FYI - Sticky Rice has Kaeng Roti as a standard menu item.

Regards,

With all the talk about TAC Quick on this forum I decided it was time to finally try it. I was there for a late lunch today and absolutely loved the tom kha soup, so much so that I thought about canceling the rest of the order and getting a second bowl instead.

I also ordered the ba mee pad which the server suggested. It was fine although a little greasy, certainly not something to write home about. I think I made the mistake of telling her I don't like really spicy food and she took that to assume I preferred more simple dishes - her first suggestion was pad Thai which I usually love, I just wanted something a bit different/more adventurous today.

Regardless, I will be back for the tom kha. Thanks for the recommendation!

The roti kaeng at tac is indeed a fine dish if you can catch it. Those who enjoy this preparation might also like the roti canai at Penang, which is always available and features the real deal hand thrown one at a time "paper roti" not available anywhere else in the city . Worlds apart from the commercial product (this is a Malay style roti, not sure if they do these in Thailand).

kuhdo wrote:The roti kaeng at tac is indeed a fine dish if you can catch it. Those who enjoy this preparation might also like the roti canai at Penang, which is always available and features the real deal hand thrown one at a time "paper roti" not available anywhere else in the city . Worlds apart from the commercial product (this is a Malay style roti, not sure if they do these in Thailand).

Khudo,

Didn't Penang burn down?

Steve:
The Chinatown branch closed due to fire in October, but there's one up and running in Arlington heights. My office is almost next door and I get the roti canai for lunch at least once a week. Definitely worth the trek for roti rooters.

Penang
1720 W Algonquin Rd
Arlington Hts, IL 60005
847-222-1888
www.penangarlington.com

kuhdo wrote:Steve:
The Chinatown branch closed due to fire in October, but there's one up and running in Arlington heights. My office almost next door and I get the roti canai for lunch at least once a week. Definitely worth the trek for roti rooters.

It's on my list for my next Northwest Suburban visit.

LTH,

Sister in-law was staying with us the last week, she loves Thai wanted to treat us to a Thank You meal and TAC seemed the perfect fit. TAC was really on Saturday evening, I preordered Erik M's Beef Cury w/roti, stunning in nuanced complexity of flavor, crispy On Choy a study in crisp, sweet, salty, citrus, Thai fried chicken a revelation in familiar taken in a new direction, even TAC's deconstructed Pad Thai bounced known quantity in a sideways direction. Issan sausage's light ferment opened a door with crisp fried basil and earthy preserved egg illuminating passage as to the possibilities of Thai.

To say TAC was a hit with the sister in-law and her friend, not to mention my bride and I, would be understatement.

Deconstructed Pad Thai





Enjoy,
Gary

Habibi wrote:The papaya salad I have ordered has always been hot as hell, bordering on inedible. I always assumed it was so because I asked for "spicy" or "Thai spicy." However, if they are serving that level of heat to everyone, it should come as no surprise that many consider it inedible. In fact, the last time I ate it it was so spicy that I remember thinking - "next time, forget the Thai spicy request." Next time I will order it without saying anything else and report back.

We have never requested the papaya salad to be any level of spice, yet it always arrives distinctly peht-peht. When my husband has specifically requested other dishes to be Thai spicy, they never are, leading us to the impression that the way to get really hot food at TAC is not to ask for it.

Last night we enjoyed an early dinner of Crispy On Choy (it's been a while since we've been there - has this dish changed a bit? The presentation looked different and I don't recall it having prawns before), papaya salad that I couldn't eat, and a wonderful duck curry. I will never be able to order the duck curry from Sticky Rice again, as TAC's version made theirs look positively insipid.

I'm taking a friend of mine who's visiting from Virginia to TAC Quick tonight and was hoping they'd have the Kaeng Roti. I called, no dice. I've still never had it - every time I call ahead and they say "sorry, not tonight". Is there a way to improve my odds?

-Dan

dansch wrote:was hoping they'd have the Kaeng Roti. I called, no dice. I've still never had it - every time I call ahead and they say "sorry, not tonight". Is there a way to improve my odds?

Call ahead and preorder, which I what I recently did. (Post a few upthread)

Or maybe make Gary call ahead and preorder...

RAB and I took my dad and step mom to TAC on Sunday evening. This was RAB and my third visit and our first visit without 12+ diners. So, we were more limited in our ordering.

Pork neck was as great as always. Crispy on choy was solid, but not as good as last time. Kao Soy (curry soup) was great, with a nicely spiced curry and moist chicken. Tom Yum soup was spicy and sour, but not amazing.

We'd wanted to try the chicken larb, being huge fans of larb, and found TAC's version to be quite different. Instead of ground meat, generously sauced, TAC's version was smaller pieces of chicken, lightly sauced, and combined with fresh basil and spinach. It wasn't bad. It just didn't sing like a well-balanced sweet-salty-sour-spicy larb should (in my opinion, of course).

Step mom chose two dishes - - an uninspired ginger chicken (boring!) and a pretty good, and not greasy, pad mee, with nice shrimp and bbq pork.

We were sad to have missed the fried chicken and issan sausage, two favorites. But, we'll just have those dishes to look forward to next time.

Ronna

Larb is one thing TAC doesn't seem to ace. In contrast, Sticky Rice's larb has been a total revelation for me, while their chicken isn't up to TAC standards. Both are really damn good restaurants in their own right, but since Thai menus are so diverse, you do have to choose your place based on your favorite dishes or craving for a particular night.

Santander wrote:but since Thai menus are so diverse, you do have to choose your place based on your favorite dishes or craving for a particular night.

Exactly, Sticky Rice does a Northern style larb with a pretty decent funk factor, not simply ground pork but liver, intestines and other misselaneous bits and pieces.

G Wiv wrote:

Santander wrote:but since Thai menus are so diverse, you do have to choose your place based on your favorite dishes or craving for a particular night.

Exactly, Sticky Rice does a Northern style larb with a pretty decent funk factor, not simply ground pork but liver, intestines and other misselaneous bits and pieces.

And is that larb something to try just once, or something that you've craved and ordered multiple times?

My larb experiences have been limited to chicken and pork, I believe. I don't recall seeing anything as interesting as liver/intestine larb, even in Thailand and Laos.

Ronna

If you dig offal even a little bit, it's a knockout dish. Not an oddity, a dare, or a try once. I live down the street and order it all the time. PS, it seems to be a Chiang Mai thing. Many have visited the US without running into scrapple or chicken gizzards. Maybe this is similar.

JeffB wrote:If you dig offal even a little bit, it's a knockout dish. Not an oddity, a dare, or a try once. I live down the street and order it all the time. PS, it seems to be a Chiang Mai thing. Many have visited the US without running into scrapple or chicken gizzards. Maybe this is similar.

Thanks for the rec.

By the time I visited Chiang Mai, my travel companion was so sick of Thai food that all I remember eating is bad pizza and Middle Eastern. I was also practicing pescatarianism at the time, so I surely wouldn't have ordered offal larb, even if I'd seen it on a menu.

In any event, Sticky Rice is definitely on my list of places to try.

Ronna

Not much more needs to be said, so here are anther 500+ words on Tacquick:

I stopped in for lunch today because there was an open meter. I know I’m in the minority on this issue, but I think our new meter deal is great! So much parking!

I was immediately intrigued by one of the specials: Mouse Ears Salad. I’m sure it was some sort of flowering plant I never heard of, but it could have also been mouse ears. Also “Mouse Ears” were the only words on the chalkboard enclosed with quotation marks. I’m immediately suspicious when food is in quotation marks, like "cheese" or "crab" so I got the Basil Duck.

I’ve been eating more and more ducks lately because I hate them.

I go fishing in Humbolt Park a lot, and there is this one white duck that I can’t stand. Unlike the peaceful, polite mallard couples that nuzzle up to each other and act like they’re in a fucking beautiful painting, he spends the day quacking aimlessly and causing a ruckus. Always swimming too fast. We made eye contact once and I was the first to look away. That stuck with me all week.

This was an incredible dish. Big tender pieces of sliced duck, both light and dark meat. The pieces still had skin bacon-like and chewy. Salty. I rationed a few pieces to eat last.

Surprisingly earthy mushrooms. Subtle flavors, reminiscent of truffle, even a bit woody. Almost like I’m tasting Scotch. I’m just drawing attention to the fact that I noticed the mushrooms. Large rings of fresh jalepeno become sweetly mild as they soaked up duck grease.

Cheftip!: Do something with jalepenos and duckfat.

Also there was this pair of ducks up in some inscrutable northern suburb, Lockshire or Glenglen, or Naperridge, relentlessly picking on a loner brown duck:



As many of you know, one of my pet peeves is injustice, so I had to step in and scare these bullies off. The ducks walked away. They WALKED away. Slowly. Like I’m not capable of harming them. Quacking under their breath. Assholes.



I was done with most of the basil, mushrooms and duck, so all that was left was a big pile of rice. Normally I would ditch these empty carbs, but that unmistakable duck grease saturated it, making each clump of rice marvelous. I treasured every last bit on my plate, down to the last grain, which I brought to my mouth with a single chopstick, like those chimps that learned how to get ants out of the ground with a stick.

The last time I was here (years ago), the interior was an unsettling bright white and I think they even served hot dogs. I don’t remember. But I do remember service being horrible. Horrible enough that I rarely went, and it always overshadowed the meal. Today, it was very calm, cool and comfortable. Service polite and very attentive, but the place was almost empty.

Two Thai babes eating at the table across from me devoured a big shared dish of what looked like fried spinach. Maybe that was the mouse ear salad. They seemed to know the waiter pretty well, along with every word to every Thai pop rock song that played overhead. Not sure why I’m mentioning this.

Also there was another white guy eating something with hardboiled eggs. It looked awesome. I would have asked him what it was, but you know…swine flu. He had a beard though, so maybe he posts here.

They seem to have some interesting specials, and I'm eager to try the ones that have no english words, hopefully with someone I can share a few plates with. BYOB too.

EDIT: Went back today for Pork Neck and Duck Curry specials. Awesome.

Awesome review, lookjerk.

By the by, "mouse ears" are a type of mushroom-like fungus that look something like this:


Next time you're there, if pork neck is on the specials board, get it - tender, charred deliciousness. An order of pork neck & a side of rice might not cover all the food groups or give you your USDA-recommended servings of vegetables (it falls short by about 99.5%...I figure the 2TB of chopped scallion garnish is good for 0.5%), but would make for a tasty meal. Without the funky-fish-saucy dipping sauce, it tastes like Korean BBQ. With the sauce, distinctly Thai. Pure meaty goodness either way.


Edited to link to a different pic

lookjerk-

Thanks for the laugh and good review.

Any post that involves antagonistic ducks - including photographic evidence - as a subsection is one to be remembered.

lookjerk wrote:We made eye contact once and I was the first to look away. That stuck with me all week

One tough duck.............

I feel the same way about rabbits.

I'm also thinking we need to do the LTH fishing derby sooner rather than later. The ducks can't win if there are more of us than there are of them.

As many of you know, one of my pet peeves is injustice, so I had to step in and scare these bullies off. The ducks walked away. They WALKED away. Slowly. Like I’m not capable of harming them. Quacking under their breath. Assholes.

We've some Canadian geese down here on the Southside that'll be happy to take them on. Let me know if you want me to send you their cards. Altho getting rid of THEM once they've done the job, well, that's another matter (sort of like hiring the mob to do a little service for you . . .)

Canadian geese

As a former "wildlife manager " for the Missouri Department of Conservation, let me just say that should be Canada geese. (Sorry this was beat into me by my supervisor, it grates my nerves to hear it wrong even 25 years later.)

wesuilmo wrote:

Canadian geese

As a former "wildlife manager " for the Missouri Department of Conservation, let me just say that should be Canada geese. (Sorry this was beat into me by my supervisor, it grates my nerves to hear it wrong even 25 years later.)

I stand corrected. (I guess that's why I always get such dirty looks.)

Gang, we just had an incredibly poor service experience at TAC (weekend before the holiday) that has soured our entire family on going back. Party of eight, we ordered, appetizers came out, so far so good. Then we're suddenly served an appetizer that nobody ordered -- and received an argument when we nicely said we hadn't asked for it. Hmmm. Then come the entrees -- except for my son, who had ordered the Mouse Ears from the chalkboard. He gets nothing. We ask the server why, and she says the chef ran out some time ago. We ask why nobody told my son when he ordered it, or subsequently, and get a blank stare. She reluctantly brings over the English menu, which we hadn't ordered from, and tells him he can order something else. No apology. No offer to comp his replacement. We take a pass, tell her we'll share the seven delivered entrees, attempt to tell her why the service is unsatisfactory and ask to talk to the manager on duty. Blank stare, and no manager comes over.

The check, of course, has the service charge already added for the party of eight. THAT they know how to do.

Incredible inattentiveness. Both my sons live in walking distance, and we've been semi-regulars. Not after this.
>>Brent

Hmmm, sounds emotionally unsafe to me.

Seriously though, one somewhat bad experience at a pretty stellar Thai restaurant and you're ready to write the place off? Seems a bit harsh to me. But hey, more pork neck for the rest of us!

brotine wrote:Gang, we just had an incredibly poor service experience at TAC...Both my sons live in walking distance, and we've been semi-regulars. Not after this.
>>Brent

As a "semi regular," have your other experiences been off-putting as well? While I wasn't there, I doubt I would let one server's behavior ruin my enjoyment of a restaurant, but I enjoy confrontations. I would keep going back if you like the food. Everyone can have an off night - even servers. It's true. Sometimes, really, the server might just not care. Seriously. Maybe the server got some horrible news, whatever, I'm not making EXCUSES, I'm just saying that it's possible that the server had MUCH bigger things going on in their mind. It happens, TRUST me. Sometimes the tip money is NOT worth it no matter WHAT you think your tip is worth. Again, I wasn't there, and do not know what was going on behind the scenes. I'm just speaking from experience as a server. They are not robots, and really, it's possible that they really did not care about your experience because sometihng else was going on in their world, and they just happened to have to work that day. I'm not saying that it's RIGHT, I'm just saying that they are human.

It's also possible that they were a bumbling moron.

If you like the food there, try not to write it off. Really, it sounds like you just got caught up in a horrible situation. I doubt the restaurant itself is to blame. Sounds like the server wasn't in the right frame of mind.

seebee wrote:If you like the food there, try not to write it off. Really, it sounds like you just got caught up in a horrible situation. I doubt the restaurant itself is to blame

Sorry to disagree but if the story is true, the restaurant is very much to blame.

The most important part of the story is that they asked for the manager and he did not bother to at least listen to their complaint, that is not acceptable.

As a former manager of a Lettuce Entertain You restaurant I can tell you that it is unlikely that they will ever come back, and after an experience like that there is no reason why they should.

I agree that quality of food is important and I appreciate that this is a restaurant that you like, but there are so many great restaurants in Chicago there is no reason for someone to suffer even one bad night, and that is the harsh reality of the business.