Sep. 1—MANCHESTER — Manchuporn "May" Prathumwiang loves spicy food and she loves to bring the heat at her Thai restaurant, Sukhothai Thai Cuisine, on Main Street.
"I like everything spicy," Prathumwiang said.
She and her husband emigrated from Thailand in 1999, working in food service in New Haven before coming to Manchester.
"I used to cook in Thailand," she said, learning from her mother and grandmother, along with online tutorials.
HOURS: Tuesday-Thursday 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., 5-9:30 p.m.; Friday 11:30 a.m. to 3 p.m., 5-10 p.m.; Saturday 11:30 a.m. to 10 p.m.; Sunday 4-9 p.m.
MENU: Green curry, pad thai, wide rice noodles, crispy chicken, peanut curry fish, hal duck, mango sticky rice, fried banana.
CONTACT: 860-432-7405; 860-543-3809; sukhothaimanchester.com.
Sukhothai was opened in 2003 by a friend of Prathumwiang, she said.
"I took it over from my friend," she said. "She had the restaurant for about 16 years. I took over three years ago.
"We are close friends," she said of her seven-person team at the restaurant, which has five full-time employees and two part-timers.
She said she loves running a restaurant in Manchester.
"There's not much crime and it's peaceful," she said. "The customers are friendly and there are four seasons. It's beautiful."
Not much has changed since she took over Sukhothai, Prathumwiang said, maintaining the same aesthetic, while replacing some of the decorations and purchasing new tablecloths for the dining tables.
The menu of Sukhothai does bring the heat, but also a variety of other items for those with a sensitive palate.
For the diner looking for the spice, Pramthumwiang said the green curry is her favorite dish and is the hottest dish on the menu, and is something that people can request to be even hotter.
The green curry comes with coconut milk, bamboo shoots, eggplant, bell peppers, and basil, served with rice.
She said the kitchen has an unofficial spice level that customers can choose: from one to 10 stars of spice.
"The customers like spicy food too," she said. "One customer asks if I can make it really spicy. They'll eat 10-star level spicy."
Other spicy dishes she recommends include drunken noodles, stir-fried wide rice noodles with chili sauce, basil leaves, bell peppers, tomatoes, and onions; and spicy noodles made with stir-fried wide rice noodles with egg, onions, carrots, cabbage, bean sprouts, scallions, baby corn, and Sriracha sauce.
Along with the green curry, Prathumwiang said her other favorite dishes include the mango sticky rice and fried banana desserts.
Popular dishes, she said, include pad thai, served with stir-fried rice noodles with egg, shredded sweet turnip, ground peanuts, scallions, bean sprouts, with special sauce; and pad see ew: stir-fried wide rice noodles with egg, broccoli, and carrots in sweet soy sauce.
Other popular dishes include the crispy chicken with fried rice, and peanut curry fish.
A deal Prathumwiang said that many other restaurants don't have is their prices on their duck dishes.
"Some restaurants (serve) quarter duck," she said. "We do half."
She said that the price for their half duck dishes is comparable to what other restaurants do for a quarter duck dish.
"They do quarter duck for $25," she said, while she serves half duck dishes for less than $25.
Prathumwiang said that indoor dining has waned since the onset of the COVID-19 pandemic and she would like to see people return to eating indoors at Sukhothai.
"I need a full house," she said. "After COVID, it's been a lot of take-out. It's quiet here."
She said she'd like to see more local activities along Main Street to help boost dining not only for her but other restaurants.
"I'd like some activities, like music," she said. "It's quiet. Before COVID it was busier, but right now, nothing."
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