Tac Quick, take 2: "secret" menu edition

This should be considered an addendum to my previous Tac Quick post.  A few of my wine folks gathered to explore the menu & pair it against many older Rieslings.  This made for a great night.

The Food
From multiple sources, I have seen mention of Tac Quick’s “secret Thai menu,” but never took the opportunity to explore it (somehow, even when taking a date of Thai descent).  We changed that on this trip, ordering many items from the “secret” menu that is actually posted and available on the front page of Tac Quick’s website.  Our group ordered several dishes, feeding 5 of us family style.  Nothing disappointed.  Crispy fried pork was a highlight, and river snails (pictured) provided chewy enjoyment to those of us who enjoy eating odd things.  Duck with noodles (Kuay Teaw Pet) was also excellent.  Once all said & done, I owed only $20 after tax and hearty tip.  For my wine group, this low tariff is unheard of--another reason that I am thankful to have Tac Quick within walking distance.

The Wine
Thai food and Riesling is a no-brainer; it‘s like milk & cookies or cheese & crackers--they just work.  Find a Riesling with a hint of sweetness & a Thai dish with a little heat and the results will be good.  This night brought many older (10+ year old) bottles, most with significant residual sugar, and all were great with the food.  I prefer my Riesling a bit on the leaner (less sweet) side and found the Austrian bottlings a bit more enjoyable than the German offerings, but there were no losers on this night.  If I began to think a wine was too sweet, I need only to add a bit more sauce to the food & the extra sugar then made perfect sense (yes, wine can give us permission to play with our food). 
Ask your local wine salesman for a Riesling with a touch of residual sugar.  They will most likely point you to a German bottle with a lot of strange words on it, but just trust it--especially if it says Spatlese (slightly sweet) or Auslese (a bit more sweet).  In Chicagoland the best place to start is Wine Discount Center on Elston.  There's a good German selection, and over the past 6 months they have had a glut of outstanding Austrian Rieslings at closeout prices (Prager & Hirtzberger being two fantastic producers).  Fear not the $11 bottle that was once $45--it’s legitimate and will give a peek into serious Riesling at a price where many wines are seriously lackluster.

The Whole
Go to Tac Quick and take a Riesling.  I’ll throw a bone & say that a nice beer (Half Acre Gossamer, Anchor Liberty) would be good too, but I hope you experience the balance between Thai food & Riesling.  Tac Quick remains the best Asian cuisine I’ve had in Chicago and I hope you get a chance to explore the “secret” menu alongside a nicely chilled Riesling, as I believe that anyone who does this will have a great dining experience.

2000 Franz Hirtzberger Riesling Smaragd Hochrain - Austria, Niederösterreich, Wachau (2/26/2010)
Opened cold, drank over several hours while it warmed & opened.
Nose of soft white peach, apricot, white floral tones, a hint of tangerine, and just a little underlying peach pit & a mineral tone. Up front this brings great, pure white tropical fruits that juicily transition to a finish that fans out with medium acid, full fruit flavors, medium acid, and a thin bit of stoniness. (91 pts.)


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(k)new

The Start
A friend and I separately saw “Inception” its opening weekend and decided we should see it again, together, to fully understand & discuss its twists (yes, it’s great and you too will want to see it multiple times). Planning to catch our repeat viewing on a Wednesday, I had in mind to visit Sweets & Savories for $10 burger night and walk to the Webster movie theater after. As I didn’t call until that evening, S&S was completely booked. A couple of Google searches for restaurants near the city’s northern theaters showed that (k)new, right around the corner from the theater on Western, offers a $20 three course prix-fixe dinner. Having been to (k)new once and enjoying the food (but I found it expensive that first trip), I decided to give this discounted menu a try.

The Place
As many may know, (k)new is an iteration from chef Omar Rodriquez’s first restaurant, Think. Anyone who visited Think (formerly in Wicker Park) will quickly recognize similar décor in (k)new (located in Logan Square). Medium lighting, light-colored walls, white tablecloths, candles, clean lines, and accents that integrate glass & natural wood. Sunlight filled the front half of the restaurant early in the evening, but after sundown the space began to dim and the feel is comfortably intimate.

The Food
My first trip to (k)new came with wine friends. In typical fashion, we ordered multiple appetizers, large main courses, and many desserts. I recall the appetizers being interesting but slightly disappointing; conservative serving sizes made it difficult to share. The venison rack I had was delicious--as were all desserts--but the price tag outmeasured the dining experience, and it took the $20 special to draw me back (entrees here typically cost $18-$32).
This latest trip kept me to this prix-fixe menu, which includes a soup or salad, any entrée that isn’t lamb/ venison/buffalo, and a choice of two desserts. I had spinach soup (very good, with crème fraiche & a shrimp waiting at the bottom), shrimp & lobster cavatappi (an excellent take on grown up mac & cheese; pictured below), and tried both desserts (I preferred the blood orange crème brulee). We were also given an amuse bouche of tuna ceviche, which was a fun way to wake up the palate. My friend enjoyed her salad & pumpkin-seed crusted fish, and preferred the brownie for dessert.

We both came out fulfilled & pleased with the food, but there was one drawback: service time. We were in the restaurant nearly 2 hours and didn’t make it to the movie. While we didn’t especially mind and didn’t make our time constraints known to the staff, I was surprised at the amount of time spent waiting for each course. Ours could have been a unique experience, but keep this in mind if planning an evening here.

The Wine
As I mentioned, my first trip to (k)new was with a wine group. We tasted through several Barolo wines with age on them. These were great with the red meat dishes we ordered. If planning to dine from the full menu, hearty Nebbiolo (Barolo, Barbaresco, Langhe) is a great choice. Ask your wine merchant for a bottling from a traditional producer, which should give you something with some nice leather and/or floral tones.
The prixe-fix menu is a different story.
The only prixe-fix entrée that calls for red wine is the duck dish; if you plan ahead for duck, bring a Pinot Noir--I recommend a New Zealand bottling if you want to spend <$20, 2008 Washington or 2007 Californian if you can swing >$25.
Otherwise, the prix-fixe menu is white wine territory. In my rush to make reservations, a quick scan of the menu pointed toward Chardonnay as a great choice. I selected one from New Zealand, which honestly was just a decent pairing with the meal. It was vibrant and tropical fruit-forward; I was hoping for something with greater (medium) weight & a gentle touch of oak. Learn from my experience: stick to Californian (or South American, if branching out) Chardonnay here; Calera’s base Chard bottling ($15) is a favorite of mine and would have been outstanding.

The Whole
While the service this night was slow and caused us to miss a second digestion of Inception, the degaustation at (k)new provided a night of interesting food & comfortable conversation (no need to either yell or whisper here; I appreciate being able to use my standard inside voice while dining). The $20 price tag for Wednesday’s prix-fixe menu is one of the best dining values I have come across and is highly recommended. Take a bottle of Chardonnay and prepare for interesting flavors mixed into familiar dishes--(k)new pleases on many fronts, and in a ranking of mid-week dining options, I’m convinced most will place it high on their list.


2008 Craggy Range Chardonnay Single Vineyard Kidnappers Vineyard - New Zealand, North Island, Hawkes Bay (7/21/2010)
This was driven by crisp white peach, some yellow pear, and a bit of canteloupe. It was rather crisp in the spectrum of Chardonnay, finishing vibrantly with good hints of tropical fruit and a bit of minerally verve. Med length finish, decent mouthfeel had some viscosity but didn't have noticeable density.

Part of me wishes this had some more weight to it, but regardless--still a very good wine. (85 pts.)


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