| Tasting Thailand |
| Written by Lainey Seyler |
| Friday, 29 May 2009 13:28 |
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In Thailand, they say the person who takes the last of something at a meal will have good luck in love. I was staring at the last slice of our spring roll appetizer, topped with savory-sweet plum sauce, and I wanted it for myself — sure, I could use some luck in love, but mainly, it was good — and you don’t get to be a restaurant reviewer living life as a casual eater. Stuffed with crisp cucumber and tofu, the steamed spring rolls at Blue Orchid in downtown Lincoln are lighter than typical Thai appetizers (here and in Thailand) but the plum sauce was spot on — the combination of which, I’d say, is the best you can get. The rest of Blue Orchid’s menu leans more to the fusion side than to the straight-up, neighborhood Thai restaurants that dot Omaha strip malls. And the restaurant’s décor is soothingly upscale, with a light green motif, several bronze Buddhas in various states of meditation and orchids at every table. The menu has the expected papaya salad and tom yum soup, as well as sections devoted to noodle dishes, curries and rice stir-fry, all running between $10 and $15. The signature entrees are a bit more American fusion and run between $13 and $19. The steak is served with cilantro and lime, and comes with edamame. The pacific medley includes salmon, a fish not eaten in Thailand, while the orange roughy is billed as a “flaky New Zealand filet.” Owner Malinee Kiatathikom has created a billing of American favorites made with the savory-spicy-sweet flavor combination for which Thai food is known. Kiatathikom opened Blue Orchid in the last week of 2005. Her husband, a computer professor at the University of Nebraska-Lincoln, owned a neighborhood Thai restaurant when they met in Chicago. The couple sold the restaurant when they moved to Lincoln. When Kiatathikom decided to re-enter the restaurant business, she wanted Blue Orchid to be a little more accessible to Lincoln residents, particularly in terms of affordability. Manager Matt Brown said she wanted students to be able to go to a nice restaurant, receive good service and not have to spend a fortune on meals. Brown said the restaurant’s most popular item is the pad thai. The noodle dish, a sort of national entrée of the Southeast Asian country, is served with clear rice noodles, egg, tofu, peanuts and cilantro with a choice of beef, pork, chicken, shrimp or seafood. The sauce is a savory-sweet brown sauce that comes out of Blue Orchid’s kitchen consistently good. Brown said customers rave the most about the panang curry, which is a smoky yellow curry served with jalapeno for a kick. On a recent visit, I ordered red pineapple curry. The dish comes neatly presented in a cutout half-pineapple. The black tiger prawns were crisp to the bite and the curry with minced pineapple perfectly demonstrates the Thai savory-spicy-sweet combo. When I lived in Thailand, I was a curry fanatic, particularly obsessed with green curry. I’ve tried curry at just about every Thai restaurant in Omaha and while not unimpressed or entirely dissatisfied, I had forgotten why I loved it so much, until I saw at Blue Orchid that every other Thai place I’d eaten at, in contrast, served its curry watered down. Orchid’s curry soup is substantive and not too spicy. In fact, all of Blue Orchid’s offerings come in pretty low on the spicy scale. For Lincolnites, talking about Blue Orchid may be like talking about The Upstream in Omaha — it’s obvious. But for Omahans, it might be worth the special trip. , Blue Orchid, 129 N. 10 St., Lincoln, is open for lunch Mon.-Sat., 11 a.m.-2 p.m. and for dinner from 5 p.m.-9:30 p.m. daily. Call 742.7250 for more information. |