Zab Bite - Thai E-Sarn Cuisine

When I was dining at Bravo, I noticed Zab Bite across the street.  Honestly, I had some idea what the place was, but wasn't all that familiar.  I got to try the place out for brunch (that they no longer offer) where we tried a selection of their existing menu items as well as a few new ones.  Zab Bite focuses on E-Sarn cuisine which is native to the Northeastern part of Thailand, where most of the people are Laotian.  They are well known for their spicy and sour flavour profiles.

We had a bunch of items arrive at our table at the same time, but I'll talk about the Assorted Appetizers first.  The Veggie Spring Rolls were crunchy and the cabbage inside still had a bite.  Equally crunchy, the Shrimp Wrap featured a meaty and briny shrimp inside.  In the middle of the platter, we found Pork Jerky that was plenty pungent with the saltines of fish sauce.  They were chewy and meaty.  On the side, the Crispy Pork Toast featured not-overly-greasy toast.  On the top, there was a slice of pork that I found a bit chewy.  Nice aromatics from the sesame though.

Onto two more small plates, we had the E-Sarn Pork Roll. Similar to Vietnamese Chả Lụa, this was sliced and deep-fried.  The result was a crispy exterior giving way to a chewy and meaty interior.  This was served with a side of sriracha hot sauce.  One of my favourite items of the meal was the Jaew Chicken featuring a marinated and grilled boneless chicken thighs topped with toasted rice flour.  This chicken was so juicy and flavourful with a nice char on the outside.  The side of dipping sauce added spice, sweetness and acidity.

One of their newest dishes is the Thai Chicken Rice which is also known as Khao Man Gai (a variation of Hainanese Chicken).  The poached chicken thigh was fairly juicy and tender.  It was mildly fragrant and was accompanied by a spicy soy bean sauce.  Think along the lines of Nong's Khao Man Gai in Portland.  This sauce here was less gingery and sweet, but definitely more spicy.  It was good in its own way.  The rice firm and chewy (in a good way) while nicely seasoned.

We also had a soup that was a bit different than the usual Tom Yum and Tom Kha (which they do have on the menu too).  It was the Tom Zab that was a spicy-sour clear soup with mushroom, rice powder and dried-chili.  The flavour profile in this is representative of Northeastern Thai.  It was clean-tasting with notable tang and spice.  There was fragrance in the form of lemongrass, galangal and cilantro.  We added pork to the soup where it gave it more body.

Another popular Northern Thai and Laotian dish is Khao Soi.  We went for this with chicken in this case and it sat in a Thai coconut curry with egg noodles topped with crispy fried noodle, fresh shallots and lime wedge.  This was a pretty good version with aromatics and fragrance emanating from the coconutty and slightly spicy broth.  The noodles were al dente while the chicken drumsticks were tender and took on the flavour of the curry.  

My favourite dish of the meal was the Pad See Ew with stewed beef.  This was somewhat reminiscent of the one at Sen Pad Thai with its mung bean glass noodles.  There was good wok hei (a very hot wok with lots of BTUs) that added smokiness and caramelization to the dish.  The noodles were appealingly chewy and completely seasoned by the soy and the braising liquid for the tender nuggets of beef.   The gai lan were cooked enough but still crunchy.

To go with our meal, we had a few classic bevvies including the Fresh Young Coconut and Thai Milk Tea.  Beyond drinking the sweet coconut water, the coconut flesh was at its tender delicious best.  As for the milk tea, it was creamy and flavourful without being excessively sweet.  Onto dessert, we had the Mango Sticky Rice with a pandan-infused sticky rice.  It was topped off with a kanom dok jok or Thai lotus flower cookie.  This was a pretty solid version of the dessert with sticky rice that was aromatic topped with fresh sweet mango and coconut milk.  Overall, the food at Zab Bite was pretty good.  I particularly enjoyed the Tom Zab, Pad See Ew and Khao Soi.  They aren't open for brunch anymore, but you can still get these dishes for dinner!

*All food and beverages were complimentary for this blog post*

The Good:
- Generally solid eats
- Fairly reasonable-pricing
- Some Northern dishes that are different

The Bad:
- When the weather is warm, the A/C isn't sufficient