New Spring restaurant highlights lesser-known regional Thai food
Chef Miranda Loetkhamfu knows firsthand how a Thai restaurant can rely on staples like pad Thai and curries to fuel its success. Kin Dee, the Heights favorite she opened in the middle of the pandemic with friend and business partner Lukkaew Srasrisuwan, is thriving and expanding with other concepts.
With the grand opening of Four Region Thai Cuisine in Spring over the weekend, however, Loetkhamfu wanted to fulfill another mission: to introduce customers to dishes of her native Thailand with recipes not always found at similar restaurants in Houston.
“Different parts of Thailand have their own food many people don’t know about,” Loetkhamfu said. “I want to surprise people and show something new in my restaurant.”
In a city full of Asianowned businesses, Four Region Thai Cuisine, 8220 Louetta, joins a growing number of kitchens showcasing a wider breadth of cuisines, whether it’s Vietnamese, Japanese, Chinese or other Thai establishments, such as James Beard Award-winner Benchawan Jabthong Painter’s Street to Kitchen.
At Four Region, the menu has crowd favorites such as grilled beef skewers, various stir-fried noodles and coconut-laced curries.
But Loetkhamfu said her aim is to bring on more heat, chiles, fish sauce and a host of Thai spices and herbs in every dish.
“It’s OK to challenge people a little,” said Loetkhamfu, who was born in northern Thailand but grew up in the southern part, where she said the food packs more heat and is full of seafood options.
The Bangkok section of the menu features the more common dishes found at Thai restaurants: crab fried rice, curries, pad Thai and stir-fried vegetables for those with vegetarian diets.
Plates available in the “North” part of the menu don’t hold back on the Scoville scale. Khaw soi ga, a hearty soup with egg noodles swimming in a golden turmeric-tinged broth, and larb, a dish of stir-fried minced meat, are not uncommon at similar Thai restaurants.
But Loetkhamfu’s num ngeaw, a bowl of rice noodles dotted with fork-tender pork ribs swimming in a tomato-and-curry broth, is rare. She also added sah nuer, thinly sliced filet mignon doused in chile paste, because it’s her father’s favorite dish.
The dishes from the Northeast, which represent the Esan region, focus on salads and soups full of spices and fresh herbs thrown in.
For the South, two chilepacked curries are balanced with a more mild option, the moo hong, where cubes of fatty pork belly are slowly cooked in sweet soy sauce with spices like coriander and star anise.
A liquor license was approved last month, which allowed Loetkhamfu to serve cocktails that also incorporate Thai ingredients. A spin on gin and tonic includes peppercorns and cloves, while a rumbased drink includes lychee and coconut.
“There’s not a Thai restaurant like this in Spring,” said Loetkhamfu, when describing her menu, the dramatic wallpaper depicting Thai temples on one wall, fresh roses at each table and the blackand-gold plates.
Loetkhamfu moved to Houston in 2007, but she started off running a Thai massage business in River Oaks before opening Kin Dee in the Heights with her partners.
“There’s always room for more Thai food,” Loetkhamfu said.