New spice is right at Crown’s Long Chim Thai restaurant

TAKE the trip to Crown to try Long Chim, a blast of Thai that’s hot in the city.

IT’S ALMOST Feb 14, the day of hot dates and there’s no hotter table than Long Chim.

That’s not to say this bustling Thai canteen down at Crown is a place for first dates, loud and fun though it is.

Unless, of course, you’re comfortable exposing fears and sweating tears and dealing with early onset Ebola all while in getting-to-know-you mode. Because this is Thai, but not as Melbourne knows it.

David Thompson is the Bangkok-based, Sydney expat universally regarded as the world’s leading proponent of Thai cooking. He’s brought his rollickingly goodtime and unapologetically authentic take on street food home after wowing the world, first with his high-end Nahm in London and Bangkok (which is currently #37 on the World’s 50 Best list), and then with Long Chim, of which this is the fourth in a family that already includes Singapore, Perth and Sydney.

Long Chim.

While there’s a bold love of chilli and spice throughout the menu, this is not dumb dare food, the Scoville scale dialled up just for Jackass giggles. And there are many dishes on the menu for the chilli adverse.

Such as a wonderfully elegant fried rice tossed through tender-fleshed roast duck, served with a green chilli and fish sauce dressing to the side ($28), or excellent chive cakes ($18), the dough fried crisp and filled with a bright vegetal mix that the garlicky, chilli, soy sauce they’re served in complements with class.

A bowl of charred noodles – a tangle of dark, chewy flavour, have tender curls of squid tentacles, tiny dried fried prawns, chunks of chicken and loads of eggy goodness – is a delight. Coriander adds a splash of green, a saucer of sriracha sauce provided to season to taste ($32). It’s one of more than a dozen dishes that can be eaten solo, though most will likely do what we did and share the lot.

Long Chim.

Fish cakes are dense nuggets of dancing, tingling heat which the cucumber relish atop quells with subtle ease ($24, pictured above).

Dishes such as the green papaya salad turn up the volume, but for all its fish sauced, scud chilli power, such touches as a rainbow of smashed heirloom tomatoes along with the raw crunchy beans, elevate a classic into excellent ($25).

Looking like obese peas, tiny Thai eggplants add bitter crunch to the green chicken curry, a paste of lemongrass and galangal (and much more besides) adds heft to the tender bird swimming in its coconut-slicked pool. It’s benchmark brilliant ($34).

Across the meal, heat is ever-present and assertive but never boorish, making its argument persuasively and positively, with layered nuance and style. Think of it as the Obama rather than the Trump of spice diplomacy. It’s masterful.

Chiang Mai-style chicken larb.

Case in point: the Chiang Mai-style larb, where fried Kaffir lime leaves and crunchy garlic skins add fragrance to finely chopped chicken. An astonishing amount of pepper provides the first back-of-throat tickle that gives the baseline to chilli heat that keeps on building to the point where I’m sweating under my eyes. It’s heart-racing, vision-blurring, bowel-bending stuff.

I reckon the mildly mannered, unassuming chef must have a wicked sense of humour, for the playlist during this meal veered from The Weeknd (“I can’t feel my face when I’m with you”) through Lenny Kravitz (“So much pain inside, it ain’t over till it’s over”).

Cocktails come with boozy kick – the Thai basil smash equally hot, cool and refreshing, $22 – while wines are well chosen to put out the fires, with lots of riesling, acid-fresh fruity blends and pinot on the short list, though you’re looking at upwards of $55 a bottle. Chang and Singha ($10) are two themed beers on an otherwise crafty collection.

It’s loud, bustling and two kitchens keep the food coming fast. The large doors concertina open to the outside, where stool seating keeps it casual,

I like the authentic street vibe they’re going for – this is the most unCrown Crown restaurant – but I’m not sold on the cutlery tins and paper napkins when you’re looking at $34 for a pad thai, and not pouring wines by the glass at the table is a should-know-better shortcut in service from bar staff. Otherwise, the mainly Thai team is fast, friendly and knowledgeable.

Long Chim.

So yes, you’re paying for the privilege of food you can’t get elsewhere – including durian ice cream. Sure, a dessert that tastes like you packed a picnic bag with mangoes and brie and then left it in the car for a week in Feb won’t be to everyone’s taste, but it’s a must-try ($14).

Otherwise, there’s crisp-fried roti filled with soft fragrant banana drizzled in syrupy condensed milk ($16), or the restrained coconut cake to finish ($12).

There is nothing like Long Chim in Melbourne. Book a hot date.

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Long Chim

Crown Riverwalk, Southbank

Ph: 8582 3083

crownmelbourne.com.au

Open: Lunch and dinner daily

Go-to dish: Charred noodles

Rating: 15.5/20