Regime change

For the past 10 years Lemon Grass has dominated my Thai repertoire with the lunch price fixe menu.  Despite the relatively poor service, I repeatedly returned for tulip dumplings, coconut milk soup, and a rotation of drunken noodles, fried rice, and penang curry - all with extra eggplant.

My friend is strung out on evil jungle princess but after an extensive internet search it seems that this dish might be a bastardization of gang pa gai (jungle chicken soup) for american taste buds - the coconut milk tempers the spice and makes it a bit more attractive.  Today, my suspicions were confirmed.

We went to Lemon Grass and ordered our regular.  When our entrees arrived, something was off - the lime and tomatoes were missing and the food was a bit oily. They had, however, still taken care to cut the carrots in a flower shape.  Perhaps they made some cost adjustments, or maybe there was a new chef, a Mexican perhaps.  I saw that my daughter was right - my noodles weren't big enough - these were rice flakes. 

We finished off our meal with our traditional Thai tea to go and it was lacking...way too sweet and it was clear that they were using half and half rather than condensed milk.  I wonder if they were using the powder that the Thai grocer tried to sell me as opposed to brewing tea. 

Our meal was doomed from the start.  I confirmed that the noodles were indeed pad kee mao, but when we asked about the evil jungle princess, the server stumbled and finally said that it wasn't a thai dish, it was made up, but was kind of like a curry.  From that moment on, we approached the meal as something other than authentic. 

Needless to say, that was probably the last hurrah for Lemon Grass.

I had taken ground beef out of the freezer and wanted to do something other than spaghetti or burgers.  I searched online and found a host of recipes for laab that reminded me of the Cambodian dish Ms. Nong made, so I went for it.  It was easy.  I also took it upon myself to make something up as a side dish.  I sauteed garlic and ginger in chili oil, added frozen haricots verts and simmered in a bit of coconut milk and lime.  For the laab I toasted jasmine rice, and used cilantro, scallions, lime, and fish sauce for flavoring.  Once again, the key to the flavor is finding the right balance between the tangy lime and the salty fish sauce.  We ate it as wraps using ICEBERG. 

I made yet another pitcher of tea.  The ambrosia I made Saturday would've been nice as a dessert, but the Melona popsicles hit the spot.