When a restaurant throws down a chili-laced gauntlet with the title, “Can you take the heat?” most people expect to be crying by the end of the meal. Andy Yang, Rhong-Tiam’s executive chef, has issued just such a challenge.
Yang’s three-month old West Village Thai spot is offering a special tasting menu, which gets progressively hotter, through April 15. The prize for eating every last spicy morsel is dinner for two at his upcoming East Village eatery, Kurve. Yang provides diners with “Just a small glass of water. Otherwise it would be too easy.”
To prove he’s not a sadistic chef he quickly adds, “At the end I’ll give you one beer to drink. This will kill all the spices.”
A recent preview of the challenge was spicy, but not painfully so. That said, everything was delicious and the dishes did get progressively hotter. The meal started with a Bangkok-style tom yum. Most versions of this soup are clear, Yang’s is milky and red thanks to hours of cooking and a liberal dose of chili paste. It teems with shrimp, bits of tomato and mushrooms. It might make you feel a bit flushed, but it’s no palate blaster. Next up was a bright, crunchy papaya salad shot through with fresh peppers and raw garlic. By the end of this, the tip of your tongue may start burning.
The last dish, Southern Style Chicken, was the spiciest. Just look at all that angry red oil from the homemade chili paste. There’s a reason it’s served it with sticky rice: The first bite will blow your doors off and leave you reaching for the straw container. As any experienced chilihead knows, if you keep eating, the heat level eventually reaches a plateau. Of course the other reason to keep eating is that alternating bites of rice with the spicy chicken singing with galangal, lemongrass, and kaffir lime leaves is simply wonderful. Yang has fond memories of eating it as a kid in Bangkok. Its Thai name, kor kling gai, or wok-rolling chicken derives from rolling the gai around the kor.
When asked why the dishes weren’t spicier, Yang points out he “wants people to be able to taste all the ingredients.” While that may be true, unless he's planning to pack the house at Kurve’s opening party next month with Rhong-Tiam winners, he’d better up the Scoville units. And just where does Yang go for something so spicy it makes his hair stand on end? He likes to hit up San Loco for a taste of its legendary Stupid Sauce.
Rhong-Tiam, 541 La Guardia Pl., 212-477-0600
