Sala Thai, Bethesda, Montgomery County, Maryland

I met George Clover during my temporary assignment to the Justice Department’s Office of Legislative Affairs. We didn’t work closely together on any issue that I can recall, but we intersected in many policy meetings, and I always admired George’s thoughtfulness and ability to speak without an accent.

George is now General Counsel at the Center for Democracy and Technology.

We met at Sala Thai at 4828 Cordell Avenue in Bethesda’s restaurant-rich Woodmont Triangle.

Sala Thai has been around forever, or so it seems.

We both ordered lunch specials ($20), some flavorful spring rolls,

an entree, and a dessert. Here’s George’s Panang Curry (chicken in a peanut coconut curry with broccoli, and basil leaves),

and here’s my Pad Pik King (beef sautéed with string beans in chili paste).

As always with Thai food, the dishes were complex, but as is common, both dishes were under-seasoned — by Thai standards. That’s especially true when you order lunch specials, and I set my expectations accordingly. With Thai food the fiery element, which I enjoy, easily can overshadow other flavor elements and exceed the tolerance of most customers. If the dish drifts toward blandness, I often request hot sauce, as I did recently at EZ Thai, and where the four different sauces provided made a huge difference not only in terms of heat but the more important overall flavor of the dish.

That wasn’t at all necessary at Sala Thai. The food was very accesiible and tasted good, and I was having wonderful talk with George about his work and the much more interesting topic of children and family. George’s story of his son Grayson was a treat. As a student, Grayson went to China and while there, “without telling his parents,” traveled to Xinjiang. One of my “without telling his parents” was a college road trip to Fort Lauderdale during which I charged … a lot to my father’s credit card while missing a week of classes. Grayson went to learn more about the camps there in which countless Uyghurs are held as slaves. (You can find lists of major clothing brands made with slave labor, if you like.) I have to admit that Grayson’s escapade out-classed mine.

Oh! dessert. Sticky rice with mango.

That was a good dessert — light, sweet but not cloying, and refreshing.

But I digress. The usual “without telling his parents” college-years story involves “a really futile and stupid gesture.” But not always. Grayson’s trip produced an article that expanded into a book called Middle Country, An American Student Visits China’s Uyghur Prison-State. Wow! By the way, that link is to Amazon, but you can also order it through your local book store. Just a thought.

I really enjoyed our lunch. We didn’t exactly ask the restaurant to stretch its muscles, but the food was tasty. Sala Thai is a good place to go and catch up with a friend — especially a friend as interesting as George. You should call a friend you haven’t seen in a while. Arrange a lunch at Sala Thai.

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