Strolling around Syracuse, NY, this afternoon I was surprised--to put it mildly--to stumble upon a restaurant purporting to serve Lao and Thai cuisine. Having never tried Lao food before, I knew that this evening's dinner was coming from Lao Village.
The menu, however, seemed to be just a bunch of quite recognizable Thai dishes. I asked the guy behind the counter (from Laos, as it turns out, and I'm pretty sure it was his father in the back doing the cooking) what is really, typically Lao on the menu. The response: "Lao and Thai... pretty much the same." A little internet research suggests this is almost certainly not the case. Still, after ordering the only thing on the menu that even mentions the word "Laotian" in the description, I can tell you their food is quite tasty, if of dubious "authenticity". A soup they call "keang jeut" was broth with ground chicken and a LOT of vegetables (good nonetheless). Approaching stellar status is the noodle dish called "khanoom jean"--rice vermicelli with chunks of chicken, shredded cabbage, bean sprouts, mint, kaffir lime leaves, scallion, cilantro, and "Laotian coconut curry paste". I'll take their word on that one... I do know I've never had any curry in a Thai restaurant that tasted anything like it. It was a bit like pad thai, except really delicious.
Definitely worth stopping by if you're in the neighborhood.
Lao Village
208 W. Genesee St., Syracuse, NY 13202
315-435-8151
Showing posts with label Thai. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Thai. Show all posts
Friday, February 19, 2010
Wednesday, October 14, 2009
Chao Thai, Redux
A bit of food porn from last night's meal at Chao Thai. Once again, thanks to Jose for the pics!
Papaya salad: shredded green papaya, some chili peppers, some tomato, some peanuts, some lime. Totally fresh and totally delicious.
Yum Nam Sod: basically pork larb, kicked up a notch by the addition of shredded pork skin. You can see a hunk lurking in the far left of the frame.
Steamed whole sea bass with spicy lime sauce. This was really lovely... the raw garlic slices look more forbidding than they actually taste.
Papaya salad: shredded green papaya, some chili peppers, some tomato, some peanuts, some lime. Totally fresh and totally delicious.
Yum Nam Sod: basically pork larb, kicked up a notch by the addition of shredded pork skin. You can see a hunk lurking in the far left of the frame.
Steamed whole sea bass with spicy lime sauce. This was really lovely... the raw garlic slices look more forbidding than they actually taste.
Wednesday, October 7, 2009
Chao Thai
The one unfortunate side-effect of eating at SriPraPhai regularly (well, one of two, if you count prodigious after-burn... which I don't) is that it has made me rather a snob when it comes to all other Thai restaurants (Me?? A snob???? Okay, all together now: show me your shocked faces... excellent!) That is, until this evening. Chao Thai is damn close to the same league as SriPraPhai. They even do some things better.
If the two salad dishes we had are a reliable indicator, and I believe they are, the salad appetizers are especially good. Both the beef larb and the squid salad fairly screamed "freshness"--the flavors of the chilis and the lime juice retained all of their character while blending with each other perfectly, garnished with some impeccably fresh mint leaves. An especially nice touch was that the beef used in the larb appeared to have been chopped by hand rather than simply having been put through a grinder: most places, the beef in this dish has the same consistency as hamburger.
The crispy pork in basil sauce was stunning: cubes of pork belly (which, for the uninitiated, is bacon before it is cured) fried until just crisp enough, yet tender beneath the surface, stir-fried in a sauce of chili, garlic and basil. Sweet sausage fried rice--rice fried with bits of egg, scallion and slices of sausage much like Chinese sausage but more refined--was perfectly executed, delicate and surprisingly subtle. I've made my feelings about pad thai known elsewhere on this blog, but even that was worth eating.
For you hot pepper mavens: spicy here really does mean spicy, and they will take you quite seriously if you ask for it. And once the helpful and chatty young waitress realized just how thoroughly we were enjoying the food, she was full of suggestions for things to try on subsequent visits, all of which I intend to, and soon.
Chao Thai
85-03 Whitney Ave., Elmhurst 11373
718-424-4999
old menu--prices have gone up a couple of dollars for most dishes
(G, R, or V train to Elmhurst Ave., south on Broadway a block or two, then left on Whitney)
If the two salad dishes we had are a reliable indicator, and I believe they are, the salad appetizers are especially good. Both the beef larb and the squid salad fairly screamed "freshness"--the flavors of the chilis and the lime juice retained all of their character while blending with each other perfectly, garnished with some impeccably fresh mint leaves. An especially nice touch was that the beef used in the larb appeared to have been chopped by hand rather than simply having been put through a grinder: most places, the beef in this dish has the same consistency as hamburger.
The crispy pork in basil sauce was stunning: cubes of pork belly (which, for the uninitiated, is bacon before it is cured) fried until just crisp enough, yet tender beneath the surface, stir-fried in a sauce of chili, garlic and basil. Sweet sausage fried rice--rice fried with bits of egg, scallion and slices of sausage much like Chinese sausage but more refined--was perfectly executed, delicate and surprisingly subtle. I've made my feelings about pad thai known elsewhere on this blog, but even that was worth eating.
For you hot pepper mavens: spicy here really does mean spicy, and they will take you quite seriously if you ask for it. And once the helpful and chatty young waitress realized just how thoroughly we were enjoying the food, she was full of suggestions for things to try on subsequent visits, all of which I intend to, and soon.
Chao Thai
85-03 Whitney Ave., Elmhurst 11373
718-424-4999
old menu--prices have gone up a couple of dollars for most dishes
(G, R, or V train to Elmhurst Ave., south on Broadway a block or two, then left on Whitney)
Wednesday, September 9, 2009
SriPraPhai
Since I mentioned SriPraPhai in my previous post, I thought a fuller mention was in order. This is a place any serious fan of Thai food should know about. From what I understand, it's considered to be one of the best, if not the best, Thai restaurant in the country. For you outer-borough-phobes, just get over yourselves and GO--15 minutes on the 7 train, and in the evenings 61st St. is an express stop, so you'll be there even faster.
First things first: I am not particularly a fan of Pad Thai (I just don't find it to be that interesting a dish), so all I can say about the Pad Thai here is that it's okay. I tried it, it tasted like Pad Thai, big deal. Friends who are Pad Thai fans say it's not all the great in the grand Pad Thai scheme of things. Couldn't care less. Everything else I have tried here is great-to-spectacular.
I see no point in describing the dishes--if you know Thai food, you pretty much know what to expect from the menu listing, and if you don't know it, you figure it out quickly--with one exception. Perhaps the best dish here, for my taste, is the "fish topped with curry sauce". (For those of you clever enough to have already clicked on the restaurant website link below, it is F-6 on their menu.) With all fish dishes, one has a choice of whole red snapper or two sizes of sea trout filet, but the real star is the sauce. Behind the unassuming moniker of "curry sauce" is thick, complex, indescribably delicious concoction that has, since I have been coming here, gone under at least two other names in the history of their menus--"choo chee curry" and "brown curry". Do not miss it under any cirumstances.
After that, I'll just list some personal favorites, but it's almost impossible to go wrong here:
And... hmm... it appears there are some relatively new items in the curry section of the menu that I need to try! At least one of your rices should be a coconut rice--it's particularly delicious with the fish with curry sauce.
For fans of "my ass is on fire!"-level spiciness, you can try to convince your waiter to tell the kitchen to make it "Thai spicy". Even then, most of the time they don't believe you and don't do it, but occasionally it works. Their normal spiciness level is quite manageable for the average palate.
One important thing to remember before making the trek to Woodside: they're closed Wednesdays.
SriPraPhai
64-13 39th Ave., Woodside 11377
718-899-9599
http://www.sripraphairestaurant.com/
(7 train to 61st St.-Woodside or 69th St. It's one-half block north of Roosevelt Ave., between 64th and 65th)
First things first: I am not particularly a fan of Pad Thai (I just don't find it to be that interesting a dish), so all I can say about the Pad Thai here is that it's okay. I tried it, it tasted like Pad Thai, big deal. Friends who are Pad Thai fans say it's not all the great in the grand Pad Thai scheme of things. Couldn't care less. Everything else I have tried here is great-to-spectacular.
I see no point in describing the dishes--if you know Thai food, you pretty much know what to expect from the menu listing, and if you don't know it, you figure it out quickly--with one exception. Perhaps the best dish here, for my taste, is the "fish topped with curry sauce". (For those of you clever enough to have already clicked on the restaurant website link below, it is F-6 on their menu.) With all fish dishes, one has a choice of whole red snapper or two sizes of sea trout filet, but the real star is the sauce. Behind the unassuming moniker of "curry sauce" is thick, complex, indescribably delicious concoction that has, since I have been coming here, gone under at least two other names in the history of their menus--"choo chee curry" and "brown curry". Do not miss it under any cirumstances.
After that, I'll just list some personal favorites, but it's almost impossible to go wrong here:
- ground meat salad, or larb (A-13. Specify "beef"--I think it works better in this dish than ground pork)
- B.B.Q. pork salad (A-9... gotta love a cuisine that takes a ground or barbecued meat, adds a little greenery, douses it with chili, mint, shallots, and lime juice and calls it salad!)
- papaya salad with dry shrimp & peanut (A-1)
- shredded green mango salad with shrimp, squid & chicken(A-4)
- broiled catfish salad (A-43)
- pork leg with mustard greens over rice (O-1)
- roast duck green curry (C-25)
- any red curry (C-24)
And... hmm... it appears there are some relatively new items in the curry section of the menu that I need to try! At least one of your rices should be a coconut rice--it's particularly delicious with the fish with curry sauce.
For fans of "my ass is on fire!"-level spiciness, you can try to convince your waiter to tell the kitchen to make it "Thai spicy". Even then, most of the time they don't believe you and don't do it, but occasionally it works. Their normal spiciness level is quite manageable for the average palate.
One important thing to remember before making the trek to Woodside: they're closed Wednesdays.
SriPraPhai
64-13 39th Ave., Woodside 11377
718-899-9599
http://www.sripraphairestaurant.com/
(7 train to 61st St.-Woodside or 69th St. It's one-half block north of Roosevelt Ave., between 64th and 65th)
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