RESTAURANTS Quest for Fire-Beyond Tex-Mex!

TEXANS LOVE HOT FOOD AND EAT lots of it, most of it falling into the cuisine category of Tex-Mex. Delicious, yes, but why stop there? Every so often it’s good to get off the salsa and broaden our culinary horizons.

So we set out on a kind of Indiana Jones quest, looking for heat, and discovering a wide variety of Dallas restaurants where you can get that chilipepper fix.

The first stop on the itinerary was Thai Taste, surely the prettiest Thai restaurant in Dallas, and one of the best. Ensconced in a turn-of-the-century structure that was built as a Baptist church, the restaurant’s vaulted ceiling, pristine white tablecloths, and original stained-glass windows still inspire hushed tones and intimate conversation. And while you can still see the bell tower from the street, inside the owners have added wood plank walls, patterned fabrics, and artifacts, creating the ambience of a traditional Thai home.

Annie Wong, who owns the restaurant with her brother and sister, was a teacher in Bangkok. In 1969 she moved to Los Angeles and started a restaurant that expanded to five locations. Thirteen years ago she again moved east, this time to Dallas, where she opened Thai Lanna, Star of Siam, and Krisda. In 1986, she sold all three and bought the old church from owners who had converted it to an Italian restaurant. The church became Thai Taste.

Given the site’s history, we felt this was the perfect place to retreat and renew our faith in the power of pepper heat.

For the best table, head to the balcony. Sit by the railing and you’ll get a great overview of everything. Don’t try to impress your date by asking for chopsticks; places are set with forks and spoons because the real business of eating Thai noodle dishes is carried on by the deft use of a fork in the right hand and a big soup spoon in the left.

Wong’s menu offers traditional Thai favorites along with innovations that seem right at home in Texas, including the popular Thai tacos.

We knew already that two categories on the menu were more than they seemed to he: soups and salads. In Thai cuisine, they’re entrees in their own right: hearty, substantial, and filling.

The hot-and-sour seafood soup is full of shrimp, scallops, crabs, and squid, and scented with garlic, basil, galangal (Thai ginger), lemon grass, and Thai chilis. But the signature soup here is chicken coconut. Filled with tender chunks of meat, wild lime leaves, flecks of dried chilis, and chunky pieces of galangal, the soup is a mélange of textures and aromas. The creamy spice-scented broth is seductive. It slides down smoothly, then starts a gentle smolder that slowly grows to a roar.

Salads are similarly meal-sued arrangements: artfully selected diced fruits and vegetables combined with cold cooked meat, poultry, or seafood that’s been steeped in a spicy marinade.

Noodle dishes are many and varied- from mild to spicy hot and from hearty mixtures with shellfish, chicken, and meat to vegetarian delights. Order several dishes to be shared.

On one visit we ordered Pad Thai. The noodle classic was garnished with plump pink gulf shrimp, perfectly cooked, and carried just the right sweet-sour-salty bite that gradually builds to a searing crescendo.

On another visit, we took advantage of specially priced lunch dishes (about $5 each) to order four of the noodle dishes noted as “hot”: Beef Panang, Chicken with Mint Leaves, Chicken with Thai Sauce, and Spicy Noodles. Wanting to know how hot was hot, we flagged down our Thai waitress and asked her what to expect. She explained that most hot dishes were made at about “two stars,” but if we asked for really hot, we could get “four stars.”

“That’s what you like, four stars?” we asked, trying to discover the bounds of authenticity. “Oh, no,” she said. “I like 20 stars.”

Well, no guts, no glory. We ordered the panang-20 stars, please-strapped on our asbestos gloves, and then moved to a larger table where all these dishes would fit.

We sampled the two chicken dishes, at four stars each, which proved to be deli-ciously spicy creations accompanied with fresh vegetables. Spicy Noodles had an almost-sweet sauce and was made with wide rice noodles. But because this was a quest for fire, we dove almost immediately into the outrageous 20-star panang. The beef had been sliced into strips, simmered in coconut milk and chili paste, and seasoned with peppers and basil. The first bite was spicy but surprisingly flavorful. Not bad, we thought. Delicious even. Heat heaven.

The 20-star beef panang turned out to be a deliciously painful addiction. (Hot food, we read later, is addictive. Apparently, the sensation is similar to a runner’s high-it hurts so much that your body’s endorphins get going to get you feeling better.) Unfortunately, after devouring most of the beef, we turned our attention back to the other dishes, only to find that we could barely taste them. Only the panang would do.

Our waitress explained to us that the Thai pepper was the secret to this blissful blistering heat. She brought us some jalapenos and a small bowl of freshly chopped Thai peppers so that we could taste the two. Two nibbles later, the quest for fire became the urgent demand for something cold. Having heard that milk is the best remedy for extinguishing chili fire (there was actually some sort of study involving serrano chilis and brave but stupid people that “proved” this), we ordered a tall glass of Thai iced tea, stirred it well, and then enjoyed the cool salvation of condensed milk.

For dessert, we sought more comfort food and found it in a bowl of black rice pudding. Sweet, cool, and meltingly creamy, this was the perfect ending to our baptism by fire.

4501 Cole Avenue, Dallas. 214-521-3513 or 521-3158. Open for lunch and din-ner daily. $$

More Hot-Hot-Hot

ANOTHER FAMILY-OPERATED RESTAU-rant with a charming interior and spicy exotic food is Royal Thai. You’ll find all the Thai classics as well as innovations such as Pattaya, a spicy combination of shrimp, scallops, calamari fish fillets, and mussels sautéed in chili paste with fresh basil, snow peas, and coconut milk. Order the Jungle Curry. It’s a fiery-hot dish made with beef or chicken stir-fried with basil, jalapeno, hot chili paste, baby com, broccoli, carrots, and wild mushrooms. 5500 Greenville Avenue in Old Town Village.

Goa, on the southwest seacoast of India, has the hottest food I’ve ever eaten and was one of the hottest places I’ve ever been. Its the source of dishes called “vindaloo” on Indian menus. If you’re a heat-seeking menu missile, that’s what to ask for, according to Pardeep Sherma, owner of India Palace and the Bombay Cricket Club, two of the prettiest white-tablecloth Indian restaurants in Dallas. We ordered vindaloo on a recent visit to India Palace. “Ha-ha-ha-hot,” we said, fanning our tongues. The waiter looked at my Irish eyes and figured me for a send-back- somebody who orders some-thing she can’t eat. And he was right, except I sent it back for more firepower. India Palace and Bombay Cricket Club offer vandaloo with shrimp, beef, lamb, or chicken. Chiliheads will like the Seafood Bhuna: plump scallops, chunks of fish, and prawns sauteed with hot chili peppers, sweet peppers, and onions. Vegetarian heat-seek-ers should ask for Kadhai Paneer: homemade Indian fresh cheese, onions, and hot chilis sautéed in an Indian wok; or Navrattan Curry: nine fresh vegetables in a classic curry sauce. Bombay Cricket Club, 2508 Maple Avenue. India Palace, 12817 Preston Road.

Pearl of the Orient, a beautifully appointed Vietnamese restaurant, is another place where the staff just couldn’t understand that we wanted hot food. Luckily for hotheads, most meals come with a little dish of Vietnamese chili paste, a kind of edible napalm. Prices are substantially higher at night: While Grilled Lemon Grass Catfish, hot and sour soup, Vietnamese spring roll, and fresh fruit for dessert is a bargain for $7.95 at lunchtime, the same three items-no dessert-are priced independently on the dinner menu and add up to $21.45.500 Crescent Court at Maple and Cedar Springs.

Cajun food is another way to get that hot fix. Pappadeaux’s ambience is old sea shack, with lots of weathered woods, nautical antiques, old signs, and even a put-on send-up of old grain mills hoisted to the top of the building, suggesting a rustic history that never was. We tried the blackened redfish and found it perfectly done- moist and mild on the inside, only to assault us with a fiery afterburn from the pleasingly charred crust. The enormous plate of red beans and rice was spicy-rich, thanks to the andouille sausage, but over-whelmingly salty. 10428 Lombardy at Northwest Highway. 3520 Oak Lawn Avenue. 725 South Central Expressway, Richardson. 1304 Copeland Road at Collins, Arlington.

Maybe a little Caribbean heat is what you need. Cafe Gecko features a menu that primarily reflects the Cozumel/Mexican side of the Caribbean. Owner Dennis Dial opened it in 1991 after bartending in the Dallas area for more than a dozen years. The hottest item on the menu is Jerked Chicken Tenders: meltingly tender strips of chicken breast inside a flaming-hot breaded crust. Dial notes that there are lots of Jamaican jerk seasoning powder mixtures that vary in hotness: His favorite blend is cayenne seasoned with thyme, dried basil, garlic powder, ground nutmeg, and ginger plus a hefty shake of ground cumin and black pepper. 5290 Belt Line Road, Addison.

Queen of Sheba, an Ethiopian restaurant, is another source for hot food. If you elect the Queen’s Dinner-an enormous sampling of just about everything-it begins with a hand-washing ceremony. Your utensil is injera-Ethiopian bread that resembles a spongy sourdough pancake full of air bubbles. Centerpiece of the meal is Doro Wott, a hot and spicy slow-simmered chicken stew. The dish is a sinus-clearing creation that will keep you coming back. Yebeg Wott is a similar dish with lamb, and Zuresh is made with a slow-cooked beef. Other dishes include Gomem, chopped bitter greens sautéed with onion and garlic; Missir Alitcha, spicy not-too-hot puréed lentils; and Azifa, lentils spiced with jalapeno, mustard, and ginger. Kifto is chopped beef tenderloin, highly spiced and served either raw or slightly cooked. 3527 McKinney Avenue at Lemmon.

RECIPE



Chicken Coconut Soup

THAI TASTE’S SIGNATURE SOUP is a spicy mélange of textures and aromas. It’s also a meal in itself and perfect for an afternoon luncheon. Cayenne pepper and dried chilis give this soup its fiery heat.

Serves two.

1/2 cup sliced skinless, boneless raw chicken breast (chicken cutlets, sliced)

1/2 cup coconut milk (or 1/4 cup canned coconut cream and 1/4cup water)

1 cup chicken broth

1 tablespoon sliced galangal root (or fresh ginger)

3 tablespoons fish sauce

3 tablespoons lemon or lime juice

4 makrut or kaffir (Thai lime leaves)

6 small Thai-type fresh or dried chilis, sliced

1 tablespoon cayenne pepper (or to taste)

Gombine chicken, coconut milk and chicken broth; simmer five minutes. Stir in remaining ingredients and simmer until heated through.

*NOTES: Thai cooks don’t pre-brown meat or poultry in oil. Tiny Thai-type hot peppers are available as plants at the Dallas Farmers Market. The tiny ultra-hot ornamental peppers are a good substitute. -BG

How How is Hot?

Four-star? Twenty-star? How do you tell how hot a dish really is? The answer is more scientific than you might imagine. The Scoville Rating measures the amount of capsicum, the fire-making chemical, in a pepper. Pure capsicum measures 16,000,000 Scoville units. A look at how the peppers stack up shows that the Tex-Mex jalapeno indeed pales next to the Thai chili. But if you’re really going for the bum, check out the habanero-up to 120 times hotter than the jalapeno. Ouch!

TYPE OF CHILI PEPPER SCOVILLE UNITS

Bell, Sweet Banana … 0

Cherry, Mexi-Bell, R-Naky … 100-500

Nu-Mex Big Jim … 500-1,000

Ancho, Espanola, Pasilla … 1,000-1,500

Cascabel, Sandia … 1,500-2,500

Jalapeno, Mirasol … 2,500-5,000

Serrano, Hot Yellow Wax … 5,000-15,000

De Arbol … 15,000-30,000

Aji, Cayenne, Pequin, Rocoto, Tabasco … 30,000-50,000

Chilepequin (Chiltepin), Thai, Santaka … 50,000-100,000

Habanero, Bahamian … 100,000-300,000

Abbreviated from The Whole Chile Pepper Book, by Dave DeWitt and Nancy Gerlach.