OnigiriFB
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Wow... Some action! Love it.
Since I'm the least qualified of you guys to make a convincing Khao Soi (I am a French girl not even living in Bangkok and I'm back home presently, not even there anymore!), with the added handicap that I've never made one in my whole life, let alone tasted one, I feel all the more eager to join in. So many obstacles, so much excitement.
As a tribute to my dear friend khun Pim, I'll follow the recipe on her blog. I absolutely trust her cooking skills and knowledge. When Pim was in Paris recently, we missed a wonderful opportunity of cooking a Thai meal together and taking pictures. The missed opportunity was entirely my fault. I won't be doing this to make up for the loss, but as a symbolic way to compensate somehow.
So I'll post my khao soi on my blog when I have gathered the ingredients, but here's my question: how do we judge the results of the contest?
Edit: yes, of course I'll post the pics here too!
Alright! I can't wait to see a French girl's khao soi. Hope you won't have any difficulty getting the ingredients where you are. The only thing I wouldn't be able to get in a local supermarket is the fresh noodles and the pickled mustard green (both essential to this dish) so good luck!
Wow you've eaten Pi Pim's cooking, I'm jealous. Her food always looks divine and I'm a great fan of her blog. Can't wait to see what she shows us when she's in Thailand.
** see I'm too nice to have talked smack to Austin**
Oh and slight change of plans, I'm off to visit a friend but I'll make the khao soi as soon as I get home and get everything posted later this afternoon.
And NO Austin, I'm NOT deliberately delaying my khao soi debut. But I do want time to pretty the dish up. My reputation as a Thai girl on the line and all...
edited for spelling because i's so edumacted.
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I'm partial to eating yamaimo fresh as a salad. Peel, slice and chop into matchstick size pieces. Top with nori (optional) and dress with your favorite rice vinegar-based dressing. A citrus or ume dressing works nicely for this application.
Thank you sanrensho. Could you tell me what it taste like?
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Not too bad.... for a white guy! I'll be posting my creation later today since it's only 8 am here. I'm also having my khao soi for lunch so hopefully I can get pictures up by this afternoon. So we shall see who reigns supreme heh?
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I've never had this before and have read a bit about it here and in Bourdain's Cook's Tour book where he says it's nasty. I'm curious and in another thread I posted about finding fresh mountain yam at my local asian market. I didn't pick it up this time but thought if you all could help me I might next time. Question is for someone who has never tried this what would you do with it? What cooking method/flavoring shows this vegetable at it's best. I like slimy food so I'm not worried about that and have never disliked any japanese cuisine I've had so far. So what do you experts out there think I should do? In Garlic and Sapphire Ruth Reidl talks about a hand roll with this in it and she made it sound wonderful but not sure if that would be the best way to try this out the for the first time or not.
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I'm not saying you won't find a tad of sweetness to basil chicken but usually the sweet taste comes from plain old white sugar. The dark soy sauce added its own distinct flavor that is not just sweet but soy flavored which I found wierd in basil chicken. Call me old fashion but I don't think I would like the sweet version you mentioned.
Edited to add: good point about taste factors but that works in any restaurant/cuisine. I have an indian restaurant I adore but a guy I know from india thinks its horrible. Its more northern while he is from the south. The place he likes I think isnt as good. *shrug*
I agree about the screet carts/little shops. They make the dish day in day out obvious they have a lot of practice on making that dish well. I always found it funny that when a particular street stall becomes "popular" people always start saying they put drugs in it! But then you start seeing the mercedes and jags lined up or the poor chauffer or maid waiting in line for the ladies who couldn't deign to eat on the street.
Then you KNOW its good. -
The squigly things aren't colored are they? If they are I don't remember the name but I think its made out of tapioca powder and colored with food color? Someone correct me if I'm wrong...
That was one of the desserts I actually liked. Especially the green one.
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*sigh* And he (Austin) says I am talking smack. I ask you all ... what's a poor innocent, sweet Thai girl like me to do? Of course I have to defend the honor of all Thais out there. I mean if I White guy can cook better than a Thai girl what hope is there for the future of Thai cuisine? Next thing you know Thai people will be thinking that butter is an acceptable ingredient in Thai cuisine! (Not that there is anything wrong with butter especially Plugra but umm... in Thailand it's not commonly used.)
Prasatin - of course Austin is an attention *****! I do agree though that on blogspot it is easier to post pictures and step by step byplays. Maybe we can post a finished dish here for all to judge? What do you think Austin?
S. American - I went shopping for the ingredients tonight. I'll be using Pim's recipe and most of the stuff is easy to find in any asian market. I've been pretty lucky that Iowa has a good population of Vietnamese (the govenor during the Vietnam War invited refugees to settle here so theres quite a large community) people. There's quite a few thai groceries and vietnamese ones in Des Moines (capital of state) so I can get just about anything I've needed so far. If you friend in NE doesn't mind a drive tell him to try Double Dragon in Des Moines on 2nd street. They have the best selection I've seen. Great fresh vegetables. I even found japanese yams there tonights (thinking I'll be trying those out sometime) and even premade dim sum which I had never seen before. Granted a lot of stuff is frozen and obviously imported but isn't too bad. I love that the place is owned by a Vietnamese, run by Loatians, and shopped in by just about every nationality in the state. There were at least 3 "white" couples, a few mixed race couples and asians of all nationalities there tonight. The only thing thats a little annoying is a lot of stuf is labeled in vietnamese so I have to figure stuff out by just looking at it or pray that someone was nice enough to put english labels too. I even picked up some phuk bung (water spinach?) which is my favorite thai veggie, fresh chicken feet, and bitter melon if that gives you an idea of whats available to me.
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Maybe we have different methods but I cook the rice first and allow it to cool (or use leftover rice, obviously). Then I fry garlic and bacon or ham or sausage (whatever) and tip the rice into the hot, garlicky oil and toss it around to heat through and brown a bit. Then I add fish sauce or soy, stir through and finish with scallions. (Some people add eggs to the pan before the rice but I prefer a fried egg with a runny yolk as a last minute addition.) I like a squeeze of lime, cucumber slices and fish sauce with chillies as accompaniments. What's your method?
What he said....
I'll "third" that motion
SB (likes it for using up left-overs)
I "fourth" that motion. One thing we did in the restaurant if we ran out of day old rice was to take fresh rice and spread it out on a cookie sheet. Through this mixture into the freezer for a bit and then fry. Kept the rice intact and prevented sticking.
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MMmmm chitlins... I loves me sum chitlins. Nullo man you need be inviting this girl over for dinna.
I've had chitlins prepared asian style and southern style. Both are delicious. The only thing I remember about cleaning this is that the dishwasher (peon in the kitchen of a thai restaurant that made these for a special day) had to do the cleaning and he pushed a chopstick through them to make sure there were... er..no remnants. Oh and he was doing this in a sink under running water. Hope that helps.
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Everyone as listed some great ideas, some new to me and some I also do. I love bringing leftovers, especially thai, indian, korean, chinese, and japanese as these seem to heat up well. Sometimes when I cook I'll make extra and lpack a few in tupperwares for that week's lunches (I do a lot of heavier cooking on Sunday) and freeze a few for later in the month so I don't get bored with eating the same thing over and over. I love those throwaway tupperware thingies. They've made my life a lot easier.
One of my favorites right now is pita and hummus sandwhiches. I warm the pita in the oven, spead it with premade hummus, top with alfalfa sprouts, fold it in half, and wrap the warm bread in aluminum foil. By the time lunch rolls around the pita is still soft and the hummus has protected the sprouts so they are still crunchy. Healthy and tasty. I'll even admit that sometimes I don't er... wait for lunch and have eaten it for breakfast. Yes, I know I'm wierd.
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Trillium I'm not trying to disparage Kosma's cooking but I've tried a few of her recipes and they just didn't taste like what I recall eating all those years in Thailand and growing up.
As in the States some dishes are regional dishes, as in they originated from this or that part of Thailand. Khao Soi is a dish that is famous to the north, phad thai is more of a middle region dish, som tum is more a northeastern dish, and fish curry is a famous southern dish that knocks the socks off most Thai people spicy wise. So when one tries a dish that originated in whichever region there are certain aspects one looks for. Yes, there are deviations but usually these deviations do not subtract from the original but branch off. Example som tum (papaya salad or papaya bokbok I believe it's been called in english). This dish is found everywhere in Thailand. In the NE they like using fermented fish as a seasoning, in the middle they like using salted black crabs (yum!) or water beetles (yuck I hate this one), in Bangkok they use dried shrimp. Each of these different som tums are tasty but for slight differences in flavor the the different add ins stay true to the original dish which should be a good combo of spicy/salty/sour/sweet.
From my experience from Kosma's recipes she has a strange liking for the use of dark soy sauce (this soy sauce is thicker than light (normal) soy sauce and is sweet) in places I don't think work well. Re-reading her recipe for khao soi and it looks like she adds it here too! One recipe that really didn't work for me was her recipe for basil chicken. This is a dish I have eaten all over Thailand, north to south and in quite a few well known Thai restaurants in the US. (I have no idea of the names, my Dad owned two thai restaurants and he had quite a network of other Thai restauranteers everytime we went somewhere we would go to his friend's restaurant for dinner I remember a really popular one in Miami that was awesome but heck if I know the name.) From street cart to high end Thai restaurants it's pretty much the same. Kosma's recipe include dark soy sauce in this dish which changed the taste of the dish from what I normally have eaten. It gave it a better presentation (colorwise) but wasnt' that great IMHO. Tastewise it was more on par with what I have found in Thai restaurants here that cater towards a more american palatte or a touristy Thai restaurant in Bangkok which leans more toward sweeter dishes. While some people may like this version better (and there is nothing wrong with that) I personally do not.
[ Funny tangents: there is a Thai saying about how girls from the north are sweet and those from the south are not so sweet. One of my aunties came from the north and every once in awhile she would let out a "jao" which is northern dialect used similar to "kha" and my family would smile indulgently while sprouting off the "wisdom" about northern Thai girls and how great my uncle was for choosing well.
]Looking at Pim's recipes and reading through her blog I don't find her recipes to be particularly "royal" in style. She just tends to use good ingredients, makes her own products, and like her style in general include foods found in a higher economical level than what you may see in a Thai restaurant abroad. But for the most part the dishes she cooks are similar to the ones my family ate both in home, on the street, or in a Thai restaurant. Her family seems to be more hi so (thai slang for high society) than mine but we ate the same kinds of dishes.
If you really want "royal" cuisine try Khao Chae. It's rice soaked in ice cold jasmine water with highly flavored tidbits to eat with it. The first time I tried this (my family did it every year for some special annual party) I HATED it.
It took me five years to learn to tolerate it but even then I was really glad it was so painstaking to make that they only did it once a year. Wonder if that makes me more low class since I'd take a bowl of noodles from a street stall any day over that? 
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There you go Austin. I absolutely adore ChezPim
She's very hi-so. I think her version is more "thai". She makes her own red curry paste (not listed in this recipe) and she would make a good Thai daughter-in-law. I'm not that ambitious so alas I am would not Erk, no beansprouts? Maybe I'm going senile? Or I'm thinking another dish but I thought there was always beansprouts. Usually cut up into small pieces? Oops!
Edited: to add those pesky words that my mind sees but my hands forget to type.
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If you didn't have pickled mustard greens with your Khao Soi then you were missing a major flavor component IMHO. Not only does it help add a new texture to the dish the odd bite of sourness helps cut the creaminess/slight sweetness of this dish. Khao soi works best if you add all the garnishments. Most are served with fresh bean sprouts, sliced pickled mustard greens, fried noodles (I remember chow mein looking stuff), sliced shallots, and limes. Be sure to squeeze the juice from a few lime wedges into your soup. Stir well to combine. Each garnishments adds something interesting and melds into what make Khao Soi so addicting.
Looking at Kosma's recipe it seems a bit off. I've had some luck with her recipes but to me the always seem a bit "not quite like home". When I saw Pim's (which is how I found her blog and got into food blogging) it made more sense to me. I think I'll be trying it out soon since all this talk has given me a BAD craving.
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*sigh* I'm becoming a regular on this thread!
Ok someone asked about what to do with sardines so it gave me a craving for this thai ghetto meal. This is yum (thai salad) sardines. Looks umm... kinda nasty but once again tasty pretty good! It's really easy if the picture hasn't turned you off to the idea of eating this. Open can of sardines in tomato sauce, add sliced shallots and chopped thai chili, pinch of salt, fish sauce, and lime juice to taste. Add cilantro if have any I didn't. Probably would have helped lookwise....
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Kaya? It's a sort of coconut jam that, on top of the coconut milk, requires quite a few eggs, sugar, and either pandan leaf juice/flavoring or caramelized sugar.
I have a huge jar of Kaya in the fridge....I am feeding my husband nutella and kaya on toast every morning until both are gone!
yum! I just love kaya...everyone needs to try it
Do you have a good recipes? I'm going to get some pandan essence so I can make pandan pound cake and this sounds good too.
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Hi, My name is Onigiri and I am not allowed to walk into places like william sonoma and pottery barn without a friend to drag me out....
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That Khao Soi looks great. The only version I have tasted is one I made last year so I wonder if you could give me a better sense of the broth. How rich/coconut-creamy and how spicy is it? (I understand there will be a range depending on vendor) Similar or thicker than more common in the US soups that use coconut milk or so rich you can barely finish the last bit in the bowl. Mildly spicy so you can add extra chili or hot on its own- similar to a red curry or?
Thanks
It shouldn't be too creamy and mildy (er to Thais) spicy. I love love love this dish. THe thing that makes it interesting to me is all the textures and different flavors that come through. You HAVE to have it with pickled mustard greens or it's just not right to me. BTW Pim has a recipe for this on her blog. I haven't had a chance to try it out yet but I'm sure it's authentic and tasty.
Austin - great pics and blog as always. Phad Thai version is one I have never seen before. I'm not sure how much I would like it. Then again I like Kai Yut Sai so maybe I will.
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You can donate them to me!
Hrm.. you could try tom kha gai (spicy coconut chicken soup), red or green curry, or some desserts. Quite a few thai desserts use coconut milk. It makes a pretty interesting jello as long as you layer it over something sweeter. Theres a thai dessert that uses a green (pandan maybe) jello on the bottom and a coconut jello on top thats pretty tasty. Just get some agar agar and whatever flavorings.
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Oh wow look good though even for this Thai girl there seems to be a lot of peppers. I'm not sure I could handle it or all the oil either
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Oooo I love the curried beef pastries. You wouldnt' have a recipe would you?
Might this work for you? Curried beef pasties certainly looks good to me ...
Thanks GG. I looked over the recipe and it doesn't look half bad but the ones I remember from Thailand are more like indian samosas. Wierdly enough it was always some chinese ah ma selling them on her street stall though so I associate it more with chinese food/snacks. I faintly remember ground beef and potatoes (heavier on potatoes) in a curry sauce wrapped in a pastry. It usually had quite a bite from white pepper (I think). Man now I have a craving.....
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One of my favorite ways is to make a yum, which is a thai salad. My dad would often buy the canned sardines in tomato sauce found in most asian markets. It's probably the quickest thai meal I can make. Just open can of sardines, toss in sliced shallots or red onion, minced thai peppers, pinch of sugar, maybe salt, and squeeze of lime. Mix well. You add the flavourings as you like it. I also toss in some chopped cilantro if I have some on hand. Serve with sliced cucumbers, leaf lettuce, and rice. Yum in more ways than one!
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OnigirFB, you're great, but this wholesome day's food --wholesome breakfast - granola, oatmeal , muslix, yogurt, etc
wholesome lunch - turkey sandwich on wheat bread, apple, cookie or vegetable beef soup with cheese and crackers
wholesome dinner - rice, stirfry veggies and protein, miso soup
-- um... blech. Give me my Cornish pasties and a couple of pints!
Er thats kinda what I eat in a typical day. Well ok not lunch wise. Usually I just bring whatever leftovers I have from last nights dinner. I would feel comfortable feeding this to children. Chris... since your a big kid now of course you can have Cornish pasties and a couple of pints.
I'm not sure though does a couple of pints qualify for wholesome? I guess... hrm it is made out of grains... -
I was actually thinking about this but couldn't come up with anything when I first posted.
wholesome breakfast - granola, oatmeal , muslix, yogurt, etc
unwholesome breakfast - lucky charms (I hate this one the most) cereal, breakfast "desserts", soda (I know way too many people who think it's natural to drink soda right after waking up *shudder*)
wholesome lunch - turkey sandwich on wheat bread, apple, cookie or vegetable beef soup with cheese and crackers
unwholesome lunch - mcd's, vendo machine "food"
wholesome dinner - rice, stirfry veggies and protein, miso soup
unwholesome dinner - kraft mac&cheese and frozen chicken nuggets.
Ok so seems a little dietish but I wouldn't have a problem serving this menu to growing children.
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I've never been a breakfast fan but oj was one of the only things I could stand. After going on a low carb (per doctor's orders) diet I had to give up my oj. When I was able to drink it again I realized how sugary most brands are. Now I'm back to a small juice glass of oj every morning. I love my local dairy Anderson-Erickson's oj. Then again I like all things AE. If you're ever in the midwest try it. They have great stuff.
Battle of the Khao Soi
in Elsewhere in Asia/Pacific: Cooking & Baking
Posted · Edited by OnigiriFB (log)
Alright my khao soi was made and consumed. Aroi mak mak! Here's a picture of the finished dish. Sorry but if you want to see more the rest is on my blog. It was just too painful to do it fully on eGullet. Besides it's just one click away!
So Austin what do you think now?
Hope everyone tries this out and enjoys it. I had a blas doing this challenge and enjoyed eating the finished product even more!
Please see my blog if you want to see the making of and my funny "interview" with Alton Brown.
My blog
Edited to correct embarressing mistake of typing in blog addy incorrect. Thanks Pan.