Thai Restaurants – Page 14

Siam Nara – a first look(s)

March 15, 2011 mmm-yoso Thai Restaurants

Soon after all the great comments on this post, the Missus and I headed up to Siam Nara, one of the three restaurants owned by Suree Suksudecha of Amarin Thai. Or perhaps as I heard a customer on his cellphone trying to give his friend instructions calling the place, "sayonara"……

The interior of the restaurant is nicely done, lot's of gold, but not terribl y over stated. The menu is fairly large, and had many items that tempted us. The staff is very nice in the gentle, understated way of many Thai I know. From the napkins to the china, to presentation, you can tell that Siam Nara is trying for a more upscale experience, without being stuffy. Of course, having a young staff means sometimes humorous little things happen….. it seems that I could never get my glass of water refilled without some of it, or at least an ice cube or two falling to the table. And yet, the effort was there…. and we appreciated that.

Of all the items we ate during our meals; we enjoyed the seemingly most simple item, the Pla Yum Mameung ($14):

I'm not a big fan of tilapia, but it's mostly due to my upbringing where you'd see tilapia in drainage canals, and such. I recall fellow blogger RONW calling tilapia the mahimahi of the Ala Wai Canal, or something like that. In fact, as recently as 2005, I still had problems with eating the stuff. Chef Alan Wong actually covers the stigma of tilapia in his new cookbook The Blue Tomato. Anyway, I'm glad we tried this dish. The tilapia was perfectly fried, light, clean tasting, crunchy. The papaya salad, while nothing really special, and not spicy in the least (they never asked) was the perfect tart, sour, salty foil for the dish.

In second place would be the Pla Pad Cha ($12), which looked like something we would have gotten right off the boat dock at Tha Chang, right down to the baby green peppercorn.

The overall flavor was surprisingly mild….. I was expecting something worthy of Yai Restaurant. The tilapia in this case tasted a bit on the muddy side.

The Crystal Noodles, a fancy way of saying Pad Woon Sen with Shrimp ($9.99) was pretty good.

This came served over a heating element…you gotta watch that, this started burning after a while. Lot's of black pepper on this, something that I've gotten used too with Thai food, the serve it that way in Thailand as well. The glass noodles were fine, gladly they were not over-cooked, but there was nothing that stood out. The Missus mentioned that even though it seemed that this restaurant was trying to be a bit more fancy than most, they didn't bother to devein the shrimp……

I just had to try a curry, since I've never been real happy with any version of Thai curry in San Diego. I went with the Gang Phed Ped Yang ($14 – a roasted duck red curry):

I liked the consistency of the curry, not too thick, and not too thin and runny. But as usual, barely any spice, way too artificially sweet, too much coconut milk, and you really couldn't make out the flavor of the duck in this dish.

Still, the food displayed promise, and the Pla Yum Mameung was very good; perhaps even better than Sab E Lee Santee's Signature Fish in some ways. So I kept this post on the back-burner, but for some reason we never went back. Finally, on a night the Missus went out with Her friends, I decided to return. What drew me back was a little conversation I had with one of the very nice young men working at Siam Nara. He told me the chefs were from Issan, and I had noticed a section of the menu listing "set" E-san dinners. I also quickly noticed Kai Yang on the menu, and in my mind's eye, I pictured something like this:

These photos were taken on the streets of Nong Khai, right across the Mekong from Laos. Kai Yang is one of the signature dishes of Issan/Laos. When done well, there's a whole myriad of flavors going on, salty from fish sauce and/or salt, perhaps some sweetness from sugar, wonderful touches of herbs and garlic……… it's some of the finest roasted chicken I've had.

So, of course I ordered the Kai Yang set ($16), which was presented quite nicely.

The chicken just didn't look right though. It looked like something that had been precooked then thrown on the grill to apply grill marks….. more on that later.

The dish came with some nice and hot sticky rice, perhaps a little too wet, but still, it was very hot…. the young man standing by the table started giggling when I began eating it with my hands. I guess he didn't expect that….he quickly brought me more napkins.

The Som Tum – papaya salad was the same as before, very mild. I'm thinking I'll have to take the initiative and actually order things spicy since they never ask; even for the E-san dishes. This also isn't close to an Issan style Som Tum, which is very similar to Lao style.

The sweet chili sauce, was just what you think.

My favorite item on the plate was the Num Jim Jaew, which I believe is usually called Nam Prik Num in Chiang Mai, and Jeow Mak Keua in Laos. It's an eggplant dip of sorts, and something I love. I make this at home once in a while after learning how to make it in Luang Prabang at the Tamarind Cooking School.

Nice texture, good savory flavor, decent heat, all that seemed to be missing was perhaps a bit more garlic. Still, this is the one item I finished and wished for more.

The chicken itself was disappointing. First, I dunno if you noticed, but the chicken in Thailand is a bit smaller; it's usually free-range, not that I realistically expected that here, but perhaps they'd go with all dark meat for more flavor? Here it was the large pieces, flaccid skin…..most of the Kai Yang or Kai Ping I've eaten doesn't have a crispy skin, but the skin has some texture other than rubbery.

That chicken breast was just sooooo dry, even slathered in sweet chili sauce. The main flavor that I could detect was that of the coconut milk, no lemongrass, garlic, kaffir lime leaf, basil, or even heat to speak of. I'm thinking I could do better at home, so maybe I'll try.

Even though the food leans to the "gringo" side for us, it's not sayonara to Siam Nara; like FOY (friend of yoso) "Liver" mentioned in previous comments; this place seems to do seafood really well. The prices aren't bad by San Diego standards and, I really enjoyed the service.

Siam Nara Thai Cuisine
8993 Mira Mesa Blvd
San Diego, CA 92126

Some trivia:Did you know that Suree actually has her own cookbook? You can check it out here.

Madison – Lao Laan-Xang (Williamson St location)

December 13, 2010 mmm-yoso Lao Restaurants, Madison, Wisconsin, Thai Restaurants, Travel

**** This location of Lao Laan-Xang has closed

One of the restaurants I had on my list from my previous visit to Madison was Lao Laan-Xang. Though it seems that many regard Lao Laan-Xang as a Thai Restaurant(and the sign does say Laotian Cuisine), the Owners are Lao, and there were more than few Lao style dishes on the menu…… and it had been a while since I've had good Lao food. Luckily, the weather had cleared by my last evening in Madison, and I was able to head down to the Williamson Street location of Lao Laan-Xang.

The tiny, but very warm and welcoming shop brought back memories of my first experience with Thai Food at the tiny Keo's on Kapahulu Boulevard back in the very early 80's. Keo's has of course gone to greater things, but my memories of that tiny but welcoming restaurant stay dear to my heart. This was before the great Thai food boom, and indeed I recall when I told one of my dates that we were going for "Thai Food", she asked me if "this was a chicken place?" (Thigh food, got it?) Which had me laughing the whole evening……. it was also on that very evening we saw a very petite woman with big hair and big…. ummm….well, anyway it turned out to be Dolly Parton. On another night, I spied Steve Perry from Journey having dinner there. And though this dining room would never reach the orchid filled heights of Keo's, there was something cozy that just reminded me of that place.

And amongst the Crab Rangoon, Fried Rice, and Curries, there were two of my favorite Lao dishes. The first was hard to find since it was under it's Thai name of Khao Tod Nam Som…. but there it was, what I call one of my "Death Row Dishes" – Nam Khao ($9.50):

Before I continue, let me apologize for the photos. It get's pretty dark on "The Willy" at night. This version of Nam Khao was not bad, but lacked the amount of crunchiness I enjoy. Also, it was less sour, lacking that fermented sourness I enjoy. Still this was ok, I've had worse, though it was miles behind the versions I've had at Aisa Cafe, Vientiane Restaurant in Garden Grove, and not even close to what I had in Vientiane…. as in Vientiane, Laos. It was also fairly pricey, about 30% more than what you'd pay in San Diego.

I also ordered the Mok Pa ($15.99), with some reservations, as the only decent version I had of this dish was at Vietiane in Garden Grove. But this was very good.

I had learned how to make this dish after taking a cooking class at Tamarind Cooking School in Luang Prabang, and loved the complex flavors so much that I've made this at home, though I end up steaming it rather than grilling it. This dish did not disappoint; the fish was wonderfully moist and tender, but not over-cooked, and did not have any muddy flavor at all. The flavor of dill was there, adding that refreshing clean taste without over-powering the dish. The lindering flavors of the herbs was excellent. The portion size was quite large, almost enough for two.

About the only thing not very good about the whole meal was the very low quality of the sticky rice. It was off-white and I bit into some terribly hard pieces of rice. i'm thinking it must be pretty hard to get good quality sticky rice in Madison.

I won't go into the bland steamed "gringo" vegetables, because heck, this happens everywhere in San Diego as well.

We received good service, our Server was friendly, and our waters were refilled. The food was quite good, so I'll surely be headed back here the next time I'm in Madison.

Lao Laan-Xang
1146 Williamson St
Madison, WI 53703

Revisits: The Original Sab E Lee and Sab E Lee Santee

July 8, 2010 mmm-yoso Thai Restaurants

There wasn’t too much we missed in the way of food while in China. We did miss Ba Ren, which I’ll explain in a later post, but as a whole, there was nothing we really craved until back on Oahu….. which is about when we started mentioning Sab E Lee (now called The Original Sab E Lee), and Sab E Lee 2 (aka just plain Sab E Lee, or Sab E Lee Santee).

The Original Sab E Lee:

**** This location of Sab-E-Lee has closed

Unfortunately, for folks looking for some really great new stuff….. we’ve been here so many times that we tend to stick with our favorites. One of mine, is the Spicy Raw Beef Salad, aka Koi Soi or Koi Nua. Since Kobe sold the place off, some of the newer folks will ask me how spicy I want things, which is usually an ‘8’ or ‘9’ on the heat scale. One strange thing, not eating here in 6 weeks or so must’ve thrown off my tolerance. Man did this get me sweating…..

The Missus’s favorite is the Salted Fish Fried Rice.

I was once asked by someone to describe the smell of the salted preserved fish…… the only thing that came to mind was having the person imagine what “fish cheese” would smell like. A briney, pungent, savory scent, which really gets our (maybe not you) stomach rumbling. Along with the scent of wok’d rice, it may not be appropriate for work, but it sure tastes darn good, if perhaps on the salty side.

Ok, I said mostly photos……

The Grilled Duck Larb:

The Bamboo Shoot Salad:

The Issan Sausage:

All of which I’ve covered in many posts from back in August of 2008 until now. You can find all the links on our “rotation” page.

Here’s something that I haven’t posted on before; the Beef Tendon Soup.

This is one of those cases where citrus enhances the heat, pegging it up a few notches. The soup is chocked full of tendon and meat cuts, with some tripe and other offal thrown in for good measure. I’d recommending sharing this with a few people as it can get rather tedious eating the whole darn bowl yourself. A small bowl or two is just perfect.

The Original Sab E Lee
2405 Ulric St
San Diego, CA 92111

Sab E Lee 2:

**** This location of Sab E Lee has closed

I gotta say, even though we don’t get ’round these parts very often, Kobe always treats us like friends. Many of the dishes are closer to Bangkok style Thai, but the Issan dishes still pack enough of a punch.

So here are the photos, starting with the Plaa Shrimp, a quickly seared shrimp salad, with a familiar, bracing, yet refreshing fish sauce based dressing. Just as good as the first time we had it.

Here’s the Spicy Raw Beef salad for comparison.

Even at a ‘9’ level, not nearly as spicy as the Linda Vista location. Much more roasted rice powder is used, adding a nice level of nuttiness. I believe this dish has gotten better over time. So which do I enjoy more…. it like asking me to pick my favorite “mutt”…. Sammy or Frankie…. I love them both, but differently.

Speaking of better over time….. on this visit, the Garlic Rice was positively addicting.

The Thai Basil is more finely chopped, which means the flavor is spread throughout the rice. More pepper is used, and even more garlic……

Sab E Lee has consolidated the Pinecone Fish (seen here) and the Three Flavor Fish (seen here), into one dish featuring both sauces on the side, which I think was an excellent decision.

Light and crunchy panko crusted exterior, gives way to moist and tender white meat. It has been perfectly fried every time we’ve had this style of fish at SEL. This was the dish the Missus was missing. We really need to get out here more often!

Sab E Lee 2
9159 Mission Gorge Road
Santee, CA 92071

Our previous posts on SEL2 can be found here and here. And some chicken here.

Cathy’s post can be found here.

777 Noodle House revisted

April 19, 2010 mmm-yoso Chinese Restaurants, Thai Restaurants

Here are a few other dishes from 777 Noodle House. We've found ourself in the area a few times recently, and it turns out the Missus thinks the food here is a good value, and pretty tasty as well. So here's the rundown:

"Yummy Yummy's" sister, "Little K" recommended the fried rice. And one day the Missus ordered the Thai Style Seafood Fried Rice ($6.77):

Other then the scalded chilies and a few leaves of Thai Basil, this would pass for good "old school" fried rice. There's a nice smoky char, and a decent amount of shrimp, and some beef, which were a surprise because there was no beef in the photo. The beef wasn't that great, but the Missus enjoyed the fried rice. The portion was large enough for the Missus to have the left-overs topped with fried egg the next day. A few visits later, the Missus ordered it again:

I'm thinking that they were out of a few items on our previous visit since there was some squid and fishballs, and even more shrimp this time around. A lot more scrambled egg in this as well.

There are of course the Leek Cakes ($2.97), worth another mention:

On one visit, I ordered the Hủ Tiếu Bò Kho (Beef Stew with Rice Noodles – $5.77):

The noodles in this was the wider rice noodles, rather than the Hủ Tiếu in the Hủ Tiếu Nam Vang. Instead of the usual reddish color of the photos, this was kind of an almost unappetizing brown. The broth was actually quite good, well seasoned, with lots of star anise flavor. The beef was just so-so, and the tendon was decent, but not outstanding.

I had initially asked the Missus if She wanted a taste, since She was still waiting for Her fried rice to arrive. She looked at the bowl, and turned Her head in disgust, but unfortunately I insisted…… and though the Missus didn;t care for the meat, She drank almost all the broth! Leaving me pretty much with a "Kho" (dry) dish. Then something surprising happened. One of the young women, seeing most of my broth was gone, asked me if I wanted more soup! Shocked I think I mumbled, "yes, just a little bit more…." When the young lady went back to the kitchen, the gentleman working the counter passed by, and also asked me if I wanted more soup! So I guess this is the usual MO….. man was this very different from other soup shops. And sure enough, about two minutes later, the smiling young woman delivered my "soup"…… and it wasn't quite "just a little bit", but an entire bowl. And they didn't even charge me for it!

In order to respect their generosity, I made sure to finish everything, making sure the bowl looked licked clean. I left fat and happy, soup making "glop-glop" noises in my belly as I rolled to my car. Just this one gesture ensured that we'd return.

Once the Missus had the Wonton Egg Noodles ($4.77):

Nothing to write home about. The broth was milder than it looked, the wontons not bad.

On one trip the Missus, for some reason ordered the Shrimp Thai Red Curry ($5.77):

Which wasn't half bad, perhaps better than many Thai Restaurants in San Diego. There was no coconut milk or sugar overload in this one. Total eight shrimps made it a good value. Even though it was ordered at "spicy", this was pretty mild. The curry was kinda weak in the complex melding of flavors I expect from a curry.

Here's the Shrimp with Stir Fried Bun Loc ($6.77):

This dish was made with a type of rice noodle also called "Banh Bot Loc" bearing no relation to the pork and shrimp filled tapioca flour dumpling looking stuff I get from places like Mien Trung. Another generous portion of shrimp, and scrambled egg intertwined with bean sprouts and a thick rice noodle which was slightly gooey, and I didn't much care for. The noodles was served with a small bowl of Nuoc Mam Cham, which I found kinda strange, as the sweet flavor seemed to kill all the smokiness in the dish.

One dish I found pleasant was the Pig Intestine with Sour Vegetable ($5.77):

I would have preferred that the preserved vegetable be more sour and pickled in flavor, but there was quite a bit of well prepared earthy flavor intestine. One item that made this a bit different from other versions I've had, was the addition of a bit of spice, there were two or three sliced Thai chilies in the dish that really livened things up for me. It wasn't very spicy, just enough to tingle my tongue.

Here's the Egg Noodle Soup with Duck Leg ($4.77):

The broth was different this time around, featuring almost a seafood flavor. There was quite bit of egg noodles in the bowl though it's not my favorite type of egg noodle. The duck leg was decently fried, and adequate, especially for the price. The duck came with a little bowl of sweet soy, almost like you'd pour over steamed fish. I actually poured some of it into my soup, which was a positive addition.

While we were eating, the Missus and I noticed a pretty large party eating at one of the tables next to us. Even though they spoke Cantonese, She understood some of it. They must be regulars because they all requested a refill of soup, which came out promptly. And near the end of the meal, one of the women, who I think is the owner came out from the kitchen. They chatted for a while in Cantonese, which ended in a nice laugh. When the woman walked away, the Missus cracked up and told me, they just requested some watermelon……. say what! The audacity…. But wouldn't you know it; as we're paying our bill, out comes one of the young women…. with a large plate of sliced watermelon. You gotta love this place…… it may not be the best, but it's a good value, and the folks here are very nice…. almost too nice. And some of the dishes are pretty good to boot.

After all, there aren't many places where you can get noodle soup for under five bucks nowadays……

777 Noodle House
4686 University Avenue
San Diego, CA 92105

Open Daily 8am – 9pm

Our favorite take-out…. guess where?

April 15, 2010 mmm-yoso Thai Restaurants

This is an easy one……

There are a couple of reasons why this place is our go-to take-out joint. First, we (obviously) love the food. Second, the prices of almost everything we order is below $7.25. Third, it's on one of the alternate routes home. Fourth, our favorite dishes there hold up well on the 15-20 minute drive home. The place is rather small, so sometimes doing take-out works out better as well. It does help that the place serves one of my "last request" dishes. Without further ado……

Yep, it's Sab E Lee of course. I guess now that Koby has sold the place to the staff, they've gone ahead and called themselves "The Original" Sab E Lee. And though I've been doing most of my recent postings on Sab E Lee in Santee, and god knows we adore Koby. I thought I'd just dig out a few take-out photos cluttering my folders.

If you're a regular reader, you know my "last meal" dish is the Koi Soi, the raw beef salad.

I love the texture of the raw beef. And though it is not as refined as the version at Lotus of Siam (which is $6.70 more expensive), I just love the melding of flavors, the biting heat, the nuttiness of the roasted rice powder, pungent onions, scallions, and raw garlic slices, and biting into an occasional Thai chili! I know…yada-yada-yada….. just make sure you give me a spoonful before you pull the plug.

That's not say that any of the other dishes take a back seat. Whether it's the mild sourness of the Issan Sausage, with bits of pork skin adding a nice chew. Wrapped in a slice of cabbage with a peanut or two, or perhaps a chili or slice of raw garlic, and you've got a symphony of flavors.

Or the somewhat stinky, but so savory Salted Fish Fried Rice:

The Missus recently took a bunch of folks She works with to Sab E Lee. The coworkers weren't really familiar with Thai Food aside from Tom Yum and Pad Thai. When this dish arrived, folks pulled away from the plate…. once they tasted this, you couldn't get them away from the plate.

Well 'nuff said…. I'm sure all the SEL regulars have their favorite dishes…… I know of one one Food Blogger who can't get enough of this.

While building links, I just realized that this is my seventh post on SEL….. so maybe I should back off a bit.

But man, do I have tons of SEL photos.

And not only take-out either…..

OK, enough of that……

Most importantly, I'd like to know what your "go to" take-out places are, and why. Is it convenience? Prices perhaps? I'd really like to know…….

And in case you like to check out my other posts on Sab E Lee, you can find links on our "Rotation Page".

Playing Chicken: A bunch of chicken posts – Saffron, Nazca Grill, Mercado 2000, Casa de Pepe, Sab E Lee 2, and more….

March 23, 2010 mmm-yoso Mexican Restaurants, Peruvian Restaurants, Thai Restaurants

Whew, this post has taken me almost five months to get together…. talk about a flocking long time. A while back I thought it would be fun doing a post on some of the different variations of grilled and roasted chicken in San Diego. So here goes….. oh, and why did it take me so long? The answer is at the end.

Pollo Asado from Internacional 2000 Taco Shop – Bargain City:

On one of my previous posts on Internacional 2000, I mentioned the plumes of smoke rising in the air from the chicken being grilled over mesquite in the parking lot. I also noticed that the chicken was mostly precooked, and moved from the taco shop to the grill for reheating. That just didn’t sound promising. But once, while doing part of my South Bay taco crawl, MrQ decided to purchase the Pollo Asado, since it was just $8.50, for a whole chicken a fixins’. The chicken was better than I thought it would be, so on a later visit, I decided to get it.

So for $8.50, you get a whole grilled chicken, beans, rice, salsa, condiments, and tortillas. Man ,what a deal!

I had thought the chicken would be dry and tough as heck, but it wasn’t. Also, because the chicken didn’t have much of a salt flavor, I’m thinking that salt use was minimized to ensure that the bird wouldn’t dry out. The chicken did have a wonderful smoky mesquite flavor. The tortillas, once warmed a bit was decent, the rice was quite dry.

But the beans……

Were quite good, rich, beany, and creamy….just don’t look at ’em after you refrigerate the stuff….. you WILL know why they taste good. Sometimes, it’s better not to know…….

We did use a sprinkling of Tajin Classic Seasoning…. the stuff we call, “This is not a candy” seasoning:

I’m wondering how many complaints the company got from folks who tried to eat this thinking it WAS candy, causing them to label the product thusly?

The verdict? Not the most fantastic pollo asado I’ve ever had, but pretty good, and for $8.50? Bargain city!!! Just as a reality check, to the right is about seven bucks worth of food from the local “Crazy Chicken” joint…. which includes some of the worst tortillas I’ve ever experienced. In all honesty, I don’t mind the chicken……

Internacional 2000 Taco Shop (Window in the parking lot of Mercado Internacional 2000)
1415 3rd Ave
Chula Vista, CA 91911

Pollo Asado from Casa de Pepe – No thank you:

On one of my “Sunday Stuffs” posts back in January of 2008, I mentioned seeing Pollo Asado being grilled in the parking lot of a taco shop on Imperial Avenue. This bright, colorful, and possibly luminous restaurant is called, Restaurant Casa de Pepe:

If the bones of this place look familiar; it because this used to be the location of El Comal, before they went “uptown”.

Almost every weekend, I’ve seen the guy in the parking lot grilling chicken.

I crossed the street and took a look at the chicken, which looked pretty good. So I told the guy that I’d be going into the restaurant to pay, when the guy held up a pot full of kinda gross barbecue sauce, and told me; “you want BBQ on chicken, right?” I should have taken this as a bad omen and high-tailed it out of there, but instead I just said “no thanks” and went into the restaurant and paid my $7.95.

Hmmm, they forgot my tortillas. I loved the variety of salsas provided, as well as the cebolla. The chicken was terrible, terribly bland and dry.

The rice was decently flavored, but the beans were very bland, and too soupy for my tastes.

Maybe I shoulda gotten that barbecue sauce, huh?

Restaurant Casa de Pepe
2822 Imperial Ave
San Diego, CA 92102

Pollo ala Brassa from Nazca Grill – getting better all the time:

In my previous post on Nazca Grill, back when they first opened, I indicated that though the chicken was moist, here was something left to be desired with regards to flavor. I’m glad to say that the last time I ordered it, the chicken was very good. Still moist, and more balanced in flavor. You could tell that even though it wasn’t cooked over hardwood, it had been finished with it.

For $11.95 you get the half chicken meal, which comes with papas fritas (french fries) which usually ends up pretty soggy by the time you get home, and good sized salad.

I do wish they’d just sell the chicken ala carte. Anyway, a picture is worth a few paragraphs……

I still think the Aji Amarilla (yellow chili sauce) is too mild, and needs some zip. But compare that chicken to my previous post……

**** Nazca Grill has closed

Nazca Grill
4310 Genesee Ave
San Diego, CA 92117

Rotisserie Chicken from Saffron Thai Grilled Chicken – I could never figure out why…..

This place is so popular. When I first ate the chicken from here back in 1998, the first thing that went through my mind was “huh”? To me the chicken here isn’t “Thai Rotisserie Chicken”, it ain’t even close to Kai Yaang. Those were my thoughts back in 2006 when I did my last post on Saffron.

And after eating Kai Yaang in Thailand twice, this ain’t even close. The chicken from Pok Pok might as well be in another universe. Another sad thing is, I really enjoy Su-Mei Yu’s book, Cracking the Coconut. There’s even a Kai Yaang recipe in the book, which features her “Big Four Paste” (coriander seeds, garlic, cilantro stems and roots, white peppercorns), minced ginger, cumin, tumeric, and caraway(strange, no lemongrass). Not even a whiff to be found on this chicken.

I didn’t think you’d be happy with this, a two leg plate ($4.99):

So I went ahead and had a half chicken plate ($7.86):

Instead of my usual Sriracha ($1.29 a bottel at 99 Ranch Market, BTW), I went with the red pepper sauce, which was too sweet, like simple syrup, and the peanut sauce, which was too much coconut and sugar, and not enough peanut.

The best piece was the thigh which was passably moist. The leg however, had been sliced, possibly to check “doneness” and was, as a good FOY once described the chicken here as “petrified”. The breast was worse.

The skin was tough and too chewy. To be honest, that two leg plate I had earlier was better. I’m thinking the earlier in the day you go, the better your luck may be. Someone once told me it’s the sauce that makes this “Thai”, so I asked this person, being of Italian heritage, if I got a supermarket rotisserie chicken, and gave you a teensy container of marinara sauce, if I could call that “Italian Chicken”? And to add insult to injury, I once bought an entire bird from Saffron and a rotisserie chicken from Costco, and provided a bottle of Sriracha. I asked some friends which bird they enjoyed better….. guess which? Well, enough of that. I was told that the chicken here back in the late 80’s and early 90’s was great, but something happened.

I do still enjoy the “Cambodian” salad:

I believe the success of Sab E Lee displays that San Diego does want “real” flavors. So maybe someday……..

Saffron Thai Grilled Chicken
3731 India St.
San Diego, CA 92103

Speaking of Sab E Lee (2):

**** This location of Sab E Lee has closed

Here’s the Kai Yaang from Sab E Lee 2 .

Not amazing, but solid. Since the chicken hadn’t been sliced into parts and held on trays it was very moist. Nice salty, mild garlic and lemongrass flavors. The sauces, one tamarind and palm sugar based, and the other a nam prik (fish sauce and chilies) were serviceable.

I need to go back and take better photos.

Sab E Lee 2
9159 Mission Gorge Road
Santee, CA 92071

So why did this post take months? Well, back in November, the Missus saw this commercial and was traumatized.

So now the Missus won’t eat chicken or turkey…. but will eat duck!

I guess I’ll just have to:

“keep on dreamin’
The thoughts that are in my brain
You just keep on being
The lady I can’t explain “

“Lady I Can’t Explain” by Jimmy Buffett

Chiang Mai: Doi Suthep

March 6, 2010 mmm-yoso Chiang Mai, Thai Restaurants, Thailand, Travel

On our third day in Chiang Mai, the Missus decided that She wanted to visit Doi Suthep, located about 15 kilometeres from Chiang Mai. So how to get there???? Well, you just flag down a "sawngthaew" one of the innumerable red trucks plying the streets. Bargain, and get on your way…..

We arrived at the 309 steps up to Wat Doi Suthep….. and it seemed like everyone else in Chiang Mai decided to visit as well.

There's quite a bit to see, more than I could possibly cover in a post.

Lest you think just tourists come to Wat Doi Suthep, you'd be mistaken, as there seemed to be many who came to worship.

We spent a nice morning wandering the grounds.

We could only imagine how beautiful the view would be on a clear day.

Walking around sure stirred up my appetite….. so we had the sawngthaew drop us off across the Three Kings Monument, and went lookng for something to eat. I noticed a Khao Soi shop on the corner. I'd already tried Khao Soi twice, and was relatively unimpressed. This place looks busy, so I decided to give it another try. The Missus had already decided that Khao Soi wasn't Her thing, and stuck with just a soda.

I don't know if it's the fried noodles that is rather powdery and could have come from a can. Or if it is the watered down curry flavor that can't be rescued by lime, shallots, or even the only item I enjoy, the pickled vegetable. It could be that I didn't have a good version of this dish. But I really didn't care for the three versions Khao Soi I tried….. maybe next time….

As we walked down the street, we noticed another shop full of people. It looked like satay was the specialty here.

A woman walked down the aisles taking orders. As she took orders she'd bark them out, and the orders would hit the table.

Then things stopped…… the woman announced something, and half the people got up and left! The woman told us that they had run out of chicken, and only had pork left. I guess this place made a mean satay chicken. We decided to stay……

And indeed the pork was fine, but nothing to write home about.

I thought it was strange that each of us got two servings of rice. One on a plate, and the other in a bowl.

No matter, the rice had been cooked in chicken stock, and I would have been happy with just the rice alone.

Even better then the rice was the bowl of chicken broth, rich and vibrant with chicken drippings, great oil, with just the right amount of salt, and a touch of ginger to cleanse the palate.

That was worth the price of admission……

Like the rest of Thailand……… food was everywhere…….

Food aside, I found this little pup adorable.

Sab E Lee Santee – More dishes

December 16, 2009 mmm-yoso Thai Restaurants

**** This location of Sab E Lee has closed

I realize that Cathy and I have done posts on Sab E Lee 2, but I thought you’d like to see a couple of other dishes.

First up, Miang Kum (เมี่ยงคำ – $7.95), a simple, but wonderful appetizer:

These are basically leaf wraps, and though I’ve read that the classic Miang Kum uses Betel Leaves, all of the variations we’ve had uses spinach leaves. At first the combination of perfectly diced red onion, galangal, slivered lime, peanuts, dried shrimp, and thai bird chilies, topped with roasted coconut and a tangy and sweet, tamarind and palm sugar “sauce” seems a bit strange. But take my word for it, the sum of the parts is a wonderful melange of flavors…. it seems that each one is jockeying for position.

When working with such basic ingredients, freshness is the key, as I’ve had several versions (and one terrible version in San Diego) featuring dried out galangal and limes, and low quality shrimp. Everything here was shiny and fresh, and the tamarind dip brought everything together for us.

Bags of Gold ($7.95):

Think of these as Sab E Lee’s fried won tons if you will. These “bags” are full of minced pork, shrimp, shiitake mushroom, and water chestnuts. While the portion of the “bag” holding the filling is almost crepe-like, the top portions are light and crisp.

Pretty nice to look at too.

The Superwild Shrimp ($8.95) is a shrimp salad of sorts:

It is dressed with a fish sauce – chili – garlic – palm sugar sauce. Though we prefer the Plaa Shrimp, the shrimp in this dish was cooked to a “just well” doneness.

Of course I had to try the Koi Soi/Koi Nua (Spicy Raw Beef – $7.95), one of my favorites at Sab E Lee 1:

First off, this version is not nearly as spicy as SEL1. In fact, after tasting a few of the same dishes, I’d say that the dishes are about %30 less spicy here in Santee. I usually get a’9′ on the heat scale, this was more like a 5. That’s not to say that this wasn’t good, it was. Less spicy, but the inclusion of raw garlic added pungency and bite. This version is also a bit more citrusy and herbaceous. The nutty flavor provided by the roasted sticky rice powder is a bit more muted.

The Larb Duck($7.95) is another similar but different dish.

This version was a bit more herbaceous, and truth be told, we enjoyed this one more since the flavor of the duck came through very clearly.

Since the Chef had cut his teeth cooking in Bangkok, a version of the classic Bangkok Red Curry Duck was a necessity. Here it’s called Royal Duck Curry ($10.95):

In all honesty, of all the dishes we’ve had here, this was our least favorite. It seemed that all of those reasons we don’t enjoy the overly-Westernized Thai food in San Diego were in display here. The curry was too sweet, too fruity (via pineapple and grapes), and used too much coconut milk for our tastes.

The flavor off the duck was overwhelmed and buried in our opinion.

The Missus loved the Three Flavored Fish (Halibut – $14.95):

The fish was put panko crusted, and put together just as the Pinecone Fish we encountered on our previous visit. This time it was fried even better if that was possible. The fish was moist, and almost sweet. The sauce is a tamarind-palm sugar based sauce, was perhaps a bit too sweet for me, but the Missus just plain loved this. I can’t say anything bad about that fish. My perfect solution is to order the Pinecone Fish, and request a little dish of the Three Flavor Sauce on the side.

Fish Garlic ($12.95):

A classic Thai sweet-spicy-garlic preparation. I loved the sauce, and in fact ate up all the cabbage, and even the carrot garnish. Unfortunately for me, the fish used was catfish, and it was a bit muddy for my palate. The Missus joyfully scarfed the whole filet in minutes…….

On one visit we ordered the Fish on Fire ($16.95):

Two large Halibut Filets covered with a red curry sauce and served with a flambe of rum. One quick piece of advice for this dish, let the alcohol burn off before sampling, otherwise the rum adds a rather strong astringent flavor to the dish. The halibut was moist and tender. There was a bit too much going on for me in this dish, but again the Missus loved it.

One of my favorite menu items at Sab E Lee 2 is one of the cheapest….. the Garlic Rice ($3):

Those regular readers know that I love garlic anyway…. but this was so very good. Much better than any version of Filipino Garlic Rice I’ve ever had, as there was golden sauteed garlic and crisp fried garlic and shallot in this. The herbs added some great flavor…. and the rice being prepared well didn’t hurt things…….

By now, most regular customers of Sab E Lee know Koby….. his wonderful demeanor, gentle, kind, and always helpful just makes the whole experience better. He obviously loves to please his customers. On one occasion, I ordered the Garlic Rice, and mentioned an egg and pork street food dish we had in Bangkok, and how it would be just the perfect item with this. Koby smiled and told us, “I know what it is, we’ll make it for you!” And just like that, we had a classic Thai omelete, which we were later told is called Khai Jeaw:

Wonderfully savory, fluffy, omelete, with a quick dip in the Nam Pla Prik(fish sauce and chili) which helps cut the richness, followed with a bite of garlic rice…. There are few things better in the world.

And for a second, I was here:

The crazy streets of Silom in Bangkok…….. You know, they say in America, the streets are paved in gold. In Bangkok, the streets are paved in food! Looking at this makeshift food stand, you wouldn’t know that it’s in front of massive financial buildings in Silom, which is Bangkok’s business district.

Sometimes a smell, or just a taste can take me back…….

And Koby was nice enough to provide that for me.

Sab E Lee 2
9159 Mission Gorge Road
Santee, CA 92071

Sab-E-Lee 2, Cathy’s visits, so far

December 3, 2009 Cathy Thai Restaurants, What Cathy Eats!

mmm-yoso!!!is a blog. About food. Written by various friends. Who don't eat out together much, if at all. We just write about our various adventures here. Today, it's Cathy doing the writing.

Hi. Things have been busy for me in the last month or so. Without getting into much detail, one entire day of my life was wasted spent doing my Civic Duty with this view and these vending machines.

On the plus side, I have at least a year until I have to do this again.

(for those of you who don't know, this is the East County Jury Duty room where you are instructed and then wait (and wait) to see if you are called to be screened for a jury).

So anyhow, Sab-E-Lee 2 has opened in my neck of the woods, Santee. It is, in fact, walking distance from my home, less than 2 miles away. It's just that it is uphill to go back, so I have so far only driven here for some meals.

I thought I would share what menu items The Mister and I have had here so far.
Pork Larb ($7.95), hot tea, sticky rice ($2.25). I got this on opening day. Kobe and the crew greeted me so warmly and it was very nice. The larb, of course, was excellent and really satisfied my cravings.

010 The next time, I went with The Mister for lunch (he has been working late and now seems to also get into work late…) and we each got a bowl of 'egg drop' soup, a chicken based soup broth (very rich) with tomatoes and onions. There was a lemon note to it and the egg part was very fine. It was not spicy, as Tom Yum Gai would be.

I got the salted fish fried rice ($8.95), which I had been craving. This also was something The Mister tasted and wanted no part of (more for me!). Perfectly fried rice intermingled with excellent salted fish (kind of anchovy- like in flavor) . This really is one of my cravings.

The Mister got one of the lunch specials- the pineapple curry with chicken ($7.95). This was something we never had had and it was very nice. Moist chicken, a rich, flavorful, coconut milk based curry. The portion size is very large, despite my wonderful illusionary photography skills.

013

On this day, we splurged and got dessert (The Mister really did not want to go in to work). The mango sticky rice ($6.95), The rice is made with coconut milk, when you order it (takes some time) and the mangoes are in season and wonderfully flavored. A seemingly simple yet so complex dessert. A very nice treat for us.

The other evening, The Mister was leaving work late and wanted to know what I had for dinner…I told him "Sab E Lee". He thought I meant take out, silly man.

This is the Prawn Tempura from the "Nibbles" section of the menu. ($7.95)

4 shrimp and carrots, onion and broccoli light dusted in rice flour and fried to a good crispness. It was served with a sweet sauce which I tried but was just as happy eating it plain. Or with the sauce from our primary course:

Fish Garlic ($12.95). This was a catfish I believe. Topped with a wonderful garlic sauce, this seemed to be delicately fried and was served on the fish shaped plate on top of cabbage and carrots. It looks like a whole fish, but was boneless- and the broccoli taking the place of the head was so cute.

The Mister had been craving papaya salad ($7.95)and we had that as our 'dessert'. Spiciness level 2. We wanted to taste the ingredients…

That's all for now.

Sab-E-Lee 2

9157 Mission Gorge Road Santee CA 92071 (619) 328-1568

Open daily 10:30 a.m.-9:30 p.m.

website

Road Trip: Vientiane Thai Laos Restaurant – Garden Grove (OC)

November 10, 2009 mmm-yoso Lao Restaurants, Thai Restaurants

It had been such a long time since the Missus and I went on one of our eating road trips. First I was busy, than the Missus was busy, than I got sick, than the Missus was busy….you get it. I'd say those hours of being sick were the worst. You get into these periods of melancholy, followed by periods where you daydream about being somewhere else, anywhere, away from the body aches, coughing, the irritated spouse, you get it, right? For some reason, my mind kept taking me back to Laos. I can't put my finger on it, but there was something about that trip, that stayed with me……

So as soon as I felt better and we actually had a free weekend day, we were itching to head "up North." And what better place to check out than a Lao Restaurant I'd heard about.

Vientiane Restaurant is located in one of what may be a couple hundred strip malls in the Westminster/Garden Grove area.

It is tucked back, away from the street, over-shadowed by Pho 54 in Saigon Plaza. The sign simply says "Lao & Thai Food". The restaurant itself is tiny, comprised of four tables. When we arrived there was just a woman on her cell phone waiting for an order, and no else up front. We checked out the cold case, and were comforted at all the Jeow (dips) and other items. It indicated that we were at the right place.

Now comes the funny part. A very nice woman seated us, and handed us menus. When we were ready to order, I started giving off menu item numbers. No dice. I started reading off the English, translations…. wasn't going to work. The woman giggled. I pointed to the items on the menu (no Lao script – but English translations). The woman leaves, and another very motherly woman comes out….. same drill. The previous woman comes out, points to the menu and tells me "you read it to me." I start cracking up, the Missus is rolling Her eyes….She always gives me grief over my terrible pronounciations, and this might be downright painful. This was going to be much harder than "tres tacos Al Pastor". For some reason, this exchange took me right back to Laos…. So I start, and it is quite interesting…. "Mok Pa", "eh", "Mok Pa", "fish?"," yes, Mok Pa". "Ooooh, Mok Paaa!" The Missus is covering Her eyes. She can't bear to watch this disaster. At the end of the whole drill, the woman laughs, and exclaims, "you say good!" More eye rolling from the Missus. The woman starts walking back to the kitchen, turns and makes a spoon to mouth motion, "rice, you want rice!" I make the Lao three finger to mouth motion and go "sticky rice". "OK!" I thank her, "kopchai lai lai", She starts laughing, and the Missus has a look like She's just returned from the dentist, and says, "we'll see if we get what you really wanted to order."

Well, at least the sticky rice was going to be right.

A large container of perfectly made sticky rice. In San Diego, I believe that Asia Cafe is the only place that consistently makes perfect sticky rice, and this was on par.

Of course, right at this moment a gentleman enters carrying several sacks of groceries. He speaks excellent English.

Next up, one of my Death Row dishes – Nam Kao ($6.50):

Man this was good, the textures, the pork skin, the mildly sour fermented sausage, the smokey, almost sweet toasted chilies. Served with all the requiredveggies and herbs, this was such a vibrant dish. The second best I've had, next to the one in Vientiane. Crunchy crisp rice, chewy sausage and pork skin, amazing flavors, a symphony of textures.

Next up the Larb Pa Thong – in this case Catfish Larb ($7.99):

At first I was worried, as I'm not a big fan of catfish and the muddy flavors. But in this case, the muddiness was muted by the strong savoriness of the sauce. The roasted rice powder added a nice nuttiness, and the mint and galangal helped to cleanse your palate.

As good as the Nam Kao was, the dish that I've been craving is the Raw Shrimp ($7.99):

Even though I know they went easy on us in the spice department, this was a fantastic dish. The shrimp was slightly toothsome and sweet, the amount of garlic and lime was balanced in a never ending tug-of-war of flavor. Heck even the tomato slices tasted good with the sauce! We finished every single piece of everything on the plate, even the shredded cabbage. It looked like we vacuumed the plate. As much as I enjoy the Naked Shrimp at Sab E Lee….. you get the point, right?

The last dish was the only clunker of the day, the Mok Pa($4.00) – fish in banana leaf:

Even though the menu says steamed, it looked like it had been placed on a brazier. The fish was very boney, and not of high quality. The banana leaf also looked past prime, and didn't deliver the wonderful slight smoky flavor that I love. Also, for strange reason, the flavors seemed very muted. Maybe it's because I make this at home once in a while? I dunno…..

Even though we always like to check out different places on our road trips, we'll without a doubt be back here.

Vientiane Thai Laos Restauarant
10262 Westminster Ave
Garden Grove,CA92843

Hours: Mon – Thurs 11am – 9pm
Fri – Sun 10am – 9pm
Closed Tuesday

Postscript:

As went to wash my hands before and after (eating sticky rice, you know) the meal, I walked past the kitchen (spotless clean just like Asia Cafe), and the three women were singing. One humming, two singing different parts of a song. I was reminded of the housekeepers in our hotel in Vientiane, three girls, barefoot (this is Laos), always singing together in harmony while they worked…..

I really don't need much prompting to be taken back to Vientiane….

Or to Luang Prabang for that matter…….

This post is dedicated to some great FOYs (Friends of Yoso) "J & D" who are headed off to Laos in a month or so. I hope you both enjoy Laos as much as we did!

I hope you're all having a great week!