Search the Community
Showing results for tags 'Lao'.
Found 5 results
-
www.bangkokgolden7corners.com 6395 Seven Corners Center Falls Church, VA 22044 Tom Sietsema did a piece on this small Thai place back in November ( http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2010/11/18/AR2010111805045.html ). I am happy to report that the secret menu is secret no more. When we entered the small place this afternoon, we were handed two menus, one Thai and one Laotian. I never had Laotian food before, it was like Thai, but more rustic. Like other southeast Asian cuisine, Laotians make heavy usage of fresh vegetables and herbs as evident by the numbers of salads on the menu. We ordered the Laotian sausage, orm beef, crispy rice salad, and an order of chicken satay for the kiddo. My favorite dish was the crispy rice salad, consisted of herbs (probably cilantro and lime leaves), coconut, onions, scallions, julienne pork skin, ham, peanuts, and crispy rice in a refreshing spicy lime dressing with large lettuce leaves served on the side. You are suppose to eat it like a bulgogi by wrapping the salad inside the lettuce leaves. It was a prefect balance of savory, sour, and spicy, with bites of crispy rice and peanut for textural contrast. The flavor was incredibly complex and words do not do justice in describing this dish.
-
Washington City Paper with more details. Opening "next year." -
As mentioned in a separate post, a number of new restaurants/food outlets recently opened in Tyson's Galleria. My daughter and I were out doing some Christmas shopping, and we decided to check out Sen Khao. I haven't been to Thip Khao, but I frequented Bangkok Golden a few years ago, which is the restaurant that introduced me to Lao cuisine. The menu is somewhat "compact", and featured two starters, a salad, two sticky rice dishes, and three noodle soups. You have your choice of proteins for the salad dish as well as the soups. We opted for Curry Puffs ($5) and two of the soups. The curry puffs may have been the best I've ever had. The dough was thin, light, and perfectly cooked, while the filling consisted of nicely seasoned pieces of potato. An order consists of two curry puffs with accompaniments. I chose the Khao Piak Sen ($14), which is a type of chicken soup featuring rice noodles, pulled chicken, garlic chili oil, herbs and greens, and some crispy rice. While it was slightly spicy, chili paste and raw chiles are available for those who like it hotter. This soup was a winner. Clean favors, nicely seasoned, and freshly prepared. (Note: The menu states the noodles are udon-style, and while I'm not a noodles expert, I think rice noodles were used.) My daughter opted for Mee Kathi with tofu, which is a coconut curry rice noodle based soup flavored with egg, peanuts, cabbage, and banana blossom. She declared her soup to be outstanding as well. The service was extremely quick, and the staff was very friendly and helpful as well. If I worked in the Galleria or lived nearby, Sen Khao would be on my short list. We strolled to check out the other food outlets, and picked up an eggnog ice cream cone ($4) at Ice Cream Jubilee. The eggnog ice cream was fantastic. Creamy, rich, and with a hint of rum. They offer several interesting flavor combinations (Thai Iced Tea, etc.) Looking forward to a return visit there, as well.
- 14 replies
-
- 6
-
-
-
- Tysons Corner
- Tysons Galleria
- (and 4 more)
-
Shades of Bangkok Golden and Baan Thai, this place is a neighborhood gem and deserves more attention. It's run by a Lao family -- I believe that the food is cooked by the aunt and uncle of the super-nice woman who's usually at the front counter -- and when it opened a few months ago, it served predominantly Thai food with only a small section of the menu devoted to Lao dishes. They didn't expect there to be much demand for Lao food, and apparently for a while before they opened they were considering not having it on the menu at all. A funny thing happened, though: people kept ordering from the Lao side of the menu (the woman at the counter always sounds so SURPRISED about that). So they adjusted accordingly, and now they have an extensive selection of Lao specials (and some additional, interesting Thai specials) that don't appear on their takeout menu; you can only see them on a posterboard outside the restaurant (see attached photo, which doesn't quite cover all of their offerings) or in a separate specials menu in the restaurant itself that you have to ask to see, somewhat reminiscent of Bourbon's old, copper expanded whiskey list. And the food is really cool; there have been far more hits than misses in what we've tried. In particular, the Laab Xiin made with minced beef parts, including various offal, is spicy and funky and delicious, and the Khao Piak Sen is just insanely good; it's a flavorful chicken soup made with both rice noodles and chewy tapioca noodles, unlike anything I've had in this area, and if it was tasty and comforting on a 75 degree day, I can only imagine how good it would be when it's cold outside. I wish I were eating some now. We also had a Lao version of pad thai that I forget the name of -- ah! the Kuoa Mii Lao at the bottom right of the specials menu, it had strips of egg across the top -- as well as the honey pig dish, and both were really enjoyable. Anyway, go here, try some of their Lao specials, and (hopefully) enjoy. Like Adam Express and Zabver before them, they do a lot of takeout business, but they also have four or five small tables in the space, and eating there is perfectly viable. (They actually recommend not taking the Khao Piak Sen to go, since it's best when the noodles are freshly cooked.) I'm about to leave the country for a little while for a grad program, and I don't want them to suffer for business while I'm gone. Make it so they're still there when I get back!
- 10 replies
-
- 3
-
-
- Mount Pleasant
- Lao
- (and 1 more)
-
Totally agree. The first time I went it was amazing, and then a few years later it didn't hold a candle to Little Serow. Which is actually equivalent to a little place in the burbs called Bangkok Golden at a lower price and you can pick the items you want... Sorry, I love both. But little Serow is talked about in mythic ways in the media and I don't know anyone that has tried both and felt that Bangkok golden wasn't equivalent ... --- [The following posts have been split into separate threads: Khao Soi (Issan-Style) (anhdeluxe)]
