Tui Dubois at her restaurant Asian Combo in Biddeford. Brianna Soukup/Staff Photographer A note to the 30-something couple sipping orange-ombré Thai iced tea ($4.50) at Asian Combo last week: Thanks for the earworm.
Since I stopped by this converted residential home on Biddeford’s Pool Street, I haven’t been able to get your new, improvised lyrics to a B-52s’ hit song out of my head. Allow me to paraphrase: “If you see a neon sign at the side of the road/ It says ‘Bubble Tea’ at the Laab Shack!” I groaned when I heard the pun the first time, as I sat nearby, nursing my own malty, purple-tinted taro milk tea ($5.50) and chewing on springy crystal boba (not my favorite; I prefer the dense, fudgy and opaque cassava pearls).
But who am I kidding? It was funny. I just wish I could think about this new Southeast Asian restaurant and not hear Fred Schneider’s voice in my head. That my memories of Asian Combo are so intertwined with a song says something important about my dining experience.
Had all the dishes I tasted at this casual, counter-service restaurant been knockouts, I suspect the food would be my most vivid memory of my midweek trip to Biddeford. Instead, I remember a confusing meal ordered from a menu of Laotian, Thai and Vietnamese dishes, along with a few Japanese and Chinese American plates thrown in for good measure. Calamari basil with rice, left; pho, right; and crispy pad thai with tofu, bottom center, at Asian Combo.
Brianna Soukup/Staff Photogra.
