Thai foods are some of my favorite to eat. Similar to Vietnamese cuisine, I enjoy the aromatic herbs and lemongrass, the dynamic acidity, occasional funk, and the spice. It always evokes freshness and afterwards I never feel like I’m dying a slow chicken fried steak death, which isn’t the worst way to leave this world.
My complaint is that, at least in the South, it’s mostly stuck in the ubiquity of Chinese-American food circa twenty years ago – the menus and flavors are all the same, without regionality, and it’s often dumbed down to meet some sort of created expectation.
I understand the history and reasoning, given the propensity of the picky eater to complain about spice levels, or get grossed out by a fish head or pig blood, but there is a growing population interested in authenticity to regions and history (not to get started on the authenticity argument, but that said I do appreciate knowing if something is Northern or Central Thai style and what that difference indicates) and having dishes as they are originally intended. I like a well done green coconut curry as much as the next guy (usually made from the you can buy at Buford Highway Farmer’s Market) but I see the menu’s of and dine at Chada and know there’s so much more out there. I’m still holding out hope. In the meantime I await upcoming trips to New York to hopefully visit Somtum Der and by my next annual visit to Vegas, Chada Street should be open.
This is all a big lead in to what could be one of the more interesting Thai restaurants in the area – L’Thai Restaurant & Wine Bar, which has an odd business model of part bistro, part wine bar, with a dose of organic propaganda and strange service. The menu is actually intriguing, with a wide variety of appetizer, salads, noodles, a section of soups which were scribbled out on the menu (presumably no longer available but there just to let you know they don’t want to serve it or print new menus) and a heavy wine list anchored by a section of biodynamic and organic wines you would find in cutting edge grocery stores like Whole Foods circa 2011.
Despite the unique veneer of L’Thai, and the fact that my beef salad and tom kha were fine, and except for gritty ground rice in the beef salad (never seen that before) I found it to be as uninteresting as every other place in town, in a strange setting with oddly cold service from who I think may be the owner, who offered a strange grunt after I ordered, making me feel welcome and that I chose well.
Back to the Vietnamese restaurants I go.