Southeast Asian – Writing With My Mouth Full

Khe-Yo

157 Duane Street between West Broadway and Hudson Streets
about $200 for 3 people, with drinks, without tip
212/587.1089
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What is Laotian food? I actually have no idea even after spending a week in Luang Prabang a couple of years ago. What I got from that trip, food-wise, was the same delicious flavors I crave in Vietnamese and Thai cuisines: fish sauce, Thai chiles, galangal, mint, and kaffir lime. Khe-Yo calls itself a Laotian-inspired restaurant but they should just really say they serve Southeast Asian-inspired food and drinks because they go beyond the larb.

Their different kinds of larb, or laab, the national dish of Laos, were all excellent. It is traditionally any meat minced and served with fish sauce, lime juice, chiles, and mint. We couldn’t help but order second rounds of the fluke and the skirt steak appetizers even though we had a whole mess of food still coming. We were shameless when we ordered two rounds of the crunchy coconut rice with kaffir lime-flavored sausages, dunked them in the fish sauce-chile dip from the larb dishes, and then wrapped each bite with a different order of sticky rice.

The braised pork belly would have been more excellent if I still had room in my stomach. I appreciated that it came with boiled mustard greens and turnips in broth; both tamed our salty and spicy tongues. I couldn’t resist the grilled sea bass even though it came with a thick peanut sauce that I’m not usually a fan of. I encouraged my dining partners to enjoy each bite in the same fish sauce-chile dip that we kept re-ordering. The pork curry noodles stood out because it was the only curried dish we ordered. Our waiter couldn’t identify the white stuff that was floating in our bowls. It had the texture of soft tofu and scrambled egg whites but I didn’t think it was banana flower. I could have skipped it if I thought about ordering more sausages first.

The dishes at Khe-Yo are meant to be shared and eaten family-style. This is what we (over)did between 3 people and we all came out of there full and very satisfied. The service was attentive even though we felt like we didn’t really need too much attention because we were continuously eating our food and drinking our Lao beers. It got a little warm in there and I knew it wasn’t just the spice; it was the good company, too.

Uncle Boons

7 Spring Street between Elizabeth and Bowery
$216 for 2 people, with a lot of drinks, with tip
646/370.6650
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What?! I can’t hear you!, was my reply to our waiter when he tried to tell us that squeezing some lime juice on our food will make them taste better.

The truth of the matter is that I am getting too old for loud restaurants. I couldn’t even decipher what music they were playing because it was so loud inside with all the chatter. I’m all for chatter and activity in some restaurants but it becomes a problem when I have to scream to make conversation with my friends. It becomes a problem when the most quiet place you can go to is the bathroom. There’s music in there, too! Are we still in SoHo or did we move to the Meatpacking District in between courses?

But speaking of courses, the food was quite tasty. I appreciate that there’s finally Thai food in Manhattan that’s spicy enough to call Thai. One of my pet peeves is when restaurants do not give their diners enough credit and tone down the spiciness of their food. We like to eat! We can take spiciness, you know? The lines to get in Mission Chinese Food and Pok Pok New York should be telling enough. When I want Thai food, I don’t want the Chinese version of Thai food. I want to be reminded of the street food I had in Bangkok and the hawker stall food I had in Singapore. And when I want Thai food, I don’t want to have to go to Queens to get it.

I liked the dip made of smoked catfish and pork that came with French breakfast radishes, sweet peas, and Thai eggplants. To some people, it might be weird to have sliced raw vegetables on a plate without the greens, but it was a good palate cleanser in between the monkfish “cheeks” with noodles in ginger sauce and the grilled sausage and octopus.

Oh, that octopus; I could eat 20 more of those little suckers! I would have been happy to try more of their offerings, but our 2 main courses were as large as the appetizers were tiny. I wished we were able to order the mains in smaller portions as to not miss out, but I suppose I’ll just have to make a return trip–with earplugs on.

Pig & Khao

68 Clinton Street off Rivington Street
$87 for 2 people, with 2 beers, without tip
212/920.4485
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Pork, with a side of pork, is what I always hear when Filipino food is being described to me by other people. Top Chef contestant Leah Cohen sticks to that mantra at Pig & Khao, a Southeast Asian restaurant with a lot of Filipino and Thai influences.

As soon as we walked to the outdoor space to be seated, I felt immediately at home seeing the sun decals on the wall that come from the flag of the motherland. The menu was very familiar too, with crispy pata (roasted pig’s thigh), green mangoes, sisig (sizzling pig’s face) with egg, chicharon (pork rinds), and adobo. Cohen has added her own spin to the dishes: the pork rinds with spices that included cinnamon and the adobo using quail with Sichuan peppercorns.

There’s no shortage of fish sauce and vinegar flavors, and when coconut was used in the rice and in the cod, my eyes rolled back because of the richness and tastiness of the flavor profiles. My only regret is not coming with more people so that we can try and share more plates.

Taste Good Malaysian Cuisine

82-18 45th Avenue, Elmhurst, Queens
$20 each for 4 people, without drinks, with tip
718/898.8001
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One of my favorite eating partners was in town from Chicago, so I basically forced her to eat in Queens and drag Paul, her Malaysian friend, with her so he can order for the rest of us and show us Malay food in the city.

Tastiest:
1. Kangkong belacan – Call these hollow vegetables whatever you want: swamp cabbage, water spinach, ong choy or phak bung, but they will always be Filipino kangkong to me. Belacan, the Malaysian variety of shrimp paste is deliciously salty–the perfect side vegetable to any Southeast Asian fare.

2. Rojak – This sweet and sour dish had the best combination of texture: cuttlefish (soft), prawn fritters (crisp), cucumber (tender), jicama (crunchy), pineapple (soft), mango (fleshy), sesame seeds (toasty). Named after the Malay term for “mix”, it not only refers to the seafood-fruit-vegetable combo, but also the multi-ethnic Malaysian-Singapore influence.
3. Singapore kari laksa – How can you go wrong with curry as good as this? This bowl of yellow-orange noodles brought back such good memories of my trip to Singapore I almost wept. It turns out the hot broth that burst from my quickly eating the soft tofu squares were too spicy for me in one go. Burning my throat was worth it though.

Weird:
1. Petai beans with belacan and shrimp – Petai beans look like a larger version of fava, but they had a bitter aftertaste that was, for a lack of a better word, weird. And I rarely describe food as “weird”. After some Internet research, I found out why they would taste so weird: they’re called stink bean and resemble the smell of natural gas!

Disappointment:
1. Sizzling pork with marmite sauce – I was warned that the restaurant is now under new management, but that shouldn’t be a reason as to why they would serve a dish other than how it’s advertised. This dish was in no way sizzling–it was just on a plate that resembled a sizzling platter. The pork chops were soft, but lacked that chargrilled flavor I was looking for and tasted more like a bottle of store-bought sauce was lazily poured in.

Pokpok

127 Columbia Street between Kane and Degraw Streets, Cobble Hill, Brooklyn
$55 each for 5 people, with drinks, with tip
718/923.9322
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After a bland dinner at Mission Chinese the week before, I was eager to taste what a Portland, Oregon chef could bring to discerning New York City diners.

Tastiest:
1. Cha Cha La Vong – a turmeric-marinated catfish fried with scallions and, surprise, dill; served with vermicelli, fresh mint leaves, cilantro and peanuts
2. Kai Yaang – roasted hen stuffed with lemongrass, garlic, pepper and cilantro
3. Phak Buung Fai Daeng – water spinach wok-fried with fish sauce, chili and garlic

Notable:
1. The Chiang Mai sausage was described as having aromatics, but it failed to mention that it will be overwhelmingly kaffir lime leaves

Questionable:
1. 20% service fee was automatically added to our bill – I thought that was for a group of 6 or more
2. $1 fee charged to every credit card because we used 4 and their limit is 3
3. No American Express accepted