A new fav

The husb and I headed out Friday night to try a new restaurant downtown. He has gotten take out lunch there before and just raved about it so I had to try it. It is Lao Village in Clinton Square (208 West Genesee Street, Syracuse).

Let me just say.....day-um! I mean DAY-UM!!! This place was awesome. It is now added to my top favorite lists. I am going to try to convince everyone to head there after the next bookclub meeting.

It is a very small place, only 5 tables, with an industrial/Thai decor, if you can imagine that. The tables were all this stainless steel, mirrored material. There was corrugated steel on the walls with the typical elephant/Thai artwork. It was very cool.

When we walked in, we were handed two bottles of cold water and told to take any table. Turns out LV doesn't sell any beverages, just supplies bottled water with your dinner - fine by me! We started out with appetizers, each of us ordering summer rolls (the non-fried rice rolls) and an order of curry puffs to split. The curry puffs were like samosas, absolutely awesome. The summer rolls were almost identical to the Vietnamese spring rolls except they were three times the diameter. These were some big mothers! Also absolutely delish.

My entree was Kha Noom Jeen, rice vermicelli noodles with tofu khan, kaffir leaves and bamboo shoots in a panang curry sauce topped with fresh lettuce, bean sprouts and mint leaves. The waiter asked me what strength I wanted the heat and I told him I wanted to be sweating and waving my hands but not crying :-) It came perfectly seasoned. This was a wonderful dish.

The husb ordered Massaman Tofu (sliced tofu, potato chunks, ginger, pineapple simmered in massaman curry paste with coconut milk topped with scallions and served with Thai basil and steamed rice). He loved it, I thought it was a little sweet for my tastes but that being said, I could have still chowed down the whole dish.

(I am not a food critic or have a photographic memory - the above descriptions come from the take out menu I grabbed :-)))

Our costs-
Summer rolls - $1.75 ea
Curry puffs - 2 for $1.75
Massaman tofu - $6.95
Kha Noom Jeen - $6.50
3 bottles of water - n/a

Yeah, you are reading that right! $18.70 for dinner for two with 3 appetizers! Less than $20! And we were stuffed! Our service was good, the food was fresh and just made. What a bargain! Because we weren't charged for the water, the husb rounded up to an even $30 with the tip and we left feeling like we got the bargain of the week.

Next on my to-do list is trying to find an Indian grocer that someone told me about (couldn't remember the name or location!) that they said has the most delicious samosas around. Yeah, I know they aren't that hard to make but phooey, I can't be bothered :-)