Sabai Deez*
We Gluttons have been trying to make luscious food love with our Laotian family for a minute now. Yessir, I’m talking bout Sabai-Dee.
Laotian cuisine is known for its heavy use of garlic, shallots, scallions and ginger. As the country spent time as a member of French Indochina, their portfolio exudes a culinary hodgepodge of its Chinese, Malaysian, Thai and Indian neighbors.
Thank Jah (or Budda, I guess) for the setup of this joint: Cafeteria style. You just eyeball, point and select.
For a mental image, think a Laotion Old Country Buffet…
The proprietors suggested “The Combo” for the absurd price of $3.99, which includes a choice of heaping spoonfulls of Lo Mien or Fried Rice as well as two selections from the buffet which is about 12 items deep. We meandered our way down the double pained window; ole Ma (pictured below, on right) acted as an South East Asian Godmother; cocking her head slightly left and nodding approval as we pointed to her faves.
In the end, we went with the basil chicken, green beans with mushrooms in soy/fish sauce, green curry (with chicken and chinese eggplant), and sweet/sour chicken (all pictured below).
Taking gold was the basil chicken…mildly spicy, robust and undisputably the dish that would bring us back many times over. If you feel like gettin buck, order the sommuu which is a spicy pickled pork sausage. Or how bout the pa lo, a blend of savory tofu and pork belly.
Mmmmm. Pork belly. If it wasn’t 11am, I would have been on some pa lo like white on rice.
Sabai-Dee is BYO which means you should stop by Jewel and scoop up a 5th of bourbon to spike the redockulous fresh fruit smoothies (no bubble=no tapioca). In sum, the spot is a respectable, bustling bidness with loyal diners from the meltingzone known as Edgewater. Ima be Sabaideezin like mad, so holla at me if you require a dinemate.
Note: you will exit Sabai-Dee smelling like a line cook from the orient. But no worries, just bring a bottle of Fabreez if you gotta roll back to the office.
your footnote instantly brings to mind one of my favorite places to take my stomach while visiting chicago… that is the Taste of Lebanon. the aroma stays with you, but the good ole one-two punch of a falafel & lentil soup on a cold dreary day makes it all worth it.
From the photos, menu and description, it is obvious that this place is selling Chinese food.
The name of the place is Lao, but the food is Chinese.
You can even see a Chinese shrine in one of the photos, meaning this family if they ever lived in Laos were Chinese and probably don’t know much about Lao cuisine at all.
It’s a shame if this restaurant serving Chinese food should claim that it’s a Lao restaurant. It does a disservice to Lao cuisine thereby, because Lao food is assuredly distinctive and unique in Asia, and every bit as exceptional as the cuisines of Thailand or Vietnam.
The last thing we need is people going to a Chinese restaurant with a Lao name and thinking they ate Lao food when in fact they are eating Chinese food.
Lao:
That’s good to know, I have no idea what Laotian food is. Can you recommend a more authentic restaurant?
Thanks!
Yea Lao, hook up the knowledge. Or can we just stop by your house and get skooled?
As an FYI-
My wife is Lao, and we have spoken with owner. Based on the converstaions we have had I would beg to differ that this a Chinese restaraunt pretending to be a Lao restaurant, because it is just plain wrong. While some generic items like egg rolls may lead some less well versed patrons to jump to this conclusion, it is not true. They offer classic dishes like Larb, Lao style pho, and mnay other things. Additionally, if it is not out at the “buffett” line, ask the owner, and he is more than happy to cook up what ever it is you seek. I would have to guess that most people don’t have a good knowledge base when it comes to true Lao Cuisine and wouldn’t know what to ask for on their own, but that doesn’t make this an unauthentic place to have some great ethnic food by any stretch.
Jhonny-
Thanks for the insight brudda. Keep that belly full!
Why is it okay for Thai or Filipino restaurants to serve Chinese egg rolls, which are known to customers as “Thai spring rolls” or “Lumpia”, respectively? But if you saw egg rolls at a Lao restaurant, people would freak out? Lao people also eat egg rolls and so do Filipinos, Thais, and Vietnamese people. If it’s okay for other Asian cuisines to serve egg rolls, then Lao cuisine shouldn’t be singled out. Anyway, Sabai-Dee also serves traditional Lao foods like Larb salad, Sticky Rice, Papaya Salad, Khao Poon curry noodle soup, Som Moo (fermented pork sausage), Lao beef jerky, Lao fried rice ball salad called Nam Khao, etc…