The lost meals entries consist of meals that occurred at various times throughout 2012 which, for any number of reasons, escaped my documentation – some due to a cross country move and a new job, some due to the Los Angeles Kings run to the Stanley Cup, and some simply as a result of too much travel. Having enjoyed many of these meals with friends or family and with some of them amongst the year’s very best the reality is that with time my memory has deteriorated and as life moves forward I’ve realized there is little hope to ever “catch up” or document these experiences as well as I’d hope, yet in order to preserve them I present these pictures, notes, and thoughts on the experience.
Tod Mun Plar – Deep Fried Fish Cake with Curry Paste, Cucumber Salad, Chopped Peanut
Koong Sarong – Marinated Prawn wrapped in Bacon and Wonton wraps, deep fried, sweet and sour
Nam Kao Tod – Crispy Rice with Sour Sausage, Green Onion, Fresh Chili, Ginger, Peanuts, Lime Juice
Crispy Duck on Drunken Noodle with Fresh Chili and Thai Basil
Beef Balls Noodle Soup with small rice noodles
Hoh Mok Seafood – Steamed with egg, sliced cabbage, coconut milk, curry sauce, cooked in tinfoil with its own juices
Fried mussel omelet on top of sautéed bean sprout, green onion, spicy sweet sauce
Often traveling and dining solo or with persons not so adventurous I’m always glad when a friend or even a stranger is interested in dining somewhere outside my typical focus and on Christmas Eve, with a number of restaurants closed even in Las Vegas, I was fortunate to have an acquaintance well established in the food industry invite me to dine with he and his girlfriend at Lotus of Siam. Surely the most ‘famous’ restaurant in Las Vegas and debatably the most well-known place for Thai in the United States the nondescript strip-mall location on Sahara Ave had always been on my “to visit” list and although my heat tolerance is still quite novice what I found at LoS was well within my comfort zone and aside from the nearly ninety minute wait for a seat and perfunctory service all of it was really quite delicious.
Fortunate to visit on a day when Chef Saipin was in the kitchen and the crowd was largely local our table of three tried as best we could to sample a wide but manageable amount of food from various areas of the immense menu and deferring once or twice to our server, Pha, we requested items arrive in a couple of courses as opposed to all at once; a request honored leading to seven plates in three rounds, each plate nicely presented, piping hot, and all but the Beef Ball soup full of flavor.
Beginning first with savory fish cakes aromatic and spicy, prawns snappy and fresh with dipping sauce far sweeter than sour, and crispy rice with citrus proving an admirable foil to funky sausage the meal began with a bang only to falter slightly in the second round where the seafood shined while the aforementioned soup fell flat and the duck, advertised as crispy, was actually rather limp but quite delicious as the garlicky noodles, laden with fish sauce, provided needed balance to the substantial heat. Last, largely because the kitchen forgot we ordered it until we inquired, but certainly not least – the Mussel Omelet arrived resembling a savory funnel cake – a slight sweetness beneath the brine and along with the Nam Kao Tod and Hoh Mok evidence to me that any subsequent trip to Lotus of Siam would see me focus even more strongly on seafood – particularly the snapper and catfish – while also taking a look at the Northern Thai menu.