in order to get the taste right.  To get the sweet taste of the tamarind fruit he mixes it with vinegar.  In the end, the food is perfect if everything is running on time, he said.  But with Thai food, he said, sometimes he has to hide the smell because people don‚Äôt like the smell of certain things like fish sauce.

Sakthanaset who likes to improvise and mix his own curry, said he likes the hot and spicy but he doesn’t put it all the way unless customers ask for it.

‚ÄúI was born in the kitchen,‚Äù said Sakthanaset whose mother was a cook in Thailand.  He began taking his craft seriously at the age of 12 but didn‚Äôt always like it.  But since leaving his native country in 1985, cooking is the only thing he said he can do in the U.S.  ‚ÄúI have a good tongue, I love food.  I love to cook food.‚Äù

The chef‚Äôs most popular dish on the menu is the Pad Thai, a saut√©ed rice noodle with eggs, bean sprouts, scallions, tofu and ground peanut that can be added to chicken, vegetables or shrimp.  The Massaman Curry, which is served with beef, tofu or chicken is also a favorite, he said, along with the Moody Chef and the
Mango Curry.

Sakthanaset said cooking Thai food is a challenge he faces everyday because he uses the right ingredients to get an authentic Thai dish.  It doesn‚Äôt always work out because some of his customers are accustomed to things like white meat with their soup or curry sauce instead of dark meat.  ‚ÄúI tried to change it but no one followed me,‚Äù he said adding that it is the dark meat that really provides a distinct Thai flavor.  He thinks he might add a native food corner in the restaurant.

For now his customers‚Äô biggest complaints are that Tip Top Thai doesn‚Äôt do deliveries, he said.  Still, Sakthanaset is happy to have his share of customers.

‚ÄúIt‚Äôs a small place, not bad at all, not too busy,‚Äù he said.  Thai music still playing, Sakthanaset and Bunaiamsri head back into the kitchen to prepare dinner.