Kah: Odd coupling makes good fit
Kah bartender Jennifer Yoon presides over a beautifully backlit bar.
A Japanese chef I know has a grudge against any restaurant that calls itself “Asian.” While all Asian cuisines are heavy on stir-frying and soups, the term didn’t mean anything in terms of spicing, she complained – it included cuisines as diverse as Thai and Japanese. Nobody, she sniffed, would suggest that those cuisines had anything to do with each other, or could be served in the same restaurant.
It has been a while since I heard her recite this particular diatribe, but I have a feeling that Kah in Manhattan Beach would set her off in grand style. It not only is called an “Asian lounge,” they serve Thai food and sushi, the very things she regarded as utterly incompatible. The aesthetics of the two are indeed very different. In Thailand, I was told that businessmen who are posted to Japan are regarded with sympathy because the food there is so bland compared to the spicy curries that they’re used to. I went to Kah interested in what kind of fusion could be going on here, and how it would work.
What I found wasn’t a fusion at all, but a restaurant that serves traditional Thai specialties and some very standard sushi items and appetizers – Americanized sushi rolls, gyozas, and miso soup. The question for me then was whether the Thai food here was going to have some Japanese influence (however that might be accomplished), whether it would be bland Americanized Thai, or whether tradition would dictate the flavors and presentation. In several visits, I found that it’s a mix – the flavors are authentic but with muted spicing as is usual for this cuisine outside a Thai neighborhood, but the cooking was solid and the presentations sometimes surprising.
The restaurant itself is very pretty, a cozy space with comfortable chairs, colored lighting, and small statues in alcoves above the bar. The sound is low and cool, as opposed to the throbbing beats that are laid down at many other lounges, and the tables are far enough apart that you’re not elbow-to-elbow with other diners.
We started with appetizers to get a feel for the menu – duck rolls, fried calamari in Thai sauce, and lamb sate’ skewers. Lamb is eaten mainly in the south of Thailand, where it is a ritual dish for Muslims, but the spicing on this lamb was the standard Bangkok-style rather than powerfully hot as is popular in the south. It was not remarkably different from standard beef sate’, but tasty. We preferred the calamari, which had been battered and flash-fried, tossed with a lightly spicy sweet-and-sour sauce and some green bell pepper slivers, then served over fried rice noodles. The noodles added a little extra crunch to a starter that had plenty of flavor, one I’d gladly order again.
Cross-cultural fusion appeared with the duck rolls, slivers of duck meat rolled with cucumber and scallions inside a flour tortilla. This isn’t too different from the flavor balance of traditional Peking duck, which is served with a puffy white steamed bun that has about as much character as a flour tortilla, but it’s an appealing presentation and easy to eat.
It was served with squirts of hoisin sauce and Chinese mustard for those who like things a bit hotter and sweeter, and though I liked playing with the sauces these were fine as they were.
We accompanied our starters with sips of Valckenberg Riesling, taking advantage of the unusually well-chosen wine list. Many Thai restaurants only offer oaky Chardonnays and full reds instead of the lighter, sweeter, and spicier wines that fit this cuisine. Champagne is good, Gewurztraminers and Sauvignon Blancs better, but I like Rieslings the best. At $24 the Valkenberg was reasonably priced and complemented things nicely.
For main courses we selected coconut-crusted sole, pad Thai, roasted duck, and khao gra pao – ground chicken with basil over rice, topped with a fried egg. Khao gra pao reminded me of lunches I had at roadside cafes all over Northern Thailand, with a dash of hot spices to raise the temperature a bit, but used moderately enough that the fresh flavor of basil and chicken isn’t lost. It was authentic in flavor but too mild, even though I had ordered it medium hot. When I mentioned this to my server, she apologized – she had failed to explain that the spice range here goes from medium to hot to very hot to Thai hot. I had therefore ordered mild when what I really wanted was, to use the most accurate word, medium.
(The word “medium” in English usually means between one thing and another, not at one end of a scale. I have been warned that if I start on that crusade for linguistic accuracy then I will eventually end up picketing all the coffee places with sizes ranging from large to grande, humungous, elephantine, or whatever other terminology they’re using. But I digress.)
We had made the same mistake with the sole, but it was still delicious, easily the highlight of the meal. Rather than being cut up before frying, it was a large filet served over rice and a very mild blend of vegetables and red curry — a beautiful presentation that was delicious. The fish had been fried perfectly crisp but not overdone and had a delicate cocoanut fragrance, and this item alone is a reason for visiting the restaurant. I’ll order the red curry spicier next time, but I’d definitely order it.
The pad Thai was tasty but standard, a bit underspiced even for something ordered mild, while the duck was unexpectedly non-Asian; it was a tasty, meaty duck breast nicely cooked and glazed with a lightly sweet sauce and served with steamed broccoli and a timbale of rice. Had I been served the same dish in a French restaurant I wouldn’t have blinked an eyelash. It was very good but not very Thai.
On other visits I have found Kah to have fine rad na noodles, green eggplant curry, and even a decent miso soup; one day I intend to try a sushi meal there, but it’s rarer to find good Thai in this area than good sushi, so I keep gravitating to the Thai part of the menu. Kah is successful at what they’re doing, a Thai restaurant that serves a few other things on the side and seems to do them all well, and has a nice wine and beer list to back up the mix. It’s a good fit for a location that has hosted several restaurants, and I hope they get the support they deserve.
Kah is at 1019 Manhattan Beach Boulevard in Manhattan Beach. Open daily for lunch and dinner, full bar, wheelchair access okay, parking lot. Some vegetarian items. Phone 310-545-4888. ER