Chada Thai and Wine
Bouchard Pere & Fils Reserve Bourgogne Pinot Noir
Willi Schaefer 2011 Graacher Domprobst Riesling
KAI TOD – Fried marinated-Cornish hen with garlic
YUM KAI NOK KATA – Fried Quail eggs, topped with dry shrimp, cilantro, onion. Spicy lime dressing
TOM YUM KOONG – Spicy and sour lemongrass soup with shrimp and mushroom
SPICY DUCK RICE – Fried rice with roasted duck meat, green onion, chili paste and fish sauce
CHU CHEE LOBSTER TAIL – Served with Chu-chee curry of Kaffir Lime and Cilantro
DUCK PANANG – roasted duck with panang sauce and Kaffir lime leaf
CENTURY EGG BASIL – Preserved egg with basil and chili
KANG KUA KADUK MOO – Braised pork rib stir fried with chili paste, turmeric, peppercorn and Kaffir lime leaf
THAI SUNDAE – Peanuts, Coconut Ice Cream, Condensed Milk, Coffee Jello, Lychee
Owned and operated by Bank Atcharawan, local king of Riesling and former sommelier at Lotus of Siam, Chada Thai and Wine had been on my ‘must visit’ list for some time but without a car during many previous visits to Las Vegas and largely without friends or family interested in the cuisine it was with good fortune that I finally found myself seated at a large table with five new friends on a Saturday night in early November for a two hour meal that would prove my best experience with Thai food to date. Dark and moody, almost romantic aside from the unexpected modern pop soundtrack, and decidedly more intimate than LoS as soon as one walks through the doors it would be mere moments after seating that we were greeted by our server and told of a few daily specials the laborious process of trimming our order from “I’ll take the lot” to something more reasonable began – the end result ten plates of food including a double order of the truly remarkable century egg, a dish certainly amongst the ten best I’ve enjoyed in 2013. Served in waves as we worked through two bottles of wine including a lightly sweet Riesling that proved an ample compliment to both heat and acid it was so frequent that someone at the table would proclaim their love for a dish that to describe them all would prove redundant, a simpler suggestion as relates to my palate being to order everything you can that features an egg or bird while disregarding any preconceptions you have about ‘heat,’ instead preparing your palate for complexity and balance.