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Can pad thai become as boring and predictable as chicken French? Can spring rolls or pho ever be ho-hum? Lovers of Asian food, even you have to admit that sometimes the answer is yes.
It’s not that you need to change cuisines, but a few new dishes would be nice to mix things up.
That’s what Thai Lao Restaurant, the latest tenant at 309 University Ave., has done. You will find the usual suspects on the menu, but more frequently you’ll see something you may not have heard of before — just in time to get you out of that spring roll and pad thai rut that I
know some of you are in.
Born in Laos, parked in Thailand for a couple years and then transported all the way to America by age 12, owner and chef Tom Xomvimane wants to tutor Rochester in classic Laotian cooking with a Thai slant, the stuff he grew up with and learned from his parents and was cooking for himself by age 8.
He often comes out of the kitchen to the table to explain what it is you’re eating, as well as what you’re not eating.
That was the case when I stopped in for lunch last week. I was just giving the last heave-ho to a bowl of kao-phoon ($7.95), a chewy rice noodle dish with this grainy red coconut curry with chicken (whoops, the menu promises Cornish game hen) that has been pulverized to an intriguing texture somewhere between shredded and extruded. If the sauce was spicy just below the line of terror, then the fresh herbs (spearmint and Thai basil) brought cool comfort, and fresh mung bean sprouts even more so. A white cabbage and mesclun salad mix made it all feel healthy.
So here comes our earnest chef, asking me if I had ever tried beef jerky. I had, but not happily, I told him. As he described the way he marinates thinly sliced beef and dries in on the grill, then hangs it and dries it more with a fan, then fries it and serves it with hot sauce and sticky rice, I knew already what my next Thai Lao meal would be. But I will have to call ahead, because Lao beef jerky has not yet moved from the specials list to the daily menu.
Where Xomvimane grew up, refrigeration was rare, so you had to preserve your protein by other means. Other tried-and-true techniques are also adapted for the modern restaurant kitchen, such as steaming sticky rice in a bamboo basket or grinding the ingredients for som tum, or green papaya salad, in a clay mortar and pestle.
Barbecue lovers, you will find common ground here at Thai Lao, where Xomvimane takes his sweet time marinating and cooking brisket, baby back ribs and pork. Vegetarians, come claim your tofu stir-fry. Soup lovers, the pho is on.
For good measure, I did try the spring rolls with shrimp, cabbage and cilantro and a sweet and sour peanut sauce (Xomvimane was kind enough to split the order, usually four for $5.99, in half). Maybe not the most exciting, but they were as comforting as a basket of fresh rolls and butter. After all, some ruts are worth being stuck in.
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