Orawin 'Nim' Yimchalam Greene and her husband Nathan Greene opened Thaihey NOLA.

Orawin 'Nim' Yimchalam Greene and her husband Nathan Greene opened Thaihey NOLA.

One bite of plahang tangmo is enough to make anybody feel like a king. And no wonder, the recipe for this sweet and savory watermelon salad offered as a starter at Thaihey NOLA was first created for the king of Thailand more than 100 years ago.

“Thailand is hot like New Orleans,” says chef Orawin Yimchalam Greene, who runs the recently opened restaurant at 308 Decatur St. with her husband Nathan Greene. “The cooks were always trying to please the king and the royal family, so they created this recipe.”

Orawin Greene tops squares of watermelon with a crumble of dried local catfish, sugar, salt and fried shallots — a mix of flavors and textures that must have filled the Thai monarch with glee. “It’s not something you see on many Thai menus,” she says.

308 Decatur St., (504) 354-8646; thaiheythaifood.com

Lunch and dinner Wed.-Sun.

Dine-in, outdoor seating and delivery available

Uncommon Thai dishes in the French Quarter

When she first opened Thaihey at the White Star Market on Government Street in Baton Rouge back in 2019, pad thai wasn’t on the menu. “But that’s what our customers wanted, so we put it on,” Nathan Greene recalls. “Baton Rouge customers tended to be conservative and ordered dishes they were familiar with. In New Orleans, we get a mix of tourists who have traveled and local foodies — it seems like everybody is a foodie here.”

The couple, who met in the San Francisco Bay area and married in 2017, moved to Louisiana to be closer to family after their daughter was born. Nathan Greene's sister and her husband live in Lafayette. Nathan Greene was doing government work, which was scarce in Lafayette, but an option in Baton Rouge. After the pandemic shuttered White Star Market, the couple moved to another location but set their sights on New Orleans.

“We’d met Jimmy Cho from Cho Thai and we became friends,” he says. “He has helped us every step of this transition.”

Orawin Greene grew up in the hospitality business, working in her mother’s restaurant in her hometown of Lopburi, north of Bangkok. She worked at hotels in Bangkok, spent time on Princess Cruises and then settled at the Ritz-Carlton in Half Moon Bay, California.

“I like to take traditional flavors and recipes and do something a little bit different,” she says.

Her green curry has a richly flavored coconut milk base. She serves it with grilled eggplant rounds, Louisiana crawfish and tri-color cheese tortellini, topped with flash-fried Thai basil. “I think New Orleans people like pasta, so instead of rice or noodles, I use tortellini,” she says.

Plump Louisiana frog legs are flavored with red curry spice, quickly dredged in seasoned cornstarch and fried, resulting in tender meat cloaked in crunch.

Thaihey’s version of drunken noodles is a spicy wonder — a stir fry of squid ink pasta topped with large Gulf shrimp and nibs of crispy bacon. The chef’s take on massaman curry is a marriage between Thai- and Indian-style curries. It bathes grilled rib-eye and potatoes in a fragrant brown sauce and is served with a bowl of cucumber, red onion and birds-eye chilis and rice topped with fried shallots.

One of the most unusual dishes is a mushroom and shrimp salad centered around a reconstituted tremella mushroom. The large, snow-white spongy fungus looks like something you’d see while snorkeling, but the spongy mushroom has a light, refreshing flavor and a texture a bit denser than glass noodles. It is the centerpiece of a plate with head-on shrimp, micro greens, red onions, tomatoes and fried shallots.

The menu also offers spicy oxtail soup, larb duck salad and crab fried rice. Northern Thai-style hunglay curry is a pork belly stew with peanuts and fresh ginger, but no coconut milk.

The small bar is stocked with wine, spirits and Thai and local beers. A row of large glass jars store whole spices and dried herbs for the chef’s creations.

The inviting space has exposed brick and is lined with subway tile that Orawin Greene painted herself (“I had time because of Ida,” she says). There is a scattering of tables inside and out.

The response has been good since the restaurant opened in late November, the couple says.

“Our neighbors have been so welcoming,” Nathan Greene says. “Everyone has stopped by to say hello.”

“New Orleans is my second home,” Orawin Greene adds. “People help each other, like in Thailand.”

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