Review: Rearn Thai in Clayton

There's a warm feeling at Rearn Thai, where a friendly family creates and serves some splendid Thai cuisine. They're quick to discuss degrees of fire in the cooking, willing to be adaptable and to adjust spicing to a customer's taste.

Mrs. Guru and I like the zing of hot peppers and ginger, the sweet-hot aura of lemon grass and tamarind that permeates many dishes. But given the routine communication problems between any two people when discussing taste, everything becomes a little more difficult when dealing with people of another language and, more important, another culture. Mrs. Guru and I have found that "somewhere between medium and hot" fills the bill most of the time, though we've also learned that "Indian medium" is sometimes as fiery as "hot" in a southeast Asian kitchen.

"Seven or eight on a 10-point scale" will often be a proper description, too, though after careful conversation with a server on one visit to the small Clayton establishment, I discovered, when I looked at the dinner check, that "hot" was the description next to the food order. It was good, but now I don't know how to describe spicing the next time I visit.

Oh, well. . . .

Rearn Thai is on a quiet Clayton street with two small dining rooms, one in front and one to the rear. The back room can be extremely private and peaceful. There's a little more noise up front, partly because of a small bar, partly because people ordering carryout stop there to pick up their orders. In either room, however, there's a feeling of calm, and it's extremely pleasant.

Dinner on several visits was tasty from start to finish, with dishes coming out of the kitchen still piping hot and with the flavors and aroma combining nicely. Rearn Thai produces four different curries, described as red, green or yellow for their colors, or as Panang for the city, home to that particular style. Green seems to be the most potent of the peppers, as in Mexican cuisine, and the yellow is quite tangy from turmeric, which adds the color, and other spices. There's a nice heat from pepper, too, and from coriander and other spices.

When you think curry, regardless of modifying regional adjective, think stew. Meat and vegetables and rice all blend together, and as is usual in soups and stews, it often tastes better and more rounded the next morning. Curries from India (even curries from different parts of India), Thailand and other southeast Asian kitchens are all different, but in general, if you can find the amount of spicing that suits, curry based on beef, pork, chicken, seafood or vegetables can make for a splendid meal.

Thai appetizers, familiar sights at cocktail parties all over town, include egg rolls and spring rolls (the latter are usually lighter), crab Rangoon and beef or chicken satay, strung out on a skewer and grilled over charcoal. Hoy Jor, or Thai semi-sweet sausage, stuffed with ground shrimp and pork, wrapped in a bean curd sheet and deep fried, is delicious, and plum sauce is ideal for dippimg. Tod Mun, which are Thai fish cakes with red curry and green beans, is another excellent dish, arriving with a spicy sauce.

Thom Yum soup, with lots of sweet straw mushrooms in a tangy chicken broth spiced with lemon grass and kaffir leaves, is an ideal warmer, and Thom Kha Kai, a soup based on coconut milk with the sweet-scented spicing that comes from lemon grass and galangal and is one of the high spots of Asian flavors, is another fine starter. Galangal, like ginger, is a rhizome (or root) that is used for seasoning.

Thai salads are outstanding, and as warmer weather nears, they make excellent additions to lunch or dinner. Som Tum, or papaya salad, brings tasty fresh papaya with tomatoes and crushed peanuts, a regular addition to Thai cuisine. The dressing has a heavy tang of lime that seems to surround the vegetables and add another dimension. It's usually on the spicy side, but that can be lessened with a polite request. Larb salads, with a meat or shrimp base involves mint leaves and some of the same lime juice dressing. Green onions are everywhere in Thai salads.

Pad Thai, with noodles, meat, vegetables and bean curd, topped with peanuts, is a traditional, not-overly spicy dish, and a good introduction to Thai cooking.

Mus-Mun curry, as Rearn Thai calls it, is probably a Thai pronunciation of Massaman (or Mussaman or Mussamun) curry itself perhaps an Asian pronunciation of Muslim, is quite hot, the peppers carried on a tide of coconut milk. Sweet potatoes bring a different flavor, too. Deep fried fish in a sweet and sour sauce is more on the Chinese scale of flavors, but Larb Pla Muk, or tender, almost sweet squid sauteed with mint leaves, onions and lime juice, comes out as a delicate, light, delightful entree.

Curried duck, seemingly in the Panang style, brought a tender sweet duck with a light, tangy, spicy but not incendiary sauce with kaffir leaves adding a flavor of their own.

Tea or Thai beer are fine accompaniments, and if it's mango season, and the superior fruit is offered as a dessert with sticky rice, go for it. It provides a perfect cap to a delicious meal.