If you read my post on the Linda Vista Farmers Market, you know that I did takeout from Zab Linda.
I'd read that the staff at both the front of house and the kitchen were retained from TOSEL. Well, unlike my takeout visits from TOSEL, I didn't recognize anyone working. Of course this was pretty much all of the restaurant I saw. The menu however, at least to me looked the same as SEL.
I placed my order and went to check out the farmers market. My order was ready when I returned and I headed off home.
For this visit; I went with the Yum Neua, Som Tom Lao, and Issan Sausage. It was a pretty warm day and this sounded perfect.
The Yum Nuea was definitely not quite what it used to be. While the heat level at a "4" was quite spicy, it lacked good sour tones.
I'm used to toothsome beef in yum neua, but this was particularly tough. It also hadn't spend enough time in the sauce. Yes, this was spicy; but where were all the other flavors that make a good beef salad……lemongrass, shallot, enough fish sauce? Maybe I should have gone with the duck larb or nahm tok, but my strategy on this day was to start with the basics.
Like the Lao Style Papaya Salad; which was indeed a solid-spicy "5" on the heat scale.
Man, my tolerance is getting low in my old age. Like the beef salad, we felt this was off in terms of flavor. It lacked the funky fermented tones of a good Lao Papaya Salad. It wasn't bad, but it wasn't what we recalled was made by the Sab E Lee of our memory.
The one dish that was exactly like we recalled was the Issan Sausage.
Except I'm wondering what the deal is with the Sriracha? No way I'd add that to the sausage; it would ruin the flavor. This was solid and we enjoyed it. It had always been a favorite in the "old days" and even though this version has been surpassed by others in recent years, it's still decent.
Maybe our tastebuds were colored by nostalgia, I won't start whining about how much we miss "the original" Original Sab E Lee or how much the Missus misses the Som Tom Khai Kem and other dishes from Thai Papaya……or even the Salted Fish Fried Rice from TOSEL.
With the weather warming up, I'm going to have to do my rounds and hit up TOSEL PQ and Santee….and some other places. And then return to Zab Linda to see how things are then.
Zab Linda
6952 Linda Vista Rd.
San Diego, CA 92111
Hours:
Mon – Fri 11am – 330pm, 430pm – 9pm
Sat Sun 11am – 9pm