as seen in Bangkok’s Chinatown. Any idea what this stall serves?

Incidentally,  I initially wrote ‘An unpacked street stall’ until I realised that the word unpacked literally means not packed, despite the fact that it’s commonly used to mean the exact opposite of this. If you’re not completely confused and desire more details on this odd linguistic phenomenon, go here.

As the painfully obvious name (’Phat Thai House’) suggests, this is indeed a phat thai restaurant, but there are no noodles in today’s post. Rather, walking by this tiny shophouse restaurant in Olde Bangkok, I was drawn to the vast array of ingredients used to make khao khluk kapi, rice cooked in shrimp paste and served with a vast array of toppings. This is one of my favourite Thai dishes, and as it seems to be little-known among visitors to Thailand, I’ve been working tirelessly to promote it, with previous mentions here, here and here.

And I’m lucky I decided to stop by, as Baan Phat Thai’s khao khluk kapi, pictured at the top of this post, is one of the better I’ve tasted. Here’s the proprietor assembling a dish, with the reflection of Sino-Portuguese shopfronts along Th Mahanop in the background:

Baan Phat Thai is a Muslim restaurant, so rather than muu waan (sweet pork), beef is used. Other ingredients include, starting at 12 o’clock and moving clockwise, a garlicky-salty-dried shrimp mixture similar to a dry sambal belacan; am omelet that has been sliced into thin strips; beef braised in palm sugar and fish sauce; thinly sliced long bean; lime; cucumber; sliced shallots; shredded sour mango. Whew. The rice itself was rich and savoury, and lacked the oil that many weaker versions of this dish have.

Excellent, and more incentive to try the phat thai on my next visit, I reckon.

And yes, I know exactly what you’re thinking, so here goes: a recipe for khao khluk kapi in Swedish.

Baan Phat Thai (Google Maps link)
105 Th Mahanop
9:30am-5pm

In reading Suthon Sukphisit’s excellent Cornucopia column, which runs every Saturday in the Bangkok Post, I was reminded of a Vietnamese market that takes place every Sunday morning off Th Samsen. Considering that my last few posts have been decidedly Vietnam-oriented, I figured a visit and a blog wouldn’t be out of place here and now.

The market unfolds in an area known locally as Baan Yuan (’Vietnam Town’) directly behind the St Francis Xavier Church. According to Suthon, the area has been inhabited by people of Vietnamese origin for more than 200 years. Other than the Catholic church, today there’s little to indicate that the area is any different from any other riverside community in Bangkok. However a close look at the neighbourhood’s Sunday market reveals its Vietnamese origins.

It’s a small market that appears to thrive on the after-service rush at about 10am or so:

A couple stalls sell ingredients imported from Vietnam or used exclusively in Vietnamese cooking:

including several varieties of muu yor, the ubiquitous steamed pork sausage, tiny baguettes from Nong Khai, jars of coarsely ground black pepper, and the rice noodles and rice paper wrappers used in various Vietnamese dishes.

If you come hungry there are also a few prepared dishes, including khao kriap paak mor, shown at the top of this post.  As mentioned previously, this dish takes a freshly-steamed noodle:

and fills it with a pork and herb mixture and serves it with a spicy/sour dipping sauce. A variation on this, known as ban daa, and previously mentioned here, takes the steamed noodle and puts it in a crispy rice cracker:

I liked the khao tom yuan, a thick fish (or chicken) based soup with round, squiggly noodles:

I also liked the khanom bueang yuan, the famous Vietnamese stuffed crepe:

although, in rather un-Vietnamese fashion the dish was served without fresh veggies and herbs.

Other dishes include deep-fried spring rolls, Vietnamese-style roast pig (unfortunately sold out when I arrived) and a shop at the middle of Soi 11 that appeared to sell some tasty-looking naem nueang.

Sunday Vietnamese Market (Google Maps link)
Samsen Soi 11-13 (located directly behind St Francis Xavier Church)
Sundays, 6-10am

Nong New, a stall in Bangkok’s Chinatown, specialises in a few dishes that you’re more than likely to run into in this part of town: birds’ nest and shark fin soup. I’ve had bird nest soup a couple times, and find it too sweet for my taste. And shark fin soup is a ridiculous dish that’s more superstition than cuisine. But there’s still reason to visit Nong New’s stall; he’s known for making some of the best phat mee hong kong, ‘Hong Kong-style fried noodles’, in the area:

This dish, which one could best describe as deliciously bland, combines thin round wheat noodles with exceedingly fresh and tasty shrimp, crab meat, chicken breast and dried mushrooms, not to mention a variety of sauces and flavourings, ranging from what looked like oyster sauce to Chinese dark vinegar.  Nong New (shown at the top of this post) takes great care in preparing his noodles, at times judiciously mixing the contents with a small metal spatula, and at other times simply grabbing the wok with a towel and tossing the ingredients in the air by hand. This results in a dish that’s not only balanced and delicious, but at 100B (about $2.50 US), also the most expensive mee phat hong kong in the area.

Having never been to Hong Kong, I was wondering if this dish, or something similar to it, can actually be found there?

Nong New (Google Maps link)
Th Yaowarat (across from Th Phadung Dao)
081 497 6125
6pm-late

Mukdahan is probably the least known and quietest of Thailand’s large cities located along the Mekong. Despite this, it had one of the region’s best night markets:

It was surprisingly large for such a small town, and despite being firmly rooted in rural northeastern Thailand, Vietnamese food was just about everywhere.

A couple stalls sold this previously unseen specialty:

Pig legs stuffed with a pork and mushroom mixture. Sliced into disks and served as an appetizer, it was deliciously rich and savoury, almost like a pate.

Another unique dish was ban daa, shown at the top of this post. The dish takes the steamed noodle I’ve mentioned previously, but mixes it with a beaten egg and slaps a crispy sesame-laden rice cracker on top:

Bizarre, but actually truly wonderful–crunchy, hot and soft–it’s a real texture experience. I’ve seen a similar dish elsewhere, but according to the vendor, the egg version is only available around Mukdahan.

Another stall sold naem nuang (Vietnamese: nem nướng):

skewers of grilled pork that are eaten wrapped in tiny squares of rice paper along with sour fruits, copious herbs and a sweet sauce. Far less meaty than those sold in Bangkok, the pork was also freshly grilled and still had that wonderfully smoky flavour.

See the entire photoset here.