As I rarely cook something twice, rarely we go twice to the same restaurant.
Our state is one of the most diverse and inclusive ones. Plus, the city is close and, in the city, there is Queens, the most ethnically diverse urban area on the planet. To choose a place to go to is a challenge.
We prefer small family run restaurants where owners cook authentic meals with authentic ingredients from their home countries. With a little prior research, rarely have we been disappointed.
We’ve stopped at Pho Thai-Lao Kitchen in Maywood a few years ago and swore to come back. And here we are — looking at the menu and wanting everything.
The restaurant has a 1-5 scale for the heat. Our heat tolerance is pretty high but whatever limited experience with Southeast Asian food we have, we cautiously opted for three. Writing this now, I can say the next time we’ll go for four in everything besides soup. That Lao broth got our heart rates up and made the back of our heads sweat, if you know the feeling. I’ve noticed it is the same with soups in most ethnic restaurants. Is it because the time hot peppers spend in hot liquid amps their potential? Anyway…
Koong Ka Bork, crispy shrimp, were crispy as described, plump, juicy, and not overdried as it frequently happens with coconut shrimp at other restaurants.
Moo Pin, grilled pork skewers, nicely charred lived up to the same standards.
When they are on the menu, I could never look past frog legs. Here they were served whole — not chopped like in some other restaurants — in a chef special Lao garlic sauce bursting with tamarind flavor.
Fermented Lao style Esan Sausage was a unusually sour which made it light. The main attraction though in this dish was crispy crunchy rice I’ve never had before.
And the last but not least. On a scale 1-10, umami of the Tom Yum Pho Lao style with rice noodles, napa, bean sprouts, and mushrooms was above 11. With all my carnivore love of succulent frog meat, spicy sour sausage with that crispy rice, juicy pork, the most memorable one and the one that woke me up for the leftovers in the morning was that vegetable broth of tom yum.