Oliang

Review

Café Nam Prik

It's a bold claim, of course, but Thai cuisine is one of the best in the world. Why? Because of the balance between sweetness, spiciness and acidity, between freshness and umami, between crunchiness and softness. And because the melange of lemongrass, ginger, kaffir lime, chilli, Thai basil and coriander is one of the ultimate combinations of flavors, just like tomatoes, parmesan and rosemary or onions, bacon and potatoes or apples, breadcrumbs and cinnamon. Tragically, for decades Vienna's Thai cuisine was limited to standards such as coconut curry in red, yellow and green, pad thai, tom yam and papaya salad, but it wasn't until Es gibt Reis (2015), Mamamon (2016) and All Reis (2018) that things finally started to go deeper in terms of flavor.
Ms. Nisachon Suwantha and Mr. Kunanon Lertyaso from All Reis took a particularly bold approach - no wonder, they have been running Talad Thai, the best Thai store in the country, for years. Because the small restaurant was so good and always quite full (and in Vienna people like to stay seated in a street food restaurant even though they have long since finished their food and others are waiting for their table), they took over an old espresso right next door in order to break through and expand. Good thinking, but these are two different places with two different owners, so unfortunately no. The All Reis people could have simply turned it into a clone, but they didn't. Instead, they surprised us once again: the Espresso stayed and became a place for Thai coffee, which you can get either as an espresso (you can save it) or as an "oliang", a kind of iced coffee. There's also "khanom", sweet street food, and Thai snacks, which you won't find anywhere else in Vienna. Among the things that we can also understand as "sweets" are piakpoon, small green pandang puddings (5 pieces € 4.20), or the coconut cookies baabin (4 pieces € 3.90). Things get a little more exotic with khrok, small, delicately sweet coconut milk pancakes filled with corn and spring onions (6 pcs. € 4.80), and then really take off with tokiao: sweet pancakes covered in a crispy second pancake filled with sausage and minced meat. And, surprise surprise, it's not bad at all (3 pieces € 4.50). And you can even get addicted to jok - a rice gruel à la congee - the legendarily tasteless diet dish is filled with Thai spices and meatballs. And if it's not sweet enough for you, there's an extra sugar sachet (€ 4.50). In summary: coffee from a country where you don't even know they have coffee. And something sweet that we've never eaten before. At least not on purpose.

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