Great Thai Outliers

City Pages May 23, 2007
Written by: Dara Moskowitz Grumdahl

"My proselytizing frenzy comes from Vankham Moua's cooking,which is creative, fresh, and fiery".

The crazy duck for instance, is one of a series of dishes that starts with the idea of traditional larb-the cold ground-meat salad dressed with chiles and roasted-rice powder-and races off in bold directions. To make it, Moua roughly chops roasted duck and tosses it with red onions, lots of fresh mint, some cilantro, lots of lime juice, chile peppers, secret spices, and plenty of scallions, the overall effect of which is like getting knocked out by a duck of bliss-it's meaty, sweet, robust, and packs a memorable wallop both of heat and springy herbs. The duck is served with a pile of lettuce leaves and a heap of cucumber planks, to fashion lettuce cups or cucumber snacks as the mood strikes. The only problem with the stuff is that it has sisters that are exceedingly similar, and just as good, called paradise shrimp and insane chicken . It's devilishly hard to choose among them. And since one order easily serves three or four, it's hard to justify ordering them all. Oh, life!

But sacrifices must be made, because there are several other dishes so good that they have to be sampled. Such as the house-made lemongrass sausages (sai oua e-sane, which the Mouas make several times a week. They pack sausage casings with fresh pork, thinly sliced segments of lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves, and all kinds of other peppers and spices; then they smoke them and serve the dark red beauties grilled and sliced into segments alongside a spicy soy and scallion dipping sauce. Eureka! The exceptionally floral, lemony, dusky spicing combines with the sweet, rich sausage to make something that tastes both utterly exotic and completely familiar, and it's impossible to stop munching the things till the whole plate is gone.

Lemon Grass's curries are vibrant, fresh, and real. The red curry has a sweet ferocity to it, like a big dog's happy but frightening bark. The green curry has a meadow and vegetable honesty that tastes like something you could eat every day. The tom yum uses the often-overpowering notes of tamarind and galangal in such a way that the fierce soup burbles with other strong flavors like kaffir lime leaves, mushrooms, and shrimp, but leaves a final impression nothing short of complete harmony-and glory.