McDevitt's Thai Food Station

A week ago, a dear friend of ours celebrated her birthday. Now this friend is no ordinary woman! She's no other than self-made entrepreneur, restaurateur and one-time resort operator Geraldine Palaroan McDevitt. Since she's a very busy woman so celebrating her birthday almost always get delayed by a couple of days. Imagine my surprise when I got a call yesterday that I was invited to a dinner at Geraldine's resto!

By 7:00 p.m. we boarded my friend Jojo's van and motored all the way to Paranaque for dinner. Mc Devitt's Thai Food Station is a nondescript restaurant that has no pretensions whatsoever. It's also very easy to find! As we made our way towards the Merville exit at SLEX, we turned right at the access road towards the villages of Merville and Moonwalk. Another right turn at the intersection and a few yards away the restaurant comes into view. Our hostess with the mostest was all draped in a black flowing summer dress. There were already a few guests sipping wine while the introductions were being made.

Then in the midst of the conversation and peals of laughter out comes the appetizer of crispy fried spring rolls with a sweet chilli dip. I had to start taking photos or else the guests would just devour everything. Then some more dishes started being set up on the buffet. 

The Prawn Salad arrived with the steamed prawns sitting on a bed of fresh greens and cucumber drenched in a sweetish vinaigrette that was so palate friendly it reminded one of the flavors of summer. 

Not to be outdone was the Pommelo Salad sprinkled with crunchy peanuts. Slivers of peeled pommelo added onto fresh greens and sour slivers of green mango and parsley provided just the right amount of zing to liven up one's palate. I should know, I think I had two servings before I moved on to the viands.

The Calamares was delicious with its tamarind based dip.The squid rings slathered in a special batter and deep fried to a golden goodness! 

I think I must have had a few more servings before I fixed my attention on the  Pad Thai that was served right next to it. Proof of its taste can be seen in the photo. I hadn't taken a few seconds to take a snap shot and I ended up with a picture of a half consumed serving platter!

Tonto Fish for me is something of a novelty... yeah, I'm accustomed to having crispy fried catfish on every Thai menu. But Tonto Fish? Apparently this kind of fish is caught in abundance here as well. It's a wide, fleshy fish with white meat that's been deep fried to a golden brown until the outer part is crisp but the inner meat is white and tender. It was garnished with generous slices of cucumber and tomato for effect.

Tonto Fish served with Thai Bagoong Rice were the perfect complementary dishes. Even the rice had that unmistakable Thai flavor that was sweet and sour at the same time and it had some slices of fried fish amid the egg and mango it came topped with.

To cap the meal, I tasted the Chilli Crab 

and the Pad Preek (I'm not certain if I spelled this right).

 But whichever way you spell it, the meat dish with fried basil leaves and lots of bird's eye chilli was so hot and good.Tasting these two dishes made me start to break out in a good sweat. Thank God for the cold sodas and the overflowing wine that made us all a bit light-headed and laughing at Doc Ariel's myriad stories of his risque encounters.

We were just too full to take in any dessert so we opted for some more wine and a lot more funny stories. Kudos goes to Geraldine for a marvelous dinner with friends and new acquaintances. If anything, I'm certain we'll be seeing more of these ladies in the near future. If you're ever in the area and you experience some hunger pangs try out McDevitt's Thai Food Station for authentic Thai food that's easy on your pocket. Oh, and by the way, your craving for some take out may be addressed by calling their number... Yes, they deliver too!!!