Check out Episode 2 of the new food podcast,
Chicken 'n Waffles!

hàw mòk plaa dùk (tham eng): steamed Catfish and coconut milk “custard."

Okay. You know the deal by now. I'm Leena. I eat way too much. I could come up with cute little intro about how many good things I have heard about Spoon Thai over the years but never tried it, so I just figured I had to now, but you are smarter than that. You don't need me to do that. You need me to eat so you can live vicariously through me, because my life rocks. I need me to eat because it is all I think about and then I need to tell you about it because I love talking about myself. What a nice, symbiotic relationship we've forged!

So, restaurant? Spoon Thai in Lincoln Square in Chicago. I ate there. Come read about it.

Follow up:

Now, I can't talk about Asian food and not bring up Australia. For those who don't know, Australia has heaps of Asian immigrants and Asian food. I wasn't a huge fan of Asian food before Australia, but now I can't stop craving Thai curries, pan fried dumplings, kim chi! But something that surprised me about American-based Asian restaurants upon my return? Whether it is a Chinese, Thai, Korean or even Japanese restaurant, there always seems to be a staple of common menu items that appeal to a more Western palate, like crab rangoon, egg rolls, and other deep fried goodies. I'm not complaining because I do love a good crab rangoon, but it wasn't until I experienced Asian restaurants in Australia that I realized not every Asian restaurant has these items. In fact, I almost wonder if (like chop suey) it is an entirely American invention!

Spoon Thai did indeed have these items, a few of which I ordered just because, well, I missed them in Australia. But the Spoon Thai menu is much more extensive than that, and they even have a special wink wink Asian menu with dishes that Western customers traditionally would not like, like jellied fish eyes.

Okay, maybe not jellied fish eyes, but I guarantee there will be some sort of jellied fish item on that menu if it is any good, and frankly, jellied animal good scares me. Spoon Thai actually translates a handful of items from their wink wink menu, and after doing some Internet research, I had a few picked out in advance to try. Do you ever feel like you just tend to order the same old thing when you eat out? I like to force myself to try new dishes, even ones that may sound scary, just for the sake of adventurous eating. You never know when a chicken foot may end up tasting like bacon.

Okay. That was way too long without food. Let me fix that.

So the first dish, which was my attempt at eating crazy was the haw mok, or the steamed catfish
and coconut milk custard in banana leaves (I don't remember the exact price, but I think it was around $4).

Lesson learned: scary food can sometimes rock.

This was so good, I almost wanna slap myself for not trying it sooner. When I hear custard, I think of something that is moist and creamy, but this was more like a frittata texture, much more dry and yet perfectly moist. The custard flavor tasted almost like a tom kha gai soup, with coconut milk and what tasted like kaffir lime leaves and chiles. The fish was perfectly cooked, still moist, flakey and not the least bit "fishy". This was just a great dish I will have to order every time I come back here.

Of course, we had to get the common Asian appetizers, like pot stickers ($3.95)
,

It's not Dumpling King, but it's okay. Man, I miss Dumpling King.

which were good, but much smaller and less flavorful than we are used to. The small bit is understandable--it seems that overwhelmingly pot stickers are served as an appetizer in America, but as a main in Australia. We also had the crab rangoon ($3.95) (which on the menu are called crab lagoon, just to confuse me).

We've got crabs and we like it.

They were tasty, but could always use more crab (I think this is true of the rangoon at most places). Next was khanom jeep, or shu mai ($3.95), or steamed shrimp dumplings. These were just okay, I'm not quite sure why, I just know I've had better.

Shu mai

Of course, there was the obligatory pad thai with chicken ($6.50), which was quite delicious. It is hard to make a pad thai that I won't like.

Obligatory pad thai with chicken

The duck curry (I think it was $8.95) was just okay. It looked fun...

Duck curry

but the flavors sort of tasted greasy and just not cohesive. It didn't work for me at all.
The banana blossom salad ($6.95), however, did. It rocked my world a little harder than I expected.

Banana blossom salad

It had banana blossom, shrimp, chicken, coconut milk and lime dressing, and was just delicious, sweet, tangy and refreshing. We finished the meal with a seasonal specialty, sticky rice with fresh mango. It was so good, we ate the entire thing before I thought to take a picture. The coconut milk in the rice was just delicious (I'm a whore for anything coconut), and the mango provided the perfect contrast, as it was cold and the rice was served warm. I loved it.

My first meal at Spoon Thai rocked. Next time, I will have to research a few more dishes off the wink wink menu, because I ended up enjoying the new, scary items more than the traditional favorites at this restaurant. Feel free to send me any suggestions!

~LTG!

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Spoon Thai
4608 N. Western
Chicago, IL 60625
www.spoonthai.com