Khanom Sen Paa Net/ขนมเส้นป้าเนตร (เก๋ากึ๊ก)

Most Thais are familiar with khanom jeen nam ngiaw (???????????????), the northern Thai staple of a pork- and tomato-based broth served over thin, fresh rice noodles. Yet few are aware of the variations the dish can take across the region. In Chiang Mai, nam ngiaw is often rich and oily, and is supplemented with the dried flowers of the cotton tree; in Chiang Rai the dish is hearty and meaty, and there’s even a variant made with beef; and in Mae Hong Son, khao sen, as it’s known there, tends to be thin and tart with very little meat.

Even Phrae, a relatively obscure province in northern Thailand, has its own version. On the surface, khanom sen nam muu (?????????????), as the dish is known there, appears deceptively simple. But as served at Khanom Sen Paa Net, a 60 year-old restaurant in the eponymous provincial capital, it might be the most interesting and delicious version I’ve encountered — largely due to the broth:

This is made by simmering a shocking amount of pork bones with coriander root, garlic, salt and a bit of fish sauce over very low coals for as long as six hours (allegedly they start making the dish at 3am). The result is one of the most amazing broths I’ve encountered in Thailand — virtually clear yet profoundly meaty without any of the funky “porky” odour that pork-based broths tend to have. Towards the end of the cooking process, they toss in a few halved plum tomatoes and cubes of steamed blood; the broth is served over khanom jeen noodles, drizzled with a mixture of crispy deep-fried pork fat and garlic. The tomatoes offer barely enough acidic tartness to counter the rich meatiness, and the dish is served with optional sides of ground chilies toasted in oil, lime slices, chopped coriander, shredded cabbage and bean sprouts.

Given the work that goes into the dish, it shouldn’t come as a surprise that the folks here — the third generation to run the restaurant — are extremely proud of the food they serve, using the best ingredients and taking great care with them — practices one doesn’t always encounter in Thailand. I was told repeatedly that no MSG or stock powder were used in the broth; even the chili condiment is made from chilies sourced from Ubon Ratchathani (“They’re better than the local chilies,” I was told).

Typically served alongside khanom sen in Phrae is khao som, tomato-tinted rice topped with a mixture of deep-fried crispy pork fat and garlic:

The tomatoes are steamed before being lightly fried with the rice and a bit of salt. The dish has a slightly sour (the som in the name) flavour, and upon request, they’ll scoop up some of the simmered pork bones to accompany it.

Other than som tam, Thai-style papaya salad, the only other dish served at Paa Net is dessert, which on the day I visited took the form of sago pearls and corn in barely sweet/barely salty coconut milk:

which, like everything else, was utterly simple yet utterly delicious.

Khanom Sen Paa Net
Soi Muang Daeng, Phrae
054 620 056
9am-1.30pm

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Khanom jeen/ขนมจีน

On the suface, khanom jeen, thin, round, freshly-made rice noodles, look simple. But the process of making them can take as many as five days, and involves an astonishing amount of labour. That’s why I was surprised when David Thompson, Head Chef at Bangkok’s nahm, told me that for the last several months his kitchen has been making the noodles in-house. Perhaps sensing that I was incredulous, he invited me to stop by the restaurant’s kitchen and document the process.

The first step in making khanom jeen involves soaking uncooked rice in water. I was told that ‘old’ rice (rice harvested in previous seasons or years) is required for this, as it has a low water content and doesn’t tend to get ‘sticky’ during the subsequent stages. After three days of soaking, during which the water is changed each day, the soggy mixture is ground to a coarse paste. At nahm, they use an old-school hand-powered granite mill to do this. The resulting dough is bundled and pressed overnight, extracting much of its water.

The next day, the crumbly dough is divided up and shaped into small logs:

which are then boiled for 15 minutes:

leaving the exterior soft and translucent and the interior largely uncooked:

The still-hot dough is then transferred to a huge wooden mortar — actually a hollowed-out tree stump — where it is vigorously pounded with heavy wooden mallets:

This process takes two people and as many as 30 to 45 minutes, and I was told that the goal is to pound until the dough has stopped sticking to the wood.

At the end of this process, the dough has the appearance and texture of shortening or marshmallow creme:

A lid is thrown on it, and the mixture is kept at room temperature overnight. I was told that this stage can vary in duration, depending on how sour the noodles are ultimately meant to be.

The next morning, the dough is stirred thoroughly to provide it with an even consistency and to eliminate air bubbles. In batches, it’s inserted into a small sieve with a plunger device, and extracted into simmering water:

Upon contacting the hot water, the dough solidifies, and voilà: you have khanom jeen.

The threads are fished out and rinsed in a couple baths of cool water before being allowed to drain:

After all this time and effort, it’s hard to believe that khanom jeen generally must be consumed within the same day, otherwise the noodles tend to go off or become too dry.

There are several different ways to eat khanom jeen in Thailand, but most commonly they’re topped with one of several types curry-like dishes and eaten with sides usually including herbs and vegetables, and sometimes including meat, egg and fish:

Nahm do some really excellent curries, including the mild ‘coconut and turmeric curry of minced prawns with banana blossoms and asian pennywort’ (pictured at the top of this post), and what is possibly my all-time favourite nahm dish, the almost comically piquant ‘spicy smoked fish curry with prawns, chicken livers, cockles, chillies and black pepper’.

Khanom jeen is available at nahm for lunch, Monday through Friday.

nahm
Metropolitan Hotel, 27 Th Sathon Tai
02 625 3388
Noon-2pm Mon-Fri & 7-10pm daily

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Khanom tup tap/ขนมตุ๊บตั๊บ

I’ve blogged about this sweet — a type of Chinese/Thai peanut brittle — a couple times previously. But it is such a tasty and unusual dish, not to mention one that’s made via such a fascinating process, that I wanted to share it again.

You can find khanom tup tap — the name is an onomatopoeia and refers to the sound that results during a particular stage of the cooking process — during Bangkok’s annual vegetarian festival, in September/October. For 10 days, a handful of vendors make the dish in the narrow alleyway in Bangkok’s Talat Noi neighbourhood.

The first step in making khanom tup tap is to assemble a simple syrup:

To do this, white cane sugar and water are combined in a hot wok over coals.

When the syrup has reached the right consistency, whole roasted peanuts are added. The mixture is quickly removed from the coals, spread on a tray and allowed to cool:

Now comes the fun part; using mallets, two men whack the mixture (the origin of the eponymous tup tap), pounding it until flat before folding the mixture onto itself and continuing with another round of thwacking:

This is repeated about six times and combines the peanuts and syrup in a way that results in thin, almost pastry-like stratifications.

Still warm, the peanut mixture is pulled and stretched out into a long, relatively thin wrapper, which is filled with ground peanuts and rolled. The resulting tube is then cut into short sections:

The final product is sweet, crispy and rich, and has more than a little bit in common with the American candy bar Butterfinger:

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Khanom Jeen San Paa Khoy/ขนมจีนสันป่าข่อย

Khanom jeen, thin round rice noodles, are among Thailand’s most regional dishes. You could easily pinpoint where you are in Thailand simply by looking at the khanom jeen on offer. In the south, this would most likely be a spicy, coconut-milk curry served with a huge platter of fresh herbs and some semi-pickled fruit or vegetables; in Bangkok, khanom jeen are sold with a variety of mild, herbal, typically fish-based curries and sides of shredded herbs and vegetables; and in northeastern Thailand, the noodles are pounded with shredded papaya in tam sua, a local take on the ubiquitous papaya salad.

Northern Thais love their khanom jeen as well, and for more than 30 years, one place folks in Chiang Mai have been getting their noodles is Talat San Paa Khoy, a market just east of the Ping River.

During the day, Talat San Paa Khoy is your typical busy fresh market. Come evening, after all the vendors have left, the stalls are wiped down, covered in oilcloth and are converted to clunky dining tables:

The stall does five dishes: kaeng phet (red curry) with pork or beef, green curry with chicken, nam ngiaw and nam yaa kathi, a mild coconut milk-based curry with chicken:

I’ve tasted all of them, and they range from good to great. The two kaeng phets are mild, and the meat is supplemented with thumb-sized chunks of tender eggplant. The green curry, which I ate served over rice, is surprisingly spicy. The naam yaa is rich and mild. My favourite was probably the nam ngiaw (pictured above), the northern khanom jeen fave, which here is rich and smokey, and arrives studded with pork ribs and just-cooked cherry tomatoes that burst when you eat them.

Khanom Jeen San Paa Khoy
Thanon Kong Say, Chiang Mai
4pm-4am Mon-Sat

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Instagram: Green curry over khanom jeen noodles

Instagram: Green curry over khanom jeen noodles | Austin Bush Photography PortfoliosPeoplePlacesFoodExhibitionAbout MeBiographyContactMy Blog
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Instagram: Green curry over khanom jeen noodlesPosted date: January 19, 2012 No comment;

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Instagram: Khanom jeen nam ngiaw, Lam Duan Fah Ham, Bangkok

Instagram: Khanom jeen nam ngiaw, Lam Duan Fah Ham, Bangkok | Austin Bush Photography PortfoliosPeoplePlacesFoodExhibitionAbout MeBiographyContactMy Blog
$('ul#main_menu li.menu-item-1471').addClass('current_page_item');A blog about food in Thailand
and elsewhere.

Instagram: Khanom jeen nam ngiaw, Lam Duan Fah Ham, BangkokPosted date: January 15, 2012 No comment;

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