Ah Ying

I didn't manage to find a whole lot of regional Thai food in the tiny riverfront town of Chiang Saen. Even the town's night market had the tired 'franchise' vendors selling the same dishes you'll find just about everywhere in Thailand nowadays. However the fact that cargo boats from Jinghong, in Yunnan province, dock at Chiang Saen meant that there were a couple interesting Chinese options. In particular, I had a great breakfast at Ah Ying, a family-run noodle joint located across the street from the Mekong River. I was pretty sure I was getting authentic Chinese-style noodles here because a) the entire family was speaking Chinese and b) the noodles were hand-pulled.

My order of a bowl of noodles got the two Chinese guys into action, grabbing a ball of dough and pulling, twisting and whacking it into shape:

Less than two minutes later the thin strands were dunked into boiling water, and were served with a light broth, a handful of greens, and very un-Thai topping of minced pork and pickled mustard cabbage that was equal parts spicy and sour. It alone was reason enough to go dine in Chiang Saen.

Ah Ying 778/1 Th Rimkhong, Chiang Saen, Chiang Rai 089 655 3468 7am-10pm

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Gratuitous khao soi image #2

This may look like just another bowl of beef khao soi, but they do things a bit differently at Khao Soi Islam, in Mae Sai. Rather than the typical yellow wheat and egg noodles, this version, which they call pa pa soi, employed thick noodles made from brown rice. The noodles were short and coarse, and had the texture and appearance of boiled taro, which is initially what I thought they were. Another interesting thing about this restaurant was that the owners, Thai Muslims of Chinese extraction, and staff communicated in a seemingly flawless mixture of Chinese, central Thai, northern Thai and Burmese.

Khao Soi Islam 140 Th Phahonyothin, Mae Sai, Chiang Rai 053 733 026 7am-5pm

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Breakfast in Burma

  While in Mae Sai I decided to sneak over the border for breakfast in Burma. Specifically, I was looking forward to eating a bowl of mohinga, the thick fish broth and rice noodle dish that's often considered the unofficial national dish of that country. After a morning of wandering, I eventually found my mohinga, but not before running into several other interesting things.

My search began in the town's hectic morning market:

I love fresh markets in Burma because they typically take place directly on the streets. The market just across the border in Mae Sai was in a dark, smelly building; better for protection from the rain, but far less photogenic and user friendly. Here virtually everything was stacked in neat piles on banana leaves out in the open.

After some wandering, I eventually found my mohinga, prepared at the stall shown at the top of this post. Although it may not look that attractive, it was good:

as it always is; Mohinga, like a hamburger (in my opinion, at least), is almost always good--never amazing and rarely bad.

It was getting later at this point, perfect time for a visit to another Burmese food fave of mine: a teashop. My first stop was at a Muslim teashop where I downed a glass of chai and two delicious slices of semolina cake:

My next tea stop was the popular, slightly more cosmopolitan Valentine:

where I had two more glasses and some greasy samosas:

Samosas, on the other hand, can often be pretty bad.

At this point I was feeling no little pride in the fact that I had successfully ordered the mohinga and all my teas in Burmese (essentially reaching the extent of my Burmese language skills). I was also reminded of the way the Burmese call the wait staff in restaurants: by making an annoying kissing sound.

On my way back to Thailand I came across yet another group of monks:

proving that, issues of food aside, things are pretty much the same on either side of the border.

Khao soi noi

  Despite the amazing diversity of food in this country, much of the street food in Thailand is actually quite homogeneous; the same brand of bamee (wheat and egg noodles), Chai Sii, can be found in just about any town or city; central Thai dishes such as phat thai or phat sii iw are prepared at the farthest extremities of the country; and it's become the exception rather than the norm to find regional dishes at night markets. Luckily, when I was recently in Mae Sai, Thailand's northernmost town, I encountered the exception in khao soi noi, a Shan dish that, according to the incredibly detailed information on the cart (I didn't manage to read all of it), has its origins in neighbouring Chiang Saen district. Although the name might suggest the famous northern curry noodle dish, it's entirely different, and is probably more similar to bánh cuốn, the Vietnamese freshly-steamed noodle.

The first step involves spreading a dab of rice flour batter on a small tin, which is then steamed so it solidifies in a thin layer. When this was done, the vendor then handed me the warm tin and asked me to add whatever seasonings I liked. With her help, I think I managed to add just about her entire arsenal: ground sesame, ground peanuts, lime juice, garlic oil, soy sauce, MSG, three kinds of chili paste and dried chili powder. She took my custom mixture, added a bit more rice flour batter, mixed the entire mess once more and topped it with an egg:

A pinch of vegetables (thinly-sliced cabbage and fresh chilies) was sprinkled on top before putting the tray back in the steam. It's worth pointing out that rather than somehow elevating it over steam as one would normally do, she simply let the dish float on rapidly boiling water:

It took about four minutes to steam each dish, and as seen above, her 'steamer' can only hold one dish at a time. This meant some very slow going, which I mentioned to her. 'Yes,' she said, 'you have to be patient to eat this dish!'

Eventually my khao soi noi was deemed ready and was served by folding it over on itself and topping it with a bit more of the cabbage mixture:

The result was something like a spicy Burmese pancake--eaten with chopsticks. I quite enjoyed it, particularly because I was aware that it was only in this particular town that I could eat this dish.

Khao Soi Noi Street vendor, Th Phahonyothin, Mae Sai, Chiang Rai 4-8pm

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Breakfast in Mae Salong

Mae Salong is a remote hilltop community of Chinese immigrants in Chiang Rai province. The majority of people who live here are the descendants of KMT fighters who, after the communist victory in 1949, fled to Burma and then Thailand. Despite having been away from China for so long, their culture is still very strong, and you'll hear the Yunanese dialect of Chinese spoken much more than Thai (those who can speak Thai tend to do it with a funny Chinese accent). It goes without saying then that Chinese food, in particular dishes from Yunnan province, are also big here.

One of the best places to sample local food is at the morning market. It's a tiny affair and starts early; it's best to get there before 7am.

Beakfast at Mae Salong's morning market means two things: soy milk and deep-fried fingers of dough (pictured at the top of this post). Unlike virtually every Thai person, I'm usually not a fan of this combo, but they were done so well here I had the same breakfast two days in a row. The paa thong kho (the Thai name for the deep-fried dough) were crispy without being oily, and the soy milk was thick and rich.

Other than shoppers, you'll find the daily parade of monks at the market:

and members of the various local hill tribes:

Another breakfast option, if you're a late riser, is a bowl of the town's excellent egg and wheat noodles:

They're topped with a mixture of thin slices of boiled pork, a homemade chili paste and deep-fried garlic. The dish is very popular and is available at several shops around town. This bowl was taken at a shop on the main stip called 'Yunanist Noodle Shop'.

Gratuitous khao soi image

To my surprise, it was actually a bit of a struggle to find khao soi in Chiang Rai. This bowl is from Phor Jai, apparently one of the more famous khao soi joints in town, but I found it mediocre; the broth was quite bland and I'm not a big fan of this particular type of deep-fried noodle topping. The pickled veggies were good though, and some might like the fact that user-friendly diced chicken breast was used, rather than the typical chicken leg.

Khao Soi Phor Jai Th Jet Yot, Chiang Rai 7am-4pm

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Paa Suk

  It's been far too long and I apologize. I've been working furiously on the next edition of Lonely Planet's Thailand, and simply haven't had the time to blog. I am in Chiang Rai at the moment, doing research for Thailand, and will do my best to share the food discoveries I've been making up here.

Guided by an old issue of the Thai-language food magazine Khrua, my first great food find here in Chiang Rai is a local noodle restaurant called Paa Suk.

The signature dish here is naam ngiaw, a thin broth (usually pork, but here they also do a beef version) flavoured with a local chili paste and tomatoes, typically served over fresh khanom jeen noodles ('northern spaghetti', if you will) . The pork version (pictured at the top of this post) was deliciously meaty, although I personally prefer the type served in Mae Hong Son that emphasizes sour tomatoes over meat. The dark cubes you see are coagulated blood, and the dish is served with sides of bean sprouts, pickled mustard cabbage and slices of lime.

They also do a very northern dish called khao kan jin:

This is rice that has been mixed with (again) blood, wrapped in a banana leaf, then steamed. The result is drizzled with garlic oil and served with fresh coriander, cucumber and green onion. Very nice, and you wouldn't know there was blood involved unless I told you.

The restaurant is currently being run by the third generation of the same family, and now they even have a branch on Soi 3, Th Silom, in Bangkok, which I'll be sure to investigate as soon as I get back.

Paa Suk Th Sankhongnoi, Chiang Rai 053 752 471 7am-3pm

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The Last Chinatown

After many, many visits to Bangkok's Chinatown in the last year, my seemingly aimless wanderings have culminated in this; beginning on December 6th, 15 of the images I captured there will be exhibited at Kathmandu, the Bangkok photography gallery owned by famed Thai photographer, Manit Sriwanichpoom. The official press release:

The Last Chinatown

A photographic exhibition by

Austin Bush

6 December 2008 – 25 January 2009

[Opening party on Sat 6 Dec at 6.30 - 9 pm]

American photographer Austin Bush spent a year exploring the back streets and main drags of Yaowarat, Bangkok's Chinatown. His cinematic images depict the realities and oddities of life in one of Bangkok's oldest neighbourhoods: the tiny alleyways with creepy old men and smoking teapots; the clacking of Chinese chess pieces and choppy conversations in Tae Chew; tired prostitutes and lotus bud-shaped coffins; bespectacled dogs and beggars. Unlike other Chinatowns around the world, which often seem little more than culturally-themed shopping centers, Bangkok's clings to its roots and continues to be a living, breathing, albeit gritty community.

Austin Bush

After graduating from the University of Oregon in 1999, Austin Bush received a scholarship to study Thai at Chiang Mai University, and has remained in Thailand ever since. Austin photographs for various publications and writes guidebooks for Lonely Planet. Samples of his work can be seen at www.austinbushphotography.com. This is his first photographic exhibition. Kathmandu is located on 87 Th Pan, virtually across the street from the Hindu temple on Th Silom (see map below). Additional details can be obtained at the Kathmandu website. I hope those of you in Bangkok who read this blog can all make it to the opening!

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Jay 2008

  Jay is the Chinese/Thai word for vegetarian, and from now until October 9th is the annual Ngaan Jay, Vegetarian Festival. To be honest though, it is quite possibly the most innacurately-named festival around. Although everything for sale in Thailand's various Chinese districts during this period is entirely meat free, you'll actually find very few, if any, actual vegetables. Just about everything is either some form of starch (noodles, rice, potatoes) or protein (soy).

In addition to a lack of vegetables, virtually everything is fried:

Another odd aspect of the festival is that Bangkok's entire Chinese community seems to collectively decide that it's not capable of cooking at home during the 10 days, and instead buys every meal 'to go' from a truly remarkable number of street stalls:

Nonetheless, if you're willing to brave the potentially detrimental health risks of the Vegetarian Festival, it's heaps of fun, and in Chinatown, everybody is involved. In Talat Mai, the main market alley, vendors who normally sell meat instead sell soy-based meat substitutes:

If you look closely, you'll see veggie ground pork, veggie scallops, and even veggie pork stomach and intestines!

Across the way, even Nay Uan, normally one of the meatiest stalls around, goes jay, serving up tofu, soy protein and mushrooms in place of pork offal:

Just next door, OK Phat Thai has ditched the epynomous dish and makes a variety of meat-free noodle stir-fries and vegtarian hoy jor:

But my favourite Vegetarian Festival dish is fried yellow wheat noodles, phat mee leuang:

Fried yes, but also one of the only dishes that actually includes vegetables.

Khanom tup tap

It's that time of year again: Thailand's annual Vegetarian Festival is in full swing, and as always, the best place to eat is the Chinatown area. Most people come for the various meat-free noodle and fried dishes, but I personally can't wait for khanom tup tap. This is an old-school snack made from peanuts, sugar and a bit of salt pounded into a flaky roll--via a pretty amazing process.

It all begins by cooking roasted peanuts in boiling syrup:

The resulting mixture, which resembles still-warm peanut brittle, is cooled then thoroughly blended by two men working wooden mallets. During the pounding, the peanut mixture is repeatedly folded onto itself, giving the dish the phyllo-like layers you can see in the first pic. The sound (tup tap, tup tap) made by the pounding is the origin of the snack's name:

The paste is then stretched out into a long thin sheet and is filled with even more ground peanuts, with the sheet serving as a wrapper of sorts. The whole lot melts together and the long tubes are cut into bite-sized pieces:

The result is simultaneously savoury, sweet and crispy, and is remarkably similar in taste and texture to the the American candy bar, Butterfinger. As Phil Lees can confirm, khanom tup tap are also incredibly addictive. Get your tup tap on from now until October 9th, at the shrine described below.

Available during Bangkok's annual Vegetarian Festival, late September/early October, at the Jo Sue Kong Shrine, Talat Noi (see map below).

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Uan Phochana

Kuay jap, a thick broth with deep-fried crispy pork, pork offal and thick noodles is not a dish I thought I would like. In general, I try to keep my meat consumption to a minium, and I like noodles well enough, but rarely crave them. However with kuay jap it's the broth that keeps drawing me back... The thick liquid is so laden with pepper that it's positively spicy.

Uan Phochana ('Fat Nutrition'--don't ask) is one of a couple very, very popular stalls in Bangkok's Chinatown selling this dish. Naay Uan ('Mr Fat', you sense a trend here?), just up the road, is probably more popular, but my latest discovery had a couple touches I really liked. There seems to be less emphasis on the offal at Uan Phochana (although it could be they just prepared it that way for the White Guy), the crispy pork could shatter a tooth, and the dish is served with tiny, crispy fingers of deep-fried dough:

But best of all, there's that pepper burn...

Uan Phochana (Google Maps link) Th Yaowarat 02 812 0640 6.30pm-4am

Sorndaeng

  I've eaten at many, if not most of the upscale Thai restaurants in Bangkok, and have rarely, if ever, had a good meal. Nothing I ate at these restaurants was necessarily bad--no hairs were found, no surly service, nothing rotten--but rather, the food left no impression whatsoever. The general phenomenon seems to be that the more you pay for Thai food, the less flavourful it is, and the more predictable the menu tends to be.

Exploring Banglamphu with friends on a recent Sunday, it didn't take us very long to realize that on Sunday, in Banglamphu, absolutely nothing is open. Luckily, a few days previously, I was reminded of an upscale Thai restaurant that I've always suspected might be different from the rest, so we made it up Th Dinso to Sorndaeng.

A sign out front claims that Sorndaeng has been around since 1957.  A glance into the dining room shows that very little appears to have changed in 51 years: the service staff dress like soldiers, there are doilys and frumpy furniture, live lounge music (appropriately, a mild version of 'Sukiyaki' was sung at one point), and of course that most telling sign of old-school Thai elitism, a table dominated by several big-haired, silk-wearing Thai-Chinese women:

A had been eating here since she was young, and suggested we order krathong thong:

'golden baskets' with a sweet/savoury filling.

I ordered lon kapi, a savoury 'dip' served with fresh vegetables and herbs:

and yam som oh, pomelo salad:

The former was a very good take on a dish that's somewhat hard to find, and the latter was simple but delicious, incorporating no more than five ingredients including deep-fried cashews, and if I remember correctly, roasted coconut.

A ordered fish maw fried with egg and bean sprouts:

a dish I didn't think I would like, but which was actually very nice, deliciously eggy and smokey, a lot like or suan.

P ordered mee krop, just to see how it would stand up to that of Chote Chitr:

It wasn't bad, but not nearly as rich, citrusy and complex as Chot Chitr's.

We had a couple other things as well, including a soup with duck and pickled lime, and the yummy crab-filled hor mok shown at the top of the post. Virtually every dish was excellent.

Sorndaeng also proved to be one of the few places I was actuallly inspired to order a dessert:

Mango and sticky rice--a Thai cliche, but still very nice, even if it wasn't peak mango season.

Finally: highly recommendable upscale Thai food.

Sorndaeng (Google Maps link) 78/2 Th Ratchadamnoen Klang 02 224 3088 10am-11pm

Free meal

If you're hungry, in Bangkok, and don't happen to have any money, I'd suggest stopping by Government House. At the moment there's a crazy party going on there with heaps of free nosh:

It's been said somewhere that you always end up paying for free things, and I reckon the cost here would be having to eat your free pork and sticky rice while being forced to listen to somebody screaming about the current Prime Minister must 'die'. I lost my appetite, which was really too bad, as the selection of food was pretty impressive: curries, stir-fries, an abundance of omelets, candy and buns. If you wait long enough, an expensive German car will inevitably pull up and and unload even more food:

And when you're full, there are lots of pleasant places to relax:

It's the hottest party in town. And it's all free. Details here.

Get cooking

It's been a while since I've featured any recipes on these pages, and unfortunately, I'm not sure when I'll get a chance to do that anytime soon. Luckily, thanks to Maytel, I was recently reminded of a couple good Thai recipes sites that I'd forgotten about along the way:

Appon's Thai Food features nearly 1,000 authentic and well-organized Thai food recipes, all put together by a native of Thailand. She even has short audio clips of her pronouncing the various dishes and ingredients. Very cool.

And Thai Food Tonight has a recipe page featuring videos (and recipes) of quite a wide spectrum of Thai dishes. The woman featured in the videos, Dim Geefay, previously hosted a Thai cooking programme on US television.

Phitsanulok, August 16, 2008

A Chinese temple in Phitsanulok. I like the colours and the reflection of light off the puddles and the bus.

Northern noodles

Noodles are ubiquitous across all of Thailand, but they often take slightly different forms depending on where in the country you are. I was surprised to find quite a few different kinds of noodles on my recent trip up north. Of course, there's the famous khao soi:

and khanom jeen:

Paa Pong, the restaurant above, is in Lampang and is only open Saturday and Sunday. You can easily identify the shop by the long row of bubbling curries, which are served over the fresh rice noodles.

Paa Pong (Google Maps link) 125 Th Talat Kao, Lampang 085 706 7748 7am-10pm, Sat-Sun

But there are also some relatively unknown noodle dishes up north. The bowl at the top of this post is from Kamphaeng Phet. They make their own bamee, wheat noodles at this restaurant, which were slightly thinner and firmer than those elsewhere. The dish combines several types of pork and is served with par-boiled sliced green beans and bean sprouts on the side. The 'dry' (served without broth) version was excellent, and included just enough oily broth to moisten the noodles.

Bamee Chakangrao (Google Maps link) Th Ratchadamnoen, Kamphaeng Phet 8:30am-3pm In Phitsaunlok, there are a few noodle restaurants known for their seating, rather than their food:

Known has kuaytiaw hoy khaa ('hanging leg' noodles), you sit on the floor with your feet hanging over the edge, all the while looking over the Nan River. The noodles aren't too exceptional, but it actually was a fun way to sit and eat. One of the better restaurants (but not the one shown above) was:

Rim Nan (Google Maps link) 5/4 Th Phaya Sua, Phitsanulok 081 379 3172 9am-4pm

Sukhothai is known for its noodles that, like those of Kamphaeng Phet, combine several variations on pork, including an optional pork crackling topping:

as well a slightly sweet broth with more par-boiled sliced green beans and ground peanuts. Sukhothai noodles are usually, but not always, served with rice, rather than wheat noodles.

Jay Hae, the popular restaurant where I had the above bowl, also fries the noodles in the form of 'old fashioned' phat thai:

Jay Hae (Google Maps link) Th Jarot Withithong, Sukhothai 05 561 1901 7am-4pm

Hot off the presses!

  In addition to the previously-mentioned writing work, I did the photos (but not the covers) to two new Lonely Planet guides, Phuket Encounter and Bangkok Encounter.

Buy them at Lonely Planet or Amazon.

Hot off the presses!

Several months' work has finally taken a tangible form. Lonely Planet's Bangkok, which I co-authored with Andrew Burke, and Thailand's Islands & Beaches, of which I wrote several chapters including Food, have finally been printed.

Buy them at Lonely Planet or Amazon.

Likay

A performer waiting to go onstage at a likay performance, Kamphaeng Phet.  

While in Kamphaeng Phet I was lucky enough to come across a performance of likay. Lucky because there's not a whole lot to do in Kamphaeng Phet and also because likay is incredibly photogenic. Likay is, (taking from the upcoming Lonely Planet Bangkok) 'a colourful mixture of folk and classical music, outrageous costumes, melodrama, slapstick comedy, sexual innuendo and sociopolitical commentary'. It's quite a bit like ngiw, the Chinese drama which I've shown here previously.

The light was very irregular and it was at night, so I shot everything at ISO 800, the first time I've really shot that high with any of my cameras. The results seem to have come out OK, with less noise than I expected, and I actually kinda like the contrasty, saturated look of the images. I didn't get too many pics of the actual performance, as I found the backstage action a lot more interesting.

Getting reading for a likay performance, Kamphaeng Phet.  

Musicians playing at a likay performance, Kamphaeng Phet.

Getting reading for a likay performance, Kamphaeng Phet.  

Performing and offstage at a likay performance, Kamphaeng Phet.  

Performers waiting to go onstage at a likay performance, Kamphaeng Phet.  

Getting reading for a likay performance, Kamphaeng Phet.  

Performers waiting to go onstage at a likay performance, Kamphaeng Phet.  

Lampang's evening market

I've been in northern Thailand for two weeks now, but Lampang is as far north as I've made it. As one goes further south within phaak nuea (northern Thailand), the language, culture and food become more like those of central Thailand, so Lampang was really my only chance to get my hands on good, authentic northern-style Thai food.

Luckily it's a pretty good place to do this. There aren't too many restaurant serving local food, but the city's night market is terrific, although everything is take-away only. Luckily the folks at Riverside Guest House were kind enough to let me use their dishes.

It was very wet when I was in Lampang, and the market had lots of rainy season goodies such as bamboo:

and mushrooms:

Typical of northern Thai markets are the pre-portioned bundles of veggies and herbs for the various soups and curries. The one below is to make kaeng khae, the famous northern Thai herb-laden soup:

This woman made one of the best kaeng hangleh (a Burmese-style pork curry) I've had:

And the pic at the top of the post? The chilies, garlic and shallots will be peeled then pounded up with fish sauce to make naam phrik num, the famous northern Thai chili 'dip'.