Lao dishes worthy of shared spotlight at Thai restaurant

The reason I travel is to learn about the world, people and cultures firsthand, without filters and middlemen with biases and prejudices. The same goes for learning firsthand about food, as regional preferences shape the evolution of cuisines in a particular area. Chinese food in Hawaii is not going to be the same as it is in Beijing, but no cuisine is further off the mark here than that of Thailand.

Thai cuisine evolved over 30 years to suit our love of sweet, fatty, savory flavors, and downplay the sour aspects you’d find in Southeast Asia. Sabb Thai comes closest to the real deal.

The small mom-and-pop restaurant sits across from Palama Market near Don Quijote, in the space that formerly housed Tae Teppanyaki. A small roster of plate lunches accommodates local preferences for the simple charms of garlic chicken ($10), sauteed shrimp ($14), grilled steak ($13) and calamari ($14).

But the restaurant’s individuality shows in its a la carte menu. Its owners are Thai and Laotian, so a handful of Lao dishes also make an appearance.

Most gratifying is khao piak sen ($10), a Lao chicken udon soup. Just like our own chicken noodle soup, it’s an anytime comfort dish also perfect for days you’re feeling under the weather. The rice flour and tapioca noodles add starch to the chicken broth, giving it more body than its American counterpart.

In addition to shredded chicken, the soup also featured a generous amount of cubes of boiled blood cakes as silky as almond pudding. Blood can have a metallic tinge, but these cubes were so mild, if you ignored the dark color or closed your eyes, you would think you were eating soft tofu. Any blood flavor was buried by the soup’s strong chicken essence.

Another Lao standout is the nam khao tod ($12), or crispy rice salad, a crispy rice ball tossed with a potent mix of mint, cilantro, preserved pork, scallions, fish sauce, peanuts and plenty of lime juice for that distinctive sour note. It’s served with lettuce leaves for wrapping. I’ve had this dish when it was crispy and when it was not — when it came across more like damp fried rice. When it’s crispy, it’s excellent. When not, you’ll wonder what the fuss is all about.

You’ll be asked about your preference for heat level. If in doubt, opt for medium chili power because “Thai hot” is more than most local diners can handle.

Otherwise, the menu starts with standard Thai appetizers of summer rolls ($7), spring rolls ($8) and minced pork-, long rice- and mushroom-stuffed chicken wings ($9). I love Thai-style fishcake ($9), but these have been unavailable each time I’ve visited. Maybe you’ll get lucky.

In place of the fishcake, I tried the BBQ-style Thai pork sausage ($12), fermented to give it a slightly sour flavor that helps to cut the weight of the meat. This is where Americans and Southeast Asians diverge in expectation. The sausage contains enough pieces of chopped pork fat and rubbery pork pieces to have my friends and me pulling the textured globs out of our mouths every other bite.

Americans are generally raised with an aversion to eating visible fat, which we are told leads to heart attacks. (We don’t appear to care if it’s hidden fat, such as the butter in baked goods or oil that seeps into fried chicken and french fries.) Because there is so much hidden fat in our diets, it makes sense to cut out the obvious.

You’ll either tolerate it or you won’t. I’m not going to play the ugly American here and tell them to change to better suit our tastes. Too many others do it already.

The non adventurous will do fine sticking to standard red, green, yellow and panang curries ($10 each), and if you’re not into sour, fermented or preserved pork, you’ll find sanctuary with Thai pork ribs, marinated with fish sauce, garlic, salt, pepper and a touch of sugar so tasty you may decide you need two orders. The marinade flavor and crisp texture of the ribs reminded me of Chicken Alice wings, without the spice.

Nadine Kam’s restaurant reviews are conducted anonymously and paid for by the Star-Advertiser. Reach her at nkam@staradvertiser.com. For more photos from this week’s restaurant go to takeabite.staradvertiserblogs.com.