Winchester Bay restaurant offers a taste of Thai regional cooking - and a view.

Byline: ON THE MENU By Randi Bjornstad The Register-Guard

Restaurant: Pah Tong's Thai Restaurant and Lounge

Owners: Punthong "Pat" and Bob Morlatt

Cuisine: Northern Thai, reflecting the climate and traditions of one of the four great regions of Thailand. Food from the cooler north features the special, glutinous type of rice known as "sticky rice," along with a variety of noodle dishes, root and cool-weather vegetables, chicken and pork.

The northeast specializes in grilling and the use of hotter spices, while the large delta area of central Thailand produces huge paddies full of jasmine rice as well as vast fisheries.

The warm south of the country orients toward the sea, so its cuisine centers on fish and seafood as well as the flavor of the coconuts, pineapples and cashews that grow in abundance there.

Philosophy: Couldn't be simpler - offering residents and visitors to a small community on the central Oregon Coast the surprise and delight of an authentic "home-cooked" northern Thai meal. Pah Tong's cook also hails from Thailand, as does one other member of the kitchen staff.

"Pat" came originally from Chiang Mai, Thailand's second-largest city, says her husband, Bob. "We met in Thailand. I went to the dentist in Bangkok, and she worked in the office," he says. "We've been married now for 37 years."

Before coming to Winchester Bay, the couple lived in Fort Bragg, Calif., where they had retired at the end of Bob's international business career.

"We had some friends here and came to visit them and then decided to move here ourselves," he says. "I'm sorry I didn't find (Winchester Bay) many years ago."

Entrees: Stir fries and curries form the backbone of the menu, with most of the entrees available with a choice of chicken, beef, prawns or seafood. Six of the 20 main courses on the dinner menu feature fish. The menu also offers three soups, six appetizers and four salads, including the most exotic item on the menu, Pra Blah Muk, served with Thai-style calamari (squid).

Specialties: Like virtually all Thai restaurants, the menu includes the ever-popular Pad Thai - made with Thai rice noodles, peanuts, bean sprouts, tofu and eggs and, for those who want it, chicken, beef, prawns or seafood. Pah Tong's also offers traditional popular dishes such as green or red Thai curry and Mas-Mun curry. Waitress Erin Detrick also swears by Tom Yum, a Thai spicy soup, as well as deep-fried spring roll appetizers and the garlic pepper chicken or beef from the lunch menu.

But nothing's more special than the Mango and Sweet Sticky Rice that appears on the restaurant's dessert menu.

Price Range: Appetizers are mostly deep-fried - spring rolls, prawns, tofu, sun-dried beef, chicken wings - along with grilled chicken satay and range from $3.95 to $6.35. The lunch menu has more than a dozen offerings, mostly in the $7 range, while dinner courses run from $8.25 to $9.95 and can be had in most cases in chicken, beef, prawn, seafood or vegetarian options.

Thai desserts include mango and sweet sticky rice, squash in coconut milk and sweet potato in ginger juice plus a couple of American choices, varying from $1 to $3.50.

Pah Tong's also has a full-service bar, separated from the dining areas.

Decor: Diner style, with wood-grain formica-topped tables and blue-and-white checkered paper place mats. The boat-filled marina area provides automatic decor from outside.

Capacity: About 35 seats.

Serving Hours: Closed Tuesday but otherwise open 11:30 a.m. to 9 p.m.

Opened: 2002

Location: 460 Beach Blvd., Winchester Bay

Telephone: [phone]

Reservations: Yes, but most people drop in. Take-out also available.

Shared recipe: Bob Morlatt's all-time favorite dessert, Mango and Sweet Sticky Rice. He says he can't eat it any more because of a diabetic condition, so he enjoys it vicariously when customers order it.

In Thailand, people often eat sweet sticky rice formed into small balls at the table with the fingers and then dipped in spicy sauces as part of a meal, not just as a dessert. It's not served at Pah Tong's that way, but recipes abound in Asian cookbooks and on the Internet.

At Pah Tong's, the Mango and Sweet Sticky Rice - when good mangoes can be had - is $3.50 on the menu.

Pah Tong's Mango and Sweet Sticky Rice

2 cups sticky rice (no substitutes - available at Asian markets)

1/2 cup granulated sugar

1 1/2 cups coconut milk

1 teaspoon salt

1/2 cup toasted sesame seeds

2 cups mango slices (about 2 very ripe mangoes)

Put the sticky rice in a large pan and cover with 2 inches of water; let soak at least 6 hours or overnight.

Drain the rice; put it in the basket of a bamboo steamer over boiling water. Cover and steam until soft, about 20 minutes. Remove to a large mixing bowl.

(Note: Some recipes recommend wrapping the rice loosely in cheesecloth before steaming. In the absence of a bamboo steamer, others suggest steaming the sticky rice in a conventional metal steamer or setting an 8-inch glass flame-proof pie plate into the steamer insert of a pasta pot.)

Mix the sugar, coconut milk and salt in a saucepan and bring to a boil, stirring frequently. Remove from heat. Reserve about 1/4 cup of the sauce and pour the remainder over the sticky rice, along with half of the sesame seeds. Mix well; cover with a lid or invert a slightly smaller bowl over the rice to keep it warm until serving.

Peel and slice mangoes into 1/2 -inch slices.

Place about a half-cup of the sweet sticky rice mixture onto each small dessert plate. Sprinkle each with about 1 teaspoon of the reserved sesame seeds. Divide mango slices among the plates, arranging them around or on top of the sweet sticky rice.

Drizzle the mango slices with the remaining sauce.

Makes about 8 servings.

Source: Pah Tong's Restaurant, Winchester Bay

CAPTION(S):

Thai Green Curry is one of the entrees on the menu at Pah Tong's. Curries and stir-fries form the backbone of the restaurant's menu. Ben-Ji is the chef at Pah Tong's, where the emphasis is on the food traditions of northern Thailand.