After a nice morning at June Lake we headed north to our next stop; the town of Tahoma on the western shores of Lake Tahoe. We had never been in this area before, driving up the 395 into Nevada, then onto the 756 and then the 207, onto the 50, passing familiar names like Bally's and Harrah's, Casino's right before crossing back into California. It's quite busy, strangely reminding me of a shoreside "downtown Vegas". With all the chains; well, I won't complain too much as we did stop at Whole Foods for a few things, before heading back out. Right before the split of highways called "the Y", where the 50 will split to the 89 was our lunch destination. After dealing with the burgers and such, I had selected a Thai Restaurant named My Thai. To be perfectly honest, based on what I had seen driving thru South Lake Tahoe, I wasn't very confident about lunch.
The place opens at 11am for lunch and we had arrived and found parking in the small lot just after 11. We had made good time from June Lake; just 2-1/2 hours!
We walked in and were warmly greeted and taken to a table.
The place was decorated in what I would call a very stereotypical Thai way. The location and decor set off all those internal "alarms" and we were worried about how our lunch would turn out. In the end, we had nothing to worry about. The items on the menu had a wide range; everything from Cream Cheese Rangoon to Orange Chicken to Crying Tiger to a Kobe Beef version of Crying Tiger priced at $155! One of those places that seems to be trying to please everyone?
It seems that this was going to be an interesting meal……
We started off with the "Sunny Beef" ($16.95), which I figured would be a version of Neua Dad Deow. This was actually pretty good.
The beef was chewy, but not hard, not overly salty, nice savory fish sauce tones; the dipping sauce was slightly spicy, acidic, with some sweetness. This was decent; and even better the next day!
The weakest dish of the meal was the Larb ($16.95). Yet this still featured a generous amount of roasted rice powder, which added a nice nuttiness.
A bit more mealy then we like, but it wasn't bland by any means. We had gotten everything at a heat level of "7" and I have to say, this had a good amount of spice. Nothing amazing, but still better than what I thought I'd get.
The flavor of the Basil Duck ($22.95) was quite good.
Even though the portion size wasn't especially generous; the spice, anise tones, savory dish sauce, and sweet tones came thru clearly. The duck was basically skin and fat, which worked just fine for us. This went well with rice.
We had ordered the Lao Style Papaya Salad ($19.95) just out of curiosity, and it was indeed legit.
From the funky, savory salted crab, to the deeply fermented savory tones, to the pretty hot chilies, this was very spicy and refreshing. Even better than versions we've had here in San Diego! To make things even more fun, this was served with pork rinds!
Overall, a satisfying meal, very friendly and warm service. A nice surprise for us!
My Thai Cuisine
2108 Lake Tahoe Blvd.
South Lake Tahoe, CA 96150
This was much better than what we'd had here during our previous visit. Though still a bit short in the sour sausage department, the rice had a good ratio of crisp to regular rice. Each bite had a nice variation of textures. We could even make out a hint of coconut, though it was still quite mild in terms of spice.
I appreciated the way things were packed though I told the woman I'd be eating this close by. There were containers of spicy vinegar and a decent chili oil (which I used) included in my package.
Which led to an interesting concoction. The duck was breast, quite lean, a bit more chewy then I enjoy, with a touch of five spice seasoning, not bad at all. The fried shallots added a nice savory and crunchy texture. The broccoli really gave off "Panda Express" vibes but at least I got some veggies.
No, your eyes aren't fooling you. That's a fairly small portion. The egg was crisp at the edges just like I enjoy it, but a bit over cooked for my taste as the yolks was hard.
I really appreciate having a place like this fairly close by. It's definitely not "Ameri-Thai", though I do think the proportion of rice to dish is a bit skewed on the starch side and the prices fairly high for the portion size.
When all the planets align this is a good dish….of course no one wants to only have a dish be good once every 30 years, right? This was actually better than 
My order was waiting when I returned. Overall, for eleven bucks this wasn't bad at all. The rice wasn't of the best quality, but was cooked decently. There was a standard green salad which was on the verge of heading south.
This was not bad at all. A humble dish, decently flavored, and nicely priced for this day and age. Nice folks working here too! There was a steady flow of folks eating in and picking up takeout. I'm happy that business, at least to me seems to be doing well.
I ordered this at a heat level 4 (on the scale of 1-5) and it was adequately spicy. Though I'd return with friends a week later and we ordered heat level 5 and it wasn't as spicy as this. Of course you can instantly see this is missing the salted crab and the tomatoes are just wedges that haven't been poroperly "briused" in the "kruk". This was slightly funky, not a savory as we enjoy and the liquid was kind of watery.
