429 replies to this topic

[=Mark]

As a result of the Thai Cooking with David Thompson thread I got an uncontrollable yearning for Larb. As a result I packed it over to Mie Thai to quell the urge. Imagine my horror when after scanning the menu there was no Larb on it!

Asking the server He confirmed that Larb was not on the lunch menu...

Observing my quivering lower lip and the fact that I was obviously about to burst into tears he said he'd check with the kitchen. (Tense moments go by...)

Yaaay! They agreed to make me Larb!

Since it was a cold day I decided to start with a bowl of Tom Ka Gai, Chicken soup with cocanut milk, lemongrass, cilantro, green onion, straw mushrooms, lime juice and LOTS of chiles!



Then, the Main Event! Larb!



Afterwards I decided to take the scenic route home on Rt. 36 along the Bayshore of Raritan bay south of New York Harbor. Since I had my camera and would be driving within a block of it I figured I'd shoot a picture of the Quick Stop mini mart featured in most of Kevin Smith's movies... (Hey, at least it's food related!)



All in all a fulfilling afternoon!

Edited by =Mark, 04 March 2003 - 02:21 PM.

[torakris]

I think it is time for laab again!
Snowangel,
I once tried it with regular tofu and was very disappointed.
For the tuna, I am assuming raw?

[Anna N]

OK so you've all done it again! Had to have laab today - used leftover rib steak cooked very rare. Loved the laab but made it way too spicy and thought I'd never recover. But what a way to get yet another good meal from a steak.

[snowangel]

For the tuna, I am assuming raw?

Yes, and it was wonderful.

[torakris]

Made it last night

Thai Food version

Excellent

[Stone]

=mark, i'm not a big fan of gratuitous garnish. i could do without the 'maters, purple stu, and carrot. 

=Mark, that's the most gorgeous picture of larb I've ever seen! I think the garnishes really brighten up the dish. I can't imagine they would hurt.

Time for more laaarrrbbbb....

I'm sure it was delicious, but I concur with Tommy. Most of the larb I've had is just meat and flavorings.

[Lyle]

The larb I had today was served with very finely shredded cabbage and carrot. I do prefer the lettuice. Are these cabbage and carrots a trend in restaurants to differentiate themselves from the pack (I have never had it served with anything other than lettuice...and a garnish) or has it always been sort of a grab bag of condiment?

[Blue Heron]

I ordered take-out Larb from my neighborhood Thai place last night.

So far, every larb I've tasted has been slightly different. The one last night had a most excellent combination of flavors, but also included a slight taste of sweetness which I had never tasted before, in conjuncton with the lime juice, fish sauce, green onion, red onion, red chile flakes, & chopped chicken flavor. And it was verrry juicy, just the way I like it, and served on lettuce. No garnish. I don't think it even had ground toasted rice, but it sure was good. I ate the left overs for lunch today.

tommy... our master of larb... do you like sweetness, or have you ever tasted a combination including sweetness as a component of your larb?

[tommy]

tommy... our master of larb... do you like sweetness, or have you ever tasted a combination including sweetness as a component of your larb?

a don't recall ever picking up an aggressive element of sweetness in larb. however, i do make mine with a pinch of sugar. for me, it's all about the heat and the acidity. but not so much the humidity.

[Blue Heron]

tommy... our master of larb... do you like sweetness, or have you ever tasted a combination including sweetness as a component of your larb?

a don't recall ever picking up an aggressive element of sweetness in larb. however, i do make mine with a pinch of sugar. for me, it's all about the heat and the acidity. but not so much the humidity.

As I was eating it, I kept thinking of that cookbook Hot Sour Salty Sweet, and this larb I had last night had all of that. I could pick out each component, although they melded together well, and it was nice. But I had just never identified the sweet before when eating it. I remember the first one I had that was on the sour (or maybe bitter) side, which would have been improved with a pinch of sugar, I think.

It's all about balancing the flavors.

[snowangel]

I roll over in bed this morning. It is still dark. I squint at the clock -- 5:45 am. I hear noise. No one should be up in my house at that hour. I grab my robe, and come out into the kitchen. The lights are on, and Diana is cooking. Making larb. "Mom, I just have to have larb for my school lunch today." I'm having larb for lunch today, too.

[torakris]

made something last night that was bettter than laab! (hope this doesn't get me kicked out of this thread )

I guess you could call it salmon laab if you really wanted to, basically the same ingredients (chillies, shallots, nampla, lime, sugar, coriander, mint) it is sprinkled with roasted peanuts instead of roasted rice.
A piece of salmon is marinated in soy sauce, left to dry on a rack, then seared until rare and flaked into the salad with salmon roe (ikura).

Check out he dinner thread for more info!

[tommy]

made something last night that was  bettter than laab! (hope this doesn't get me kicked out of this thread )

I guess you could call it salmon laab if you really wanted to, basically the same ingredients (chillies, shallots, nampla, lime, sugar, coriander, mint) it is sprinkled with roasted peanuts instead of roasted rice.
A piece of salmon is marinated in soy sauce, left to dry on a rack, then seared until rare and flaked into the salad with salmon roe (ikura).

Check out he dinner thread for more info!

you're dismissed.


but actually, that's not much unlike another larb-like dish. i forget the name. but i think it's on the thread somewhere. as i recall, jason perlow had it and posted, and i turned out that i happened upon it the same day.

anything larb-like is good (and that includes yum woon sen, my second favorite dish).

[torakris]

made something last night that was  bettter than laab! (hope this doesn't get me kicked out of this thread )

I guess you could call it salmon laab if you really wanted to, basically the same ingredients (chillies, shallots, nampla, lime, sugar, coriander, mint) it is sprinkled with roasted peanuts instead of roasted rice.
A piece of salmon is marinated in soy sauce, left to dry on a rack, then seared until rare and flaked into the salad with salmon roe (ikura).

Check out he dinner thread for more info!

you're dismissed.


but actually, that's not much unlike another larb-like dish. i forget the name. but i think it's on the thread somewhere. as i recall, jason perlow had it and posted, and i turned out that i happened upon it the same day.

anything larb-like is good (and that includes yum woon sen, my second favorite dish).

I was quite worried I may have lost my goods standing among the followers of the laab thread!

Please elaborate for the unknowing, what is yum woon sen?

[SobaAddict70]

I was wondering -- would fruit (no not lime juice, I mean actual diced fruit or brunoised fruit) enhance larb? I mean, certain types of fruit and pork go very well together.

Just a thought.

Not sure when I'll be able to resume a normal life. Work this week is totally consuming me.

Soba

[tommy]

Please elaborate for the unknowing, what is yum woon sen?

click here for a photo.

it's a salad of mung bean noodle, round chix or pork, a few shrimp, cilantro, chilis, lime juice, and fish sauce. similar in taste to larb, but with the brilliant texture of mung bean noodle. usually served on some lettuce. it's so wonderful, especially if you like mung bean noodle...and every should like mung bean noodle.

[torakris]

Thanks! I will give that a try.
I have tons of mung bean noodle, I keep picking up a pack thinking I am not when I am really not?!

[snowangel]

My neighbors had a party on Saturday night. Complete with the Mexican band, carnitas, homemade tortillas, that wonderful pico (very light on the tomatoes, very heavy on the jalapenos), lots of beer, people of all ages. It was wonderful.

They always invite us, and I'm never quite sure how to reciprocate. So, this time, I made larp, sticky rice, and Thai squid salad (squid, handfuls of bird chiles, cilantro, red onions and lime juice.

They loved it, and Cruz and I are going to trade -- she'll give me tamale lessons and I'll give a larb lesson.

[torakris]

I can't believe it has been almost a month since we last discussed larb!
What on earth has everyone been doing that is more important than this dish!

I had a squid salad last night that was almost a squid version of larb, it was absolutely heavenly!

just barely cooked squid tossed with nampla, lime juice, sugar, chiles, kaffir lime leaf, lemon grass and mint all scooped up with romaine lettuce leaves..................... still dreaming about it!

[AndrewM]

In the June Saveur (with the watermelon on the cover) there is an article on northeastern Thailand that includes a recipe for Laab Pla Duk (grilled catfish larb) and a reference to laab kai mod daeng - larb made with ant eggs, mint and lime juice.

Mmmmm. Ant eggs.

[Varmint]

I didn't have laab/larb last night, but I did eat at a Thai friend's house, and one of the dishes was this awesome green papaya and dried shrimp salad.

But I digress. I learned that the correct pronunciation of laab/larb/larp is almost like the first syllable in labyrinth, but the short "a" is drawn out a bit. It's not "lawb" or "larb", more like laaab. Just in case you might be interested!

[tommy]

I didn't have laab/larb last night, but I did eat at a Thai friend's house, and one of the dishes was this awesome green papaya and dried shrimp salad.

no, you don't really digress.

this dish is one of my favorites. i'd say it has a similar flavor profile to laab. sour, sweet, spicy if you want it. it's such a fresh tasting dish. texturally, it's da bomb.

[snowangel]

I didn't have laab/larb last night, but I did eat at a Thai friend's house, and one of the dishes was this awesome green papaya and dried shrimp salad.

no, you don't really digress.

this dish is one of my favorites. i'd say it has a similar flavor profile to laab. sour, sweet, spicy if you want it. it's such a fresh tasting dish. texturally, it's da bomb.

Som tam. Traditionally eaten in Thailand with sticky rice. Yes, it is da bomb. As is the squid version of larb that Torakris mentions. My Mexican neighbors love both. And, believe it or not, they do work with tortillas.

[Jason Perlow]

Recently at a local Thai restaurant (Bangkok Garden in Hackensack, NJ) I had a dish called "Nam Sod". Mind you they didnt have LARB on the menu, but they had this -- which is basically chicken Larb -- wokked up ground chicken, with an acidic dressing (pretty much the larb dressing) but with LOTS of chopped up ginger and lemongrass and chopped up peanuts in it

Is Nam Sod just another name for a regional variant of Larb or is it really a different dish?

Here's some recipes:

http://bangkokcuisin...nam_sod_moo.htm

http://thai-sv.com/t.....0Sod Pork.txt

http://importfood.co...es/naemsod.html

http://www.joycesfin...nam_sod_moo.htm

Note that these are made with ground pork, not ground chicken.

here's a chicken one, although probably not authentic as it uses hoisin sauce:

http://2worksforyou....es/namsod.shtml

[snowangel]

Growing up in Thailand, I don't recall ground chicken in anything. Any chicken was usually hacked up (a large dice, bones and all). Ground pork, yes. Come to think of it, I don't even recall anything with ground beef. And, I believe than about 90% of my "growing up" larb was with raw pork. Now, this was back in the 1970's, and things may have changed.

I'll check out "nam sod" and ask some of my Thai friends about it. It's not ringing a bell.

[mamster]

We've eaten a lot of larb gai (with minced chicken) in Thailand, but it usually has a hand-minced quality and sometimes includes liver. When I make larb with chicken at home I grind the meat in the food processor and the texture is great.

[tommy]

When I make larb with chicken at home I grind the meat in the food processor and the texture is great.

i hear ya kid. i was all excited to get my grinder attachment for my kitchenaide thing. after using it, i realized that the food processor does a much better job for this application. the grinder is good for sausage is suppose.

and i'm one of those people who likes the occasional bit of metallic liver in my larb. i'm guessing jason perlow is *not* one of those people.

[torakris]

I prefer to hack away at my chicken with two cleavers!

[Marlene]

Ben, glad to hear your larb turned out yummy, too! 

Alas, my cuisinart is too big to grind rice and my grinder smells like coffee powder, and I don't have a mortar/pestal (it's on my x-mas list), so believe it or not I had to resort to putting my toasted rice in a ziplock and use my hammer on it to get it to break up  . After much hammering which also scared my cat, I finally had my ground rice.

Snowangel, thanks for the tips on the sweet rice.  I even have some, but didn't think to use it.  I will next time. (Sweet rice is the same as sticky rice, yes?).  Also when you say you use raw pork, do you mean ground pork?

I can't believe I actually read through this whole thread.

Um Ben, could you use a rolling pin with your toasted rice in a Ziplock bag? I used my rolling pin and ziplocks extensively to grind up nuts and other things before I got a spice grinder.

Just a thought.

[torakris]

I had another larb type salady thingie yesterday, this time made with bamboo shoots.
I sort of followed a recipe from Thai food and it it turned out great!