Just a little over a decade ago on the Chicago board of the food chat site Chowhound, a poster by the name of “foodfirst” (aka food and travel writer Robyn Eckhardt) posted a translation of a Thai language menu from the Lincoln Square restaurant Spoon. It had been passed along to her by slavering local foodlums anxious to get a taste of real Thai food beyond pad thai and crab Rangoon.
“They are the poor people,” Rukprueksachart says of Isan’s population. “[They] didn’t make red curry, or all the fried stuff, or grilled food.”
A minor feeding frenzy ensued, with posters returning multiple days in a row (myself included), ticking off dishes on the Thai menu and making selected forays onto the main menu.
Many of the familiar dishes on the English menu are done equally well. Wanpen’s kai tod (the aforementioned chicken) is more tender than most versions around town, and the sweetness of the dipping sauce she serves alongside is balanced with a strong dose of fish sauce. On one visit a fortuitous request to make the normally sweet, gloppy noodle dish pad see ew extra crispy was rewarded with noodles that had been dunked in the deep fryer so that they were puffed and crunchy like pork rinds. I’ll never eat it any other way again.
4825 N. Western 773-754-7660orderrainbowcuisine.com
