Ah the heady, dreamy days of midsummer 2015, when Arun Sampanthavivat was readying Taste of Thai Town in a repurposed Albany Park police station, and all were dreaming of a Thai Eataly, a one-stop repository for the universe of Thai flavors. Alas, ToTT, turned out to be nothing special. Just a large restaurant with an unsurprising menu, mostly full of the familiar standards you can find on practically every block of the city. Thai food fans slouched back to the comfort of Rainbow, Aroy, and Andy’s Thai Kitchen, secure in the knowledge that they were getting the tastiest, most uncompromising, regional Thai food east of Los Angeles.
Tom Yum Cafe (608 W. Barry, 773-270-5672) I’m probably most excited about this tiny place I learned about from Instagrammer strangefoodschicago (follow him). I’m sure I’d have never given it a second glance otherwise—it’s tucked off Broadway in Lakeview, with a total of four tables and a take-out menu that wouldn’t make an Amish farmer blink. But hidden in plain sight on a dry-erase board on the wall is a second, more or less permanent menu that acts as an addendum to the laminated one written entirely in Thai. They contain such uncommon treasures as pla som thot, or panfried soured fish (the dish that got Punyaratabandhu excited); som tam that, a large, shareable som tam platter with things like pork rinds, hard-cooked eggs, rice vermicelli, and fresh vegetables, with herbs on the side; and kaeng som cha-om khai, or sour curry of acacia leaves.
Line 2: som tam khai khem (som tam with salted duck eggs), som tam that (som tam platter, which is like a som tam equivalent of the pu pu platter. It’s a large platter with Isan-style som tam in the middle and several miscellaneous items on the side, usually include fried pork rinds, steamed pork terrine [similar to Viet pork terrine], fresh rice vermicelli [khanom jin], hard-boiled eggs [sometimes hard-boiled salted duck eggs], assorted fresh vegetables and herbs. It’s meant to be shared.)
Line 7: tom yam kha mu (tom yam soup of pig’s trotters), tom saep khrueang nai (Isan-style tom yam-like soup of offal; the name doesn’t specify whether it’s pork or beef offal)
Line 12: kaeng khiao wan luk chin pla krai (green curry of bouncy fish balls/dumplings)
Line 17: pla som thot (panfried soured fish)
