Thai Orchid Dinner, Mission, KS

Last Thursday night I had the pleasure of convening some KC local eGulleteers, Chowhounds, and LTHers for an “authentic” Thai-style meal.

The impetus for choosing this restaurant was mostly proximity. When I moved in last fall, I noticed Thai Orchid a few blocks away and checked out the website. I sent an email, and several exchanges and a few months later, there we were.

I had sent to the owner of Thai Orchid, Wilai Rojjana (a delightful woman, by the way), a menu from a meal I had eaten at TAC Quick last summer, not so much to replicate that meal, but to convey the seriousness of my desire for the goodness of full-on Thai funk, heat, et al.

After I convinced her that yes, I did like nam phrik, she gave me a menu, I got some interested folks to agree to join me as guinea pigs.

All in all, the meal was quite a success.

The menu (I've used Wilai's spellings, quite different from those you're accustomed to seeing here):

tod po pia – Thai spring rolls, seemed pretty standard to me, fine but not particularly noteworthy.

som tum – We were given two papaya salads, on one northern-style (which she also called Isaan-style or Thai-style, pictured) and one central-style (which was also called Lao-style).



I really appreciated the opportunity to try both. The northern-style had considerably more chili heat—hottest dish of the night, in fact—and the central-style had a sweeter character. Neither had much fish flavor…no pickled crab or dried shrimp, for example.

This is as good a place as any to note my biggest logistical misstep: all the dishes were served, basically, at once. This made it quite impossible to try everything while hot, and quite difficult to devote attention to any one dish before moving on to the next, or maintain much balance in the meal. Next time I’d request a little more staggering of dishes.

lab moo – Pork laab (minced pork “salad”). This was the largest mound of laab I’ve ever seen served on one plate. Pretty good. I admittedly get a little confused with the range of dressings on this and similar Thai dishes. I was expecting a little more heat, a more piquant sauce (fish sauce, lime juice) and the textural contrast of toasted rice powder. But I don’t know if a) I’m confusing my expectation with similar-style dishes or b) these elements were there, and I missed them. This is a good example of how the quickness of the meal and all the dishes served at once means I’m offering somewhat fleeting impressions.

sai grog esan – Esan/Isaan sausage, served with sliced Thai chilis and sliced ginger. (Also sometimes served with nuts.) I enjoyed this. I love that Thai menus have a category basically called “drinking foods,” and Isaan sausage is a particular favorite. This was a pretty fine textured, slightly dry version. Not particularly funky with fermented flavor, but some for sure. These were purchased someplace at City Market (I think, didn’t catch the name), but Wilai said she prefers sausages that she gets from a local Laotian woman who makes them at home. I’d love to try this.



pla chu chee – Fish with chili sauce (catfish, I believe). The catfish was breaded, fried, and coated with a sweetish, slightly sour and fairly mild chili sauce. I thought the fish was cooked quite well and was very pleased to have a meaty, fish preparation on the table. Not quite sure what the difference is between this and the pla lard prig on the regular seafood menu.



kai yang – Grilled chicken, cut up, with a Thai-flavor marinade, a simple kind of dish that seems so inoffensive yet so tasty that I’m not sure why dishes like this aren’t offered up more frequently and more often associated with Thai food.



nam prig platu – Shrimp paste dip, mackerel, veggies…perhaps my favorite dish of the night, though it still seemed a bit muted. That was fine because nam phrik is pretty powerful stuff. I thought the mackerel was excellent.



po tak – Seafood combination soup (“Thai bouillabaisse”). When this came to the table, it had a little warming fire beneath it, making me feel comfortable ignoring the raves around me, holding off on the soup, figuring it would still be warm when I got to it. Unfortunately, the fire went out, and my soup was lukewarm. And it was still pretty darn good. Very rich-flavored broth accented by the brightness of lemongrass and basil.



sa koo tua dum – Tapioca, black bean, and coconut pudding…a surprise dessert, and to my palate, the most deliciously surprising dish of the night. I’ve had mixed luck with Thai desserts and with bean desserts. I had asked about sticky rice and mango, but Wilai said the available mangoes weren’t right (though come back for the Thai New Year meal April 13th). I’m glad they weren’t. The beans and tapioca combined to give this pudding a smooth and delicate texture, the coconut and sugar adding the right amount of sweetness.

Some impressions of the meal as a whole…

I was quite happy that Wilai and the staff at Thai Orchid agreed to prepare this meal for us, and I hope for the opportunity to do something similar in the future. There are two standards by which I’ve been evaluating this meal. By KC standards (my own KC standards, which are new to me and a work in progress), I was quite happy and will certainly return, with a goal of making this food more easily accessible.

By the standard of some of the top places in Chicago (for example) where most of my Thai experience lies, well, I guess I can say that I still look forward to returning to Chicago for Thai food too. I had a meal last night at Aroy Thai which, again, just blew me away. I’ll link when a report is available.

The northern Thai-style som tum was the only dish that really registered much on the heat meter for me (and did so quite admirably, to be sure). The fish flavors seemed a bit muted, whether the fish sauce in the dressings on the som tum or laab moo or the nam phrik or even the fish itself. The overall funk factor was lower than I had thought it might be.

There are also certain dishes that are difficult for Thai Orchid to prepare, especially on this kind of scale. They were stepping out of their comfort zone to prepare a meal like this for us, and for that I would rather applaud than criticize them. They don’t regularly stock green papaya; the supplies of Thai sausage in the city are limited; the kitchen isn’t set up to prepare sticky rice for 12. I’d never seen sticky rice served in plastic wrap packets (though I have in banana leaves). Within these limitations, I was quite pleased with Thai Orchid’s execution. They definitely went above and beyond to prepare a special meal for us, and I had a good meal and a great time, and met some great fellow food lovers in KC:



Perhaps my favorite part of the evening was meeting two other random food geeks in the restaurant. About three quarters through the meal, a guy came up to the table and announced something like, “My name is Danny. I’m Thai. I love food.” And asked if he could join our group, eager to tap into what (thankfully) must have appeared a pretty appealing situation.

And as we were finishing our meal a woman approached us with her husband, she’s a Chowhound lurker recently moved to KC, and gave us her card to contact for future events. Ah, future events. We’re in pretty good shape, Thai and otherwise.

(For anyone looking for a little more of a Thai food primer, for sure poke around LTH and Chowhound Chicago threads circa 2003, searching for threads on Spoon Thai, TAC Quick, Sticky Rice, and Aroy Thai for starters. Also check out Erik M.’s website and various Thai posts and menus here. Good stuff.)

P.S. Not all of these dishes are available on Thai Orchid's regular menu. I believe the soup, pork laab, and grilled chicken are, though not sure if the farang preparation is much different than what we got. It very well might be. I need to get info from Wilai on how one might actually go to the restaurant and get food like this.

Thank you Aaron! This looks like a wonderful replacement for Thai Place whenever we're in town. What was the pricing like? High end? Reasonable? Downright cheap? I realize that parts of this meal were custom made for the occasion but what can a typical off-the-street customer expect to pay for a meal at Orchid? Also, did you list the address and phone number on the other thread announcing the dinner?

Looks like you folks had a great time. Thanks again for a great review.

Buddy

Aaron Deacon wrote:This is as good a place as any to note my biggest logistical misstep: all the dishes were served, basically, at once. This made it quite impossible to try everything while hot, and quite difficult to devote attention to any one dish before moving on to the next, or maintain much balance in the meal.

The only problem with that, Aaron, is that it is exactly how Thai people actually eat, whether in a restaurant or in a home.

You and I (and a number of other good people) shared a great Thai meal here in Chicago last night, but the only reason that it was "paced" at all was because I'd requested as much. And, the reason that I did that was only because my Western tablemates so often complain if I do not (despite what are often repeated attempts to provide a reasoned appeal).

In the Thai restaurant and home, dishes are eaten whenever they hit the table, without regard to their status as "appetizers," "salads," "soups," or "entrees." [That is really only nomenclature which has been imposed by Western culinary academia anyway.] And, most dishes are truly enjoyed and savoured at a range of temperatures. In fact, a wide variety of things are believed to show at their best when they are approaching, or have reached, room temperature.

At any rate, great job with your program and your report.

Regards,
E.M.

Erik M. wrote:The only problem with that, Aaron, is that it is exactly how Thai people actually eat, whether in a restaurant or in a home.

Thanks for the input, Erik. Indeed, that's why (in light of our conversation on the matter last evening) I hoped to clarify that it was my misstep, not Thai Orchid's.

For the group assembled, and for me, it was a bit overwhelming. It wasn't a problem of order (in the sense of entrees before appetizers), or even so much a problem of temperature. We had a little time on the spring rolls, but once the rest of the food started arriving, I estimate it was all on the table within about 10 minutes. We were literally out of space. When we arrange such a meal again, I will ask that they try to finish dishes with at least a little more spacing.

In any case, I am glad to know that we had an "authentic" experience in that particular aspect of the meal.

Cheers,

Aaron

Aaron Deacon wrote:We had a little time on the spring rolls, but once the rest of the food started arriving, I estimate it was all on the table within about 10 minutes. We were literally out of space.

In the words of the inimitable TonyC, who was one of the good people with whom we shared last night's Thai feast, "Dude, that would suck."

E.M.