Renowned chef Thai Dang’s latest culinary venture is Crying Tiger, a new restaurant in River North with the traditions of Southeast Asian cuisine as the focus.
At Crying Tiger, which opened Tuesday, the blending of different cuisines and flavors — some even inspired by Pilsen’s Mexican community — is possible because of chef Dang’s own story.
“Coming from an immigrant family, and then to be part of this, is pretty wild,” Dang told the Sun-Times.
The 140-seat restaurant is a collaboration between Dang — who, with his wife, Danielle, is behind the award-winning HaiSous Vietnamese Kitchen in Pilsen — and Amarit Dulyapaibul, a managing partner with Lettuce Entertain You, the Chicago-based restaurant group.
“One of the dishes that I’m really excited about is this Hong Kong-style roast pork with the skin on,” Dang said.
The pork belly dish is served alongside garlic herb nước chấm, a dipping sauce made with fish sauce, sugar, chiles, lime juice and shallot.
According to Dang, the dish is inspired by his travels in China. But he also credits the carnitas at Carnitas Don Pedro, steps away from his Pilsen restaurant. He’ll buy their carnitas for staff when HaiSous is slammed.
“My love for carnitas is deep,” Dang said. “The pork belly is treated like Hong Kong-style, but we cook it like carnitas. Each piece is covered with its own tin foil.”
The pork belly takes 24 hours to prepare, first cooked at a very low temperature to render the fat. Then, Crying Tiger chefs crank up the heat as the skin starts breaking down to achieve a crispy, crunchy texture.
“You can hear it from across the room if someone’s eating this pork belly,” Dang said. “It’s Southeast Asia in one bite.”
Tour of Southeast Asia
Crying Tiger celebrates the flavors and ingredients commonly found in dishes throughout Vietnam, where Dang was born, and Thailand, where Dulyapaibul’s parents are from. But they didn’t stop there: Diners can enjoy dishes inspired by parts of India, China, Laos, Cambodia, Myanmar, Malaysia and beyond.
The menu is largely shareable, with items such as the prawn toast ($17), made with Chinese youtiao (deep-fried dough that’s similar to a churro), and sugarcane beef wrapped in chargrilled betel leaves ($18).
Entrees range from stir fry, curries, rice and noodle dishes to showstoppers such as the whole, grilled branzino with lemongrass ($58) or dry-aged ribeye that can feed four ($115). Pan-Asian sides of grilled roti, grilled sticky rice or and eggplant rice pancakes, known as bánh xèo, can complement the meal. For Crying Tiger’s take on bananas foster ($14), pastry chef Juan Gutiérrez, winner of the Netflix competition series “School of Chocolate,” crafted a mold shaped like a tiger’s head.
Even the restaurant’s interior demonstrates Dang and Dulyapaibul’s blending of ideas from abroad. The dramatic dining room features light fixtures inspired by Korean bojagi (colorful wrapping cloths for food or gifts), custom gates, handmade chandeliers and thousands of tiles and serving bowls made by Chicago ceramicist David Kim.
The restaurant is the first collaboration between Dang and Lettuce Entertain You, but he and the company go way back.
In 2009, renowned chef Laurent Gras invited Dang to join the team at L20 in Lincoln Park. The now-closed seafood restaurant was once awarded three Michelin stars.
Working there, Dang said, is “where I fell in love with Chicago.”
‘Living out my American dream’
Dang said his passion for food was born in part from watching his mother, Tin Thi Do, cook.
“You’ll hear a lot of stories about Asian Americans and the pressure of their parents wanting them to be doctors, engineers, surgeons,” Dang said. “But my mom, she never objected to me wanting to be a chef.”
As a child, Dang would come home from school each day to find notes left by his mother, reminding him to call her. He’d receive directions on how to prepare dinner for the whole family — after washing up and doing his homework, of course.
He recalls bringing his mom’s pre-made soups and stews to a boil before eagerly chopping up fresh herbs as the finishing touch.
“My love of cooking was probably embedded in me at that early age, and I had no idea of it,” Dang said.
Now 79, Dang’s mother tells him: “You’re living out my American dream.”