Sunday, May 31, 2009
North Table Mountain Decorations
Nice 'N Spicy, Best Flavor: Thai-Laos Kitchen Restaurant
Jami and I found ourselves in South Sioux City, Nebraska at lunchtime recently and figured we had a good chance to find a great local Mexican restaurant. So we took a random turn off the fast food-festooned highway and after just a couple of blocks ran into something even better: Thai-Laos Kitchen Restaurant.
Just the idea of Thai food in South Sioux City drew us in. It wasn't until we left the restaurant we saw the delightful "Nice 'N Spicy, Best Flavor" sign in a far window. That sign would've sealed the deal had we been wavering. But we wavered not, and entered confident in the notion that if a Thai restaurant advertising a specialty in vegetarian food could remain open in South Sioux City -- indeed anywhere in Nebraska -- it had to be good.
And oh, how it was. While the Thai version of the Home Shopping Network blared loudly from across the gigantic dining room, Jami tucked into the Gai Himapan ($6.95), sliced chicken sauteed with pineapple, onion, scallions, and roasted cashews. Actually, both of us tucked into it because the waiter, who was well-meaning but quite rushed preparing what must have been a takeout order for a small banquet, brought us a double order by mistake. (He didn't charge us for the extra order). The thin, complex sauce permeated the moist chicken and the crisp-tender onions to the point where I resorted to holding the plate up to my mouth, the better to push food into my mouth with the chopsticks rather than take the slower route of grabbing individual pieces. Even this soon proved an inadequate way to consume the delicious sauce fast enough, so I tipped the plate to pool the sauce and scooped it up with a spoon. It was that good.
All this time the entree I'd ordered, Drunken Noodles, competed for my attention. The wide rice noodles were almost meaty to the tooth, tossed with bok choi, cabbage, perhaps some Chinese cucumber, and a few other ingredients that escape my memory now but were tasty and generous in portion at the time. The waiter asked our heat preference on a scale of 1-10, and I ordered a 7. I'll go for a 6 next time. I think the price for this was $6.95 as well. Oddly, the takeout menu I grabbed doesn't list it.
A couple at another table ordered the soup, served in a tureen with flames shooting out the top. There are also a number of appetizers, including the Stuffed Chicken Wing: "Chicken wings stuffed with ground pork, silver noodles, mushrooms and deep-fried peppers and served with sweet and sour sauce." I have no idea how they fit all that into a chicken wing, but I want to find out next time I'm there.
Thai-Laos Kitchen Restaurant, 1215 Dakota Ave., South Sioux City, NE, (402) 494-7625
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