One of the most frequented restaurants in Incline Village with consistently well-prepared tasty dishes is located in the least conspicuous spot in the center of town, in the 7/11 shopping plaza on the corner of Village and Tahoe Boulevard. But, once you have eaten at “Thai Recipe” it might become a regular “hangout.”
The owner, multi-talented La Eard Chong, is as unique, as interesting, and as engaging as the food she serves. Born in Nakornsawan, Central Thailand, she came to America at the age of 19 to attend Eastern Oregon State College where she obtained both a B.S. and an M.S. degree in Social Science. In subsequent years, she earned her Ph. D. in higher education from Iowa State University. She returned to Thailand and taught at the university for 24 years.
But her years in America never left her, and upon retiring from teaching, she returned, settling in Reno. It was there that she managed her first restaurant, “Thai Lotus.” Two years later she opened “Thai Recipe” here in Incline Village, and just recently opened “Thai Jasmine” in Gardnerville. Last fall, her eldest son and his wife opened “Thai Delicacy” in the new Rock shopping Center on Brockway Road in Truckee. Her entire gifted and talented family, including her daughter-in-laws, often help her, so you never know when your waitress might also be a dentist.
As if the restaurants were not enough to keep this retired professor busy, late last year she produced an attractive, straightforward, and easy-to-follow cookbook “Thai Recipe 1, 2, 3” that you can purchase at the restaurant.
“I wrote this book to take the mystery out of Thai cooking,” Chong states. “I wanted people to appreciate how healthy, quick and easy it is to prepare. You can buy most, if not all of the ingredients at any grocery store, including the ones right here in town. And if there is something you cannot find, you can always come here and I can sell you what you need from the restaurant.”
She genuinely encourages folks to try cooking Thai food. But Chong also does more than that. She graciously has offered to explain any cooking technique or answer any question a cook might have while using the book. And, remembering that she has been in higher education for all her career, (and since I took her up on her offer), I might add that she is a wonderful teacher. I now can roll a mean and delicious spring roll like a pro!
The recipes in the book are the very ones she serves in the restaurant. She says that there are no secrets that she is holding back. If you taste it there, and want to make it at home, there is no problem. She promises that her recipes are simple to follow, and I can attest that she is right. The only two things that I would suggest is first, remember to keep stirring when you “stir fry” so that the ingredients do not burn as you are cooking on a hot flame, and second, that when using chili paste, don't immediately put in as much as the recipe calls for. Rather add it gradually and taste it as you incorporate it until it gets to the desired “heat” that you wish in your food. In the restaurant, they always ask you what degree of hotness you prefer, but the book cannot do that, so you must test it out for yourself!
This is a lovely addition to your kitchen bookshelf as well as to your cooking repertoire, and on nights when you are just too tired to cook, you can always hop over to Thai Recipe, Thai Delicacy or Thai Jasmine for some home cookin’ and let La Eared Chong and her family and staff cook for you!


Evil Jungle Recipe
(serves 4)
*Requires a wok or a large frying pan

Ingredients:
1/4 cup vegetable oil
1/2 cup soup broth
1 tsp. red chili paste
1 tbsp. coconut milk
1/4 cup aromatic ginger (krachai) finely chopped
1/2 cup each: sliced bamboo shoots, string beans, eggplant, young baby corn, asparagus, zucchini, broccoli, carrots and cabbage
2 kaffir lime leaves cut in half
1 tbsp. sugar
1 tbsp. oyster sauce

Method:
1. Begin by cutting the string beans and asparagus into 2” pieces. Cut the eggplant, broccoli and zucchini into 1” pieces. Carrots are sliced and the cabbage is roughly chopped.

2. Heat the oil (high heat) and stir fry the chili paste for 1 minute. Add all the vegetables including the soup broth and stir for 4 minutes until well coated.

3. The oyster sauce and sugar are added. Then reduce the heat. Place in a serving dish and top with coconut milk.



Heads Up from SNC
Poets, it is not too early to start preparing your poem!
Local poets will stand and deliver for a chance to take home the title of Tahoe Slam Poet of the Year at the Sierra Nevada College Poetry Slam on Friday, April 11, at 7 p.m. in the college’s Patterson Hall. Note: Competitors will be limited to the first 10 people to sign up (a change from last year’s Slam), so hopeful contestants should plan on arriving a minimum of 20 minutes before the event to sign up for a chance to compete. Judges will be chosen at random from the audience, and audience members are encouraged to participate Poets will be limited to a maximum of three minutes for their first utterance (just the poem, please; no long preambles!) First-, second-, and third-place winners will receive cash prizes.














Library Tip of the Week
From 4 to 5 p.m. on Tuesday, March 18, the Incline Library is offering an Easter Story Time and Party. Join the Incline Library for Easter stories and help find all of the treat-filled eggs hidden among our library books! All ages.

Literary Birthdays This Week
March 14 - Arthur William Edgar O”Shaughnessy (1844)
March 18 - John Updike (1932)
George Plimpton (1927)
March 19 - Phillip Roth (1933)
March 20 - Lois Lowry (1937)
Good Reads List
Adults (fiction): “Surfing: Women of the Waves” by Elizabeth Pepin and Linda Chase
Young Adult (ages 13-17): “The Ten-Cent Plague: The Great Comic Book Scare and How It Changed America” by David Hajdu
Juvenile (4th-6th grade): “Julie Black Belt” by Oliver Chen
Children (2nd-3rd grade): “365 Penguins” by Jean-Luc Fromental and Joelle Jolivet.