Eau Hua Sukiyaki

***This restaurant has closed. AB***

Dating back to 1955, Eau Hua is allegedly Bangkok's oldest sukiyaki restaurant. It must have been pretty influential, as sukii is one of the most ubiquitous types of restaurant in Bangkok nowadays.

Although the selections here are much fewer than those of chain suki restaurants Coca or MK, after a few visits, I reckon this is probably my favourite place to do sukii in Bangkok. The old-school atmosphere, once you get past the religious iconography, is fun:

and the broth and ingredients are of good-quality and tasty. I particularly like the dipping sauce, which is not as sweet as others' and has an almost meaty shrimp paste-like flavour.

They also do other dishes and we had a nice smokey khao phat puu, fried rice with crab.

For something (very) marginally related, here's a list of Portuguese words that have entered the Japanese language, many of them food-related.

Eau Hua Sukiyaki 842-846 Thanon Rama IV, Bangkok 02 234 3548 11am-10pm

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Portland bites

A few more of the things I particularly enjoyed consuming in Portland:

Chorizo from Olympic Provisions.

Biscuits and gravy at Pine State Biscuits:

Pizza, Salad of canellini beans & Albacore tuna conserva, other sides and the wonderful dessert at Nostrana.

Street-stall tacos:

Dinner and house-aged cocktails at Clyde Common.

Stumptown coffee and pastries:

Collard greens and deep-fried cheese curds at Savoy.

My first 'Connecticut-style' pizza at Apizza Scholls:

The Swedish food section at IKEA.

Ju pa bao, Macanese pork chop bun, at Ping:

Vietnamese sandwiches (pictured at the top of this post).

The Kiwi burger at Foster Burger.

And while I'm at it, a couple noteworthy food mistakes:

'Mexican' food in general:

Popeye's:

Whiskey Soda Lounge

As mentioned previously, Portland's Pok Pok serves a lengthy and tasty menu of largely northern and northeastern Thai-influenced food. For Oregon (and perhaps the rest of the US), this is novel, but if you've lived in Thailand for a long time, grilled chicken and papaya salad can seem about as exotic as hamburgers and French fries. Luckily, for something a bit more unusual, you can simply cross the street to Whiskey Soda Lounge.

Originally a venue for customers enduring Pok Pok's long lines, the Lounge has become a destination in its own right. Essentially a bar, but boasting a brief menu that is nonetheless rather more adventurous than that of Pok Pok, chef/owner Andy Ricker tells me that the Lounge is his effort to get people to eat more unusual dishes:

As if to prove this, on one of the days I stopped by the staff were busy making naem, northern Thai -style fermented pork sausage:

Other dishes I reckon you're unlikely to see on any Thai restaurant menu in the US include Neua Sawan, marinated and dried beef that's been deep-fried; truly tasty Sai Muu Thawt, deep-fried pork chitlins; grilled pork collar with an excellent dipping sauce; Jin Loong, Mae Hong Son-style deep-fried pork balls; and while I was there, a special of grilled pig's tail, a dish Andy and I ate up in Chiang Mai a few months back. The Lounge is a also a good place to try one of the equally unusual but tasty drinking vinegars made by Andy and his team.

On another visit, I got to spend some time helping Andy and his staff improve their take on khang pong, Mae Hong Son-style fritters of green papaya, lemongrass, dried chili and turmeric:

Doing this brought home the difficulty of making such dishes in the US. The restaurant's chefs and cooks, most following what they'd been taught previously about battering and frying, were making the dish too light and fluffy -- not flat and dense as it should be. Also, the only lemongrass that's consistently available to restaurants in Oregon is rather coarse and woody with not a whole lot of flavour. But after several attempts, and with a few minor tweaks, we were able to arrive at something that I thought was very close to the real deal.

Whiskey Soda Lounge 3131 SE Division St, Portland, Oregon (503) 232 0102 5pm-midnight Sun-Thurs & 5pm-1am Fri & Sat

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La Belle Patate

While home I was able to wrangle a side trip to Vancouver, Canada. Besides being one of the most gorgeous cities I've ever been to, and the place where I got to visit a dear old friend and a former student, Vancouver was also, more importantly, where I got the chance to sample poutine for the first time.

This is a dish normally associated with Quebec and is allegedly a bit hard to find on the west coast, but a bit of internet sleuthing led us to Vancouver's own La Belle Patate. As illustrated above, there was also a smoked meat sandwich and a steamie -- apparently also Quebec dishes -- but the main event was fries, fresh cheese curds and gravy. Beer was also involved, specifically Quebec's Fin du Monde:

The verdict? We all quite enjoyed it. The cheese curds had the requisite squeak, the fries were well-fried and crispy and the gravy well-seasoned and tasty. And perhaps most amazingly, and despite Att's expression above, we didn't even feel grossed out afterward.

La Belle Patate 1215 Davie Street Vancouver, BC, Canada (604) 569-1215 11am-late

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Beervana

My apologies for having been away for such a long time. I've spent the last month in a largely internet-free zone and am only just back home in Bangkok. Before getting back to the Asian stuff, I'd like to post a few more things from my visit home.

Allegedly Portland, Oregon has the most breweries per capita of almost any city in the world -- nearly 50 at last count. The beer situation, much like the amount of hops being used, is pretty much out of control, but it was heaps of fun. For a crash-course in local beers, I'd recommend APEX (pictured above), which has an almost overwhelming selection of local and imported beers, not to mention some friendly and knowledgeable bartenders. It's here where I enjoyed Astoria Brewing's Poop Deck Porter, Wandering Aengus Cider and a unique 'sour' beer aged in Chardonnay casks. I also had several fun nights at Victory Bar, which in addition to some great beers and mixed drinks, has excellent food -- don't miss the spaeztle. Other Oregon brews that stood out include the beers from Double Mountain in Hood River, Oregon, particularly their Killer Green (using fresh hops from Salem, Oregon) and IRA (India Red Ale); just about anything from the Deschutes Brewery, particularly their Mirror Pond Pale Ale; and from Eugene, Oregon, the Ninkasi Brewing Company's Total Domination IPA. I consumed some nice beers from Rogue, enjoyed Captured by Porches' Invasive Species IPA and was also reminded of how pleasant a beer Widmer's Hefeweizen is.

After a month of this, it's pretty hard to come back to Singha.

Pok Pok

It was back in 2007, via this New York Times piece about dining in Portland, Oregon, that I first heard about Pok Pok. Only about two years old at that time, the restaurant had gone from a house-bound takeout stall selling a limited repertoire of dishes to one of the most talked-about restaurants in Oregon. Upon reading the piece, I immediately wrote an email to chef/owner Andy Ricker, who to my surprise, was already aware of this blog.

Since then, and via his numerous visits to Thailand, Andy and I become friends and have eaten and even cooked together many times. But I haven't been home to Oregon in several years and had never eaten at Pok Pok until now.

My first visit to the restaurant was during the day and my four dining companions and I ordered a decent chunk of the lunch menu. There was (pictured above, from left to right) Ike's Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings, a moreish combination of salty, sweet, sour and meaty that is by far the restaurant's biggest selling item; Kai Yaang, grilled chicken based on a recipe and cooking method that Andy came across in Chiang Mai; Neua Naam Tok, grilled beef served northeastern-style with a rich, spicy dressing; Yam Khai Dao, a 'salad' of fried eggs; and Khao Phat Puu, fried rice with crab.

The verdict? Excellent. Obviously some people are going to question my impartiality here -- and justifiably so -- but I think even Andy would agree that I'm critical to a fault about what I eat, and although not everything was absolutely ideal (the grilled chicken needed some work, an issue which has since been corrected, and serving sizes are definitely more American than Asian), it was a solid, delicious meal and the flavours and textures were all there. The Papaya Pok Pok (not pictured) was as tasty as any som tam Thai I've encountered in Thailand, and the fried rice with crab had a spicy richness that in my opinion, ought to be exported east. My mom, who's been on several visits to Thailand and who loves the food there, was convinced, as were my other dining companions, a chef friend who lived in Thailand for a few years and my half-Thai friend. But perhaps most impressively, my dad, who has a mortal and irrational fear of lemongrass and coriander, genuinely appeared to enjoy the meal, suggesting that this is good food on many different levels.

My second visit was at night, when Pok Pok's dinner menu boasts some dishes I can't imagine you'll find anywhere else in Portland or perhaps even in the US. We had Laap Khua, northern-style fried laap; Kuung Op Wun Sen, prawns cooked in a claypot with mung bean vermicelli; Cha Ca La Vong, a delicious dish of almost buttery turmeric-marinated catfish served with fresh herbs and noodles; and a truly excellent Hoi Thawt, mussels fried in a crispy batter, a dish that, like Nong's Khao Man Gai, I'd wager is tastier and more expertly-prepared than its average Thai streetside equivalent.

Pok Pok 3226 SE Division St, Portland, Oregon 503 232 1387 11.30am-10 pm

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Nong's Khao Man Gai

Most likely spurred on by similar success in LA, Portland's food stall scene has exploded in the last year. Stalls now allegedly number in the upper 500s and several so-called 'cart pods' can be found in various Portland neighbourhoods. But despite the buzz, not all carts are buzzing with customers. In fact, I'd say that relatively few appear to draw substantial numbers of diners. One of the lucky ones is Nong's Khao Man Gai:

A native of Bangkok, Nong has been in Portland seven years and among other things, worked a stint at Pok Pok. In 2008 she decided to go into business for herself and less than two years later, her stall is one of the most popular in Portland. As illustrated above, the lines go around the block, and the amount of press this girl has received is pretty amazing:

Nong got in relatively early on the food cart trend and was able to score a prime downtown location. The food she's serving is also very good (I'll get to that in a minute). And I know that her success is also the result of good old-fashioned hard work. But if you ask me, a substantial portion of her success is a no-brainer: Unlike other carts that try to serve as many items as possible, Nong clung to the central tenet of good Thai street food: serve one tasty dish that you can do really well. Her dish is khao man kai (Hainanese chicken rice), and other than drinks, that's all you can get at her stall; no pad Thai, no vegetarian green curry, no dessert. And despite the fact that she's serving a single dish the vast majority of Americans have never even heard of, it's worked.

After having read about Nong's Khao Man Gai on websites and blogs for the last year, I was finally able to try a packet firsthand. Ducking into the lobby of a nearby building, I dug in and almost immediately my suspicions were confirmed: I reckon that Nong's khao man is as good -- or perhaps even better -- than that of your average Thai cart or restaurant. The rice was toothsome and slightly oily (as it should be, yet often isn't in Thailand) and had the slightest fragrance of galangal and ginger. The chicken was tender and tasty and the dish comes accompanied by an exceptionally rich and fragrant broth -- the delicious by-product of boiling those chickens. And perhaps most importantly, Nong's nam jim (dipping sauce) is pretty much spot on: tasty and moreish, sour, spicy and salty, but with a slight emphasis on the sweet.

Nong's Khao Man Gai Near cnr of SW 10th and SW Alder, Portland, Oregon 10am-2pm Mon-Fri & 11am-2pm Sat

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Plat du jour

Diners at Portland restaurant Ping can expect fresh chanterelles, picked from the damp forests of Zig Zig, Oregon by the man himself:

Am thinking they might go into yet another delicious laap het?

Podnah's

Am home in Oregon for a couple weeks. I'm particularly excited about this visit as my buddy Hock also happens to be in-state, doing a temporary cheffing stint in Portland, and via his numerous visits to Thailand, I've become good friends with Andy, chef/owner of Portland restaurants Pok Pok, Whiskey Soda Lounge and Ping.

One of my first meals in at home was at Podnah's, a Texas-style barbecue joint in NE Portland where Hock was doing his stage:

I grew up in the US, but haven't really been much of anywhere outside of the west coast, and my understanding of barbecue -- like that of many Americans -- began and ended at backyard-style grilled meats. Southern- and Texas-style barbecue is a different beast altogether, and involves smoking -- not grilling -- meats over a low temperature for several hours. It was this unique technique that Hock came to Oregon learn.

The kind folks at Podnah's put together a something of a sampler platter spanning their best barbecue (pictured at the top of this post): pork ribs, pulled pork and beef brisket. Apparently the pork ribs are a highlight, but I preferred the slight fattiness of the beef brisket. The pulled pork, served on slices of white bread, was also very good, and like all the meats, had a flavour and texture more in common with smoked than grilled food. The meats were accompanied by some tasty in-house made sauces, ranging from a smokey/spicy chili-based sauce to a tart vinegar-based one that I really enjoyed.

I particularly enjoyed the sides, which included a crunchy potato salad, baked beans, excellent savoury cornbread and possibly my favourite dish of the meal, something called Frito chili pie:

a spicy, bean-free chili served over Fritos corn chips and topped with cheese and thin slices of onion.

It was all a bit meat overload for me, but I really enjoyed the meal, particularly the communal serving style, which I thought had much in common with Asian-style dining.

Podnah's Pit Barbecue 1469 NE Prescott St, Portland, OR (503) 281-3700 ‎

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Pressure cooking

Boy did I miss a big fat plate of good ol' fashioned food controversy when I was away. As mentioned previously, Australian chef David Thompson has opened a branch of his Thai restaurant nahm here in Bangkok. Not surprisingly, when one considers how dearly the Thais regard their cuisine, the opening has inspired a generous serving of heated discussion here in Bangkok. Some of this was spurred on by this piece in the New York Times. The article makes for entertaining reading (sample quote: "'He is slapping the faces of Thai people!' Mr. Suthon said in an interview."), but is somewhat sensationalistic in tone and Thompson claims to have been quoted out of context. The controversy is also the topic of this BBC piece.

The local media also has its share of nahm/Thompson defenders and detractors. This rather clumsy restaurant review in The Nation seems to have been impressed with the restaurant, while this letter to the editor in the same paper is a dramatic and not entirely coherent damnation of nahm and its chef. The controversy has inspired a rather soul searching editorial in The Bangkok Post, "Which Way Thai Cuisine", as well as editorials in the Thai-language media, including the influential paper Matichon. But perhaps the epitome of the media attention was this hilarious spoof in Not The Nation: "Army Overthrows David Thompson In Cuisine Coup" (you know you're in the limelight when you're being spoofed).

People have the right to voice their opinions about cuisine and authenticity. But I find it disappointing how rather quite racist and xenophobic some of the Thai reaction to nahm has been; how would the Thais react to vaguely racist French criticism of a Thai landing a high-level cheffing job at Pierre Gagnaire? When it comes down to it, it really depends on the food, and I thought the most resounding sound bite about all this came from a Thai friend, who unlike many of the people writing or talking about the restaurant, has actually eaten there: "All I know is that if Nahm was about a quarter the price it is I'd be a regular. Authentic or not."

Lert Ros Alacarte

Inspired by a piece in the recent Food issue of Travel + Leisure Southeast Asia, I recently had lunch at a nearby, but previously un-visited restaurant, Lert Ros Alacarte.

I ordered one of their set lunches, which included kaeng karii neua, a Chinese-style curry, a bowl of mild beef soup, and a glass of Coke (all for 125B, less than US$5). The beef in the curry was super tender and almost corned beef-like in texture and appearance, and the curry included a wedge of potato and was served with a spicy/sour dipping sauce. The soup, which turned out -- not surprisingly -- to be beef overload, was nonetheless good, and held a slightly sweet flavour, Chinese-style herbs and spices and tender tongue.

The food was solid, but I must admit that was almost more charmed by the old-school, diner-like atmosphere; think padded booths and lots of old furniture. The menu was equally old school and included dishes such as stewed beef tongue and fried rice with tamarind and shrimp. Am definitely looking forward to more meals at Lert Ros Alacarte.

As an aside, I'll be doing some travelling in some remote, predominately Internet-free areas for the next month and don't expect to be blogging. See you again in late October!

Lert Ros Alacarte 74-74/1 Soi 4, Th Silom, Bangkok 02 234 3754 10am-9pm Mon-Sat

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Mister Jo

Over the last few months, I've done several articles for CNNGo's Bangkok pages on Thai dishes that resident foreigners (and sometime even resident natives) may not familiar with, and a few recommended places to sample them. So far I've covered kaeng karii, khao khluk kapi, khanom jeen nam ngiaw, kuytiaw luy suan and kuaytiaw khua kai. At the moment I'm at work on one about kuay jap nam sai, the Chinese/Thai dish that combines pork offal and a peppery broth. Of the six or so restaurants and stalls I've investigated for the piece, my favourite was probably Mister Jo.

Kuay jap is based around pork offal (heart, tongue, intestines, liver, spleen), but the crispy pork belly is what can make or break a restaurant. Mister Jo's pork belly is so good that it's also available separately, served on plates with a soy sauce dipping sauce. The broth is peppery -- as a good kuay jap broth should be -- but not assertively so, and was probably the most balanced of the various places I visited. Unusually, it includes squares of tender pork skin. And unlike most places serving kuay jap, Mister Jo is open during the day. As a result, it's crazy popular, and you'll almost certainly have to navigate a lengthy queue of to-go orders simply to step foot inside the restaurant.

Stay tuned to CNNGo Bangkok's Eat page to see the entire list of kuay jap nam sai stalls and restaurants I found.

Mister Jo 313/7 Th Chan, Bangkok 8.30am-4pm

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Pa Kay

There are heaps of places in Bangkok that claim to serve Vietnamese food, but what most are serving is actually a Thai take on Vietnamese cooking. In theory at least, this isn't entirely a bad situation; I've encountered many interesting Thai/Vietnamese dishes in places such as Nakhon Phanom, Nong Khai and Mukdahan. Where things go wrong is the fact that the vast majority of these restaurants serve virtually the same repertoire of dishes, with very little variation in terms of flavour or preparation. This is a pity, as I really love this type of food: it's fresh, tasty and healthy. I also find it strange that, given the similarity between Thai and Vietnamese cooking styles and ingredients, it shouldn't be too difficult to recreate relatively authentic Vietnamese dishes here in Bangkok. But apparently there's not the demand nor the desire, and what we're left with is a mediocre facsimile of Vietnamese cooking.

This having been said, Pa Kay, a longstanding restaurant in a former Vietnamese enclave near the Chao Phraya River, is one of the better places I've encountered for Thai/Vietnamese food. The menu is largely predictable, but the preparation and flavours were generally above par.

The standout was probably naem nuang (nem nướng in Vietnamese), skewered and grilled pork served with rice paper and a variety of toppings and fillings (seen at 12 o'clock in the image above). The pork here was flavourful and pleasantly charred, and the dipping sauce, which tends to be overly sweet, had a tasty savoury/spicy element, allegedly the result of the addition of minced liver.

The loser was kung phan oy (located at about 7 o'clock in the pic), minced shrimp (and pork?) wrapped around a stalk of peeled sugarcane and grilled. The meat, which appeared to have been grilled several hours previously, was practically unseasoned and the side of pickled vegetables also lacked flavour.

The rest of the dishes were a half-step above their Bangkok counterparts. The khai kata (10 o'clock), eggs served in a tiny wok with Vietnamese- and Chinese-style sausage, was tasty, and came served with tiny French-bread like rolls. And although the khanom pak mor (bánh cuốn; 4 o'clock) weren't made to order and were somewhat thick-skinned, were decent and came with good quality muu yo (Vietnamese-style sausage).

Pa Kay 123/205 Th Ratchawithi, Bangkok 02 243 4788

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Pornchai

The last place Andy took me to was Phornchai, a longstanding noodle soup restaurant near Chiang Mai's city centre. This shophouse restaurant serves what is probably the most basic of Thai noodles, kuaytiaw. Pictured above, the bowls consist of a thin, largely bland broth, noodles (rice- or wheat-based), sliced cabbage, a bit of crispy pork fat with garlic, and continuing our meat theme, your choice of beef or pork. The beef balls were pretty tasty, although I found the other cuts slightly tough.

They also do a decent khao soi:

which appears deceptively bland and thin, but was actually quite hearty and meaty, with subtle hints of dried spice.

Phornchai 80/4-5 Th Wua Lay, Chiang Mai 053 200 715

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Akha Ama Coffee

Acting on a tip from another friend of Andy's, we hit Akha Ama Coffee. The tiny outfit has its office in Chiang Mai, but the beans -- as is the case with most domestic Thai coffees -- come from rural Chiang Rai province. The company uses 100% Arabica beans, claims to promote sustainability and fair trade among the Akha people who maintain the crops, and Lee, the young man we spoke with at the office/cafe, really seemed to know his stuff.

Having consumed their 'Strong Roast' at breakfast this morning, I quite liked it, finding it a good balance of bitter and sour, with a decent body. It's also very inexpensive, at only about 100B (about US$3) for a 250g bag. If it was available in Bangkok I'd probably consider it as an alternative to the more expensive Doi Kham or Doi Tung beans.

Akha Ama Coffee Mata Apartment, 9/1 Soi 3, Th Hussadhisewee, Chiang Mai 086 915 8600 www.akhaama.com

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Cuisine on every corner

Proceed here for Hal Lipper's excellent review of David Thompon's most recent book, Thai Street Food.

And speaking of Thompson, the Bangkok branch of his Thai restaurant nahm is now officially open for business. I ate there for the third time last night and yet again, was thoroughly blown away. Standout dishes included the deliciously tart and spicy cured 'hiromasa' kingfish salad with chillies, lime and mint; the rich and very spicy smoked fish curry with prawns, chicken liver, cockles and black pepper; a slightly bitter and rather spicy red curry of grilled salted beef with chili leaves; and a deliciously decadent and rich durian and sticky rice. If you're in Bangkok and are interested in Thai food, it's a must visit.

Him Tang

Him Tang is the northern Thai dialect word for roadside, and as a name it accurately sums up the atmosphere of this rustic grilled meat shack in Mae On, about 30km outside of Chiang Mai.

Like Jin Tup, this is a place that revolves around grilled meats:

and local booze:

in this case yaa dong, rice alcohol supplemented with herbs and typically served with tart drinking snacks.

But back to the meat... We ordered aeb ong muu:

pig brains and an herbal curry paste mixture that have been combined and grilled in a banana leaf package. The texture was smooth and the taste meaty and slightly spicy.

They do an excellent sai ua, northern-style grilled sausage:

light on the herbs and heavy on the fat, just like I like it.

Perhaps the most unusual dish was grilled pig's tail:

This was my first time eating this dish, and I must say that pig tail may be one of the most perfect grilled foods. As it grills, the exterior becomes crispy -- not unlike pork rinds -- while the meat on the inside is essentially basted in the fat and remains tender and moist. Amazing stuff.

But the best dish of the night was a laap of raw buffalo:

This is an unusual dish -- most Thais generally avoid eating buffalo -- and was something of a special, with 'mee laap khwaay' (we have buffalo laap) having been scrawled on a piece of cardboard. I'm not a huge fan of the texture of raw meat, but the dish contained a complex and delicious spice mixture with hints of cinnamon and star anise, not to mention the normal northern Thai spices of makhwaen and deeplee, that made up for this. The result was meaty, spicy and also slightly sweet, and was probably one of the more interesting Thai dishes I've encountered in a long time.

Him Tang Th 1229, Mae On, Chiang Mai 053 859 633

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Laap Dee Khom

Acting on a tip from Amorn of the lovely Riverside Guest House, me and Andy were pointed in the direction of Laap Dee Khom, a longstanding restaurant located within Chiang Mai's old city walls. We arrived at lunchtime, apparently too late to sample the various northern Thai dishes that are prepared here on a daily basis, but not too late to try the restaurant's various namesake laap, spicy meat-based 'salads.'

If you like Thai food, you've most likely encountered laap previously, but the northern version is an entirely different beast altogether. The most popular version, known as laap khom ('bitter laap') is made from finely-minced raw meat, to which is added a spicy curry paste, a mixture of dried spices, raw bile and blood (to see how the dish is made, go here). A slightly safer -- and arguably more delicious -- version is laap khua, "fried laap," in which sliced offal is added to the meat before it's all fried up in a wok. The predominate flavour in either of these dishes is spicy -- not necessarily a 'hot' spicy, but rather a slightly numbing, Sichuan pepper-like burn stemming from the addition of dee plee and makhwaen, two northern Thai spices -- trailed by bitter, a result of the addition of bile.

We were able to sample virtually the entire spectrum of northern-style laap at Laap Dee Khom, and they didn't disappoint. Starting at 6 o'clock and moving clockwise, there was saa khua, a slightly sweet and soupy laap relative consisting of hearty chunks of beef that had been simmered with a chili paste, a pinch of northern Thai spices and plenty of chopped herbs, in particular, lemongrass; next was a raw northern-style beef laap khom, studded with crunchy Szechuan pepper-like dried spices and pleasantly bitter from the addition of bile; at noon is laap plaa duk, a deceptively unattractive salad of grilled catfish that was simultaneously smokey and spicy; and lastly at 3 o'clock, the classic northern Thai soup of pork ribs simmered with jor phak kaat, a peppery green used in many northern Thai dishes.

Andy and I loved the catfish laap, it being the first time I've had this dish prepared in the northern style. We also really enjoyed the flavours of the raw beef laap, but were intimidated by its constituent ingredients, and in the end asked them to fry it up for us. The 'dining room' at Laap Dee Khom is a scruffy, unlit nightmare (do you sense a theme here?), but the woman who runs it is very friendly, and assuming you arrive early enough to try a greater variety of dishes, the restaurant is a great place to sample the flavours of authentic northern-style Thai cooking.

Laap Dee Khom Soi 5, Thanon Arak, Chiang Mai 086 656 9534

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Jin Tup

On my first night in Chiang Mai Andy took me to Jin Tup, a rustic roadside restaurant a few kilometres outside of the city. Jin Tup turned out to be quite tasty and fun, and is very emblematic of the kind of food northerners (specifically, northern Thai men) like to eat with their booze. But it was obvious upon arriving that this isn't a restaurant for everybody; although cheery and welcoming, the place is shockingly messy and is also rather hard to locate.

The emphasis here is on grilled meat:

which ranges from pork collar to grilled teats, and just about everything in between. The house specialty, which also functions as the name of the restaurant, is jin tup (literally 'pounded meat' in the northern dialect), grainy pieces of beef (Andy suspects flank) that are seasoned, semi-dried and grilled before being pounded into thick strips with a metal mallet (illustrated at the top of this post). The smokey strips of meat are then served with two types of nam phrik khaa, a galangal-based dipping sauce. I first encountered a similar dish at Nang Khambang in Vientiane, Laos, but this version is meatier and fattier, and less leather-like.

We also had tom yam kop:

the northern version of the famous spicy/sour (and in this case, very salty) Thai soup, served here with frog and a generous amount dried northern spices.

But our favourite dish was naem, fermented pork combined with egg, wrapped in a banana leaf and grilled:

An amazing amalgam of two disparate proteins -- bland egg and tart pork -- that works amazingly well.

Jin Tup Ban San Sai Noy Moo 9, Hwy 1001, San Sai, Chiang Mai

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Sai Ua Kao Ba Kham

I studied Thai at Chiang Mai University back in 1998, but moved to Bangkok almost immediately after finishing my studies there. Since then, I've spent relatively little time in Chiang Mai, and most of my subsequent visits have been little more than passing through on my way elsewhere. And although I know enough grab a bowl of khao soi at Lam Duan or Shan-style breakfast at Wat Pa Pao, I'm woefully uninformed about the city's food scene.

Finding myself with some free time, I decided to remedy this and headed up north for a few days. Another reason for the trip was that my buddy, Andy Ricker, also happened to be in Chiang Mai. Andy's been coming to Chiang Mai since the 1980s, and is intimately familiar with much of the city's food, much of it having served as inspiration for his Portland, Oregon restaurant, Pok Pok. We spent three days eating together, and the next few blogs will cover a few of the places he took me to in Chiang Mai. Because some of these places were somewhat hard to reach and are pretty local, I include them here more as illustrations and descriptions of authentic northern Thai food, rather than specific restaurant recommendations.

On the day I arrived, Andy took me a few kilometres outside Chiang Mai to Mae Hia Market. He wanted to take me to his favourite vendor of sai ua, northern-style grilled sausage:

All sai ua contains ground herbs, but this vendor's version is known colloquially as sai ua samunphrai, 'herbal' sai ua, due to copious amounts of lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf, garlic and galangal he employs. As with other vendors, the sausages here are grilled over coals:

but the final result is slightly drier and leaner than your average sai ua, with not surprisingly, a complex and rich herbal flavour.

Sai Ua Kao Ba Kham Mae Hia Market, Chiang Mai

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