There is one place to order Chili Chili Duck in Mentor, and it's a favorite among spicy food arbiters of taste: Thai Orchid, 7329 Mentor Ave., in North Pointe plaza.
This stirfried duck with hot pepper, onion, mushroom, pineapple, tomato, scallion, red pepper and — a Thai staple — basil is priced at $6.95 for lunch and $12.50 for dinner. Not included in that price is the chance to say, "Give me the Chili Chili Duck."
The dish's spice, or hotness, has a two-pepper rating at lunch and three at dinner. That third pepper "will set tongue and lips tingling; the sensation lingers and spreads a hearty glow," states the menu.
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Owners, Payao and Lek, are proud of that glow.
"People, they know we can cook spicy," Payao said.
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A recent April review on yelp.com says, "This little strip-mall gem gets four stars automatically because when they say 'very spicy', they mean 'burn your face off.' And I like it hot."
Payao said one particular Kent State professor has come to Thai Orchid for the past 10 years, ordering the same spicy No. 17. In no place could I find numbered menu items, whether on the PDF version of the menu at thairorchidmentor.com or on the menu available at www.delivermefood.com, so it could be shop-speak. She said numbers 5, 8 and 10 were other spicy favorites.
Payao added that the people of Mentor are fond of Kao Ka Pao at lunch, which is a choice of pork, beef, chicken or shrimp sauteed with garlic, hot pepper, string bean, mushroom and fresh basil, served with a crispy fried egg on the side; this two-pepper dish is $6.75.
Curry favorites are green, yellow and red, all in coconut milk with bamboo shoot and various vegetables, from $6.50 to $7.25 depending on meat, with tofu ($6.25) an option.
There are many other items at this traditional Thai restaurant, like interesting, homemade soups: lemon grass shrimp ($3.95); chicken coconut ($3.75).
Prices during dinner can reach $15, but at lunch everything is under $10, most around $7.
Opened 17 years ago on Mayfield Road in Lyndhurst, Thai Orchid moved to Mentor after its original building's owner decided to turn it into an Aldi grocery store. It has pleased 87 percent of the 71 voters on urbanspoon.com in its four years in Mentor.