Great time last night. And great success convincing RAB that he does in fact like Thai food. My favorite dishes were the crispy en choy, the beef curry, the fried chicken, and the issan sausage. Oh, and those garlic ribs.

What I like about Thai food when it's done well is the wonderful balance of spicy, sour, salty, and sweet flavors. TAC Quick's dishes, none of which were one note, were well-balanced, delicious examples of Thai cuisine. No sticky sweet pad thai here. I can't wait to return and to try the pork neck larb.

Thanks to:
>Everyone for joining us for a great meal and great conversation;
>Stevez for suggesting we order the beef curry in advance (we secured the three last orders);
>The many folks who brought booze to share (I personally enjoyed ronnie_suburban's Riesling, nr706's home brews, and d4v3's gueze)
>Ronnie_suburban for the great calendar;
>G Wiv for doing an exceptional job ordering;
>The LTHer (whose name I forget) who was nice enough to share the sator bean dish;
>And, of course, TAC Quick for the wonderful food and their ability to handle a group of our size with ease.

Hope to see everyone again soon,
Ronna

Great time, great company, great food. Thanks to REB and RAB for organizing.

REB wrote:Great time last night. And great success convincing RAB that he does in fact like Thai food. My favorite dishes were the crispy en choy, the beef curry, the fried chicken, and the issan sausage. Oh, and those garlic ribs.

Can you please tell me more about the garlic ribs? I was tempted to order them last week, but opted not to. I think I had them as a special at Thai Ave a long time ago, but they were just ok. Thanks.

Pucca wrote:

REB wrote:Great time last night. And great success convincing RAB that he does in fact like Thai food. My favorite dishes were the crispy en choy, the beef curry, the fried chicken, and the issan sausage. Oh, and those garlic ribs.

Can you please tell me more about the garlic ribs? I was tempted to order them last week, but opted not to. I think I had them as a special at Thai Ave a long time ago, but they were just ok. Thanks.

The bone-in ribs were juicy, well-seasoned, and served with what I'm guessing is a house made sriracha. The order was on the smaller side (I don't know what they cost, so I cannot comment on the value, unfortunately).

I'd order them again, for sure.

Perhaps folks can chime in with some more details.

Ronna

REB wrote:>Stevez for suggesting we order the beef curry in advance (we secured the three last orders);
~snip~
>The LTHer (whose name I forget) who was nice enough to share the sator bean dish;

R's,

Thanks for setting up the dinner at TAC, both myself and Ellen had a terrific evening, delicious food and stimulating conversation.

Steve's idea of preordering beef curry with roti was solid, I asked Andy for another order, nada, asked for additional roti, nada. We would have been shut out if we did not preorder.

The generous LTHer who shared his sator bean dish, also preordered , was Deesher, thanks Doug!

TAC was really on Wednesday, crispy ong choy, papaya salad with both dried shrimp and blue crab, pork ribs, sour curry with cha_om (Acacia) leaf omelet and Kra Phrao Kai Khai Yeow Ma (stir-fried minced chicken w/crispy basil leaves, fried preserved eggs), which is the dish The GP inquired about upthread, were highlights.

Enjoy,
Gary

A great meal, indeed!

Thanks to REBRAB for setting it up.

I couldn't believe how wonderful everything was last night -- possibly even above and beyond TAC's usual high standard. I really loved the roti dish and am grateful to Steve and Ronna for making sure we got to try it last night. The on choy was just insane last night -- exploding with flavor and fiery beyond any other time I've had it -- yet that difficult-to-strike balance was there, which made it nearly impossible to stop eating it, even though I was fairly certain the top of my head had blown clean off.

Thanks again to REBRAB for setting this up and to everyone else who attended, for making it such a wonderful evening.

=R=

Last night's dinner was wonderful - thank you REB for organizing the event.
I enjoyed all the dishes, but the On Choy was absolutely spectacular!
Can't wait to go back.

Jyoti

Others have thankfully filled in the details of the dinner menu. GWiv did the ordering (thanks Gary!) so there were a couple of things I wouldn't have been able to name.

My love for the roti (and accompanying karee) was established upthread. I enjoyed the on choy (maybe not to the religious degree that everyone else did, but it was very good) as well as the stir-fried chicken with fried basil. Fried herbs may just save the world yet.

Speaking of superheroes, the garlic pork ribs should wear a cape. They were pungent, chewy, moist, and when combined with the hot and tangy sauce, they were the perfect bite. A plate of leftovers landed near me and I happily finished them off.

The Issan sausage was also excellent but no one at the cabbage wedge . If typical Issan sausage has what is often described as an earthy funk, this one took your palate on a wilder ride. Sausage sprinkled with moon dust? Even more sour and different than I thought sausage could be. In a very good way.

After the Acacia leaf omelette with sour curry, my tongue was so overwhelmed with the out there flavors that it got confused and shut down. Unable to rewire the various flavor centers, the papaya salad and duck curry tasted kind of flat to me. I've had the duck curry before and found it flavorful, so I'll just chalk it up to ma la fallout of our 3-megaton dinner.

Many thanks to all for a wonderful evening. RAB and REB provided another excellent excuse to get together and gorge and LTH'ers offered stimulating conversation and even some pinup food porn. Special thanks to nr706 for sharing his bottled labors of love and to d4v3 for bringing (and teaching me how to pronounce) the geuze. This nearly 5-year-old crafted beverage matched the stir-fried chicken so well that it was probably the best beer pairing I've ever tried (admittedly not so many).

Thanks again to one and all. It had been at least a couple of years since I'd last been to TAC and this was the perfect way to get reintroduced to what they do.

Let me add my thanks to the "R's" for organizing this dinner. I love going to TACwith a big group of people because we have enough ordering power to try so many great dishes. I'm particularly glad I finally had a chance to try the beef curry (Roti Kaeng Karii Neau).

Roti Kaeng Karii Neau


Karii Close-up


Here are a couple other pictures from my files (these were not taken at or dinner)

Duck Curry

File Photo

Garlic Ribs

File Photo

It looks like I've got to go back again soon because I discovered that I don't have a picture of crispy ong choi in my files. Oh well, it's a burden I'm glad to have.

Here's a pic of the on choy from a TAC Quick LTH meal last summer. It was a true highlight of that meal, too.

Warning: photo not up to Stevez or Ronnie Suburban quality levels.

LTH,

Thought I'd post the entire menu from the R's TAC meal, please feel free to chime in with additions or omissions, there was bourbon involved after all.

R's LTHForum Dinner at TAC



Menu 2.11.09 TAC

Roti Kaeng Karii Neau (Malay Muslim-Style Beef Curry w/ Roti Bread)*
kai thawt - Thai fried chicken
ka-phrao krawp kai jiaw ma: s/f minced chicken/holy basil over preserved egg
Som Tam Puu Dawng or Papaya Salad with fresh blue crab
Crispy On Choy
Gaeng Som Cha Om Tod (sour curry with "cha om" leaf omelet)
Sia Krok Isaan (Issan style fermented pork and rice sausage)
Phat Phet Sa-Taw; a spicy Curry fry with sator beans (stinky beans) and minced shrimp & pork**
Duck Curry
Tom Kha Kai
Garlic pork ribs
Sticky Rice

* Special order
** Special order, which we did not order, Deesher gave us part of his.

Additional pictures available --> here, scroll down to 2.11.09.

Enjoy,
Gary