Lao-Thai in the 13th: Ring in the New Year with a little spice and a lot of nice.

 

5.0 Lao-Thai, 128 rue Tolbiac in the 13th (Metro: Tolbiac), 01.44.24.28.10, is (of course) open on Christian holidays, thus, when our favorite resto of its ilk, Lao Lane Xang 2, decided not to do lunch New Year's Day, a search of the web and our best Asian food expert, pointed us here.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

The "menus" are most reasonably priced but we had been advised to avoid the Thai dishes in favor of the Laotian ones so we ordered off the carte.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

-A salad of pineapple slices and two shrimp  (not very interesting)

-a squid salad  (good)

-nems of ground meat, mushrooms, and diced vegetables  (OK)

-Phat Thai - a Laotian variation of Pad Thai = stir-fried rice noodles with eggs, fish sauce, tamarind juice, red chili pepper, bean sprouts and tofu   (ordinary)

-duck breast with herbs  (pretty tasty)

-shrimp with veggies   (alright)

PAUSE – Up to this point all was very ordinary, indeed, boring, good product, well-prepared and presented, but “so what?”  But then came:

 

 

 

 

 

 

-broccoli with salted fish flakes  (very good)

-trout with a sweet/sour sauce  (pretty good)

-frogs’ legs  (good)

-fried quail with garlic and pepper

AND THE SCENE SHIFTS – suddenly the meal becomes interesting

Our bill, with a some perfumed and natural rice, which arrived rather belatedly, two and a half bottles of wine, two sodas, three coffees and four of those deceptively big but really small glasses of mei kuei lou (aka white lightning) digestifs which our French pal from the Quai d'Orsay monitoring the world news on his iPhone, insisted on - was 167.08 E for six of us; thus = 55.69 E per couple.

Go?  If you have the Superb Sophia of Southeast Asia advising you to "Order Laotian, not Thai."