Prince of Thais

Trannies, snakes and a seafood hotpot: These are the childhood memories of Erik M., the guy behind the Thai restaurant menu translations your foodie friends have been buzzing about. He didn't just stumble upon "secret" Thai-language menus on accident. He was looking for a fix, and what he got is a snowballing obsession.

It was a family trip to Thailand, and Erik was ten. He remembers strolling the night markets with his father, watching men strut in colorful dresses while the brave and poor locked themselves in cages with snakes "for easily impressed Americans' money. And I distinctly remember having a seafood hotpot that rocked my world," he recalls. "It's one of the best things, to this day, that I've ever eaten."

Plucked from the surreal sights and flavors, Erik (who goes by this alias on Internet message boards and prefers to remain anonymous) returned to his small western Illinois town. There he countered the typical Midwestern diet of meat and potatoes with meals at the only Thai restaurant in town, a spot he thought of as a "tease" because of its Americanized versions of the food he remembered.

College in Chicago was both a way out and a way in—out of the sticks and into a city teeming with Thai. Tagging along to restaurants with Thai-Americans he befriended, he searched for flavors that could hold a candle to his hotpot memories. "But it frustrated me that even my Thai friends couldn't read or write Thai. I couldn't believe it," he says. "They were ordering stuff like crab fried rice from English menus and I thought, 'I have to learn Thai so I can figure out how to get the good stuff.'"

So he got out of noodle-land and into what he calls "the rabbit hole of flavors."

Thai/English dictionary in hand, Erik started at TAC Quick Thai Kitchen, where he sat down with owner Andy Aroonrasameruang and painstakingly went through the Thai-language menu dish by dish, figuring out how translations worked. "First I thought it was a little bit strange and I couldn't figure out why this guy wanted to know Thai," Aroonrasameruang says. "But I got to know him, and he sincerely loves all things Thai, cooking, eating. He knows more about Thai food than some Thai people. I mean, he made a perfect curry powder with ingredients you can't even get here that he had sent to him from Thailand. Can you believe it?"

Erik bought a CD-ROM-and-workbook program, studying at night after the stock market closed and his day as a trader ended. Soon he was speaking Thai in restaurants and with friends' families; it took him about a year to learn to read Thai proficiently. It proved harder to convince some restaurant owners he approached that his intentions were good. "When I first went to Siam House and told them I wanted to borrow a copy of their menu so that I could translate it, they thought I was a spy from another restaurant," he laughs. "I talked to them in Thai and explained that my curiosity was genuine, it came from my heart and that I wanted to help their business by making these authentic dishes available to the American public, and they were all for it. But they still only gave me 15 minutes to run to Kinko's to copy the menu and bring it back."

At more than one of the restaurants he frequented, he came across a term that explained why the basil catfish on his table didn't resemble the basil catfish the Thai natives across the room were gobbling up. "Farang means foreigner—it's what we call anyone who isn't Thai," says Eddy Katekaew, owner of Yum Thai. "When the server tells the kitchen an order, the kitchen asks 'farang or Thai?' and if it's 'farang' the dish is made less spicy, and maybe without the shrimp paste or anchovy, things Americans think are too fishy."

But thanks to Erik's menu translations, those who crave that authentic "fishy" flavor or the heat of pungent Thai chilies can get it. "If farang order something from the Thai menu, the kitchen assumes they're Thai and will cook it the authentic way," Katekaew laughs. "If you want to be sure, just say, 'Make it exactly like you do in Thailand.'"

In his translator travels, Erik found Thai-language menus at almost a dozen Chicago restaurants, and in the last year he's deciphered six of them. He's put them up on his website, www.silapaahaan.com, and turned over photocopies of the finished product to the restaurants. "People walk in now and ask for the translated menu," says Kritsana Moungkeow, owner of Sticky Rice. "Americans are ordering pork leg, tendon and authentic Northern dishes of where I'm from that are hard to get."

Aroonrasameruang of TAC echoes owners from other spots on the translation trail like Spoon Thai and Aroy Thai, saying, "At first I never thought of putting these foods out for Americans, but Eric told me you're not supposed to have a secret menu, show it to American people, they want something different."

For Erik, his search for the flavors of that magical hotpot has fueled an obsessive hobby that his stomach doesn't want to end. "Knowing Thai, all of these barriers with these people evaporated," Erik says. "There's nothing that I can't get in these restaurants, and nothing that anyone can't get now. I tell the restaurant owners not to patronize customers by dumbing down the essence of what Thai food is. Chicago's ready for it."

EriK's picks

We asked Erik for his favorite dishes on the Americanized, or farang, menus for those just testing the waters, as well as the best from his Thai menu translations for more adventurous eaters.

TAC Quick Thai Kitchen,
3930 N Sheridan Rd between Dakin St and Irving Park Rd(773-327-5253).
Farang

• Yen ta fo (spicy, sweet seafoodnoodle soup)
• Kai tod (Thai-style fried chickenwith tamarind dipping sauce)

Thai

• Kra-phrao krawp khai yiaw mua(stir-fried minced chicken andcrispy holy basil leaves overpreserved eggs)
• Khao khaa muu (braised pork legon rice)
• Pha low (Chinese-style braisedpork belly with tofu and hardboiled egg)

Yum Thai,
7748 Madison St, Forest Park (708-366-8888).
Farang

• Beef garlic (marinated grilledbeef with lettuce and tangy,sweet dressing)
• Tom yum (soup with lemongrass,lime and chili)
• Catfish with basil

Thai

• Yam plaa duk fuu (hot and sweetsalad of deep-fried shreddedcatfish)
• Kaeng khua hawy khom savoury(mild red curry with Thai snails)
• Puu khem song khreuang (craband pork "dip" with crudites)

Spoon Thai,
4608 N Western Ave between Wilson and Eastwood Aves (773-769-1173).
Farang

• Yum hed (mushroom salad)
• Masaman curry (with peanuts,potatoes and beef)

Thai

• Tom khlong plaa chawn (spicy,herbaceous stew with mudfish)
• Naam phrik plaa thuu (shrimppaste "dip" with fried mackerelsand crudites)
• Naem khao thawt (house-made Thai "pressed ham" with crispy rice)

Sticky Rice,
4018 N Western Ave between Irving Park Rd and Cuyler Ave (773-588-0120).
Farang

• Northern Thai sausage (spicyfermented pork sausage withcurry paste and lemongrass)
• Kar nom jeen num ya (ricevermicelli with ground fish currysauce and crisp vegetables)
• Gang hung lay (Burmese-stylerich pork curry—no coconut milk)

Thai

• Phak bung fai daeng (stir-friedwater spinach with yellow beansauce)
• Phat kra-phrao khaa muu (stirfried pork leg with basil)
• Ehn tun (spicy beef tendon soup)

Aroy Thai,
4654 N Damen Ave between Eastwood and Leland Aves (773-275-8360).
Farang

• Basil duck
• Pad lad-na (pan-fried rice noodlein brown gravy with broccoli)

Thai

• Kaeng som plaa thawt (sour currywith crispy fish—no coconut milk)
• Laap khua (spicy Northern Thaistyle minced pork salad)
• Sup naw mai (pickled bambooshoot salad with roasted rice powder)

Siam House,
7742 N Milwaukee Ave, Niles (847-967-2390).
Farang

• Grilled chicken
• Yum pla krob (shredded fish saladwith lime juice and cilantro)

Thai

• Teuaw huan (pickled cabbage andpork offal in a light, sour broth)
• Pet kra-thiam phrik thai (specialrequest, "J.T.'s" roasted duckstir-fried with garlic)
• Phat phrik khing plaa duk fuu(spicy, crispy catfish stir-friedwith ginger and long beans)