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Austin

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  1. Due to popular demand, I'll share the recipe for laap khua here. Unfortunately, the only one I seem to have around is for the "regular" version of northern-style laap, which is served with raw pork and pig blood! However I remember talking to a cook in an excellent laap restaurant in Pai, Mae Hong Son, and she said that the ingredients for raw and fried laap are the same--only the preparation is different. Again, the two ingredients that are essential to making this dish, ma khwaen, a dried spice, and phak phai, a fresh herb, are hard to find even here in Bangkok, so I can't imagine you'll have too much luck elsewhere, although I could be wrong. When I get a chance I'll take photos of both of these ingredients and post them here so you can at least get an idea of what they look like. I don't really like cooking with substitutes, so I'm not sure what to suggest in place of them. This is a translation from Thai, so forgive me if it doesn't sound "natural"! Laap Khua Curry paste large dried chilies, 7 coarsely chopped galangal, 1 Tbsp coarsely chopped garlic, 2 Tbsp coarsely chopped shallots, 3 salt, 1 tsp black peppercorns, 1 tsp coriander seeds, 1 tsp cloves, 3 cumin seeds, 1 tsp ma khwaen, 1 tsp Individually dry-roast each of the ingredients (except the salt) in a hot wok until fragrant, but not burned. Using a mortar and pestle, grind the roasted ingredients and salt into a fine paste. Set aside. cooking oil, 2 Tbsp ground pork, 250 g pork small intestines cut in to 1/2-inch lengths, 1/2 cup pork skin sliced thinly, 1/2 cup pork belly (including both skin and fat) sliced into thin chunks, 1/2 cup pork liver cut into small pieces, 1/2 cup fish sauce, 1 Tbsp phak phai (an aromatic fresh herb), 2 Tbsp chopped mint, 2 Tbsp thinly sliced green onion, 2 Tbsp chopped coriander, 2 Tbsp crispy fried garlic, 2 Tbsp a couple sprigs of mint In a wok over med-high heat, add oil, followed by curry paste mixture. Fry the curry paste, stirring constantly, until fragrant. If curry paste sticks or burns, reduce heat. Add all the meats and fry, stirring constantly to combine with the curry paste until the meats are cooked. If mixture is too dry, add water, a tablespoonful at a time. Add fish sauce and fresh herbs, stir to combine, and remove from heat. Serve laap khua, garnished with crispy fried garlic and additional mint, with sticky rice.
  2. Saturday's neighborhood market gave me the chance to eat a couple more northern Thai dishes. First was sai ua: This is a sausage that is among the most well-known northern Thai dishes. The stuff is filled with minced fresh herbs: lemongrass, chilies, kaffir lime leaf and galangal, and is laced with fatty chunks pork. It is grilled over coals, and sold by the kilo. I like to squeeze a bit of lime over it. The other dish I had was kaeng ho: Not very attractive looking, I know, but delicious nonetheless. It's stir fry (although it's known as a kaeng, a curry) of various ingredients--the word ho is a northern dialect word that, if I remember correctly, means "mixed up". It always includes a curry paste, glass noodles and pickled bamboo, but beyond those can be made with any veggie or bit of leftover meat that's sitting around the kitchen. Many northern Thai dishes make somewhat unusual use of noodles and are often earthy in both their flavor and color. Kaeng ho is a good illustration of this. I think I have a recipe for laap khua sitting around somewhere that I can translate for you guys, but I should warn you that if you can't get your hands on ma khwaen, then I wouldn't even bother. This spice essentially IS laap khua. In Thompson's Thai Food he includes a recipe for laap khua and suggests using Szechuan pepper as a substitute, but personally I don't think this is a good idea. Ma khwaen is somewhat spicy and numbing, like Szechuan pepper, but has a particular fragrance suggestive of gin (at least I think so!) that is quite different.
  3. Rick: Yes, I do food, as well as travel photos, and also some writing, again mostly about food!. I would encourage you to rent a vehicle while on Bali, this will allow you get around easier and really explore the food options. And eat local food!!! Austin
  4. For "real" (as opposed to touristy) Balinese food, I would recommend the night market at Gianyar. There you'll find delicious roast duck, oily but yummy fried veggies, spicy sambal, teriffic rojak and other great foods that, unfortunately, were somewhat hard to find at times. I enjoyed Balinese food, but found it very oily and fatty (I broke my tooth on a particularly resilient pork rind!). I would avoid the beachside restaurants on Jimbaran; we chose some beautiful, but very expensive, fresh fish and squid, only to see it ladled with a disgusting bottled chili sauce!! Austin
  5. I've always really enjoyed Saveur, although I must admit that here in Thailand the magazine is very expensive, and most of my experiece has been in reading the excellent website. That being said, I've always felt that the magazine was far too Western/European leaning. In looking at Mr. Oseland's website it appears that his background is firmly rooted in SE Asian cooking. I'm hoping that as a result of this we can possibly expect to see more Asian, and hopefully even African and Middle-Eastern based articles. Any chance of this, Mr. Oseland? Austin
  6. I love Thailand's regional foods, and am fortunate enough to live in a part of Bangkok where there are countless isaan (NE Thai) stalls, heaps of southern Thai restaurants, and even the odd northern Thai place. The last is by far the most difficult to find, and is rarely done well. Of all of Thailand's regional cuisines, I think it's the least known and the one that travels the least. This is unfortunate as when done well, I think northern Thai food is as good as any other Thai cuisine. My dinner tonight was northern Thai, and revolved around a few of the most famous dishes, so I thought I might post them here as sort of an intro. I think most people are familiar with laap, but the northern version, laap khua, or "fried laap" is almost certainly not as well known: As the name suggests, the meat, in this case pork, is fried in oil, along with a strong curry paste. Other than ground pork, this laap always includes lots of offal, as well as skin, and the curry paste contains a particular northern Thai spice called ma khwaen that has a spicy/numbing taste not unlike Szechuan pepper. Personally I think this dish is best made with beef, and the best version I ever had was at a wedding in Pai, Mae Hong Son province--the wedding guests, and I, were shocked at the amount I ate! Another characterstically northern dish is nam phrik num: This is a "dip" of roasted chillies (a particlar type of large green chili called phrik num), shallots, garlic and tomatoes all mashed together with a mortar and pestle. Depending on the chilies it can range from spicy to very, very spicy! I prefer it with a squeeze of lime. An almost obligatory accompaniment to nam phrik num is khaeb muu, deep-fried pork crackling: This dish is certainly one of my guilty pleasures. Unlike Mexican pork rinds, these are not flavored other than perhaps salt, but good, fresh northern Thai pork rinds are deliciously crispy and are available with or without the layer of fat! Another necessary accompaniment to nam phrik num are veggies: This is typically a combination of mostly par-boiled veggies such as snake gourd (shown above), cabbage, eggplant or greens, and maybe a fresh veggie such as crispy cucumber. All of this is taken with glutinous, or "sticky" rice. The rice is rolled into a ball and dipped into the various dishes. All these were bought takeaway at my local market, which is, unfortunately, generally the case with northern Thai food. Even up in Chiang Mai, there are very few sit down places where good northern Thai food is served. If you do have a chance to go up north, I would urge you to buy some food to go at one of the many evening markets, and ask your hotel restaurant if you can use their dishes in exchange for buying a few bottles of beer. At least that's what I always do! Probably the most famous northern Thai dish of all is khao soi--a curry noodle soup that is featured on numerous branches here as well as at my blog. I'll try to touch on some other dishes soon. In the meantime, it would be great if anybody could follow up with any experiences or questions about northern Thai food.
  7. khadija: Good question--I'd be curious to know about the noodles as well. My guess is that the Burmese generally use the dried noodles. At any Burmese market I've been to in northern Thailand and Burma there are lots of packaged dried noodles, but I've never seen (or at least never really noticed) the fresh ones. Incidentally, the noodles used in khao soi are a bit of a mystery as well. I've never seen them for sale in markets or anything. Perhaps the vendors make their own, or as khao soi is not generally made at home, they're simply not commerciallly available. I did an article on Burmese food in Bangkok for ThaiDay, a local paper, which includes a pic of a bowl of ohn no hkauk hswe. It can be found here. There's also lots of info on khao soi on my blog if you search around, and an article I wrote about khao soi for the Bangkok Post can be downloaded here. Look forward to seeing your results!
  8. Suzanne: You made your own sai ua and sai krok? Wow, that's pretty hardcore! Please post the results. My feeling is that the marinade you suggest wouldn't really "work" with shrimp--at least I've never seen in here in Thailand. I suggest you go ahead and grill your shrimp plain (and maybe try to get some squid?), but make a nam jim ahaan thale, Thai-style seafood dipping sauce, with chilies, garlic, lime juice and fish sauce. By som tam stand in, I assume you're just looking for any sort of sour/spicy salad? In that case you should just make a yam, a Thai-style salad. You'll just need a few basic ingredients, and can use any protein you like (a simple favorite of mine is yam khai dao, simply fry a few eggs, breaking the yolk, then cut them into strips and mix them up with the other yam ingredients!). An incredibly detailed, illustrated guide to making yam can be found here at my blog. Or if you really want to go the som tam route, why not try som tam ponlamai, "fruit som tam". Rather than shredded papaya, use chunks of cripsy green apples, guava, grapes, pineapple, etc. When done well it can be quite good. And believe it or not, there is a kind of som tam, tam taeng, that uses cucumber in place of papaya. Bruce: I think you're right when you say the dishes are more "Thai-style" but I think anyone here would happily dig into what you've been making--the dishes look great! If you can get your hands on them, a really nice version of Thai omelete can be made with fresh oysters.
  9. Wasn't aware either that yoghurt was available in Vietnam--maybe yet another remnant of French colonialism? An example can be seen here at the excellent Hanoi-based sticky rice blog. Austin
  10. I was at the Blue Elephant several months ago, although in the capacity of a journalist (I was taking photos for a magazine article), and was really impressed with the place. I was given a short, informal tour of the place, and greeted by the extremely friendly Thai owner and her equally friendly daughter, who is apparently also a cooking teacher. The facilities and equipment all looked very, very nice, and I was genuinely impressed with how friendly everybody seemed. I would very much like to go back and do a class, as they offered. I think the Blue Elephant has a bad rep here, but in my limited experience, seemed very nice, and the lunch I had that day featured some excellent Thai dishes. I have been fortunate enough to take part in the Oriental Hotel's Thai cooking school (for a different magazine article!). Again, as I wasn't actually a student at the Blue Elephant, I can't really compare, but to me the Oriental's seemed a bit more "intimate". Their classes are held in a beautiful old wooden house across the river from the hotel, and are taught by a personable and knowledgeable Thai man who used to be an English teacher! We made four or five dishes, which apparently change on a daily basis. My gripe as an avid cook would be that the ingredients were already chopped for you, leaving you just to mix and steam or fry or whatever. And lastly, I have also taken part in one of Bangkok's newest cooking schools, the Epicurean Kitchen Thai Cooking School (http://www.thaikitchen.com/cookingschool.html). Again, I can't really judge this seeing as I was, again there for free (article) and also that the school had JUST started up when we visited and were probably still working out some kinks. We were given a fun briefing by the host of a Thai cooking show in the US, although I'm not sure if this is a regular feature. And again, the ingredients were largely prepared in advance, and the teachers a bit inexperience and unorganized, although this may have changed by now. The article and photos from this experience can be seen here at my blog.
  11. I googled "mengda" and found a few, mostly irrelevant hits. There is an English name, unfortunately I can't find my book that has it! Where do you live? Maybe I can send you a vial? Austin
  12. You may indeed, depending on where you are, but even here in Thailand the maengdaa's "essence" has been synthetically reproduced and is available in small vials! Austin
  13. Nam phrik, literally "chili water," are a variety of spicy Thai dips. These dishes are essential to Thai cooking, but my impression is that they're largely neglected, even by Thai restaurants in Thailand. I think this is probably due to the fact that these dishes are very regional (and by association, provincial!), however more often than not, they're also delicious. Anyway, if you're wondering what it is I'm talking about, I wrote an article about nam phrik which originally ran in Fiery Foods and which I have posted here at my blog. I really encourage people to try one of the recipes, they're generally quite simple, and are as close you can get to "real" Thai food. Please do let me know if you have any questions about the recipes, or about nam phrik in general. Cheers, Austin
  14. maryeats: what you had was almost certainly laad naa. And you were right and the server was wrong (!) those were in fact tao jiaow, fermented soybeans, a Chinese ingredient that is used in many Thai-Chinese dishes. Unfortunately I don't really like this dish (don't care for the gelatinous brown sauce) so I'm not really sure how it's made. It' s popular dish so there must be resources somewhere out there on the web! (Incidentally, if you Google "Lanna" you'll almost certainly get information about a former northern Thai kingdom!) Austin
  15. Austin

    oxtail soup

    I think I would side with Soup. Thai-Muslims make an oxtail soup that is really liquid pleasure. Thais (Muslim or not) don't generally use stock when making these sorts of dishes, so I'm assuming the flavor is coming from the bones. On the other hand, like much Thai cooking, the oxtail flavor might actually be concealed by the copious use of lime juice, chilies, tamarind pulp and fish sauce, which may be what makes it taste so good! In any event, it's good, and the meat is virtually falling off the bones so I assume they're stewing it for a long time, probably several hours. Austin
  16. I've only ever made it with palm sugar, which I reckon is the norm here, so I really can't say how it would be otherwise. Palm sugar does have a wonderful flavor all its own (I love to eat it raw, and I'm not a big fan of sweets), so I imagine it probably tatstes quite different when carmelized. It can't be too expensive, regardless of where you are, so pick some up and try it! Austin
  17. Meez: the dinner looks great, although I've never seen pork belly sold by street vendors as you mention in your blog! Those interested in trying to make sweet pork belly can find a recipe here. eJulia: you might want to start with my sweet pork belly recipe above, it's very, very, very easy and requires only a few staple ingredients. I'm from Portland (Sandy, actually, up near Mt Hood) and recall a pretty good Thai grocery called Lily over Halsey. Although if I were in Portland right now I'd say sod off to the Thai food and buy a loaf of ciabatta at the Pearl Bakery! But that's just me... Austin
  18. Bruce: Looks awesome! Despite being from SE Asia, nutmeg is not used in any curry pastes that I'm aware of (although mace sometimes is), so I'm not sure if that flavor would really "work". Peanuts are a common option in this particular curry. I'm glad you found my instructions easy to follow. I'm trying to make them as clear as possible for those who may not be familiar with Thai food. I'm also trying to adapt them a bit, for instance frying the curry paste for 20 minutes. Most Thai cooks wouldn't bother to take this much time. I've found that following some Western cooking techniques, namely slowing things down a bit, can improve Thai dishes. Austin
  19. You said that you have Thailand sussed out, but I wanted to mention the city of Trang, in southern Thailand. It has one of the most colorful outdoor morning markets featuring all kinds of great regional produce and seafood, as well as arguably the best night market in the country, featuring amazing southern Thai dishes of every kind. Trang is also known for its old-world coffee shops and its dim sum shops, as well as lots of Thai-Muslim food. I think it could be considered the best food city in Thailand. Austin
  20. Quite coincidentally, just as I was contributing to this thread, I also happend to apply for a photographer job with a local publishing company that produces a few travel/lifestyle/inflight magazines here in BKK. The head of this outfut saw my application and portfolio, wasn't particularly impressed, and had this to say (I've rephrased it slightly, as of course it's not very nice to include somebody else's email in public forum!): "...food photography shot at f4 will never get published in a serious magazine. Food photography demands an f stop of 22 or more. f45 if you can get it. Food photography cannot be done with natural light alone." Hmmm... Basically the opposite of what we've seemed to come to a consensus here of what food photography currently is! Now I'll the first to admit that I have very, very little experience in professional photography (I've been shooting professionally for only a little over a year), but I really feel that this guy is totally out of touch with what's going on right now. Of cousre, as we've been discussing, things will change, but I somehow doubt that we are going to swing back to the staged and stuffy multiple studio lights medium format f45 (!!) style! So I guess it's a good thing he's not interested, as I'm not yet ready to invest in lens that stops down to f/45! Austin
  21. I just realized that this branch concerns food photography "in the UK", but oh well... I am in Thailand, and am currently photographing (and writing) a cookbook on southern Thai food. Here is an image of Phanaeng curry I plan to include in the book: I think this photo involves a lot of the attributes we've discussed so far; little DOF, 100% natural light (although I used a reflector) and no unecessary/"artificial" props/backgrounds. It is also very close and taken at the same level as the dish, rather than from above, which is also something I've noticed a lot recently. I honestly wasn't emulating these trends; frankly I have a very low budget, and made the curry myself, used one of my own bowls, put it all on a piece of colored paper and took it with a digital SLR! I can't afford to buy studio lighting, not to mention superflous silverware/dishtowls etc., and personally, I think it came out quite well considering the circumstances! I think this kind of photograpy benefits the photographer, which is a good thing. Austin
  22. Bruce: I get it now; I originally read it as "op", which means baked in Thai. I am familiar with "oop", having had this dish many times in Mae Hong Son province in northern Thailand, a place where there are many Shan people. In fact, I have a special spice mix I bought there specifially meant to be used with oop, and like to make a version that uses hard-boiled eggs. Oop are similar to Burmese curries, in that they are, as you mentioned, thick rather than watery, use dried spices, and tend to be very, very oily! This is a very particular dish, and I'm sure that most people in Bangkok have never heard of it. Austin
  23. That's sage advice, except when people disregard the"recipes''... the dishes are no longer authentic right? ← You're misquoting me! Preceding the sentence you quoted I said "Especially when seasoning things, ..." Obviously if you're not familiar with the food, you'll need to follow recipes. But in terms of Thai food, I would encourage people to adjust the the levels of hot, sour, salty and sweet to a degree that they enjoy. Often the cookbooks are really conservative in this aspect. Bruce: I've never heard of makhuea op. Where does that recipe come from? The nam tok looked nice. It's a NE Thai dish, so if you wanted to be really authentic, you should try with sticky rice and a simple omelette! Austin
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