By Lorraine and Phil Shapiro

Was everyone in Thailand a chef? Are they all naturally good cooks? With more than 200,000 Thai residents in Southern California, Thai restaurants are burgeoning, bringing a taste of home, but few have been as successful as Talesai.

An east-meets-west culinary oasis in West Hollywood, Talesai has maintained its outstanding reputation for 18 years thanks to the dedication of Prakas Yenbamroong and his 69-year mother, Vilai, their longtime chef. Her classical, yet innovative dishes are rooted in the fresh, seasonal cooking she learned from her mother, a chef in the Royal Thai palace. Chef Vilai also visits Thailand twice a year, discovering new ingredients and learning new ideas to keep Talesai’s menus exciting.

This year for the first time, Talesai offered a special dinner celebrating the Thai New Year on Sunday, April 16, at $75 per person. This holiday, known as Songkran for move or change place, is the day when the sun changes its position in the zodiac. It’s also called the Water Festival because Thai people believe water washes away bad luck in the coming year. For many, it’s Home Coming Day since families gather to celebrate together, much as Americans do on Thanksgiving and Christmas.

Focusing on the importance of family, especially parents and grandparents, scented water is symbolically poured over their hands, and gifts are given. The seniors in turn bless their loved ones, wishing them good luck and prosperity in the new year. Many observant Thais attended services and ceremonies at the Thai Temple in North Hollywood.

But no celebration would be complete without festive food and fine wine. Although wine is not part of the Thai culture, Talesai’s food and wine dinner was exceptional, perhaps because Vilai’s specialties are not highly seasoned and the wines are more complex than the usual sweet whites typically offered with Thai food. Their regular wine list also is well chosen.

Champagne such as G.H. Mumm’s Cordon Rouge NV goes well with finger foods of crisp shrimp chips with roasted Thai chili dip and Thai spring rolls with sweet plum sauce. Building on the current martini craze, Thai martinis of Belevedere vodka with lychee juice and lychee nuts also were offered. The martini menu lists seven classic to contemporary versions, from $7.50.

Crisp, dry 1997 Louis La Tour Pouilly Fuisse was matched with fried catfish with chili and lime sauce, set off by the freshness of Thai basil and mint. Pouilly Fuisse is a Thai favorite because many white wines don’t travel well, but premium wines have a better chance of arriving drinkable in Thailand. The 1998 Steele Pinot Blanc was paired with angel hair pasta and spicy crab sauce.

Platters of chicken curry in a light sauce, delicately-seasoned baby lambs chops and virtually fat-free mee krob were passed with berry-flavored, ruby 1998 Cline Zinfandel.

The clear lines between savory and sweet, so noticeable in the West, are not taken seriously here. Classic Thai pumpkin custard is not your standard Thanksgiving pie, but a mild squash custard topped with crisply fried onions masquerading as toasted coconut. Callaway Sweet Nancy was poured with dessert.

If you didn’t make it to the food and wine event, Talesai is known for fresh, artful food with layers of flavor-sugar sweet, nam pla salty, lime and tamarind-tangy, chile-hot, herbaceous with mint, basil and cilantro, even smoky. The fresh herbs contain the properties that they believe constitute the four elements-Earth, Water, Wind and Fire-that make up the human constitution.

Focusing on the delicacies from tropical Central Thailand, Talesai is known for its irresistible appetizer called Hidden Treasures. Shrimp, crab and squid cooked in chili coconut sauce with fragrant Thai basil arrive sizzling in earthernware cups topped by tiny pointed caps.

Just as Thai cuisine is an amalgam of Chinese, Indian, Indonesian and European influences, their menu offers both Thai dim sum with a spicy soy dip and chicken larb, a signature dish from Thailand’s rural northeastern region, flavored with lime juice, ground red chiles and roasted rice powder. New to the menu are spicy filet mignon satay with peanut sauce and cucumber relish and (unagi) Japanese fresh-water eel rolls. And main courses don’t flag after such an introduction. Heavenly duck, marinated in ginger and soy, steamed, then fried until crisp, is one of their specialties, Chilean seabass with ginger is another. Traditional soft rice noodles are sauteed with chicken or seafood and egg, topped with ground peanuts and bean sprouts for Pad Thai with its contrasting tastes and textures.

Fragrant curries of beef, chicken or pork, fired by aromatic pastes of dried red or fresh green chile, are balanced by coconut milk. Spicy dishes are listed, but you may request the degree of heat preferred. Other entrees such as salmon or tiger prawns may be ordered steamed, sauteed or grilled, served with its appropriate sauce.

Just as the food is a study in contrasts, Talesai, meaning desert plays up Southern California’s arid landscape, not your usual tropical motif. A garden of cactus and succulents in the greenhouse window of the main dining room is flanked by colorful paintings by noted Thai artist Kamol Tassananochalee. A second Talesai is a sleekly modern Studio City restaurant in black and white with mirrors and etched glass. Also, look for the new, more reasonably priced cafes soon to debut, offering some Talesai favorites.

Attracting a late dining crowd, the 70-seat West Hollywood locale is filled by eight o’clock, even on a weekday. The new beautiful brushed fossil bar seating eight is the first of its kind Thai martini and satay bar. An inviting area, separate from the dining room, it’s a nice place to relax before dinner.

Appetizers begin at $5.95, soup from $3.50, salads from $6.95, many entrees are $8.95, vegetarian dishes from $3.50.

The restaurant is open for lunch Monday through Friday from 11:30 a.m. to 2:30 p.m., dinner nightly from 6 to 10:30 p.m.

Talesai
9043 Sunset Boulevard
West Hollywood
(310) 275-9724