In case you haven’t heard, Pam Liberda’s got serious skills. The executive chef at Waldo Thai was nominated as one of last year’s James Beard Award’s Best Chefs in the Midwest, and her food continues to deliver. Every Wednesday, she churns out a new menu of delicious and inventive small plates that you’ll want to see, savor, and share.
“The idea of small plates began during the pandemic,” says Liberda. “I wanted people to come out to the restaurant, and I thought small plates would be something exciting and something new.” The curated menu is dine-in only and rotates each week, sometimes with returning favorites, and always featuring both traditional and inventive Thai flavors that stay true to the restaurant’s Northern Thai influences.
Last week’s menu featured Giaw Tord, a crawfish rangoon dish with cajun seasoning; Kanom Jeab, open-faced pork dumplings; and a wok-fried egg salad dish with watermelon radish called Yum Khai Do, but next week’s menu has yet to be released.
One of Liberda’s favorite small plates dishes is the Kow Klook Gapi, a fried jasmine rice dish with fermented shrimp paste, shallot, cucumber, Thai chili, goonchiang, mango, long bean, dried shrimp, and sweet pork candy. The dried shrimp brings a salty note to the dish, which mixes with the sweet pork candy for what bar manager Darrell Loo describes as “the perfect balance between sweet, sour, spicy, and savory.”
The Wednesday menus usually come together the week prior, and Liberda loves using them as an opportunity to introduce customers to dishes that might feel a little adventurous for the daily menu. “What’s fun about small plates is that every week is more exciting,” she says. “To see what we’ll bring to the table, what we come up with, and what we’ll use.”