Welcome to The Yum Factor! Last year at the Bryan Bugle, I maintained this food column, reviewing ethnic foods and local restaurants alike. This is a recurring column where I will review local restaurants and their culinary commodities.  

For this year’s first installment, I will be reviewing a restaurant in Naperville called Thai Medallion that specializes in the cuisine of Southern Thailand.

Southern Thai food is often spicier than dishes from other areas of the country. One of the restaurant’s most popular dishes is Khu Kling. As a lover of Thai cuisine who enjoys a wide array of dishes, I was surprised I had never heard of it before.

Khu Kling is a fairly basic dish, consisting of your choice of ground meat stir fried with green beans and Thai staples like kaffir, lime leaves, and lemongrass and served with rice (it is categorized as a “dry” curry). The result? A delicious dish that exemplifies the perfect Thai flavor.

Besides Khu Kling, I tasted a variety of menu items on my two trips there that are commonplace in Thai restaurants. The first of the appetizer I tried was the simple yet sensational dish Satay. Satay is a typical Southeastern Asian street food which is served at most Thai restaurants in America. At Thai Medallion, the dish consists of lightly curried grilled skewered chicken served with a side peanut sauce and a sweet cucumber salad. I have tried many versions of Satay, and I assure that you will not be disappointed with this one! The meat was perfectly grilled, savory, and tender. It was paired perfectly with the creamy sauce and the cooling taste of cucumbers.

The second dish I tried was another commonplace appetizer- spring rolls. They consist of rice paper filled with a variety of vegetables and other fillings and are served with tamarind sauce for dipping (most Thai restaurants serve them with plum sauce). Though they are not my favorite, due the nauseatingly sweet and strange sauce, the people I was with enjoyed them.

Another dish I commonly order from Thai Restaurants is Thai style fish cakes. They are a very interesting snack, served hot with some type of sweet and sour sauce. The texture and flavor of them at Thai Medallion was spot on— the characteristic chewiness and mildly spicy flavor that I love.

I tried several other dishes, including my favorite type of curry in any cuisine—Panang. Panang curry is a thick, creamy sauce made with peanut butter with a special paste that is cooked with a meat of your choice, bell peppers, kaffir, lime leaves, and green beans and served with rice. I chose beef that is traditionally served in Panang curry(in parts of Thailand with a non-Hindu/Buddhist population). Though the curry sauce had a good flavor and consistency, the green beans did not taste fresh. One thing that I did like was the portion, which was more than enough food for me. All of the other dishes my family ordered were good, and distinctly different than most other Thai food I am used to (many of the dishes I like such as Larb Kai are popular in Northeastern Thailand, or the Isaan region). The restaurant also serves many of my favorite recommendations such as Tom Yum noodle soup, Drunken noodles, Crying tiger (spicy beef salad), Shumai (shrimp dumplings), and Som Tum (shredded papaya salad).

My experience was satisfactory, with good service and a nice ambiance even though the restaurant had very few customers at the time. I would definitely recommend Thai Medallion to any lover of Thai cuisine that wants to try something new—I would especially recommend Khu Kling. My overall rating on “The Yum Scale”: 9/10