Cooking Khao Soi with Chow

Posted on 27 July 2013 by christao408

One of my favorite Thai dishes is khao soi, the curried noodles that hail from Northern Thailand. With a variety of textures and loads of rich broth, it makes a satisfying meal. Recently, my Bangkok Glutton friend Chow arranged for her aunt to share their family’s recipe for khao soi with us.

We returned to Chow’s kitchen to try our hand at recreating the recipe. While the results were good, it is safe to say that we are going to need a lot more practice before Chow’s aunt has anything to fear from our competition!

Khao soi is made with egg noodles. There are a variety of types, but if you have an Asian market in your city, any fresh egg noodles will do. The noodles are split into two batches: one that is blanched in boiling water and the other that is fried to make a crunchy garnish.

The fried noodles are easier to make than I expected, not requiring much oil at all. The resulting crispy noodles are addictive. Hard to not eat them before finishing the rest of the cooking!

The base of the khao soi is a yellow curry combined with a fried mixture of ginger and shallots. You can use any yellow curry paste available at your local Asian market. The better the quality paste, the better the flavor, of course.

Like many curries, coconut milk is added to create richness. You can use a “lite” coconut milk or add some broth to thin it out. For the meat, you can use any type of meat you like. Beef and chicken are more traditional but pork or firm tofu would be fine. The flavor of the curry might overwhelm shellfish, though.

Like all noodle dishes in Thailand, proper khao soi is served with a variety of condiments. Here, you have dried chili flakes, chopped green onions and coriander, fresh shallots, chili oil, minced pickled cabbage (rinse off some sauerkraut as an easy substitute), and fresh lime.

The end result looked fantastic and tasted good. Getting the proper balance of flavors – fish sauce and sugar need to be added to taste – is where the secret of a true khao soi master lies. Again, Chow’s aunt has nothing to worry about!

Food in Chiang Mai – Khao Soi Sameujai Faaham

Posted on 18 August 2011 by christao408

Back to food in Chiang Mai, after a morning spent teaching monks how to cook, err… make sandwiches, I was hungry for some Thai food. The previous day Tawn and I had tried one highly recommended place for khao soi, the northern style curried nodles that are among my favorite foods in the world. We decided to head over to another well-recommended restaurant, Khao Soi Sameujai Faaham.

On Faaham Road across the Ping River from the old city, there are two khao soi places just about 100 meters apart. Khao Soi Sameujai Faaham (Thai: เสมอใจฟ้าฮ่าม) is on the west side of the road right next to Wat Faaham. The other restaurant, Khao Soi Lamduon, is on the east side of the road just a bit south of the wat and reportedly serves a spicier version of the dish. Sadly, we did not make it to Khao Soi Lamduon on this trip.

Yet another Northern Thai restaurant sponsored by which cola company? Regretfully, they do not have an English language sign but if you can find the wat (temple), the restaurant is immediately to the right of it. The good news is, their interior signage is very English friendly with photos, names, and descriptions of each dish.

The building is more of a food court, if you will, with different vendors offering different dishes, mostly Northern Thai but with some other common dishes (somtam or green papaya salad, with is really Issan or Northeastern Thai, for example) also available. The khao soi vendor is front and center, literally, with huge pots of curried broth and coconut cream simmering away.

Our khao soi arrived with the ubiquitous plate of condiments – picked cabbage, a slice of lime, and some shallots (the chilli paste is in a container on the table) – carefully balanced on top of the bowl of noodles and meat. Artful presentation or just efficiency? You decide.

Once the condiments were moved out of the way, I got a view of the goldenrod color of the broth. Like always, I tried a slurp of it before adding the condiments, the better to appreciate the unique attributes of this dish. The broth was a little bit sweeter with a slightly more pronounced curry flavor than what we had at Grandmother’s Khao Soi.

As a point of comparison, here was Grandmother’s Khao Soi. The color correction is accurate: the broth is a little darker and has a slightly meatier flavor than at Khao Soi Sameujai Faaham. Also, despite the big vat of coconut cream bubbling away at Sameujai Faaham, Grandmother’s was a bit more liberal with its application.

Which is better? Oh, you aren’t going to lure me into the middle of an impossible dillema! Both versions were very good and both had their own unique qualities. Oh, and I’ll be going back to both on my next visit to Chiang Mai!

The other vendor located out front is preparing satay gai, or grilled chicken skewers. This treat is definitely an import from the Indonesia/Malaysia corner of the world. It is more than just simply grilled chicken, though. The key to Thai satay is that the meat is marinated in a coconut milk and curry dressing so it takes on a rich flavor and retains its moisture.

Typical service for the satay: pickled cucumbers, chillies, and shallots and a dipping sauce made of ground peanuts, red curry paste, coconut milk, and lime juice. I know a lot of recipes tell you to use peanut butter, but trust me, it isn’t the same. Commercial peanut butters have many added ingredients, which change the taste of the sauce.

We ordered a dish of naam prik noom, the dip made of roasted green chillies. Compared with the version we ate at Huen Phen restauarnt with its fancy blanched vegetables, this version is quite modest with just some cabbage and cucumbers. This version of the naam prik, though, was spicy!

We also ordered sai oua, the herb-filled pork sausage. This is one of those foods that everyone does a little bit differently, so if someone is serving it, you should try just as a point of comparison.

We had every intention of saving room so we could stop down the street at Khao Soi Lamduon and split a bowl of khao soi just to try, but we were really full by this point. Alas, yet another reason we must get back to Chiang Mai soon.

Walking back to the temple next door where we had parked our car, we spotting this helpful bit of wisdom. Yaa puut nai sing tii mai ruu, leh yaa putt tuk yang tii ruu. “Don’t speak about things which you don’t know, and don’t speak everything that you do know.” Good advice with which to lead your life.

In my final entry about Chiang Mai food, we make a special drive out of town to try a Lamphun style restaurant, and I explain a bit about what makes Northern Thai food unique.

Food in Chiang Mai – Grandmother’s Khao Soi

Posted on 11 August 2011 by christao408

Sometimes you have bits and pieces of information in your head but they have yet to coalesce into a linked arrangement that qualifies as knowledge. Prior to this trip to Chiang Mai, that described the state of affairs in my mind when it came to the subject of Northern Thai cuisine. On this trip, though, the bits of knowledge started to come together and my understanding of Northern Thai cuisine began to solidify. The process began, appropriately enough, over a bowl of khao soi.

Khao soi means snipped or trimmed rice and it refers to the way the noodles used to be made in this classic curried noodle soup. Originally, sheets of rice noodles colored and flavored with turmeric were rolled up and then snipped into strands. These days, though, the dish is generally made with egg noodles.

The dish is believed to have roots with the Hui, Chinese muslims from Yunnan province. Similar dishes with similar names are found in Burma, northern Thailand, and Laos, the result of the trade routes crisscrossing the area where the three countries not far away from China.

While khao soi has a curry base, it is usually not as thick as a traditional curry. It also does not have a lot of spicy heat, although it certainly has a lot of flavor. The dish also relies on two types of noodles: fresh ones in the soup and deep fried ones on top to add some crunch. All in all, it qualifies as comfort food and is certainly a defining dish in Northern Thai cuisine.

We ate khao soi a trio of times during our trip. The first stop was at Ran Aahan Khao Soi Khun Yai, which translates as “Grandmother’s Khao Soi Restaurant.” Located on Sriphum Road, which runs along the inside of the north moat, Grandmother’s Khao Soi is in a private residence nestled between two wat, or temples: Wat Kuan Kama to the east and Wat Montien to the west. It is only this small orange sign, all in Thai, that indicates the entrance.

Parking is limited to a few places on the grass and most customers walk from nearby businesses and houses. As you can see, Wat Montien is literally right next door.

The restaurant is an open air pavilion just inside the gates. Grandmother’s house is further back on the property. The restaurant is open from 10:00 am – 2:00 pm daily except Sunday and quantities are limited.

In a wonderfully old-fashioned touch, the menu is painted on the property wall as well as being posted on a sign over the kitchen. I didn’t see any English menus, but imagine that you would be able to make yourself understood (through pointing, if nothing else). The menu is basically three items: khao soi, bami (thin egg noodles), and guaytiaw (rice noodles), available with chicken, beef, or pork. (I know, strange that a Muslim-origin dish would have a pork option.)

I opted for the khao soi nua (beef), which is always a good test for a khao soi restaurant. The key is whether they have stewed the beef long enough so that it is very tender. Grandmother’s beef met the tenderness test and the noodles were cooked to the perfect, not too mushy consistency. The curry broth is fully flavored, a little thinner than some versions I’ve had but not lacking in flavor. A small splash of boiled coconut cream added richness.

It is customary to doctor your khao soi with a plate of garnishes. These always include some dark chilli paste, red shallots, lime, and pickled cabbage. I make it a point to taste the broth before adding condiments so that I can get a sense of the original flavor. The lime and cabbage add acidic notes that keep the curry broth from being too heavy.

A wonderful drink with which to accompany the khao soi is naam lamyai, or longan juice. Don’t you love the high-end table covering? Winnie the Pooh and Tigger love khao soi!

To get a taste of what else Grandmother’s Khao Soi has to offer, Tawn and I split a dish of bami moo, egg noodles with ground pork and pork balls. This dish is always comforting, a little sweet, a little savory (thanks to the fried shallots on top), and very easy to eat.

The look of a satisfied diner. All told, Grandmother’s Khao Soi met and exceeded expectations, setting a very high bar against which other khao soi we tried during our trip had to compete.

Not to spoil your appetite, but I found this garden snail climbing up the midst of the menu painted on the wall, crossing the “o” in “soi”. I thought it was an interesting shot.

christao408

The adventures of an expat American who moved to Bangkok for his husband.

Tag Archives: Khao Soi

Cooking Khao Soi with Chow

Food in Chiang Mai – Khao Soi Sameujai Faaham

Food in Chiang Mai – Grandmother’s Khao Soi