Shuls & Shpayz: Laos, by way of Thailand

Brotherhood Synagogue

28 Gramercy Park South, Gramercy

Zabb Elee

75 2nd Avenue, East Village

After taking a week off during Thanksgiving weekend, we resumed our adventures on the last day of November. This time we looked for a synagogue outside of the Upper East Side, and being that we all come from Conservative backgrounds, we picked the Brotherhood Synagogue in Gramercy as our destination, aside from its neat name and the fact that it was within walking distance of Neal’s apartment which we could use as a meeting place before going. For this outing, we were joined by Alisa, who would be a new addition for the week making our group go up to 4 in just 3 weeks! The temple was nice, not as old as some of the others in the city. So the synagogue was nice across the street from Gramercy Park, when we were inside listening to the president tell about upcoming events, she mentioned that they host the Gramercy Park menorah lighting ceremony for Hanukkah. After we joined the congregation in the basement function room for an oneg after the service that someone from the board of the synagogue came up to us and introduced herself and gave a brief overview of the place. It was nice that she had come up because no one did any such thing at institutions like Emanuel and Park Avenue. This is partly because it is a smaller congregation, and as a result we felt it to be the most comfortable/homey/familiar of the first 3 we attended. Although not officially a member of USCJ, the traditions here are very much similar to that of any other Conservative/unaffiliated/traditional/non-Orthodox shul. But unfortunately again we did not find the young crowd we were looking for. It was a pleasant service, and I would go back though not unless I was nearby. Afterwards, I had made reservations for us at Zabb Elee, an alternative Thai restaurant on 2^nd Avenue. Since there is no official Lao restaurant in NYC and the blog had visited a “pan-Asian” restaurant owned by Lao people who cooked their food especially for that one occasion, I wanted to try to find a place that at least served something similar to Lao food. Zabb Elee (pronounced “sahb ee-lee”) is a Thai restaurant in Jackson Heights in Queens that also has a new branch in the East Village. It is not the type of Thai restaurant like most and does not even serve Pad Thai. Instead they serve a style of food from the northern reaches of Thailand, near the border of Laos, an area known as Isan. Because there is a large Laotian population there, a lot of the food can be similar. So this restaurant was our best bet without a special occasion. The most well-known dish out of Laos is Larb or Laab which is basically a minced meat salad that has some resemblances to ceviche in its generous use of cilantro and lime juice. Since I like ceviche, I thought I’d like this dish. You can get it with beef, duck, chicken, or fish. A couple of us got it with duck which was recommended to be the best, I got mine with beef but unfortunately this restaurant has a reputation of having very spicy dishes, wherein “medium” can be still considered scorching hot. And these dishes were no exception, they had generous inclusions of chili powder. And since these are salads, the meat is not hot per se and this additionally unfortunately did not sit well with the group who basically likened it to eating a mush salad. Meryl reported that hers was so spicy she could not even tell the separate taste of the meat. Not until afterwards did I realize that I actually had had it before, at none other than seminal Thai restaurant Sri Pra Phai. As an appetizer one time eating with Mom and Grandma, I ordered it because the description sounded good (“W. fresh mint, dry chili and lime juice”), little did I know how lethal the dry chili really is. It was too spicy for them and I tried to get down as much as I could. So Larb was most definitely not a hit and after the lukewarm reception the German restaurant got the week before followed by this disaster (they still talk about it and hold me responsible), I was on the hook for the next week. I would go back to Zabb Elee especially as one location is right down the street here in Queens, but I would remember how spicy everything was and make sure not to order Larb. Sorry Laos!