Austin Bush

writer/photographer

Instagram

#Repost @pawkhrua
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Coffee and a new book for breakfast! Pok Pok Noodles will be out May 21 but available for pre order now. Big shout out to the homies @bushaustin #jjgoode @ridingshotgunla @guarnaschelli @chefaz @jettila @krisyenbamroong @andyrichterofficial @chefdavidthompson and the whole @tenspeedpress team 🙏🙏🙏 Short Book tour coming in May;stay tuned for details.

This may not look like much — actually, it looks pretty gnarly — but it’s crab paste made by @khunnarata’s mom in Chiang Rai, and it’s delicious and arrived in time to be included in the pomelo salad at my pop-up dinner at Union Bar & Grill in Yangon next week! (For more on this intimidating ingredient, see my section on it in #thefoodofnorthernthailand.)

FANS OF CONDIMENTS: Get thee to Ruenton Coffee Shop, home of one of #Bangkok’s most famous destinations for Hainanese chicken rice. Honestly, I’d be happy w the rich rice and the vinegary/gingery condiment alone.

#Repost @unionbarandgrill ・・・
Get ready Yangon!
@bushaustin has spent years making connections with the home cooks, vendors, academics and chefs of northern Thailand in order to write and photograph his recently-released book, The Food of Northern Thailand.
We are excited to work with Austin to bring the flavours of Northern Thailand to Yangon for an exclusive one night Pop-Up here at Union Bar & Grill on March 23rd!
Think spicy, herbal, homemade sausages and pounded salads, crispy deep-fried snacks made with ingredients sourced by Austin, and crunchy, savoury, spicy dips made by aunties in remote villages in the north of Thailand.
Booking essential - email nikki@57below.com to reserve your table, or seat at the bar

#foodofnorthernthailand #austinbush #myanmar #yangon #popup #popupdinner #myanmore #lpfood #unionbarandgrillyangon

PEOPLE OF YANGON: After a long absence, I’ll be back in your city, this time doing a #thefoodofnorthernthailand-themed pop-up at Union Bar & Grill! Stop by on Saturday, March 23 for snacks and a set menu of dishes from northern Thailand. Deets to follow here soon — stay tuned!

How do you feel about scrawny, free-range Thai chickens, rubbed w salt and prickly ash, and deep-fried at a low temp until just short of dry (in a good way)? If you’re in Bangkok in April, we’ll be serving this modern classic from northern Thailand’s Nan Province at WTF. Stay tuned! #thefoodofnorthernthailand

Back at #Bangkok’s Chairoj, which on my first visit was one of the grumpiest restaurants I’ve been to, is now among the friendliest. This was due to meeting the owner, Wichit, who is keen to talk about the food his family has been serving for 80 years (60 in the current location). In addition to the staples of braised pork tongue and the mega tasty crispy catfish fried in curry paste, there was an omelet filled w minced pork; chicken-fried steak served as a salad w lettuce, onions, tomatoes and Worcestershire sauce; fish fried w Chinese celery; the house-made coconut ice cream, crowned w kernels of corn; and, of course, that mint green dining room. #thailand

Some of the recipes in #thefoodofnorthernthailand are pretty esoteric and complicated — I made a point of recording them exactly as they were made on the ground in northern Thailand. But others are actually relatively simple, and if you have access to a decent Asian supermarket, can be made just about anywhere! Easy starting points include the Shan-style pork belly curry from Mae Hong Son (p213); the pounded salad of young jackfruit, which as we learned at @saveurmag HQ in NYC does not suffer at all when made w bottled jackfruit (p138); the soup of yu choy greens, a northern Thai staple that’s among the easiest recipes in the book (p170); and the herbaceous, pleasantly oily and mega delicious chicken curry from Mae Hong Son (p210). 👩‍🍳 🔪 🇹🇭

A reminder that #thefoodofnorthernthailand is the featured title in this month’s @saveurmag Cookbook Club! Head to the group on Facebook, where I’ll be hanging around to answer questions and drool over the dishes being made by you guys (I’m looking at you, @ayanesfoodlife!).

For those of you cooking from #thefoodofnorthernthailand outside of northern Thailand, talented home cook and cool teen @ayanesfoodlife has informed me that makhwaen, the Sichuan pepper-like dried spice that features in quite a few of the recipes, is available at an Etsy shop called Samlor Spice Company (@samlorspicecompany)!

#Repost @saveurmag
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New Saveur Cookbook Club pick! This month, we're working our way through @bushaustin's The Food of Northern Thailand. The recipes show the deep traditional recipes and techniques from people all over the country's upper, mountainous half. You can join the #saveurcookbookclub or follow along via our Facebook group. Tap the link in our bio for our roundup of some tools and pantry items to get you cooking. #eattheworld

DOUBLE NOODS: The astoundingly tasty phat sii iw at Nay Lao — tender marinated pork, crunchy greens, just a hint of molasses and so much smoke I’m tasting it 20 mins later — and the raat naa — not so keen on gloopy broths, but a very good version. #Bangkok #Thailand

TV

March 02, 2008 in blog

Recently the Dutch television programme The Taste of Life was in Bangkok. I took them around town for a day, and even feature in part of the show! Apparently the video can be seen here, but I'm on the road and have yet to find a connection fast enough to accommodate streaming video. If you're blessed with amble bandwith take a look and let me know how silly I look.