Spoon Thai

I'm heading up to chicago for a weekend to catch up with friends. A couple of them sound like they are into trying something different from your avg run of the meal chicagoey things to do. What I need are some solid selections at Spoon Thai. If you were to ask me what to order at Lotus of Siam in Las Vegas I could give you a few real good choices. I'd like to get a few solid choices other than pad thai or tom yum etc from you guys. I'll also try and take the translated menu and try a few funky things on my own
Can you help?

Is Spoon Thai a good choice?

Spoon Thai's a great choice for Thai food. Mike G wrote yesterday about a taste of the staff lunch at Spoon. While you probably won't get the staff lunch, he also gave an off-the-cuff list of Spoon favorites:

"So when seven of us gathered for an impromptu lunch and ordered the usual retinue of standout dishes-- Thai fried chicken, pork neck larb, papaya salad, banana blossom salad, sour catfish curry, beef nam tok, etc.--"

There are a few other Spoon threads on here which should be pretty easy to locate by search. Also, be sure to check the translated menus on the Useful Stuff board.

For me, that's pretty much a greatest hits, sure. I think the other advantage of walking in with a copy of the Gary not-so-secret menu is that you immediately signal to them that you're a little more savvy and will get things at closer to the heat level etc. you want.

My personal list for a one and only visit would be Thai fried chicken (it's just fried chicken, but man, what fried chicken), banana blossom salad (so different from anything else you've had and wonderful), and then a good spicy dish like the pork neck larb or beef nam tok.

Of course, you might not want to completely gorge yourself at Spoon, since you could make a Lawrence Ave. prowl out of it-- cross the street for a cheese course, head to The Penguin for dessert....

Mike G wrote:My personal list for a one and only visit would be Thai fried chicken (it's just fried chicken, but man, what fried chicken), banana blossom salad (so different from anything else you've had and wonderful), and then a good spicy dish like the pork neck larb or beef nam tok.

I'm in love with Spoon's fried chicken just like the next guy, but the banana blossom salad is not one of my favorites. I'm not much of an artichoke heart guy either, and I think they have been compared to each other, so I guess that explains it.

On the other hand, the one bite salad, make sure to get some sliced hot peppers, is one of the best and most interesting things in the house.

One thing i noticed when abraus and i made a spoon thai run a few weeks back was that the banana blossom salad, which was fantastic on its own in my prior visits, lost some of its luster when following the papaya salad--something with the sweet seeming too sickly sweet when following the papaya spice-- so maybe it's in the order of the dishes, but this is just speculation.
We also deduced (perhaps not brilliantly, but deduction all the same) that the same spices were used for the fried chicken that are used in the Issan sausage, but while the fried chicken was great, the Thai sausage tasted like getting punched in the nose. that metallic blood taste.
but, man, we're so lucky to have a place like spoon. i feel so sorry for people whose knowledge and potential experiences of Thai do not extend beyond Pad Thai and some sort of "spring roll."

ParkerS wrote:We also deduced (perhaps not brilliantly, but deduction all the same) that the same spices were used for the fried chicken that are used in the Issan sausage, but while the fried chicken was great, the Thai sausage tasted like getting punched in the nose. that metallic blood taste.

ParkerS,

What you may be detecting in the Issan sausage is the fermented rice, which is powerfully funky and is certainly not in the chicken.

Hammond

PS. Like the "metallic blood" descriptor.