Zaab Zaab

Isan, Thailand's northeast, cooks loud: sour, fiery, funky with fermented fish, built around sticky rice eaten by hand. Zaab Zaab opened in Elmhurst to feed the neighborhood's Thai community and ended up with a Michelin Bib Gourmand, a three-star New York Times review and a following that crosses the river for it. The original dining room is small and explosively colorful, and the heat is not adjusted for visitors unless you ask.

The house larb ped udon is the reason to come — minced duck with crisp skin and bits of liver, charred galangal, fried lime leaves, mint and lime. Add a som tum papaya salad pounded to order, crying tiger steak with its smoky dipping sauce, a fried whole fish, and a bamboo basket of sticky rice to mop it all up. If the table is big enough, a bubbling hot pot belongs in the middle.