TAC Quick Thai Language Menu Translation (2006)

eatchicago wrote:All types of dinners feast happily from all portions of the menu (although it may take a little coaxing of your waitress to get the exact dish you want).

Well, at least the translated parts of the menu, and everyone mostly pays the same price for this feast. Generally.

Seriously, LSC does better than 99% of the Chinese and Thai places in the city, stocking and serving a huge variety of fresh ingredients from every part of the vegetable and animal kingdom (and every anatomical part of the vegetables and animals), and offering them straight up in menu vernacular. That's why it's an Ur-GNR and my go-to for celebrations of all types. But it's not a totally unassailable bastion of culinary ecumenism - compare the Hot Pot menu (if you can find it) in Chinese and English, or ask Tony if he's ever made anything special for the visiting businessmen he hosts. I've had many "secret" things even at our beloved LSC, one of the reasons my hopes to eat everything on the menu this calendar year became quickly daunting and untenable (combined with my life events and his opening of two other restaurants).

I totally agree that happier diners, prouder staff, and fresher ingredients would result from the abolishing of all secret menus. I'm glad more places are headed in this direction, and LTH is a huge part of it. Educated diners are better diners (and happier stomachs). But it's true that one hangup from the restauranteurs' perspective is wasted ingredients. China and Thailand spawned two cultures (among many, including Western Europe, once upon a time) that use every part of the plant and animal, and abhor waste. Enlightened though the members of this forum may be, there are many out there that send "funky" dishes back to the kitchen after the first bite, or let their kids order and then not eat 'ridiculous' things for shock value, or even walk out of a place with "pork cookies," offal, or blood soups on the menu. I've seen it happen personally. Business is business, and it makes perfect sense to me that these places are setting their menus up locally the way that they are.* Now, I don't like it - but it does make sense.

How lucky we LTHers are to live in an age of interconnected knowledge, and a most friendly city, so that we can engage and respect the pride and passion of our hosts and chefs, filling our bellies with the rewards. Sometimes, these rewards even make the translated menus for Joe Sixpack.

*an example of the reverse: Casa de Samuel offers rattlesnake on the menu, and then is out of it half the time, or people complain about it being dried out from too long in the freezer when they do have it. It's a balancing act with little reward for the restauranteur.