Four Seasons Bangkok WGF10: Behind the scenes

David Thompson and Ning Najpinij of Khao Cooking School preparing for Thompson's dinner at the Four Seasons Bangkok's World Gourmet Festival.

In addition to taking part in and blogging about this year's Four Seasons Bangkok World Gourmet Festival, I also got the opportunity to put on the whites and spend a couple afternoons in the kitchen, lending a hand to prepare David Thompson's Thai meals.

This meant the unique opportunity to share a kitchen with chefs such as Thompson and Christine Manfield, not to mention the pleasure of working with the Four Season's talented and amazingly hospitable kitchen staff:

As I believe I run a risk of exaggerating my part in all of this, let me make it clear that my role was strictly that of kitchen slave (Thompson's term, not mine). My contribution was limited to such technically advanced tasks as arranging quail eggs on a platter, peeling grilled chilies and stirring very heavy pots:

A crappy iPhone pic of me, pitching in to make Thai sweets for David Thompson's dinner at the Four Seasons Bangkok's World Gourmet Festival

It was only on the second day that I was allowed to touch a knife (with it I clumsily and slowly scored several kilos of squid), but over the two days I was able to see how several dishes were made, taste heaps of interesting food and provide input on their taste, and generally see what goes on inside the kitchen of a high-level restaurant. It was a fun and revealing experience. I've worked in a few kitchens since I was a teenager, but it's been a very long time since those days, and I'd forgotten how physically difficult it can be to stand for hours on end, just how hot kitchens are, and the risk that fingers constantly face from lazy knife work, scalding hot liquids, searing chilies and the enduring odour of squid.

Four Seasons Bangkok WGF10: Christine Manfield

I'll let you in on a little secret: Of the chefs assembled here for the Four Seasons Bangkok World Gourmet Festival, Chef Christine Manfield is easily the loveliest. And up to this point at least, I reckon that her dinner has been the tastiest. But more on that in a minute.

Manfield, a native of Australia whose current outpost is the Sydney restaurant Universal, is a longstanding proponent of drawing tastes and flavours from disparate cuisines. I spent a bit of time in her kitchen leading up to her dinner (more on that to come soon) and was blown away by the diversity of ingredients she was using. Some of her vegetables seemed most likely to be bound for David Thompson's Thai meal, while some of the spices she used made the kitchen smell as if we were in Tunis or Marrakesh.

Previous to Thursday night's dinner, I had the opportunity to chat with Manfield about Australian cuisine, writing, her eclectic palate and love of travel, excerpts of which are below:

AB: In talking with Australians, I often get the impression that Asian food is perceived as an essential part of what people today consider Australian Cuisine. Would you say that this is accurate? CM: Absolutely. Because there were so many Chinese miners in the past, every tinpot town in Australia has a Chinese restaurant. The food wasn't always good, but it's always been with us. The shift happened over the last 20 years, and was a result of immigration and the fact that so many Australians travel. We've become used to this diversity, and now are even starting to appreciate the regional differences in Asian food.

AB: Do you plan to incorporate any Thai flavours or ingredients while here in Bangkok? CM: Half of my repertoire stems from Thai food -- fish sauce is my salt. When I was in London, we used to get excellent Thai ingredients. In Australia it's more limited as we're on island and there are lots of restrictions. When I'm here I like to use palm sugar, it's like caramel. Som saa, which is like lime, orange and kaffir lime combined, is another I like to use. I like dishes that look simple, but at the same time, have highly refined flavours. You should be able to taste every flavour in a dish.

AB: Other than simply a source of inspiration for recipes, travel appears to play a central role in your life. CM: I spend half my year traveling. Last year I went on 14 overseas trips! I take my staff abroad and lead culinary tours. I think young people should be required to travel abroad.

AB: Cooking is often perceived as a physical, rather than an intellectual endeavour, yet you and fellow Australian chef David Thompson are known as much for your writing as your restaurants. Why write? CM: For me, a cookbook isn't just a list of recipes. I come from an intellectual background and for me, cooking is about feeding my brain. I have a huge cookbook library and encourage my staff to read.

Now to the meal. For those here in Thailand, I thought that it was no stretch to find similarities between Manfield's dishes and the native cuisine. As she mentions above, the flavours were generally strong, independent and crystal clear, and she also didn't seem afraid to employ a bit of spice and salt. The first course, Dry aged beef tataki, pomegranate and pickled beetroot, did a great job of setting the pace for the entire meal:

Chef Christine Manfield's Dry aged beef tataki, pomegranate and pickled beetroot

The slices of beef were rich and moreish, and contrasted with the acidic, fruity flavours of the pomegranate, starfruit, beetroot and citrus. The meaty and acidic elements were bound together by a slightly sweet/sour onion chutney. The result was a dish that, even if it had been the only dish of the night, would have left most of us feeling mighty satisfied.

This was followed by Woodbridge smoked sea trout, smoked eel and pomelo salad:

Chef Christine Manfield's Woodbridge smoked sea trout, smoked eel and pomelo salad

another dish that could have easily passed as a yam or Thai-style salad in its emphasis on crispy freshness and acidity. In fact, the combination of smoked fish and thin strips of green mango was eerily similar to ngnoam swei kchey trey cha, a Cambodian dish that also revolves around these two main ingredients.

The Spiced crab, ginger and coconut broth:

Chef Christine Manfield's Spiced crab, ginger and coconut broth

combined, among other things, mustard seed, coconut meat and curry leaves, the ingredients that define the dipping sauce that accompanies southern-Indian dosai.

The most substantial dish (Manfield is known for serving virtually carbohydrate-free meals), was Jasmine tea smoked duck breast:

Chef Christine Manfield's Jasmine tea smoked duck breast, grilled duck sausage, spiced eggplant and green bean sambal

The dish was served with slices of a duck sausage that I found nearly identical to a very, very good sai ua, a type of northern Thai sausage (this was confirmed by the table of Thais next to us). The green bean sambal (essentially a stir-fry) included morning glory, grilled eggplant and green peppercorns, and was pleasantly spicy and salty (too salty for the aforementioned table). Amazingly, each dish was fried to order.

The dessert, Raspberry ripple:

Chef Christine Manfield's Raspberry ripple

was delicious, and included the first ripe raspberries I've encountered in Asia in years, but seemed slightly out of place among the largely Asian-influenced flavours of the previous courses.

Christine will contributing to tonight's Gala Dinner, tickets for which are still apparently available. If you’re in Bangkok and interested, act fast. Call the Four Seasons Bangkok at +66 (0) 2 126 8866, or email the hotel at wgf.bangkok@fourseasons.com.

Four Seasons Bangkok WGF10: David Kinch

Chef David Kinch's Tomato soup, barely cooked, with coriander ice

I was particularly excited about meeting David Kinch and trying his food. Chef friends here in Bangkok have long been relaying the buzz of his California restaurant, Manresa, and I've long been obsessed with the Spanish flavours and ingredients that partially inspire much of his food. Not to mention the fact that, a few years back, I spent a fun afternoon in Bangkok with David's longtime Thai partner, Pim, of Chez Pim fame.

Before attending Kinch's cooking demonstration, I spent a few minutes talking with the chef, and an excerpt from our conversation is below:

Chef David Kinch giving a cooking demonstration at the Four Seasons Bangkok's World Gourmet Festival

AB: In looking at what you do at Manresa, it appears that there's a huge emphasis on locality. With this in mind, is it even possible to recreate what you do at Manresa here in Bangkok? DK: Absolutely not. At Manresa we strive for a certain sense of place, which can't be done anywhere else. To take this out of the equation is a giant curve ball for us. We have to come to these events with more ambiguous menus. For instance, I'll say that I want to use fish in a dish rather than have a specific kind of fish in mind.

AB: So you haven't brought any ingredients over from your garden or Love Apple Farm [the California farm that supplies the vast majority of Manresa's produce]? DK: No, it's just not practical.

AB: Will you incorporating any Thai flavours or ingredients while here? DK: No, we're simply trying to provide a snapshot of our restaurant. I definitely wouldn't feel comfortable making Thai food here.

AB: Your influences appear to come largely from Spain and Japan, two disparate food cultures. Are there any similarities between these two cuisines? DK: I'd say that my influences are more generally European, but I'm still very much a Francophile at heart. Respect for the product and tradition are paramount in both places.

AB: Many of the chefs here, particularly the Australians, have published books. Do you have any book plans? DK: I'm working on a book about a couple of meals I cooked for a friend. He's a jazz musician and has composed songs for the meals, which will be sold as a CD along with the book.

AB: As a restaurateur, how do you feel about amateur media, such as blogs? DK: Everyone is allowed their opinion. But there are a lot of people blogging irresponsibly. People don't always get the facts right and sometimes misidentify dishes or ingredients. And there are a lot of bad photos. The photos people take are of our products, and when they look bad, this makes our product look bad.

For today's cooking demonstration, Kinch demonstrated three recipes: Slow roasted rack of lamb with exotic spices:

Chef David Kinch's Rack of lamb with exotic spices

Tomato soup, barely cooked, with coriander ice (pictured at the top of this post), and a combination of desserts he calls A taste of New Orleans:

Chef David Kinch's A taste of New Orleans

Both dishes pictured above will be featured in Kinch's dinner at the Four Seasons Bangkok on October 10th and 11th, but I thought I'd share his recipe for the tomato soup, as it's probably the easiest to recreate.

Tomato  soup, barely cooked, with coriander ice

Kinch explained that the most important element in making this dish is to slowly bring bring the tomato soup to a maximum temperature of 150F. This relatively low heat allows some of the tomatoes to become fully cooked while allowing other parts to remain essentially raw, resulting in a soup that has the best elements of both the cooked and raw fruit. Kinch also uses a hand-operated food mill to process the soup, which results in it having a slightly coarse texture. If you don't have access to a food mill, Kinch suggests using a Cuisinart or Robot Coup, but not a conventional blender, as this will result in a texture that is too fine.

For the coriander ice: 1 litre chilled water 120 g sugar 3 bunches coriander/cilantro 1 bunch mint

For the tomato soup: 4 lb ripe tomatoes, roughly chopped 1/2 cup olive oil 2 oz red wine vinegar (sherry or balsamic can also be used) 12 basil leaves 2-3 cloves of garlic, finely chopped salt pinch of sugar

For the coriander ice: Make syrup with 200 ml of the water and chill. Chill the remaining water. Blend all ingredients in a blender and strain. Freeze and grate using a fork or a food mill.

For the tomato soup: Combine ingredients in a large saucepan and without using a lid, bring slowly to 150F. This should take approximately 20 to 25 minutes. Process in a food mill. Strain and refrigerate.

Serve chilled, garnished with coriander ice, a basil leaf, and if desired, pickled vegetables or fruits.

David will be hosting dinner at the Four Season Bangkok on October 10 & 11. Many of the events are already sold out, so if you’re in Bangkok and interested, act fast. Call the Four Seasons at +66 (0) 2 126 8866, or email the hotel at wgf.bangkok@fourseasons.com.

Four Seasons Bangkok WGF10: Paola Carosella

Yesterday, Argentinean chef Paola Carosella, of São Paulo's Arturito, held a cooking demonstration as part of the Four Seasons Bangkok's World Gourmet Festival.

Carosella's love for the food of her native South America is palpable, and she showed us how to make three dishes, all based around relatively common ingredients and representative of South American flavours, including a very Argentinean roast beef with chimichurri, an orange-scented dulche de leche flan, and a deliciously tart Peruvian ceviche:

Paola Carosella's ceviche

Carosella spent a year traveling and eating in Peru, and explained that her ceviche recipe is the result of this experience and is a classic version of the dish. She explained that ceviche can be made with whatever seafood is available, shrimp, octopus or even sea urchin, with the caveat being that it must be very fresh. She combines her ceviche with a small amount of leche de tigre, literally "tiger's milk," a blended ceviche that, in Peru, is typically served in shot glasses, sometimes supplemented with pisco, a type of local grappa. Carosella added that in Peru, ceviche is also often served with some sort of crispy side dish, in this case, sweet potatoes fried until golden.

Paola Carosella's Ceviche

For the avocado cream: 2 fresh avocados 1 lime sea salt

For the sweet potatoes: 1 kg sweet potatoes vegetable oil

For the leche de tigre: 100g white fish 200ml water sea salt 15 g fresh chilies 50 g white onion 2 garlic cloves lime juice

For the ceviche: 1 kg extremely fresh white fish 1 kg limes 1 kg red onions 100 g sea salt 200 g fresh chilies 200 g fresh cilantro/coriander 100 g garlic

For the avocado cream Put the avocados in a blender along with juice of one lime and a pinch of salt. Puree and keep refrigerated.

For the sweet potatoes Boil the sweet potatoes skin-on in salted water until tender. Allow to cool, cut into slices and fry until golden and crispy. Keep warm.

For the leche de tigre Combine all ingredients in a blender for a few minutes. Strain and keep refrigerated.

For the ceviche Peel and cut onions into very thin slices. Clean and separate cilantro/coriander leaves and chop. Cut fish into thin slices or cubes. In a glass bowl, season fish with sea salt and the juice of the limes, add the leche de tigre, chilies, onion and cilantro/coriander. Mix well and keep refrigerated until serving.

To serve, spoon a little of the avocado cream in each plate. Put a slice of sweet potato on the side and add ceviche and juices. Serve immediately.

Paola will be hosting dinner at the Four Seasons Bangkok tonight and tomorrow, October 7 & 8. Many of the events are already sold out, so if you’re in Bangkok and interested, act fast. Call the Four Seasons at +66 (0) 2 126 8866, or email the hotel at wgf.bangkok@fourseasons.com.

Four Seasons Bangkok WGF10: David Thompson

Prawns with shredded herbs/Nahm yaa sai gung sap

I'm always excited when David Thompson is in town. I first met him several years ago when he hosted a dinner at the Metropolitan Bangkok, and we've stayed in touch since then, having had quite a few food-based adventures together in Thailand. Although David is often associated with his London restaurant, Nahm, the only Thai restaurant to have received Michelin stardom, he's also established himself as an author. His second book, Thai Food, is widely considered the most authoritative English-language book on the topic, and his third book, Thai Street Food, has just been printed and will soon be available in Australia (the rest of the world has to wait until next October). And fans of Thompson's cooking who live here in Bangkok have something else to be excited about: the chef has recently agreed to open a branch of Nahm at the Metropolitan Bangkok, to be open sometime next year.

Yesterday, as part of the Four Seasons Bangkok's World Gourmet Festival, Thompson demonstrated three different recipes featuring khanom jeen, what he reckons is the only type of noodle native to Southeast Asia.

David Thompson and Bangkok-based blogger, Newley Purnell

The recipe below, which Thompson suspects has its origins in the 1950s, requires relatively few exotic ingredients and is, according to him, more accessible to an audience outside of Thailand.

Prawns with shredded herbs/Nahm yaa sai gung sap

500 g medium small prawns 1 cup coconut cream a few tablespoons stock or water pinch of salt 1 – 2 tablespoons fish sauce pinch palm sugar 2 tablespoons sliced red shallots 1 heaped tablespoon sliced Thai garlic 2 tablespoons sliced lemongrass ½ teaspoon sliced galangal 4 tablespoons shredded grachai (a root also known as Chinese key) several sliced scuds – optional a little additional fish sauce – to taste 3 – 4 shredded kaffir lime leaves additional ½ cup coconut cream

Peel the prawns. Carefully de-vein. They should now weigh about 250 g. Scrape out any tomalley – there should be about 3 tablespoons.

Bring the coconut cream to the boil with the salt. Add the tomalley and simmer for a minute or two. Season the sauce with the fish sauce and palm sugar. Add the prawns and when just cooked, add the chopped prawns and the sliced ingredients and simmer for a moment:

Finish with the additional coconut cream, the fish sauce if needed. Stir in most of the kaffir lime leaves. Serve sprinkled with the remaining kaffir lime leaves. It should taste rich and creamy, aromatic and just a little salty and hot.

Serve accompanied by

* khanom jin (fresh rice noodles) * lemon basil * white turmeric * sliced cucumbers * trimmed bean sprouts

David will be hosting dinner at the Four Seasons Bangkok tonight and tomorrow, October 6 & 7, and on the morning of the 7th, will be leading a market tour. Some of the events are already sold out, so if you’re in Bangkok and interested, act fast. Call the hotel at +66 (0) 2 126 8866, or email the hotel at wgf.bangkok@fourseasons.com.

Four Seasons Bangkok WGF10: Graham Elliot Bowles

Last night was the first dinner of the Four Seasons Bangkok's World Gourmet Festival!

Our chef host was Graham Elliot Bowles, of Chicago's graham elliot. I'd read that Bowles's food is strongly influenced by American cuisine, apparently stemming from his youth as ‘Navy Brat,’ having lived (and eaten) from the Philippines to Hawaii, California to Maryland.

Deconstructed Caesar salad: baby romaine, white anchovy, Parmesan fluff, brioche Twinkie

I found this to be true, and to my enjoyment virtually ever dish was evocative of the tastes, flavours and ingredients I'd grown up with as a kid in the US. The strongest example of this, for me at least, was Bowles's Sweet corn bisque:

Sweet corn bisque with garlic marshmallow, pepper jam, Corn Nuts and lime crema

which, when poured, smelled exactly like the very American creamed corn, a soup I haven't encountered in a very long time. The garlic marshmallow was sweeter than I expected it to be, but this was countered by the subtle spiciness of the pepper jam. And I think this was the first time in perhaps 20 years I've consumed Corn Nuts.

The Barbecued pork belly:

Barbecued pork belly with cole slaw, potato salad, fried pickles, root beer

was similarly evocative, combining all the best elements of a southern American-style barbecue (another thing I haven't eaten in ages): cole slaw, potato salad and tender pork. The root beer sauce, although unusual, was comfortingly ketchup-like and delicious.

Bowles's dessert, Movie theater extravaganza:

Movie Theatre Extravaganza: popcorn gelato, Malt Balls, Twizzler puree, Cracker Jack

was heaps of fun, and included even more ingredients I haven't encountered since my childhood. The popcorn gelato was deliciously buttery and savoury, and although I'd almost certainly never even consider eating Twizzlers as an adult, the flavour was a perfect sweet/sour counterpoint. The Malt Balls and Cracker Jack provided a satisfying crunch.

The meal was accompanied by several Kendall-Jackson wines, of which our entire table really enjoyed the Grand Reserve Chardonnay 2006, and I couldn't stop sniffing the Grand Reserve Merlot 2005 (it tasted lovely too).

Graham will be hosting dinner again tonight, October 6. Some of the events are already sold out, so if you’re in Bangkok and interested, act fast. Call the Four Seasons at +66 (0) 2 126 8866, or email the hotel at wgf.bangkok@fourseasons.com.

Bangkok, October 4, 2009

  It's been a long time since I've posted something on this half of the blog, mostly because I haven't been taking too many pics lately. Other than the occasional photography assignment, I've predominately been working on guidebooks and other writing projects. It was during this photographic drought that I mentioned to a friend that I'd always wanted to check out a look thung concert, roughly equivalent to Thai-style country music. I got the hook-up (thanks, Angie!), and this afternoon I found myself at Suan Lum Night Bazaar, taking pics from the audience as well as backstage. I've previously posted photos of other Thai performances, from ngiw to likay, previously, and it's a topic I'd like to pursue, so stay tuned for more in the future.

Aidilfitri in Kota Bharu

As mentioned previously, my plan was to spend a few days in Kota Bharu, one of Malaysia's more staunchly Muslim cities, during Ramadan. I was looking forward to the holiday atmosphere, not to mention some extreme holiday eating at markets like the one I'd encountered in Pattani. Paradoxically, this wasn't to be the case, as because of Ramadan, all shops and restaurants were closed and most of Kota Bharu's residents seemed to be elsewhere.

There also appeared to be no equivalent of a special Ramadan post-fast market in Kota Bharu, although the town's evening market was particularly buzzing. Most dishes sold at the market were served to go:

typically bundled up in sheets of brown waxed paper. But if you wanted to eat at the market it was possible to take your bundle to a stall selling drinks, order a drink, and eat there.

These fish were coated in a curry paste-like marinade and pan-grilled on banana leaves:

There was heaps of grilled food:

particularly chicken:

but I really enjoyed the curry stalls (pictured at the top of this post), which served rich, meaty curries over rice, as well as nasi kerabu, the local equivalent of khao yam, blue rice topped with sliced fresh herbs and other toppings.

The sweets were also impressive, both in terms of quantity:

and variety:

On the eve of Aidilfitri, the last day of Ramadan, I waited in a very long and competitive line for two bundles of rice and took them to a drink stall. Most diners had already bought their meals, staked out a table, and were patiently waiting for the moment when they could eat again. Finally, just after 7pm, prayers were broadcast from the mosques in the area and after a month of daily fasting, Ramadan was over and people dug in:

Kota Bharu's Central Market

Since I was already in far southern Thailand, I decided to cross the border and spend a few days in Malaysia. Specifically, I wanted to spend some time in Kota Bharu, apparently one of Malaysia's more traditionally Muslim areas, during Ramadan. I was hoping to soak up some of the holiday atmosphere, eat some good Malaysian food and to hit up more post-fasting markets. I also wanted to check out Pasar Siti Khadijah, Kota Bharu Malaysia's famous Central Market, which I had read about previously here.

Well, things didn't go exactly as planned. Kota Bharu was practically comatose during Ramadan. The streets were eerily empty and all shops were closed. Thankfully the evening market was functioning, which I'll blog about soon, but virtually no restaurants, other than a mediocre Chinese noodle place, were open. In the end, I was able to hit up Kota Bharu's striking indoor market one day (it was closed the next for Aidilfitri), although the results are only marginally food-related, and more an excuse to show off my cool glass:

Breaking the fast in Pattani

I happened to be in Pattani, one of Thailand's most Muslim cities, during Ramadan. I had read about the post-fasting markets held in Muslim countries during this holiday, and after talking to a few motorcycle taxi drivers, learned that was a large one held not far from Pattani's central mosque:

There was a huge amount of hungry people and interesting food. The latter ran the gamut from traditional Muslim items such as roti:

and dates, a traditional fast-breaking food:

to more local foods, such as southern-style Muslim curries (shown at the top of this post) and khanom kho:

impossibly soft pillows of rice flour encasing a crunchy cube of sugarcane. There was a popular vendor selling buffalo stew:

identified by its strong smell, not to mention the carefully-displayed tell-tale hooves and horn. And of course, several vendors selling the ubiquitous khao yam:

By the time it started to get dark, much of the food was virtually sold out and the crowds were already thin, with most folks presumably on their way home with the day's meal.

Khao Noi

On the surface, Khao Noi appears to be your typical southern Thai-style raan khao kaeng, curry restaurant. A closer look reveals that Khao Noi is anything but ordinary. The tiny restaurant prepares nearly 50 dishes on a daily basis:

and most un-ordinarily, every one I've ever tried there is delicious.

On my most recent visit I had a plate of rice topped with two dishes: muu phat phet, pork fried with a spicy curry paste, fresh herbs and spices, and kaeng khi lek, a southern Thai-style coconut milk curry of cassia leaves and unusually, tiny shrimp (pictured at the top of this post). The phat phet, as the name suggests, was satisfyingly spicy, and the kaeng khi lek equal parts bitter and savoury. All dishes are served, in the southern style, with a side of crispy veggies to alleviate the heat.

I couldn't stop at this and my second dish included a yam or salad of green mango and a coconut milk curry of "stink beans" (sator), eggplant and fish:

The salad was crispy and sour, and the curry was rich and pungent -- a perfect combination.

Khao Noy 14/22 Th Wichianchom, Songkhla 074 311 805 Breakfast & lunch, closed Wed

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Four Seasons Bangkok's 10th Annual World Gourmet Festival

For the first time I'll be attending, and blogging about, the Four Seasons Bangkok's annual World Gourmet Festival. This year is the 10th anniversary of the event, and chefs such as David Kinch, from the acclaimed Manresa in California, and David Thompson from London's Nahm, will be in town cooking, teaching and leading culinary tours to celebrate the occasion. I plan to attend the dinners of these two chefs, as well as those of Graham Elliot Bowles of Chicago's Graham Elliot, Paola Carosella of Sao Paolo's Arturito, Christine Manfield of Sydney's Universal, and Fulvio Saccardi of Ristorante Conti Roero in Monticello D'Alba, Italy.

Leading up to the event, I'll be doing some brief profiles of the chefs above, and when the festival begins, I'll be blogging on the cooking demonstrations and meals, as well as interviews with some of the chefs.

The event will be held from October 5-11, at the Four Seasons Bangkok. For full details of the chefs involved and a schedule of the events planned, please refer to the official website. Some dinners are already sold out, so if you're in Bangkok and interested, act fast. Call the Four Seasons at +66 (0) 2 126 8866, or email the hotel at wgf.bangkok@fourseasons.com.

Breakfast in Songkhla

When at home in Bangkok I tend to eat a pretty western-style breakfast (toast, eggs, yogurt), so when I'm on the road in different parts of Thailand I really look forward to getting my hands on a domestic breakfast. I certainly wasn't disappointed in Songkhla, an atmospheric seaside town in southern Thailand. The southern Thais have some of the best morning eats in the country, and Songkhla was no exception. It was a morning of several southern Thai specialties and sweet coffee in several different locations.

My favourite place for breakfast in Songkhla is probably an open-air streetside courtyard just off Th Saiburi with different three vendors. One vendor makes old-school style Thai coffee and tea, other vendor makes a delicious khao yam (illustrated above), and another couple make roti:

The crispy pancakes are served southern-style, with a curry and a sweet/sour cucumber dipping sauce.

Continuing along Th Nang Ngam, a street lined with old houses and Chinese shrines, I came across this woman, selling noodles to students in front of a school:

Her husband was equally busy, selling cups of pop to the kids, at 7am...

Just up the road I stopped by a an old shophouse restaurant for a salapao, a Chinese steamed bun, and a yet another coffee:

The coffee wasn't so good, but the salapao contained a delicious mixed pork mixture and a quail egg. This was the kind of place that families stopped by on their way to work and/or school, and I got the impression that most of then had been coming there for a long time.

Continuing to the end of Th Nang Ngam, my last stop was at an even more ancient, Muslim-owned coffee shop (which has also been blogged about here):

with equally ancient interior design and clientele:

I left Songkhla shortly after, feeling full and fully caffeinated...

What to eat in Hat Yai

  Hat Yai is a large, rather unattractive town in southern Thailand. It's by no means a destination, but because the city serves as a crossroads to many places farther south, I've spent quite a few nights here over the years. Fortunately there are worse places to be stuck, particularly if you count eating as one of your hobbies. The residents of Hat Yai are a mix of Thais, Chinese and Muslims and they have provided the city with an interesting restaurant scene. Just in case you happen to find yourself stuck in Hat Yai at some point, I've put together a short list of the places that have caught my attention over the years that I've been going there.

My favourite single dish in Hat Yai has to be the dish above, bak kut teh, as served at Koh Tii Ocha, a Chinese food court-like restaurant in the centre of town. The name of the dish is Chinese, but EatingAsia claim the dish has its origins in Malaysia. The dish is served with your choice of meat and offal (and typically an entire clove of garlic) and sides of rice and paa thong ko, deep-fried dough with a sweet coconut jam dip. The broth is dark, rich and evocative of the dish's Hokkien name (bak kut teh is generally translated as "meat bone tea"). Koh Tii Ocha also serves Hainanese chicken rice, wheat noodles and rice porridge.

Koh Tii Ochaa (Google Maps link) 134-136 Th Niphat Uthit 3, Hat Yai 074 23 4243 Breakfast & lunch

Khao yam is a type of rice "salad" popular in southern Thailand. Rice is cooked with dork anchan, a type of flower, giving it a purplish/gray hue, and is topped with finely sliced herbs, flowers, fruit, ground dried shrimp, thin rice noodles and a thin fish-based sauce. One of the better versions in Hat Yai is served by a Muslim woman who  prepares the dish a couple blocks away from the train station:

Muslim Khao Yam (Google Maps link) Thanon Rotfai, Hat Yai Breakfast & lunch

Another tasty Muslim breakfast is roti, crispy pancakes, served southern-style with a curry dipping sauce. There's a string of Muslim restaurants along Th Niyomrat, including Tamrab Muslim, which does a good roti kaeng:

Tamrab Muslim (Google Maps link) Cnr Th Nipatuthit 1 & Th Niyomrat, Hat Yai Breakfast, lunch & dinner

Chicken, marinated in dried spices before being deep-fried, is a specialty of Hat Yai that has a reputation across Thailand. Many locals claim that Daycha, a restaurant with a couple branches in town, serves the best version. You can order it with sticky rice and a plate of som tam or chopped and served over yellow rice:

Daycha Fried Chicken (Google Maps link) Th Chi-Uthit, Hat Yai 08 1098 3751 Lunch & dinner

Hat Yai has a huge Chinese population, and Chinese food is ubiquitous, cheap and generally quite good. One of my favourite places to eat is Sor Hueng, a khao tom place with several branches serving mostly Chinese and Chinese/Thai dishes, with a few local dishes thrown in as well. Most dishes are made ahead of time and all you have to do is point to whatever looks tasty:

Sor Hueng 3 (Google Maps link) 79/16 Th Thamnoonvithi, Hat Yai 08 1896 3455 4pm-3am

Hat Yai also has two pretty good night markets. The most famous is located north of the centre of town and is a great place to sit down to a dish of the local deep-fried chicken, a southern-style curry, a dish or khanom jeen, or some local seafood:

Hat Yai's Night Market (Google Maps link) Th Montri 1 6pm-late

Another night market, located slightly closer to the centre of town, specialises in take-away southern Thai eats:

Hat Yai's Night Market (Google Maps link)

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Shoshana

Operating since 1983, Shoshana must be the longest-standing Israeli restaurant in the Khao San Road area, if not in all of Bangkok. Nowadays there are several places in the area serving pitas, felafel and even shwarma, but I inevitably go back to Shoshana. This used to be partially for the constant stream of Seinfeld re-runs being played there (I've never owned a TV), but was mostly for a delicious break from Thai food.

As is the case with many of my favourite places to eat, I rarely stray from a few dishes that I know to be good. The set above, my usual, combines felafel, French fries, a garlicky eggplant dip and "Israeli salad".  I seem to recall the set selling for 55 baht until relatively recently, making Shoshana also the cheapest place in Bangkok to obtain Western-style food. The price has gone up 120 baht now, but it still remains a bargain, especially when you consider the quality. Although they're not breaking any gastronomical barriers, the folks at Shoshana are extremely talented at deep-frying -- this despite not using a Western-style deep-fryer (they use cheap aluminum pots) or deep-frying thermometers. Their skills are evident in the non-soggy and super-crispy French fries to the dry-yet-moist-in-the-right-places schnitzel. They also do good liver dishes, decent home-made pickles (shown in the background) and a decent yogurt shake.

Shoshana 88 Th Chakraphong, Banglamphu, Bangkok 02 282 9948 11am-11pm

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Khao Tom Jay Suay

Other than noodles, the greatest contribution the Chinese have made to Thai cooking, at least in my opinion, is khao tom. The Thai words literally mean "boiled rice," but in this case they refer to restaurants that serve a variety Chinese/Thai dishes to order, often with small bowls of watery rice. One of my favourite khao tom places in Bangkok is Khao Tom Jay Suay, an ancient shophouse restaurant in Chinatown. The restaurant is colloquially known as Khao Tom Roy Pee, "100 Year Old Khao Tom," but I was told it's really only about 50 years old.

You can recognise Khao Tom Jay Suay by the vast table out front holding the restaurant's huge array of raw ingredients, mostly different types of vegetables:

Directly behind this, and shown at the top of this post, a fellow works a station with several prepared dishes. These include several types of meats and fish, a few stir-fried dishes and soups such as jap chai, a type of vegetable-heavy Chinese stew. He shouts the orders out to two additional stations within the restaurant,  a soup station and a separate stir-fry station, and as far as I could tell, no order is recorded on paper.

Must-order dishes at Jay Suay include the delicious smoked duck; muu phat nam liap, minced pork fried with salted Chinese olive; the previously-mentioned jap chai; and any flash-fried veggie dish. On our visit we ordered all of these, as well as a stink bean stir-fry, a tom yam of squid and mushrooms, and a salad of plaa salit thot, a type of deep-fried fish:

You'll be sitting on the side of a smelly street and it will inevitably be hot, but the food is full-flavoured and excellent.

Khao Tom Jay Suay 547 Thanon Phlap Phla Chai 02 223 9592

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A bite to eat in Siem Reap

Cambodia isn't generally known as a culinary destination, but I really enjoyed the eats during five recent days in Siem Reap. The quality of the city's foreign cuisine, particularly its French, was much better than that of a huge city like Bangkok. Among other meals, we had a fun lunch at Le Bistrot de Paris, and on a daily basis, excellent pastries from the Blue Pumpkin (unfortunately we never made it to dinner at the allegedly delicious Abacus). And the Cambodian food was excellent too, for which I have to thank Chef Joannès Rivière, Executive Chef at Hôtel de la Paix. Chef Jo oversees a truly delicious Khmer set menu at Meric, the hotel's restaurant, which includes dishes such as his famous stuffed frog, a trio of pounded salads (coconut with pork, wild eggplant with fish, and sesame with chicken), and an equal parts tart and smokey star fuit salad with smoked fish. It was really one of the best restaurant meals I've had in a long time, but unfortunately the restaurant was too dark to document with my crappy old Nikon D100 (you can though see a pic of Meric's famous watermelon salad here).

The next day Jo took me to New Cheip Sok, a restaurant he recommends not only for it's kick ass Khmer food, but also for its noteworthy and classy wall of beer bottles:

I left the ordering to Chef Jo. There was prahoc k'tis:

a delicious 'dip' of Cambodian fish sauce, fish, herbs and coconut milk, served with fresh and par-boiled veggies. This was a dish that exemplified Khmer flavours: mild, herbal and balanced, and revolving around something fishy.

There was deep-fried pigeon:

which were served with the simple but absolutely brilliant Khmer dipping sauce of salt, pepper and lime:

Mam, raw Khmer-style fermented fish served with a platter of fresh herbs, veggies and fruit and slices of pork:

And the house specialty, "hidden eggplant", a Chinese-Khmer deep-fried dish combining minced pork and eggplant:

New Chiep Sok N# 253 Stung Thmey Village, Siem Reap, Cambodia +855 12 630 570

Hôtel de la Paix Sivutha Boulevard, Siem Reap, Cambodia + 855 63 966 000

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A walk through Mae Hong Son's morning market

The morning market in Mae Hong Son is one of my favourite in Thailand. Despite being a rather small market, and the fact that I've spent quite a bit of time there, on each subsequent visit I always seem able to find some new ingredient or dish I wasn't previously aware of. This is partially due to the fact that Mae Hong Son is rather more seasonal than other places in Thailand. Much of what's on offer is dictated by the weather, which unfortunately during the rainy season is rather limited. I missed the bright red tomatoes and fern shoots of the cooler months, but was compensated by the variety weird edible insect larvae, tender edible fruit tree leaves and bamboo shoots of the rainy season. Year round there's always an odd selection of items from just across the border in Burma: calendars with Burmese pop stars, pickled tea leaves and packets of herbal medicines. And breakfast at the market is always one of the weirdest and most satisfying in the country.

To view a slideshow of some random images from Mae Hong Son's morning market, click on the image above and use keyboard arrows or hold your mouse above the images to navigate through them.

Pa Ni

As mentioned previously, Mae Hong Son was pretty wet, so we spent a lot of our time indoors, much of it eating and drinking. Of all the things we consumed there, I'm pretty sure that the local sweets were the biggest hit among the two chefs. We bought several banana leaf packages of the sweets on a daily basis, and they never seemed to tire of them.

Our sole khanom purveyor was Pa Ni, a native of Mae Hong Son who was taught by her mother to make Shan/Thai Yai-style sweets over forty years ago. My personal fave of her repertoire is something called peng mong:

According to Pa Ni, this one is made using what she calls paeng mi, "noodle flour" (I suspect this simply wheat flour), and has the consistency of a Western-style cake, with a salty/sweet coconut topping acting as the frosting. Because of the crumb-like consistency of the sweet, Chef Andy reckons some sort of leavening agent is used here, a rarity in Thai sweets.

My second favourite has to be alawa jun:

a significantly heavier sweet made from rice flour, ample coconut cream and a slight hint of durian (Pa Ni adds thurian kuan, durian paste, to this sweet). Like all of Pa Ni's sweets, the top is slightly singed, the result of a "baking" process where, after steaming the sweets, she covers the trays and tops this with a layer of hot coals.

The regular alawa:

is slightly lighter and gets most of its flavour from sugar and coconut milk.

And Suay thamin:

is the Shan pronunciation of the Burmese shwe thamin, "golden rice", and is rather heavy sweet made from sticky rice.

For an earlier post on Thai Yai sweets, go here.

Pa Ni 9 Thanon Singhanat Bamrung, Mae Hong Son

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Back in the MHS

If you'll recall, back in February I spent a month in the northern Thai city of Mae Hong Son. Cool weather, great scenery, great food and ample opportunity to explore combined to make the month one of the most pleasant of my life, and ever since then I've dreaming, virtually on a daily basis, of going back.

In mid-August I finally got my chance, and this time was accompanied by Chef Andy of Pok Pok fame, Chef Hock and for two brief days, Maytel (herself more a Restaurant Manager than a Chef). We spent a week in Mae Hong Son, and as Maytel describes here, there was a great deal cooking and eating, although unfortunately not as much exploring as I'd like to have done. I've never previously been to Mae Hong Son during the wet season, and found it to be very... wet. Due to the rain, we were largely housebound the first two days and a couple days after that, I came down with a flu and was housebound again for a few more days... Needless to say, this was something of a disappointment after so many months of wanting to come back, but in the end it was worth it simply for the moments of health and clear weather and scenes such as the above.

A couple food-related blogs to follow.