1 / 2 cup loosely packed fresh cilantro
leaves, plus more for garnish
1 lime, cut into wedges- Make the candied peanuts: Combine
peanuts, granulated sugar, and 2 table-
spoons water in a small saucepan. Cook
over medium, stirring often, until peanuts
are lightly toasted and golden and syrup is
bubbly, very thick, and almost completely
evaporated, 5 to 7 minutes. Immediately
spread peanut mixture in an even layer on
a parchment paper–lined baking sheet.
Let cool completely, about 30 minutes.
Break apart to separate peanuts. - Make the dressing: Combine all dress-
ing ingredients in a small saucepan. Cook
over medium, stirring occasionally, just
until sugar is dissolved, 2 to 3 minutes.
Remove from heat, and let cool com-
pletely, about 30 minutes. - Make the fried onions: Heat 1^1 / 2 inches
of oil in a Dutch oven over medium to
300°F. Season onion slices with salt;
toss with cornstarch, shaking off excess.
Working in 2 batches, fry onions in hot oil,
stirring occasionally, until lightly browned
and crisp, 3 to 4 minutes. Transfer to a
baking sheet lined with paper towels to
drain. Season with salt to taste. Let cool
at least 5 minutes or up to 1 hour. - Assemble the salad: Toss together
green cabbage, red cabbage, basil, mint,
cilantro, candied peanuts, and half of the
fried onions in a large bowl. Add dressing,
and toss to coat. Top with remaining fried
onions; garnish with additional herbs.
Serve with lime wedges.
MAKE AHEAD Dressing can be made up to
3 days ahead and stored in an airtight
container in refrigerator.
NOTE Find palm sugar, tamarind
concentrate, and ground dried Thai chile
at Asian markets or on amazon.com.
CRUNCHY CABBAGE SALAD
WITH PEANUTS AND FISH
SAUCE DRESSING
ACTIVE 30 MIN; TOTAL 1 HR 20 MIN
SERVES 4Nick Bognar’s salad of fresh shredded
cabbage is a riot of flavors and textures.
The tangy, spicy dressing soaks into each
bite, which is punctuated with pops of
sweet crunch from the quick-candied pea-
nuts and bursts of freshness from fistfuls
of herbs.CANDIED PEANUTS
1 / 2 cup salted roasted peanuts
1 /^4 cup granulated sugar
2 Tbsp. water
DRESSING
1 / 3 cup palm sugar
1 / 4 cup fish sauce (such as Viet Huong
Three Crabs Brand)
1 Tbsp. water
1 tsp. tamarind concentrate (such as
Tamicon)
1 fresh red Thai chile, thinly sliced
(about^3 / 4 tsp.)
1 / 8 tsp. ground dried Thai chile (such
as Burma Spice Ground Thai Chili)
FRIED ONIONS
Grapeseed oil, for frying
1 small white onion, thinly sliced
lengthwise (about 2 cups)
1 / 4 tsp. kosher salt, plus more to taste
1 / 4 cup cornstarch
SALAD
4 cups shredded green cabbage
2 cups shredded red cabbage
1 cup loosely packed fresh Thai basil
leaves, plus more for garnish
1 / 2 cup loosely packed fresh mint
leaves, plus more for garnishT INDO, IN ST. LOUIS, you will
find Thai dishes next to a menu
of Japanese favorites, heavy
on the sushi. The chef, Nick
Bognar, understands that the
menu might not make sense at first. “I just want to
tell people, ‘Don’t try to put a box on it.’” It’s good
advice for a meal at Bognar’s table, where none of
the dishes are what you might expect. They’re a tes-
tament to Bognar’s maximalist cooking style, each
dish fully loaded with punches of spicy, fishy, salty,
sour, bitter, and umami flavors.
In Bognar’s hands, even something as basic as a
cabbage salad is packed with flavor, with crunchy
candied peanuts, lots of fresh herbs, and a lip-
smacking dressing that combines fish-sauce cara-
mel and tamarind with lots of lime juice and bits of
fiery Thai chile. His larb, a Thai minced meat salad,
is one of the most popular items on the menu. It’s a
riff on his grandmother’s recipe, where raw lamb is
turbocharged with a spice paste made from roasted
garlic, shallots, lemongrass, and galangal; the dish
is finished with a wallop of chile oil. In his crab
donabe rice, each grain, cooked in a Japanese clay
pot, arrives fatty and dripping with rich Dunge-
ness crab.
Bognar is also an obsessive when it comes to
constructing nigiri, something he does while expe-
diting in the kitchen. Though his family is Thai
American, Bognar fell in love with sushi early on,
spending a large part of his childhood at his mom’s
Japanese restaurant Nippon Tei, which he now co-
runs. (Bognar comes from a restaurant family;
his aunts also own restaurants around town.) His
sushi skills, honed and perfected through a year at
Austin’s Uchiko, followed by two years as an execu-
tive sushi chef in Cincinnati, come through in dishes
like the king trumpet mushroom nigiri, where local
mushrooms are scored and slow-cooked in oil until
they’re super-meaty and buttery, then seared until
caramelized and served on a perfect mound of rice.
There is nothing about Indo that is minimal, from
the technicolor bathroom wallpaper to Bognar’s
unapologetically bold cooking and full-throttle use
of salt, funk, and spice. The adage “less is more” loses
all meaning in his kitchen, and that is exactly how
Bognar likes it. He has one goal in mind: to serve
you food that will jolt your bones to the marrow
and have you coming back for more.A
the standard of living needs to
be better for kitchen staff.
i’d like to see us create
a new structure of
pay that spreads gratuity to
back-of-house staff in a more
balanced way. i feel that guests
may finally be ready for us to
charge for that.” —nick bognar