I had a mostly excellent meal at Sticky Rice last night, thanks to Erik's behemoth translation and some specific recommendations he emailed. We started with a piece of "sai ua" (apologies for not including the tonal diacriticals markings, "sai ua" is #1 on the northern thai section of the menu, although the waitress was able to recognize my rendition of the word, american tonelessness notwithstanding). This is a link of steamed northern style sausage, filled with pork, lemongrass and herbs, with a distinct chili hit, and a really pleasant texture. It came with thin slices of ginger, cilantro, and raw cabbage. The waitress brought us a basket of sticky rice, and for 5 minutes after it arrived, my girlfriend and I were struck dumb by the need to wrap up perfect little cabbage cilantro sausage ginger sticky rice mouthfuls and put them in our mouths one after the other until the whole plate was clean.
Then came nam prik ong (#9 on the nothern thai section of erik's translation). A little tub of deep red oily ground pork with garlic, funk and ferment, and tomatoes, surrounded by blanched broccoli and cauliflower, and raw cukes and cabbage. This was a revelation. The nam prik I had at the $27/plate westernathon benefit for spoon thai was too funky for me, crossing the line from challenging to rotten. But sticky rice's version was nothing short of spectacular - harmoniously balanced, savory, sour, spicy, delicious. I can't wait to go back and try the green one.
Naem Sot (yam #25) was good, but not as good as the nam prik. I asked for petpet (thai style heat) but it was noticeably less spicy than the khao soy which followed. Naem, which I gather is a northenr that sort of pressed ham product, looks like nothing so much as large chunks of gournd chicken, and has a general savory meat taste, without too much individual character. The salad also had slivers of fresh ginger, cilantro, sugar, lime, peanuts, purple onion and fishsauce, with some sliced green chili scattered throughout. Kerensa detected fresh mint, I thought I saw little scallions. It was very good, but I wouldn't immediately order it again.
Khao Soy (chiang-mai style curry with egg noodles, northern thai #6) was a huge bowl brimming with deep fried eggnoodles, preserved greens, chunks of intense purple onion, some potent chili oil paste, and pieces of stewed chicken in a coconut/peanut broth. I though it was very good. Next time, I'll ask for slightly less onion - or at least smaller chunks, strong onion was the dominant note, and overpowered even the chili oil in every bite. I also felt like lime would've been a good addition to this, but I wasn't sure if that was a usual condiment for khao soy - Erik?
We finished up with sweet sticky rice and mango, the only low point in the meal for me - i thought the mango was poor, fibrous and sour, like it had been refrigerated unripe.
Overall however, a great meal. The thing which realy struck me was how good the basic ingredients were - every piece of ginger was fresh bright and juicy, every cilantro leaf was unbruised and green, each vegetable was pristine, there wasn't a wilted cabbage leaf in the bunch. And the staff was very helpful and good natured. The waitress inquired abhotu where I got my crib sheet, and when I mentioned Erik she nodded and laughed.
Things for next visit - definitely the other nam prik, and a mussel fritter - every other table had one of these plate sized deep fried battered pancakes and they looked awesome. Thanks again to Erik for the leg work that made this meal possible:
Erik M's Translated Annotated Sticky Rice Menu.