Lunch in Laos
Last Updated on Monday, 12 October 2009 08:05 Written by Sean Monday, 12 October 2009 07:44
This weekend I had a revelation. Deespite having moved out of Somerville into my house in the burbs 5 long years ago, I"ve barely explored my new surroundings. In fact, if I go out, I'm just as likely to drive down to my old haunts as I am to go to one of the same old places on the main strip in town. Forget about surrounding cities and towns. Well, that changed this weekend.
Armed with the interwebs, I set off to find new and exciting food within 5 miles of home. I started off searching for and old favorite, banh mi, and ended up reading a review of a Laotian restaurant. With little knowledge about Laos other than their location on a map, I was off. I got to Phien's Kitchen about 1pm Sunday. The wife and I had the place all to ourselves. The lone server greeted us in a Patriot's jersey and sat us at the big table in front. Tea was upon us instantly. The place feels like what I assume it is, a nice family run place.
After some chitchat, our order was in, and the appetizer came out. Beautifully fresh spring rolls.a Nice little shrimp, cilantro, and a bunch of other tasty crispy stuff I was too busy eating to disect. They came out with a sweet chili sauce with peanuts. The peanuts add a nice touch. 4 large spring rolls for $5. Not bad.
Next up was the entrees. Something new and something I THOUGHT I'd had before. The new thing was homemade sausage. It was packed full of meat and ginger and garlic. There were also unnameable other spices. These were delicious. There also must have been about 1lb of meat on the plate. We also had a good sized basket of sticky rice.
The biggest surprise was the dish I'd had a version of before, beef larb. At the thai places I've had it, it was ground meat, mint and chilies. Tasty. Here, it was truly splendid. Chopped beef pieces, tiny, but much more flavorful than ground meat. This was mixed with strips of tripe. When the server asked if we wanted it spicy, she really did listen. This was pleasantly hot and piled high with extra hot chilies to make it go to 11 if you wanted. Soon my sinuses were clear, and the server was over to make sure we were OK. She joked with us about the time she rubbed her eyes after eating and screamed. There was so much food, I had to wrap it up and take it home.
Below is only the LEFTOVERS of the larb. This is less than 1/2 of the portion we had to eat. It's also nicely packed and all the peppers were rearranged on top. Class act A+. Next time I'm driving through Lowell, I'm stopping at Phien's Kitchen again.
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