Quick Lunch at Lotus of Siam

Summer and I stopped by Lotus of Siam for a quick lunch and ended up having a great bottle of wine and a great selection of Thai.

We started off with Lotus' NUA DAD DEAW (Beef jerky Issan style) - a favorite of mine. The marinated beef, is prepared with a homemade spicy sauce that I find to be perfect for my heat tolerance...great balance, but definitely gets your mouth watering!

After the beef jerky, we moved on to my favorite dish at Lotus, the TOM KAH KAI. This soup has sliced chicken with coconut milk, straw mushroom galanga, lemon
grass and a touch of lime juice. We had this at a 3 spice level and it was perfect for both of us. The waiter was nice enough to point out the lurking thai chiles in the broth which I thought was nice of him. The broth of this soup is amazing with delicate coconut and citrus tones...I could eat this everyday!

Following the soup, we had our "usual" SOM THUM. This classic dish consists of green papaya, chili, tomato, crushed peanut mixed with lime juice, fish sauce and sugar. We've had this a bunch of times at Lotus and are still trying to figure out what spice level we like...so this time we went with a 1. Thought it was still hot, but far better than the painful 6 we had at another Thai restaurant in Las Vegas a couple weeks ago. The coolness of the papaya (despite being spicy) was a nice break after the jerky and soup.

Finishing up the meal was a bowl of RAD NA. This was our first time having this dish at Lotus, and it was served with far more broth than we are accustomed to. No matter, as this was spectacular! Noodles were perfectly cooked, beef was nicely cooked, and the broth was rich and balanced.

All of this was eaten alongside an enjoyable 1990 S-O Spatlese. The wine was a nice pairing for the selected dishes. In a perfect world, I probably would have ordered a Chateauneuf-de-Pape to have with the beef jerky, maybe another time.

Summer and I bit off more than we could chew, but have some nice leftovers for lunch today...just need to find a riesling to pair with them!

• 1990 Selbach-Oster Zeltinger Himmelreich Riesling Spätlese 92 Points

  Germany, Mosel Saar Ruwer

  Cork came out perfectly, and the bottles was in pristine shape. Color showed a bit of age, being golden yellow. Nose had complexity and depth to it with fresh linen, lively petrol, chalkdust, and a beautiful white floral component. The wine itself started off with very dense spiced apple flavors - reminiscent to me of sprinkling some cinnamon on top of some fresh apple sauce. Over the next hour, the wine developed a mineral streak and as it warmed up a honeyed pear tone grew. An impressive wine that was remarkably fresh showing only mild signs of maturity.

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