Better than Bangkok

I had always avoided Bangkok/central Thai-style food up in Chiang Mai. The few dishes I’d had weren’t exactly great, and anyway, how could I not take advantage of all the wonderful local stuff?

But it appears that all I needed was a bit of pointing in the right direction, and recently I encountered two restaurants that do dishes traditionally associated with Bangkok, but, well, better.

Phat kaphrao, minced meat fried with chili, garlic and the eponymous holy basil, is available on just about every street corner in Bangkok. It’s always cheap, salty and spicy, but almost never exceptional; in recent years I’d begun exclusively making it at home rather than getting it outside.

Unless I’m in Chiang Mai, that is. Raan Kraphrao Samrap Khon Chorp Phet translates as “Phat Kaphrao Restaurant for People Who Like Spicy”:

a slightly misleading name, as part of the deal here is that the customer chooses his preferred level of spiciness. I went for the pork version, medium spicy (shown at the top of this post). Unconventionally, the cooks here marinate the meat beforehand, and the resulting seasoning is spot-in. And I like that the holy basil (the eponymous kaphrao) is tossed into the wok at the very last second, so that it doesn’t wilt and disappear. Yet most of all, I was impressed by the texture of the dish, which emerges from the wok dry and concentrated, almost crumbly. This is an attribute I’d recognised in better versions of the dish, and something I’d always tried to recreate when making it at home.

Phat kaphrao is the obvious highlight, but they also do a daily selection of Chinese-Thai-style soups — perfect mild counterpoints to the spicy food — and full menu of central Thai dishes, including a really excellent phat khee mao.

Also putting Bangkok to shame is Pathom. This place specialises in khao tom, rice — steamed or boiled — served with various Chinese-influenced sides.

The menu here spans no more than a dozen dishes, which over Pathom’s 30 years in business, they appear to have absolutely perfected. This isn’t sexy cuisine: the dishes aren’t exactly handsome, and you’ll be hard-pressed to find presentation or garnish, but you’ll also be hard-pressed to find better versions of these staples just about anywhere in Thailand.

On my most recent visit (shown above), I had eggplant, Thai basil and fermented soybeans expertly flash-fried until just milliseconds away from turning to mush; crispy, meaty deep-fried pork belly; jap chai, Chinese-style braised vegetables, which here includes lots of cabbage and pork skin; a really excellent tao huu phalo, firm tofu braised in five spice broth, where here is served with dip that’s a near-perfect intersection of spicy and tart; and of course rice. I generally opt for steamed rice, but most customers go for the eponymous boiled rice, which allegedly is given extra gluten by the addition of a bit of sticky rice

Everything is made in advance and staff are efficient, so you’ll be eating in seconds.

And like Raan Kraphrao Samrap Khon Chorp Phet, in addition to better-than-in-Bangkok Bangkok-style food, the other linking element is a dining room that has all the charm of airplane hangar:

Bringing home the fact that, no matter where you’re eating Thailand, good food often involves a degree of compromise.

Raan Kraphrao Samrap Khon Chorp Phet/??????????? (???????????????)
Rte 1001, Chiang Mai
081 530 0380
11.30am-1pm & 4-9.30pm

View Thai Eats in a larger map

Pathom/??????????
Th Chang Phuak, Chiang Mai
7am-2pm

View Thai Eats in a larger map

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Why Muslin is the Better Cheesecloth

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March 23, 2012Why Muslin is the Better Cheesecloth

I stopped using cheesecloth for cooking purposes about 2 years ago. It was expensive to purchase at markets and cookware shops. It got caught in my scissors at the most inconvenient times. It had to be discarded after each use. I got fed up and instead, turned to unbleached muslin. I have never looked back. Here are 5 reasons for using muslin in the kitchen:

1. Affordable – You can buy it by the yard at a fabric store for as little as $4 per yard.

2. Easy – Just tear it along the grain into the size you need. (I aim for 24 by 24-inch pieces but also have smaller odd-size pieces.) Snip an inch then pull the fabric apart with your hands. It should tear along its natural weave. No tricky sewing skills needed to neaten things up. The torn edges fray in the wash to develop a handsome appearance. Check out my stack above.

3. Washable and reusable – After using the muslin, immediately rinse and wring it out in the sink, then hang it up to dry. You don’t want to let wet fabric sit in your hamper for long. Launder the muslin with a load of laundry (we include it with the towels) and it’s ready for more kitchen duties.

4. Squeeze and press – Put salted napa cabbage or cucumber, or chunks of tofu into the piece of muslin and expel excess moisture. The relatively smooth texture of muslin means that liquid will pass through easily and lint won’t get stuck in your food. The cabbage for classic Chinese dumplings (jiaozi) is ready for mixing with other ingredients. The cucumber can receive a Vietnamese salad dressing because it's dryish and ready to absorb new flavors. Tofu for dumpling fillings (think Korean mandu) or meatballs get crushed and partially mashed as you massage and squeeze.

Muslin is also perfect for making soy milk as it doesn’t break like cheesecloth or flour sack towels. (I know from experience.) Plus, muslin is just porous enough to let the milk pass through without any soybeans solids going along for the ride.

 

Photo by: Karen Shinto

You can scrape off the soy milk lees (okara) easily from muslin and there’s little waste. Food bits cling and get stuck in cheesecloth’s more open weave.

5. Strain – Use it for hassle-free straining of liquids, such as stocks and broths. Last night, I used muslin to strain a double batch of one of my favorite stealth ingredients, Japanese seasoned soy concentrate (Asian Tofu, page 208). It contains a number of ingredients including soy sauce, dried kelp, dried shiitake, and shaved bonito flakes, which can get messy for clean up; see the photo below. When I'm through with straining and pressing the soy concentrate, I dump the solids into the trash. I regularly use muslin to to produce a super clear dashi broth too.

I tend to use the same piece of muslin for pho and other super fragrant noodle soup broths because their perfume lingers for a few washings. The muslin tends to trap some of the fat too, which is fine as what fat does go through I keep in my pho broth.

Where and how to buy muslin for cooking purposes

Weight. Go for a lightweight unbleached (natural/buff color) muslin. Think of a shirt that you’d be happy to wear in the hot summer. The muslin will shrink after you wash it.

100% cotton, unbleached. That’s how most muslin is described. It’s pretty natural basic stuff. There’s no  need to go fancy. Muslin is often described as being used for backing quilts. Tell the fabric store that you’re using the muslin to squeeze out soy milk or strain stocks. They will help you find the right bolt of fabric.

Choose a width. If you just need a couple pieces, buy a 48-inch-wide piece.  Fabric is sold in different widths and muslin varies. There’s a super wide one that comes in 108-inch-width, which is what I eventually succumbed to.

Want to line a mold (like a tofu or cheese mold)? Use slightly lighter weight “voile” which will fall into place in your mold because it’s thinner than muslin and a shade lighter in color. In the above photo, the voile is on top so you can distinguish the weave difference. It looks just like muslin but is often in another part of the fabric store.

I really like this cheesecloth alternative. Maybe you've already discovered it (share your thoughts!) and enjoy it too. 

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Comments Why Muslin is the Better Cheesecloth

I stopped using cheesecloth for cooking purposes about 2 years ago. It was expensive to purchase at markets and cookware shops. It got caught in my scissors at the most inconvenient times. It had to be discarded after each use. I got fed up and instead, turned to unbleached muslin. I have never looked back. Here are 5 reasons for using muslin in the kitchen:

1. Affordable – You can buy it by the yard at a fabric store for as little as $4 per yard.

2. Easy – Just tear it along the grain into the size you need. (I aim for 24 by 24-inch pieces but also have smaller odd-size pieces.) Snip an inch then pull the fabric apart with your hands. It should tear along its natural weave. No tricky sewing skills needed to neaten things up. The torn edges fray in the wash to develop a handsome appearance. Check out my stack above.

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