Chiang Mai

[BKEats]

Miss A and I took a hooky day yesterday which was awesome..  We decided to hit up this place for lunch and it was really fantastic.  We were the only ones in there for lunch so, i was nervous they weren't going to bring their A game but, that was unwarranted.  

 

The wine list here is really nice for any restaurant.. Prices are reasonable and options are varied.. 

 

 

 

 

We opted for a really nice White @ $40

 

A lovely pairing with our dishes:

 

 

We started with the Tum Kanoon: Jackfruit salad with pork belly, kaffir, lemongrass, and pork rinds..   

 

This was so freaking good.. Stewed pork belly threaded with tons of lime leaves and lemon grass.. It was spicy and tart and rich.. While there was not a strong Jack Fruit flavor, it was very well balancedm a little cilantro with each bite took it to the next level.. We loved this dish and it went so well with the wine

 

 

Mango salad:  The fish was grated on to the mango.. The menu says served with Bettle leaves but, we got regular lettuce.. Mango was fresh, the dish bright... A very nice version:

 

 

Jim Som Mok ?  This was the fermented pork parts with rice... While it was very good and I loved fermented pork, this was our least favorite dish.. Still very nice but, all the other dishes were home runs and this was a very healthy double. 

 

 

Three really lovely head on grilled shrimp.. Beautiful shrimp, interesting dipping sauce.. One was like a soy tamarind while the other was a fish sauce chili garlic.  We both liked the chili garlic.  Just very well done shrimp

 

 

 

The sausage here is fan freaking tastic.. It's almost like an encased curry.. It's very coarse and there is a ton of stuff in it..  Served with a pate of sorts that didn't excite me.. But, the sausage kicks butt. 

 

 

 

You know a dish is good when in the middle of eating it, you order one to go.. We were hesitant about ordering this as when we went to Khao Soy, we felt this dish was the least successful.. Here it was the highlight.. Or, one of them as there were three spectacular dishes..  But, this was so rich and seasoned.. The chicken was perfect pieces of leg meat.. It was in this coconut broth.. Oh my,  i would have it for lunch today if I could.. 

 

 

Staff was really nice, the space was comfortable.. I really love this place.. 

[huiray]

 

Three really lovely head on grilled shrimp.. Beautiful shrimp, interesting dipping sauce.. One was like a soy tamarind while the other was a fish sauce chili garlic.  We both liked the chili garlic.  Just very well done shrimp

 

 

 

Those are not "shrimp". They look like freshwater prawns.  ;-) 

[BKEats]

I'm sure you are right. I have never taken the time to distinguish. If it looks like this and tastes like shrimp, I call it shrimp

[Pan]

Prawns and shrimp are different? To me, anything that looks like that is a shrimp. Anyway, thanks for that report! This place got a lot of raves on Chowhound, too.

[liuzhou]

Prawns and shrimp are different? To me, anything that looks like that is a shrimp. Anyway, thanks for that report! This place got a lot of raves on Chowhound, too.

 

In common parlance, the names 'prawn' and 'shrimp' are used interchangeably. 'Shrimp' is more common in the USA, whereas 'prawn' is more common in the UK and Commonwealth.

 

However, technically they are NOT the same thing. There is a good explanation of the difference here.

[patrickamory]

BKEats was the final dish Khao Soi? Looks delicious.

[huiray]

Look also at the large and long pair of claws as well as the large head, both much more pronounced than the "standard" type of shrimp/prawns one sees around. Sort of resembles a langoustine, except that the heads on langoustines in relation to the body seem not as unbalanced as with these guys here and the enlarged pair of claws are both shorter than here and more lobster-like than the skinnier (but longer) ones here.  

 

Note also I commented it looks like a FRESHWATER prawn, but of course I could be mistaken. The common ones are saltwater guys. I'll take a guess, stick my neck out and murmur that – speculating based on what's generally done nowadays and what's farmed (or, in SE Asia, say, occasionally wild-caught from the rivers there) and available commercially nowadays it may well be Macrobrachium rosenbergii. Some other links: freshwater prawns; (note that they are farmed here in the USA too); FAO document on freshwater prawn farming.

 

Pan, do you remember this from your time in Malaysia? (生蝦麵; "Sang har meen", which uses these large-headed big-clawed freshwater prawns; expensive, because the prawns are not cheap, especially when they are wild-caught from the rivers.)

P.s.: If one had a dish looking like this, but with "normal" smaller non-big-headed-shrimp/prawns, it would NOT be called "生蝦麵"), if the restaurant/stall did not want to be labeled as a cheater.

 

As for saltwater shrimps vs prawns, this is also a useful article even though it relates more specifically to Australian waters.

Edited December 2, 2015 by huiray (log)

[Steve R.]

BKEats was the final dish Khao Soi? Looks delicious.

 

I'll answer for him.  Yes, it was/is.

[Pan]

In common parlance, the names 'prawn' and 'shrimp' are used interchangeably. 'Shrimp' is more common in the USA, whereas 'prawn' is more common in the UK and Commonwealth.

 

However, technically they are NOT the same thing. There is a good explanation of the difference here.

 

According to Wikipedia, "shrimp" and "prawn" are not scientific terms and have no fixed meaning: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Shrimp#Shrimp_versus_prawn:

"Taxonomic studies in European on shrimp and prawns were shaped by the common shrimp and the common prawn, both found in huge numbers along the European coastlines. The common shrimp, Crangon crangon was categorised in 1758 by Carl Linnaeus, and the common prawn was categorised in 1777 by Thomas Pennant. The common shrimp is a small burrowing species aligned with the notion of a shrimp as being something small, whereas the common prawn is much larger. The terms true shrimp or true prawn are sometimes used to mean what a particular person thinks is a shrimp or prawn.^[12] This varies with the person using the terms. But such terms are not normally used in the scientific literature, because the terms shrimp and prawn themselves lack scientific standing. Over the years the way shrimp and prawn are used has changed, and nowadays the terms are almost interchangeable. Although from time to time some biologists declare certain common names should be confined to specific taxa, the popular use of these names seems to continue unchanged."

[Pan]

 

Pan, do you remember this from your time in Malaysia? (生蝦麵; "Sang har meen", which uses these large-headed big-clawed freshwater prawns; expensive, because the prawns are not cheap, especially when they are wild-caught from the rivers.)

P.s.: If one had a dish looking like this, but with "normal" smaller non-big-headed-shrimp/prawns, it would NOT be called "生蝦麵"), if the restaurant/stall did not want to be labeled as a cheater.

 

As for saltwater shrimps vs prawns, this is also a useful article even though it relates more specifically to Australian waters.

 

I'll have a look at the article, but the picture is of what's called udang galah in Malay. Despite the word udang (shrimp, prawn what have you) being part of "udang galah", that is definitely not a shrimp and more like a langoustine. I don't know Chinese names, only Malay ones.

 

My experience growing up in New York is that the word "prawn" was not used, only "shrimp". I encountered the word "prawn" for the first time in Asia (probably Malaysia), and ascribed it to British influence.

[Pan]

Thanks for the article. It's interesting, but do note this, please:

"A shrimp in the USA is a prawn in Australia!

 

But that is not the end of the story. There is a large fishery for penaeids [which Australians call "prawns"] in the southern USA, especially in the Gulf of Mexico, and Americans call them shrimp!"

[liuzhou]

According to Wikipedia,

 

The three saddest words in the language.

[huiray]

I'll have a look at the article, but the picture is of what's called udang galah in Malay. Despite the word udang (shrimp, prawn what have you) being part of "udang galah", that is definitely not a shrimp and more like a langoustine. I don't know Chinese names, only Malay ones.

 

My experience growing up in New York is that the word "prawn" was not used, only "shrimp". I encountered the word "prawn" for the first time in Asia (probably Malaysia), and ascribed it to British influence.

 

Well, that was part of my point about what was being served at "Chiang Mai" - that those guys looked like the guys served in 生蝦麵 and looked like what you know as udang galah. Which has a resemblance to langoustines, as I mentioned, and as you seem to agree. :-) 

 

 

 

Thanks for the article. It's interesting, but do note this, please:

"A shrimp in the USA is a prawn in Australia!

 

But that is not the end of the story. There is a large fishery for penaeids [which Australians call "prawns"] in the southern USA, especially in the Gulf of Mexico, and Americans call them shrimp!"

 

That's right. But remember they (and we) in that case are talking about SALTWATER shrimp/prawns.

 

 

Here one place in Mississippi (USA) that farms the FRESHWATER prawn Macrobrachium rosenbergii, which I was referring to in my previous post.

They themselves call the stuff they farm "prawns" (before switching to "shrimps" elsewhere, heh) and clearly they supply food establishments here in the USA.  :-) 

http://www.laurenfarms.com/index.html

They farm catfish too, nowadays:

https://www.facebook.com/laurenfarms

[Pan]

I don't know. They still look like shrimps to me. Udang galah used to be a lot larger in the 70s, but I take your point, in that a lot of these Google image search results for "udang galah bakar" do resemble what was in the picture above: https://www.google.com/search?site=&tbm=isch&source=hp&biw=1536&bih=755&q=udang+galah&oq=udang+galah&gs_l=img.3..0l10.31.1581.0.1767.11.9.0.0.0.0.324.882.2-1j2.3.0....0...1ac.1.64.img..8.3.880.bfS1RPyAu8w#tbm=isch&q=udang+galah+bakar

[Pan]

The three saddest words in the language.

 

If they make you sad, substitute: "According to Mortenson, Philip B (2010) This is not a weasel: a close look at nature's most confusing terms Pages 106–109, John Wiley & Sons. ISBN 9780471273967," because that was the reference.

[weinoo]

A few visits here confirm what the other visitors posted above.  On a recent Friday afternoon lunch, Significant Eater and I were the only ones in the place.