Return to Sang Dao

Wow, what a miracle! I'm actually posting this on the same day! This will be a quick 'n dirty post. After almost a year's absence, it was time to try some Lao food once again. The occasion? To celebrate the graduation of my former student who recently graduated from a prestigious business school back East. I gave her the choice of Thai (I was planning on Sab e Lee in Santee if she chose that) or Lao (either Sang Dao or Asia Cafe)...

Since she hadn't had Lao food in awhile, I chose Sang Dao. Remember, Sang Dao is closed on Mondays! I still remember trying to come here with some friends, so excited but the happiness was dashed by the closed sign. No worries today though.
Check out that big fish in that tank. I wonder if he's a pet or a future meal.  I love the decor here. Metallic flecked tapestries with elephants and bright textiles  and assorted postcards of Laos under glass.

For drinks, I had the iced coffee and she had the iced tea (not pictured).

After mulling over the choices, we decided on a few dishes to share. This was the first to come out, the Shredded Papaya Salad, served Thai style and with the dried chilis on a separate dish. Personally, I prefer the Thai style salad because the fish sauce is lighter and sweeter. The Lao fish sauce is really dark and funky. This is how I like my papaya, unripe and green and in a salad. I loved the textures - crunchy peanuts with the stringy fresh papaya, fresh tomatoes, tiny dried shrimp, and the bright flavors of the fish sauce in between bites of cabbage to balance it out.

My former student chose the Ground Beef Larb (cooked), served with mint leaves and a wedge of cabbage. You can see those dried, crushed chilis on the side. I didn't want any, uh "stomach problems" so I didn't use them at all. Our server asked if we wanted our larb "bitter" but we decided against it. If you don't know, the bitterness in this dish comes from "bile". MFS wasn't too crazy about the texture (there was ground rice powder in there). The rice powder didn't bother me but I didn't like the tripe or the slight bitter flavor. I ended up taking the larb home for Bert to try later...

This was the Nem Khao - the Lao Fried Rice served with lettuce leaves and cilantro. This was a little different than the kind I'm used to having at Asia Cafe. It's still the same ingredients (fried and crushed rice balls, green onions, chilis, peanuts, sour sausage, and cilantro) but it seemed the crispy bits were a bit soggy. It lacked the crunch that I craved. It was still tasty but I still prefer Asia Cafe's version better.


As is customary, dessert was at another venue, so off we go just a few miles down the same street...