nahm

Coconut and turmeric curry of blue swimmer crab with southern limes. Image courtesy of nahm.

I've mentioned nahm, David Thompson's new Thai restaurant in the Metropolitan Hotel, here previously, but have yet to go into too much detail about my experiences eating there. This was mostly because being friends with David and having eaten there several times gratis, I wasn't entirely convinced that I'd had an objective dining experience. However, after my most recent meal, I've eaten there at least eight times -- both for free and paying, both when David's been there and when he's been away -- and feel I can express my opinions about the restaurant's food in an unbiased manner.

Not that there are going to be any real surprises -- I've mentioned my fondness for nahm a few times in this blog and this has yet to change. In fact, the restaurant seemingly gets better every time I eat there, and at this point I reckon that Thompson and team are producing what must be some of the best Thai food anywhere.

For starters, I can't imagine another Thai restaurant where one is going to find such an evocative and unusual menu. I arrived early for my most recent dinner and enjoyed simply passing the time by reading the descriptions: Blue swimmer crab, peanuts and pickled garlic on rice cakes; Salad of grilled chicken with chilli jam; Cucumber salad with crunchy minced prawn floss and green mango; Braised lobster with sugar cane.

It can be somewhat overwhelming, even if you are familiar with Thai food. But after so many meals at nahm, I've been able to round it down to a handful of personal faves: Cured 'hiramasa' kingfish salad with chillies, lime and mint is a deliciously spicy and tart yam-like dish -- my mouth puckers in thinking about it now; Green peppercorn relish with shrimp paste, chillies and pork with salted prawns and fresh vegetables is rich and oily and packs a slow, satisfying burn; and possibly my all-time nahm favourite, Thompson's twist on an old kaeng tai plaa recipe, Smoked fish curry with prawns, chicken livers, cockles and black pepper. The latter is intense, but with the heat of black pepper, not the burn of chilies, and comes with a plate of cooling (and beautifully arranged) fruit and vegetables and ajaat, a Thai/Muslim sweet/sour dressing. In the same genre, the Mussaman curry of 'royal project' chicken with onions and golden yams is one of best versions of this dish I've encountered; it's sweet -- as it should be -- but is given additional depth by the presence of more dried spices than most Thai cooks would use, in particular, a fragrant cardamom. The stir-fries at nahm are wonderfully smokey, and I really enjoy the Spicy stir-fried frog with chillies, turmeric, holy basil and cumin leaves, a dish that, according to Thompson, employs three kinds of fresh chilies. As my dining companion last night pointed out, it's amazing how the dishes at nahm combine so many ingredients but come together as a seamless whole. This, I believe, is one of the unwritten aspirations of Thai cuisine, but one that's rarely met.

Another thing I appreciate about the menu at nahm is that, unlike a lot of fine dining, the emphasis is not on exotic cuts of meat, but rather, most dishes revolve around herbs, veggies and seafood. I always end up eating far more than I should at nahm, but it still feels like a healthy and balanced dining experience.

Admittedly, the food is expensive, particularly by Thai standards. But 1500B (approximately US$50) is not a great deal to pay for a set meal at a fine dining restaurant. And knowing firsthand the amount of research, trial and error and effort that goes into these dishes, I don't find it particularly exorbitant. Regardless, there's no real alternative to nahm, and if you're not willing to or can't afford to pay, you're simply not going to find dishes like this anywhere else.

So in the wake of all the controversy surrounding Thompson and nahm, much of which seems to have been forgotten by now, we're left with an excellent restaurant. This is welcome news, because now we can simply focus on the food.

Metropolitan Hotel 27 Th Sathon Tai, Bangkok 02 625 3333 Dinner only

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Sara

I love Thai-Muslim food and am always on the lookout for a better khao mok (biryani). This dish isn't too hard to find in Bangkok, but most of the time it's little more than rice made yellow by the addition of turmeric, and accompanied by a joint of stringy chicken and stock-cube broth. The versions of the dish that I do like - namely those served at Naaz and Yusup - involve a dried spice mixture that goes much deeper than simply turmeric, alternative meats (beef, goat, fish, mutton) and even surprises such as raisins and nuts.

I became aware of Sara about a year ago, via a review in the Bangkok Post.  Since this review, the restaurant has moved into the adjacent Nouvo City Hotel, but still continues to serve a short but interesting menu spanning a couple appetizer, main and dessert courses for each of the restaurant's three cuisines: Thai, Indian and European. Sara once won a prize for the city's best phat Thai - despite the fact that the kitchen is halal and most of the staff are Muslim.

But I was here for the khao mok.

At 280B (about $9) it's expensive, at least as far as khao mok is concerned, but is one of the better versions I've encountered lately. The rice was perfectly cooked and fragrant, although I thought it lacked the richness of my two fave biryanis. I ordered khao mok phae, goat biryani, and the meat was fall-apart tender and quite rich. Unusually, at least compared to Thai-style khao mok, the dish wasn't served with the usual sweet/sour dipping sauce or a bowl of stock, but rather, was accompanied by a tart but delicious and seemingly homemade mango pickle and raita, cucumber and yogurt salad.

Not bad, but I'm still on the lookout...

Sara Ground fl, Nouvo City Hotel 2 Soi 2, Th Samsen, Bangkok 02 282 7500 6am-10pm

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Whole porker ancient sutra

There are so many examples of wacky English here in Thailand that I generally don't even notice them any more. But occasionally one stumbles upon a gem.

What's actually being advertised here is old-fashioned grilled pork. To us, the Sanskrit-origin word sutra - in Thai สูตร - may have connotations of Hindu literature, but to the Thais it has come to mean recipe or more broadly, formula.

Porker, on the other hand, is universal.

Khao phat Amerikan

No, the above certainly doesn't look like Thai food, so let me begin with a bit of background info. from the current edition of Lonely Planet's Thailand guide:

(Con)fusion Cuisine A popular dish at restaurants across Thailand is khao phat Amerikan, 'American fried rice'. Taking the form of rice fried with ketchup, raisins and peas, sides of ham and deep-fried hot dogs, and topped with a fried egg, the dish is, well, every bit as revolting as it sounds. But at least there's an interesting history behind it: American fried rice dates back to the Vietnam War era, when thousands of US troops were based in northeastern Thailand. A local cook allegedly decided to take the ubiquitous 'American Breakfast' (also known as ABF: fried eggs with ham and/or hot dogs, and white bread, typically eaten with ketchup) and make it 'Thai' by frying the various elements with rice.

This culinary cross-pollination is only a recent example of the tendency of Thai cooks to pick and choose from the variety of cuisines at their disposal. Other (significantly more palatable) examples include kaeng matsaman, 'Muslim curry', a now classic blend of Thai and Middle Eastern cooking styles, and the famous phat Thai, essentially a blend of Chinese cooking methods and ingredients (frying, rice noodles, tofu) with Thai flavours (fish sauce, chilli, tamarind).

Despite having committed these rather derogatory opinions to print, I have to admit that I quite enjoyed the khao phat American (illustrated above) as served at New Light Coffee House, a vintage diner in central Bangkok. Yes, the rice had been fried in ketchup and was indeed served with a side of raisins (hidden under the egg), but the entire package wasn't overwhelmingly sweet, and unusually, also came served with a generous piece of roasted chicken (also partially concealed). I liked the sunny-side-up egg but didn't touch the ham, and in an effort to keep it as Thai as possible given the circumstances, opted to season it with Maggi, not ketchup.

New Light Coffee House 426/1-4 Siam Sq, Bangkok 02 251 9592 11am-2pm & 6-10pm

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Help me!

My day job is doing guidebooks for Lonely Planet. I've contributed text and/or photos to more than 15 books at this point and am currently at work updating Thailand, Bangkok Encounter and Thailand's Islands & Beaches.

Recently, after spending some time on Lonely Planet's Thorn Tree travel forum, I got the impression that some people perceive the process of writing guidebooks as something of a solitary endeavour, done with little input from readers or locals. I sympathise with this to a certain extent and began to wonder how I could go about getting more of readers' opinions on their favourite sights, restaurants, hotels, etc., for the destinations I'm writing about. It was at about this same time that I started using Twitter, and it struck me that the application has immense potential as a tool to uncover exactly this sort of information. So, starting today, I'll be Tweeting travel- and destination-related questions and queries on a daily basis and would really appreciate your help. If you'd like to pitch in, follow me on Twitter (@austinbushphoto), where my Lonely Planet-related posts will bear the official Lonely Planet hashtag, #lp, supplemented with the name of the destination I'm working on (e.g. #lpbkk, #lpchiangrai).

Thanks!

Guides

I recently came across two new food-centric guides to Bangkok that are worth sharing.

The most recent release, Bangkok's Top 50 Street Food Stalls, is written by Chawadee Nualkhair, who also authors the blog Bangkok Glutton (an interview with the author can be seen here). The book's name is something of a misnomer, as more than half the places mentioned aren't stalls at all, but rather are shophouse-bound restaurants. The guide generally appears to be directed toward first-time visitors to Bangkok and/or cautious eaters, as many of the restaurants and stalls mentioned are the sort of 'safe' places that have long been profiled in the English-language media, and perhaps more tellingly, each entry includes a line on restrooms (sample: "squat toilet. bring your own toilet paper."). Correspondingly, the book has some good background information on Thai food for those not necessarily familiar with the cuisine (there's a particularly helpful illustrated section on Thai noodles), and I quite like the general aesthetic of the book, which emphasises lots of photos and illustrations. If you're a first-time visitor to Bangkok and are wary about eating off the beaten track (or of finding yourself in a restaurant without a bathroom), this is the guide for you. Available online or at Orchid Books.

Rather than a book, Famuluous Eateries Bangkok takes the form of 52 cards profiling everything from street stalls to restaurants. The English can be pretty bizarre (sample: "You will forget about the waiter's attitude, once you put the chicken your watering mouth..."), but the authors seemingly made an effort to go past the usual foreigner-frequented suspects, delving into many lesser-known stalls and restaurants, many located in Bangkok's suburbs. There's lots of Thai, accurate map and transport information, and I like the idea of sticking a single card in one's wallet, as opposed to lugging around an entire guidebook. If you've lived in Bangkok for a while and want to expand your culinary horizons, this is the guide for you. Available at Kinokuniya.

The Foodie

***As of 2015 this restaurant has closed. AB***

People often ask me for my favourite restaurant in Bangkok. I'm never quite sure how to reply to this, as frankly, there are lots of places that do a particular dish very well but very few restaurants excel at everything. The closest I've come to the an all-around outstanding restaurant would most likely be nahm, but it's expensive and most appropriate for a special dinner or splurge.

The Foodie is certainly not my favourite Thai restaurant in Bangkok, but after about six or so visits, it's proved to be all-around consistently tasty. The restaurant's been around for a while (previously in a former location) and specialises in somewhat unusual dishes of southern and central Thai origin that you're not going to find elsewhere.

On my most recent visit we ate (starting at approximately 12 o'clock on the image above and moving clockwise) Prik king pla dook foo, catfish fried in a curry paste mixture until crispy; Kaeng liang goong sod, a peppery, herbal soup with shrimp, mushrooms and pumpkin; Yam som o, a 'salad' of pomelo with a spicy/sour dressing; and Ma-ra pad goong-sab, a stir-fry of bitter gourd and minced shrimp with lots of garlic. The Yam som o is the standout, and has the right combination of sweet and spicy, not to mention lots of crunchy dried fish and deep-fried shallots.

The Foodie 150 Soi Phiphat 2, Bangkok 02 231 5278 11am-11pm Mon-Sat

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Tang Meng Noodle

Despite its English-language name, I suspect that most people know Tang Meng Noodle (Thai name: Khao Man Kai Tang Meng) for its khao man kai (Hainanese chicken rice). That's why I first went, when taken there several months ago by C and S, friend/owners of nearby WTF. On that visit, I found the khao man kai to be decent, but a subsequent visit revealed that the real surprise here is in fact the noodles.

This tiny longstanding place specialises in the type of Chinese-influenced noodles popular in Bangkok and central Thailand. The yen ta fo (pictured above) has a slightly sweet and tart broth that holds the usual assortment of noodles, fish balls and veggies, as well as lots of crunchy  bits, ranging from deep-fried tofu to fish skin. I don't think it's quite as good as the bowl served at my local joint, but it's one of the better ones I've encountered.

They also do a couple takes on bamee, wheat and egg noodles. You can go with the traditional version, which takes the form of thin round noodles served with roasted pork and Chinese mustard greens, or try the flat type, which come served with a seemingly random mix of just about every protein imaginable, from homemade fish balls to chunks of roast duck:

Tang Meng Noodle Near cnr Soi 49 & Th Sukhumvit, Bangkok Breakfast & lunch

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Phat Thai Soi 2

I'm back home in Bangkok and after months away, am getting into the swing of things by eating Bangkok-style food. Lunch a few days ago was yen ta fo and more recently, phat Thai.

For many people outside of Thailand, particularly those in the US, phat Thai is synonymous with Thai food. And in what must be some Americans' fantasy perception of Thailand, I live literally next door to a phat Thai restaurant. Unfortunately this isn't my own fantasy scenario -- I'd much rather live next door to a khao khluk kapi restaurant -- but the phat Thai at this no-name shop near Th Silom is better than most.

The noodles are slightly undercooked, as they should be, the dish is relatively well-seasoned with lots of egg and tofu, and comes served with good quality sides. My only gripe would be with the immense serving size, which if you ask me, is practically American.

Phat Thai Soi 2 Off Soi 2, Thanon Sala Daeng, Bangkok 10am-2pm Mon-Fri

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Keepin' it local

Thai Yai dishes for sale at Mae Hong Son's morning market

I’m finally back home in Bangkok, but felt compelled to do one final post on Mae Hong Son.

One of the things that impressed me the most about the food up there was its locality. The Thai Yai or Shan food in Mae Hong Son is based around a unique repertoire of ingredients, many of which are virtually unknown in Bangkok or even Chiang Mai. Items such as as sesame oil (used as a condiment, not simply as a frying fat) and chickpea flour, and as mentioned in this post, even some of the cooking methods, are things I've never encountered elsewhere in Thailand. Obviously this is due to the province's, well, location, but the twist is that in the case of a border province like Mae Hong Son, these items and techniques stem from a variety of sometimes distant sources and as a result, the cuisine resembles that of nowhere in particular.

Not only are these ingredients and cooking methods specific to the region, but in the case of the former, their origin is also very local. I reckon that of a nam phrik ong (a dip-like dish made from ground pork and tomatoes) I made one afternoon, every single ingredient, except for perhaps the salt, came from the fields around Mae Hong Song.

A rice field in Mae Hong Son

Perhaps this is not surprising for such a remote, mountainous province. But I found it interesting and suspect that it's probably the only time in my life that I've eaten truly, genuinely locally. It's also worth mentioning that eating and cooking this way never felt contrived or like any sort of compromise -- the ingredients from Mae Hong Son, in particular the garlic, shallots, turmeric and fruit, are very good -- but rather, made the experience that much more special.

The downside -- and this is the case with much regional cooking in Thailand -- is that even if you're are in Mae Hong Son, much of this food is relegated to the home. There are a handful of restaurants in town that serve local dishes, but they’re hit and miss, and the only one that really comes close to home cooking is Pa Sri Bua. Unless you know some local folks, you’re only other opportunity to taste authentic, homestyle local food is at one of the city's markets. A particularly good place to go is the town's evening market, where Paa Add sells some pretty amazing eats. Another option is the morning market, where vendors like the one pictured at the top of this post prepare a huge variety of local dishes on regular basis, while others seem to take more of a hobby-like approach and sell a couple dishes from medium-sized pots whenever they feel like it.

A vendor at Mae Hong Son's morning market

These places are to-go only, and you might miss them if you blinked, but unless you have the chance to eat at somebody's home, it's your only opportunity to eat a dish that really has no counterpart anywhere else in the world.

How to make: Khao sen ko

A little-known but delicious snack from Mae Hong Son. Take a handful of the fresh rice noodles known as khanom jeen and combine with a bit of salt, garlic oil, dried chili, a squeeze of lime and chopped green onion and cilantro.

That's it.

Not the Nation: World Pizza Council Revokes Pizza Company’s Use Of Word ‘Pizza’

Hilarious piece from Not the Nation:

“You cannot look upon such a monstrosity and even think it resembles pizza,” Lugano said. “To do so is to spit in the faces of my Neapolitan ancestors.”

Khao sen and...

The quintessential Mae Hong Son dish - or perhaps simply the most popular dish in Mae Hong Son - is a bowl of khao sen. Literally ‘rice threads,’ it’s the local name for a dish combining the thin rice noodles known elsewhere in Thailand as khanom jeen and a thin, pork- and tomato-based broth -- a dish known in northern Thailand as khanom jeen nam ngiaw.

Sold alternatively early in the morning and late in the afternoon, khao sen is regarded as more of a snack than a meal. Vendors who sell the dish always tend to sell it with one other snack-like item such as khang pong, a type of local deep-fried vegetable fritter; deep-fried pork rinds or buffalo skin; or khao kan jin, rice and pork blood steamed in a banana leaf package.

I’ve touched on all of these dishes previously, but I suppose it wasn’t until this visit that I understood just how much the people in Mae Hong Son love them. Khao sen is pretty much the go-to snack here, and there are several places to get it in town, so I thought I’d try to corroborate the vendors I’m familiar with all in one post.

If you’re looking for a khao sen breakfast, you’ll have to go to Talaat Say Yut, Mae Hong Son’s morning market. There, three vendors sell the dish at the northern edge of the market:

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My personal favourite bowl, and my breakfast at least three or four days a week when I’m here, is served by the two ladies who also do a delicious shallot-based khang pong. In the Thai Yai style, the broth is thin, with only bits of meat, and the dish is topped with deep-fried crispy noodles, garlic oil and some coriander leaves. The vendor across from them, Yay Jang, sells a similar bowl plus a few banana leaf packages of khao kan jin.

During the day, the options are limited to one vendor at the Chao Pho Kho Mue Lek Shrine:

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The khao sen here includes chunks of blood (normal for the northern-style khanom jeen nam ngiaw, but unusual for the local style) and is served with a somewhat oily papaya-based khang pong (both pictured at the top of this post).

Mid-afternoon is, in my opinion, the best time for khao sen. A pair of friendly vendors operating from a rickety stall along Th Khunlumpraphas serve the dish with my favourite khao kan jin:

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The meaty rice is drizzled with garlic oil and served with sprigs of fresh coriander or, if they can get it, a type of aromatic root. The khao sen is also good, and is served with optional sides of deep-fried pork rind.

Around the corner, Yay Jang, the same vendor who serves the dish at the morning market, does the same two dishes, with a ‘raw’ version of khao kan jin, in which, I assume, raw blood is mixed with cooked rice:

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This one’s popular, and you can expect a line here.

Pho Phieng Phochana

Despite being a northern dish, and despite there being at least six places in Mae Hong Son that serve it, there’s little khao soi here worth recommending. Even one longstanding restaurant that specializes in the dish turns out bland, soulless bowls.

Pho Phiang Phochana, a homebound restaurant near Mae Hong Son’s airport, serves just about everything, including bowls of self-proclaimed ‘Chiang Mai khao soi.’ It was the sign advertising this fact that caught my attention, and that also got me to thinking about the dish. I used to think of khao soi as a northern dish – I’ve probably eaten it in nearly every province in northern Thailand. But if I’m being honest, it’s never really very good outside of Chiang Mai. And if I’m being extremely honest, even in Chiang Mai there are only maybe two places where I care to eat it.

But back to Pho Phiang Phochana. Of the bowls I’ve had in Mae Hong Son, I reckon they do the best one. The broth was just rich and spicy enough, and the sides were of good quality. My only real complaint would be that they overdid it on the crispy noodle topping, making it somewhat hard to get to the main event.

If you’re going to eat khao outside of Chiang Mai, you may as well do it here.

Pho Phiang Phochana Th Niwet Phisan, Mae Hong Son Open 10am-8pm

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How to make: A Thai-Yai meal you can make just about anywhere

I find the food up here in Mae Hong Son fascinating and love making and sharing local recipes. Unfortunately, many of the dishes call for obscure ingredients that aren’t generally available outside of Mae Hong Son or Myanmar’s Shan State.

With this in mind, I asked my neighbour, Phi Laa, a native of Mae Hong Son, to share some recipes I thought one could make just about anywhere. I’ve made no concessions to the following recipes, and assuming you have access to a basic Asian supermarket for some fresh herbs (lemongrass, Kaffir lime leaves, etc.), the most obscure ingredients you’ll need are shrimp paste, dried turmeric powder and sesame oil.

The first recipe is a simple but delicious salad, known locally as saa, of green tomatoes. Nuea tam, ‘pounded meat,’ is an deceptively simple side dish that’s meaty, salty and spicy. And finally, oop is the local word for a type of curry, the chicken version being arguably one of the most famous local dishes in Mae Hong Son. There are several variations on oop, some using different protein such as hard-boiled eggs or pork, with others based around vegetables such as eggplant, potatoes (oop aloo, from the Hindi word for potato) or ferns. The recipes for the various vegetable-based oop are nearly identical to the below, but don’t have lemongrass or lime leaves, and often include slices of pork belly.

Phi Laa was working too fast for me to record the exact amounts of the various ingredients, so I’ve done my best to provide my own estimates retroactively. But like any Thai cooking, you should taste often and rely on flavour (and experience), not amounts.

Saa Makhuea Som (Thai Yai-Style Tomato Salad)

Green and/or slightly unripe tomatoes, 5, seeded and sliced thinly Shallots, 5, sliced thinly Fresh chili, 4 (or to taste), chopped Cilantro and green onion, one stalk each, chopped Roasted peanuts, about ¼ cup, ground Salt, to taste Sesame oil*, to taste

Combine tomatoes, shallots, chili, herbs and peanuts. Season to taste with salt and oil.

Serve alone, as a snack, or with rice.

*The sesame oil in Mae Hong Son is made from unroasted black sesame seeds. It’s very different in flavour and appearance to the more ubiquitous Chinese-style roasted sesame oil. If you’re striving for authenticity, I’d suggest mixing 1 part Chinese sesame oil with 3 parts of some neutral-tasting cooking oil.

Nuea Tam (‘Pounded Meat’)

Coarse cut of beef, about ½ kilo, cut into chunks about the length of your pinky finger Turmeric, about ½ tsp Salt, 1 Tbsp Ginger, 1 piece about 4cm long, peeled and chopped Garlic, about 5 cloves, chopped Cooking oil, about ¼ cup Dried chili powder, to taste Salt

Put beef in a saucepan and cover with water. Add turmeric and salt. Bring to the boil, reduce heat slightly and simmer over medium heat, uncovered, until the water is completely evaporated and beef is tender.

After the beef is cool, pound the pieces in a mortar and pestle until flat:

By hand or using scissors, pull the threads of beef apart as thinly and finely as possible.

Pound ginger and garlic in a mortar and pestle until you have a coarse paste.

Heat oil in a wok. Add ginger and garlic mixture and fry briefly until fragrant. Add beef and fry over medium-high heat, stirring constantly to prevent from sticking as much as possible (inevitably, some of the beef will stick to the wok, which is OK and provides the dish with its desired dry texture and smokey flavour):

Add dried chili and season to taste with salt. Continue to cook until beef is dry and stringy.

Serve with rice.

Oop Kai (Thai Yai-Style Chicken Curry)

Curry Paste Salt, 1 tsp Small dried chilies, six (or to taste) Shrimp paste, 1 Tbsp Garlic, 3 cloves, chopped Shallots, 4, chopped Lemongrass, 2 stalks, sliced Tomatoes, 2, seeded Turmeric, about 1 tsp Masala*, about 2 tsp Kaffir lime leaves, 5

Chicken, 2 legs, jointed Cooking oil, about ¼ cup

Pound salt, shrimp paste and dried chilies in a mortar and pestle until you have a fine paste. Add garlic, shallots and lemongrass and pound until you have a coarse paste. Add turmeric, masala and tomatoes and grind until well-combined. Add Kaffir lime leaves and bruise:

In a wok, combine curry paste, chicken and cooking oil and enough water to nearly cover the chicken:

Cover, bring to a light boil and simmer over med-high heat.** When chicken is somewhat done and the oil has risen to the top, after about about 10 minutes or so, remove lid, increase heat and allow to simmer, uncovered:

until most of water is evaporated.

The resulting curry should be rich, fragrantly herbal and oily.

Serve with rice

*This is a local spice mix similar to Indian Garam masala, which can be used as a substitute. **I was genuinely surprised and somewhat skeptical about this cooking technique – most Thai cooks would fry the curry paste in oil first to allow it to amalgamate and release its oils and flavours – but it worked very well.

Lung Roen

Unfortunately Laap Phrae’s time in my personal restaurant limelight didn’t last very long. Only a couple days after eating there, I decided to hit up an open-air laap place at the outskirts of town.

I now have a new favourite laap restaurant in Mae Hong Son.

Lung Roeng does northern-style laap just as I like it: finely minced, relatively dry, lots of dried spice flavour and spicy.

They also serve grilled dishes, meat-based soups and som tam. In addition to beef laap (shown above), I also ordered tam som oh, a classic northern Thai dish combines pomelo, a black paste made from field crabs, slices of lemongrass and eggplant.

If this alone isn’t reason enough to make the trip, across the street is a woman selling the spectrum of local Thai Yai-style deep-fried snacks:

Including khang pong (strips of green papaya battered and deep-fried), thua phoo thawt (deep-fried tofu), and thua phoo lueang thawt (chickpea flour fritters).

Lung Roen Off Th Pracha Seksan, Mae Hong Son 085 723 991 10am-6pm Mon-Sat

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Canon PowerShot S90

Mae Hong Son, shot with the Canon PowerShot S90 (ISO 250, f/4.9)

In response to my own post of several months ago, I eventually settled on the Canon PowerShot S90.

I've generally been pretty happy with it, and it's liberating to be able to stuff a camera in my pocket rather than lug around an entire kit. A few other positives:

-Easy to manipulate f/stop and exposure -Has a 'fast' f/2 aperture at the wide end -Can shoot in RAW -As shown above, with lots of light and at low ISOs, I can get pretty good quality shots

Some failings:

-Flimsy construction, particularly the wheel that controls the previously-mentioned exposure -Shots generally tend to look 'flat' with little dynamic range -Pretty noisy, even when shooting in RAW at relatively low (400) ISOs:

Mae Hong Son's Wat Phra That Doi Kong Muu, shot with the Canon PowerShot S90 (ISO 400, f/2.0)

As always happens, I wish I'd held out a few months and bought the S95. I played with it in a store recently and the build is a lot stronger, although the image quality appears to be the same.

Panelle alla Mae Hong Son

As mentioned previously, people in northern Thailand love their deep-fried food. And in a weird twist of fate, one kind of deep-fried snack that’s particularly popular in Mae Hong Son is also associated with the streets of Sicily.

Known there as panelle, in Mae Hong Son they’re sometimes called tao huu thawt, literally ‘fried tofu.’ This is a misleading name, as the crispy deep-fried snacks are actually made from chickpea (garbanzo bean) flour.

An obscure ingredient that I’ve only ever encountered here in Mae Hong Son or in Indian groceries (where it’s known as besan), chickpea flour is also popular in Myanmar, particularly among the Shan, the same Tai ethno-linguistic group that inhabit Mae Hong Son, who use it to make something the Burmese call Shan tophu kyaw, ‘deep-fried Shan tofu,’ a dish that outsiders sometimes call Burmese tofu.

The vendors in Mae Hong Son’s morning market sell a variety of dishes using chickpea flour. In one, known as thua oon, ‘warm beans,’ the flour is boiled with water, and the thick, yellow, gelatinous liquid is served over noodles. In another version, the flour and water mixture are allowed to set until firm enough to cut into slices which are eaten in the form a spicy salad.

But the tastiest and seemingly most popular version is thua phu thawt, ie the panelle of Mae Hong Son, where the firm mixture is deep-fried. They’re light and rarely oily, and when hot, actually taste a lot like McDonald’s French fries. In Sicily they’re fried in wide, flat sheets and are apparently served in sandwiches. In Mae Hong Son’s morning market, they’re served as tiny triangles and come with a spicy/salty tamarind-based dip.

Recently a vendor started selling the dish near the house I rent up here. Her version, like those sold in Myanmar, are small and crispy, and are served with a dip that combines chickpea flour paste, lime juice and chili oil (pictured at the top of this post).

This snack and view from the vendor's stall:

are collaborating to take me from my work and make me fat.

Is there a link between the panelle of Sicily and the thua phu thawt of Mae Hong Son? My only guess is the Muslim influence that came to Sicily via the Moors and to Myanmar via India, brought with it chickpea flour. The fried dish that exists today in these disparate destinations could very well be a culinary coincidence.

If you want to make thua phu thawt, pick up a bag of besan at an Indian grocery and follow this Italian recipe. If you're in Mae Hong Son, simply go here:

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Laap Phrae

My favourite northern-style laap place in Mae Hong Son closed a while back and it’s taken until now to find a replacement.

On this visit I’ve been getting my laap on at Laap Phrae. Phrae is a province in northeastern Thailand that’s associated with this and other meaty, northern-style dishes, such as the infamous luu. The owners of this restaurant are natives of Phrae, but don’t do luu.

Instead, they do the remainder of the spectrum of northern Thai-style meat dishes, including a decent nuea nueng, beef steamed over herbs and served with a spicy galangal-based dip; various grilled meats, from the user friendly beef to the more challenging paeng nom, cow teats; and kaeng om, an herbal, meaty stew.

But I tend to stick to the laap. Their laap muu khua, northern-style fried pork laap (pictured above, served with greens and herbs and sticky rice), is good, but not amazing. The spice mixture is quite course and the seasoning a bit heavy-handed, but it’s a tasty full-flavoured and meaty meal. The beef version is probably a bit better, and is heavy on the pepper-like dried spices makhwaen and dee plee. They also apparently do laap khwaay, raw buffalo laap like I had up in Chiang Mai a few months ago.

Laap Phrae Th Siri Mongkol, Mae Hong Son 088 431 1754 10am-8pm

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Back in the MHS. Again.

I’m back north for my now-annual month in Mae Hong Son. The weather up here is cool and the leaves have changed colour, but foodwise, things aren’t quite the same this year. Pa Ni had eye surgery so her husband has been in charge of making the sweets. As a result, the suay thamin and alawaa are just slightly off. Pa Add is allegedly refurbishing her house and hasn’t been selling her amazing Tai Yai food at the evening market, and several visits to Baan Phleng have more miss than hit.

Luckily, there’s no lack of khao kan jin (pictured above), Mae Sri Bua is still cooking, and I've discovered a couple new places that I hope to share here. I also plan to share some local recipes that I reckon should be replicable just about anywhere. Stay tuned.