Fishinnards

It's very good. Add bacon and it's even better.

A couple of weeks ago I finally made it here. Now seems like a good time to share some thoughts. The “seven course tasting menu” is a clever way to get (non-Thai) Americans to eat this type of food (in its proper context, i.e several dishes with varying textures and flavors, lots of (sticky) rice and mounds of raw and blanched vegetables). I realize everybody is hung up on courses, as it is Johnny Monis (and it’s next door to Komi). It is not “based upon” Thai food but actually is Thai food. Our menu was a mix of Northern Thai (Lanna) as well as some Northeast Thai (Issan) with one central Thai dish as well. The normal eating arrangement for Thai food (and Southeast Asian food in general) is to have a large number of dishes all at once at room temperature. It is important to have many things to nibble with large helpings of rice. I imagine Chef Monis’ concept for Little Serow probably occurred while eating and drinking in Thailand at a restaurant and having food delivered to the table one dish at a time. This happens because a typical traditional Thai kitchen has only one or two burners. Since food is eaten at room temperature there is no need to have every dish ready at once so it’s not a problem to cook one thing at a time. Each item is sent to the table as it is ready. At home, everything would be put out on the table and then everyone would sit down to eat. At a restaurant dishes would come out as they are ready. There is no need to finish each dish before the next arrives. In fact, dishes can be mixed together on the plate by the individual diner to create novel flavors and textures (this mixing is called klook in Thai). The brilliance of the tasting menu conceit is that you are not overwhelmed with a table of unfamiliar food and you don’t have to choose dishes off a menu yourself, dishes with strange names and unhelpful descriptions. Because they arrive in sequence you try everything. Thai people would spend a large amount of time debating which dishes to get and would use their understanding of the food to decide which dishes to order. Considerations would include taste, but also texture and heat levels. Many dishes go together and there are broad categories (i.e. You don’t want too many Yum (salads) dishes unless you are drinking a lot of alcohol, you need a dense fried dish to offset the soupiness of a curry, you must have a nam prik with vegetables, but which nam prik will depend on which other dishes are selected). Little Serow takes the guesswork out of selecting unfamiliar food and gives you a properly composed set of Thai dishes. I really enjoyed my meal here. The servers are extremely knowledgeable about the food and can speak about it in depth. We enjoyed a bottle of Brasserie Dupont Cervesia a really nice Belgian Saison. I appreciated the variety of raw herbs and vegetables (they refilled our basket three times) and the nam prik (nam prik narok i.e. chilli sauce from hell). I have had hotter versions of this nam prik but this was hot enough to be enjoyable. In my dreams I wish I could go to a Thai restaurant here in the U.S. and get nam prik and raw vegetables. I think Thai restaurants learned long ago that nam prik is too strong and hot for the western palette and that Americans don’t eat vegetables, so they don’t even put this on the menu. Andy Ricker made the observation that when Thai people eat at Pok Pok they eat all the veggies and ask for more, while (non-Thai) Americans leave them on the plate and eat everything else. I like that at Little Serow people are eating their veggies (and nam prik!). They are an important part of the meal. In fact, veggies, rice and nam prik are all you need for a Thai meal. Everything else is extra. Also, the grilled fish is ground to a paste with everything else in nam prik narok. The dishes at Little Serow were normal size, not tiny “tastings”. Incidentally, in Thailand at a shared meal, soup is generally served in one big bowl for all diners to share, even Tom Yum and Tom Kha . The Thai concept of “soup” is different, as the word for soup and curry is the same (gaeng). Soup is just another thing to put on rice (or dip rice into, in the case of sticky rice). That being said, my two companions and I were served the Tom Kha Het (coconut milk galangal mushroom soup) in individual serving bowls, one for each of us. Other highlights were green mango salad with snakehead fish (pla chawn lom kwan or yum mamuang sai pla chawn), and “slop on a plate ” Nam ngeow. Nam ngeow is usually served with kanom jeen (thin rice noodles). It includes cubes of pork blood (blood tofu!) and pork ribs, ground pork, cherry tomatoes, garlic, shallots, shrimp paste and/or tua nuao (fermented soybean) lard or oil, with garnishes of bean sprouts, limes, chilli oil, and maybe mustard pickle. Here is a photo from photographer Austin Bush. The version at Little Serow was without the noodles and ribs and garnishes, but this does not mean it was inauthentic. This version was served to one of the chefs on their last visit to Northern Thailand, to be eaten with sticky rice as a curry. In this incarnation it is almost the same as Nam Prik Ong. I enjoyed it quite a bit. It was full of rich porkyness. Chef Monis’s take on neam khao tord was interesting. The salad itself had great flavor. Naem is a type of fermented ground pork (sausage). It is cured with cooked sticky rice, garlic and julienned cooked pork skin for about 4 or five days. It usually congeals into a solid mass. For this salad it is broken up by hand (it looks like this). It is eaten raw (usually). Little Serow’s naem was cubed cooked pork without any pork skin. The texture was crumbly, not dense. The fried rice balls (khao tord) were intact, instead of the usual crushed up. They had a texture similar to tater tots (and thus were awesome). I made this salad for the last Don Rockwell picnic. Maybe you remember. > I have also had Duangrat’s version (takeout at the back of the grocery), but not Bangkok Golden’s (yet). While this version was interesting, I like mine the best so far, but it’s a matter of personal preference. I can cook it the way I like it. I have high expectations for Chef Seng’s version. The stir-fry was good (radish cakes and bean sprouts). The ribs were tasty and meaty. Overall the food was about a 4 or 5 on the Thai heat scale of 1-10, nothing too serious, but hot enough to be traditional. It was fun and strange to eat Thai food in a restaurant the way I eat at home and the way I learned to eat at the Thai temple. We consumed much sticky rice (one basket each). I found the rice a little tacky, perhaps because it was steamed a little too long or because it was too warm when put into the baskets. It stuck to my hand a little when picked up. I prefer it to stay intact for easier forming and dipping (sorry to nitpick). The beer went great with the food. I drink mostly Belgian ales with my Thai food at home, so it was also very familiar, but I have not had the Cervesia before and I really enjoyed it. I am a fan of Brasserie Dupont. I have to commend what they are doing here. I’m glad people are enjoying the food. Chef Monis deserves credit for bringing this type of food here and creating a context that allows people to eat it properly (by tricking them into thinking of courses and tastings). The cooking was at very high level. This food, however, is not chef invented, but traditional everyday fare passed down through generations of Thai women (and men). This is Thai grandma food. I am biased in that I love this type of food so much that I eat this way at home almost daily. I also enjoy cooking more than eating, so there may be something wrong with me. Also, the pork rinds were nice and crisp and airy. I might go back soon because northern style laap is back on the menu. You won't find that anywhere else AFAIK.

My lucky day! I found holy basil at the market I made a red curry paste. I've been resorting to dried kaffir lime peel. It's still very fragrant. For dinner we had pork stir fried with holy basil (mu pad krapow, หมูผัดใบกะเพรา), fish cakes (tod mun pla, ทอดมันปลา) pork stewed in Chinese 5 spices (mu palo, หมูผะโล่), eggs, and rice, with Brooklyn Sorachi Ace. >

Last week I mostly cooked Indian vegetarian food. This week we have returned to Thai food. Sunday I made green bean salad (yum tua fak yao, ยำถั่วฝักยาว), pork stir fried with ginger (Mu Pad Khing, หมูผัดขิง). I got pig's feet with five spices from Bangkok 54 grocery takeout (Kha Mu Palo, ขาหมูผะโล่) the Thai version of the Chinese red cooked pork. So good, I will make this myself soon, forgot how much I liked it. Also an omelet with chilies, onion and Thai basil, vegetables, and a Thai brown jasmine rice, Thai red rice mixture. Monday was the same except mung bean noodle salad (yum woo sen, ยำวุ้นเส้น) instead of the green beans. Yesterday, again the same but no salad and I made loofah with pork (mu pad buap liyam หมูผัดบวบเหลี่ยม). The recipe is from Rachel Cooks Thai. Also "kale chi" (i.e. kim chee made with kale, which is really just kim chee) from No. 1 Sons. It's good! > Tonight I will eat out. (But I'm still having Thai food )

On Saturday I threw a party for my wife's Birthday. Here is what I cooked with some photos (some are blurry, there was drinking): Lamb Biryani (or lamb blurryani) Dhal Makkhani Baigan Bharta Ghobi Aloo Saag paneer Raita Methi Tamatar moongodi Basmanti rice Kolhapuri Mutton Katchumbar Hari chutney papads Paneer Jalfrezi > Also, Butter Mochi Cake (Hawaii), and Girl Scout Cookies for desert.

Cucumber salad, vegetables and pork rinds, fish sauce with chillies, pork with garlic and pepper, red curry with pork and squash, rice. >

Del Ray is closed on Tuesday, so not that one if this is from today.

Taqueria el Poblano?

Tender greens salad with crispy fried shallots (from Burma rivers of flavor), น้ำพริกอ่อง minced pork with chilli and tomato (garlic, galanga, fermented soy bean, shallots), ต้มยำเห๊ด hot and sour mushroom soup (lime juice, fish sauce, lemongrass, kaffir lime leaves, galanga, red chillies, culantro, stock) ไข่เจียว crispy omelet (Thai basil, green chilli, shallots), น้ำพริกศรีราชา (sriracha sauce) in the middle, กับข้าว (with rice), and Brooklyn Brewery Sorachi Ace. >

Bell pepper (prik wan) is not use in (traditional) Thai cooking except for a couple of exceptions. IMO that flavor doesn't belong in krapow or any other Thai stir fry except maybe pad priow wan (sweet and sour, which is more Chinese anyway). You certainly won't find it in pad kra pow in Bangkok. Same goes for onions (hom kaek). I think American Thai restaurants like bell pepper for the color. In Thailand, red long chillies (prik chee fah) would be used, sliced on the bias. These add even more heat to the already spicy dish, so bell pepper adds the color without the heat. As for onion, it's cheaper than shallots, which would be more traditional. Red onion often substitutes for shallots in salads (yum) here in the states. I am not a fan of that practice. Even though the large shallots we get here are different from the small red ones in Southeast Asia, I prefer them to red onion. However, you will find red onion being used in Thailand, but it's a trend I don't favor. I like bell pepper, but I don't like it in Thai food. IIRC we never used it when I was cooking at the Thai Buddhist temple. It's not your fault you don't like them as those things really don't belong in (pad bai) krapow. I never order this dish out because of this and because most of all it never has krapow either. The whole dish is a lie .

I have a bottle from Great Wall (in Merrifield) that has a pagoda logo, but everything is in Chinese so I don't really know what brand. It's good though. Great Wall is your best bet for Chinese ingredients in NoVA. Very good produce section as well. Avoid it on the weekends if possible. Parking can be a challenge.

Monday, vegetarian Chinese (same dishes as Sunday without the fish-style pork): Tuesday, chicken curry. I bought a whole chicken and used the breasts with green beans, potatoes, garlic, ginger and "East Indian Bottle Masala" from 660 Curries. This is my fall back when I don't feel like cooking. Bottle masala has about 20 spices in it and lots of dried chilles all roasted and ground. I always have a batch on hand. A mere 2 teaspoons makes a very hot and flavorful dish. Last night, gai kolae, southern Thai style chicken curry with the legs, thighs and wings. It has a curry paste of dried chillies, shallots, garlic, cumin, coriander, cinnamon, shrimp paste (kapi), and fresh tumeric. The chicken is browned in ghee and simmered in coconut milk. The curry paste is fried in the leftover ghee and added to the pot along with palm sugar, lime juice, and fish sauce. I also made green mango salad with pork and peanuts (and lime, fish sauce, shallots, kaffir lime leaf, sawtooth coriander, mint, chillies and palm sugar) and raw and pickled vegetables and crispy chicken skin. Of course, everything is eaten with copious amounts of jasmine rice. Tonight I'll make mango salad again to eat with the remaining curry and maybe egg and bitter melon, more vegetables, and rice.

This weekend I cooked some dishes from The Cultural Revolution Cookbook by Sasha Gong and Scott D. Seligman. As you would expect, the dishes from this book are very simple and easy to prepare. I had to work early on Saturday and was tired and lazy, so quick simple Chinese food fit the bill. On Sunday I had the good fortune to hear one of the cookbook's authors, Sasha Gong, speak about her experiences growning up in China during the Cultural Revolution. It was fascinating. At some point this weekend I realized it was also Chinese new year. I cooked the same dishes I made Saturday again on Sunday and added "fish-frangrant pork slivers" from Fuchia Dunlop's Land of Plenty (aka pork, fish style, aka pork in garlic sauce). Greens (yu choy) stir fried with garlic, savory golden omelet, spicy white radish salad, fish-style pork (carrots are substituting for the bamboo because somebody (not me) doesn't like bamboo) and rice. >

Here is a good article on Field Marshal Plaek Pibulsongkram and the origins of Phat Thai.

I got six pack last night ($9.99 @ Alexandria WF). I'm two deep into it and am enjoying this beer. Used a tulip glass (if anyone cares). As Don said, the most striking thing at first it the hop aroma, which has a strong floral, citrus element (grapefruit, pomelo) that is very pleasing. I found the aroma dissipates after moving to the second beer, but this could have been from the cooking smells as I was making some Indian food. The malt helped balance the bitterness enough to keep me drinking, but then again I like bitter flavors. Eventually my mouth got the resinous coating that comes with strong IPAs but could have easily enjoyed a third beer. I enjoyed the high ABV (i think it's 7.85%). I like strong ales. I'm looking forward to drinking some more tonight. I will buy more of this.

I am down for beer tastings. I drink beer on the regular anyway. I think this will be fun.

Street parking is no problem during the day on weekdays. I usually can park on 28th or P within a block of the store. I'm not sure about evenings and weekends.

I am rooting for Tu. The designs he showed in the first episode were great.

I don't cook with dried noodles too often, but my understanding is that you should soak them in cold water for at least a half an hour and for up to 3 hours. Warm water could make them too soft for stir frying. I think they will hold for a while in cold water and not get too soft so you can put them in the water ahead of time and forget about them till you need them. If you are stir frying them and they are not soft enough you need to add more liquid (water) and keep frying till they get softer. For soups you just need to blanch them for about 5 seconds in boiling water. Thais make a cool cup shaped strainer with a long handle that is great for blanching noodles (and vegetables and meat). I do recommend the fresh noodles from Bangkok 54 (or Duangrat, Great Wall probably has them as well). I got some myself yesterday. If they are very fresh, they will be out by the register and not in the fridge. In the video for Pad See Ew I posted above, Pai recommends not refrigerating fresh noodles. She is correct, but the noodles she is using come pre-cut and are not laying flat. When noodles are refrigerated they become brittle over time, and will stick together and can be impossible to separate if they are not flat, but if you leave them out at room temp they will start to break down and ferment. However, the noodles from Bangkok 54 come in one large folded sheet, so even when they get stiff from refrigeration, you can still separate them (after you cut them into strips). The older they are, the more delicate the operation. You have to peal them apart very carefully or the will break into small pieces. These noodles last night were fairly fresh though. Here they are in the package: They come in 2lb packages of two sheets. I only needed about 8oz so I just unfold it once and cut that half into strips Next I carefully separated each noodle and layered them in a bowl, crisscrossing them so they would not stick to each other. I made Pad See Ew with pork. I usually buy about 3lbs of pork shoulder from my local butcher (Steve at Let's Meat on the Avenue in Del Ray) and cut it into 200-250 gram pieces, wrap them in plastic and freeze them. I can get one or two (Asian) dishes out of one piece. This pork had a good bit of fat on it, so I rendered some to use as my frying medium. This shot is about halfway through the process. Those cracklings will go into the dish as well. Here are the seasonings. Also included are an egg, lots of garlic, and white pepper. Here is the finished dish, with chillies and vinegar. ก๋วยเตี๋ยวผัดซีอิ๊ว It was aroy mak (very yummy).

I made Ghee with salted butter once. IIRC most of the salt collected with the browned milk solids which were strained out. There was no noticeable saltiness in the resulting Ghee. Normally though I always use unsalted butter. Keep in mind, this was clarified butter made the Indian way, not the French way, which is a different method.

More than you wanted to know about Thai noodle dishes (ก๋วยเตี๋ยว). Thai noodle dishes are of Chinese origin and are relatively recent additions to the Thai culinary universe. Traditionally, Thai people prepared and ate food at home. When large groups of Chinese laborers arrived, they brought their own cuisine and street vendors who sold prepared food for the mostly Chinese clientele. This happened throughout Southeast Asia, and “street food” owes much to Chinese migration. The Chinese brought new cooking techniques to Thailand, which were quickly incorporated into Thai cuisine. These include stir-frying and deep frying. In Thai, the word for stir-fry is Pad (or Phat ผัด, pronounced closer to the name Pat but with a long a, rather than the word pad as in “notepad”). Thai dishes with the name Pad (Phat) in them are of Chinese origin, even Pad Thai. One of the Thai words for rice noodle, the kind of rice noodle used in Pad dishes (not all Pad dishes are noodle dishes, most are not) is Kuaitdiow or Guai-tiaw or Gu-tiaw (ก๋วยเตี๋ยว) a word of Chinese origin. There are several types of rice noodles distinguished by size, i.e. Guai-tiaw sen lek is small cut, Guai-tiaw sen yai is wide cut. Thai people make another type of rice noodle that has a much longer history in Thai cuisine. These are thin round strands of fresh rice noodle usually folded into small nests. Confusingly, the Thai name for this noodle in Kanom Cheen (ขนมจิ้ม). Kanom means snack or sweet, and Cheen (sometimes written jin) means Chinese, so the Thai name for these noodles translates to Chinese snack. These are usually served with curries, especially Nam Ya, a fish curry, and green curry (gaeng kiew wan). Confused? Ok, back to Guai-tiaw. The four most popular Guai-tiaw dishes in American Thai restaurants are Guai-tiaw Pad Thai, Guai-tiaw Pad See Ew, Guai-tiaw Lad Na (also transliterated Rad Na, or Lard Na or Rat Na, all are pronounced the same) and Guai-tiaw Pad kee Mao. As you have probably figured, most Thai menus drop the Guai-tiaw as it is difficult to pronounce and transliterate. In the cases of Pad Thai, Pad See Ew and Lard Na, with the Guai-tiaw dropped, noodles are still implied. This is not necessarily the case for Pad Kee Mao, which can be prepared without noodles. Lets go ahead and break down each of these. Guai-tiaw Pad See Ew, Guai-tiaw (rice noodles, in this case wide rice noodles, Sen Yai) Pad (stir fry) See Ew (soy sauce). That’s right. Noodles stir-fried with soy sauce, definitely a dish of Chinese origin. Ingredients are oil or lard, garlic (but no ginger, Thai cooks do not use ginger in the same way Chinese cooks do), sliced meat, egg, Chinese broccoli or similar green leafy vegetable, and a seasoning combination of any or all of the following; dark soy sauce (a must for this dish, See Ew), regular soy sauce or golden mountain sauce (a kind of Thai version of Soy sauce/maggi sauce), oyster sauce, sugar, sweet dark soy sauce, fish sauce, MSG, and white pepper. You could just use dark sweet soy (aka kecap manis in Indonesian) or a combination of some of the above listed ingredients. Each cook has her own formula, but obviously some form of soy sauce is a must in this dish. Here is a video of a nice young Thai lady teaching you how to make it. Guai-tiaw Lad Na. I actually have no idea what Lad Na (Rat Na, Lard Na, Lat Na) means. This dish is also super Chinese. It is very similar to Pad See Ew but is distinguished by a “gravy” or sauce, and the noodles are browned in a dry hot wok. Ingredients are almost the same as Pad see ew, but no egg, and the sauce is thickened by a slurry of starch at the end, usually tapioca starch, but corn starch or potato starch could also be used. This is the only Thai-Chinese dish I can think of that uses this thickening technique, a technique used in many (most?) Chinese stir-fries. So, noodles (again Guai-tiaw Sen Yai or fresh wide rice noodles) are browned in scorching hot wok, usually without oil, till they darken at the edges, and are then set aside. This is the “hard” part. You need very fresh noodles and a very well seasoned very hot wok or you get a sticky burnt mess. Then lots of garlic is stir fried with sliced meat. Greens are added, usually Chinese broccoli. This dish uses similar seasonings as in Pad See Ew above, but this time dow jiow (fermented soy beans, aka Chinese miso) could also be added. Some stock or water is added and then thickened with starch. The result is poured over the waiting browned noodles. Now my favorite, Guai-tiaw Pad kee Mao. Guai-tiaw (again Sen Yai, wide fresh rice noodles) Pad (stir fry) Kee Mao (a drunk person is called a Kee Mao, kinda sort of translates to shit (kee) faced (mao), but Kee Mao is not a state of being, but a type of a person, a drunkard, or lush) thus this is noodle stir-fry for a drunk person. The menu at Po Siam used to say “noodles of the drunks”. I always liked that. As I am a Kee Mao, I enjoy Guai-tiaw Pad kee Mao very much. As this a dish for drunks (which can also be made without noodles and served with rice) anything goes as far as what vegetables and stuff that can go into it. The way I like it is pretty much Pad Grapao (holy basil stir fry) with noodles and cherry tomatoes, but finding it like this in the States is fairly impossible because holy basil does not grow that well all year long (only in the summer) and is highly perishable. In this dish, again garlic is used, but also lots and lots of Prik kee Nu Chilies (Prik=pepper or chili, kee= shit, Nu=mouse, so mouse poop peppers). I like to use about 20 of these hot little bastards, if it’s too hot to eat it’s perfect. Some cooks grind the garlic and chilies to a paste in a mortar and pestle, and may even add some fermented shrimp paste (kapi, shrimp miso). This resulting paste is fried in hot oil and some meat is added (either sliced or coarsely ground, I prefer the latter). Almost any vegetable is fair game it seams, bean sprouts, baby corn, whatever, who cares, they’re drunk, bell pepper, onion, I hate that shit, bell pepper sucks in Thai food, leave that shit out, and no onion either, but sliced shallots are ok. My vegetable of choice is holy basil, a big ass handful. Most Thai restaurants only throw in a few leaves cause their cheap bastards and your drunk and farang and it’s the wrong kind of basil anyway. It’s usually Bai Horopa (Bai= leaf, horopa = “Thai Basil”) which is ok, but really not the same at all. I like cherry tomatoes in this. In general, central Thais (Bangkok area) do not like tomato, especially cooked tomato. However, northern Thais (Lanna) use it quite a bit cooked, also northeastern Thais (Issan) like to roast tomatoes for one of many types of dipping sauces called jeaw. Seasoning is also kinda whatever, a combination of salty condiments as in the dishes above. Sometimes just fish sauce and palm sugar will do the trick, but oyster sauce is very trendy nowadays. I’ve heard of some cooks adding whiskey, but remember, it is the diner who is drunk, not the noodles. Guai-tiaw Pad Thai, literally stir fried noodles Thai style. The word “Thai” is a qualifier that indicates that this is not a Chinese style Pad (Phat). My understanding is that this dish was invented (by a contest) in the 1920s during a fit of Thai nationalism (i.e anti-Chinese sentiment). The flavor profile of this dish is very different from the above in that there is no soy sauce, oyster sauce, fermented bean paste or any other seasoning of Chinese origin. The very Thai sweet and sour seasoning is usually Tamarind, palm sugar, and fish sauce. The ingredients, however, are all Chinese, rice noodles (sen lek this time, thinner cut), dried radish, pressed tofu, chives etc. Leela of Shesimmers.com has way more info about this dish and I encourage you to read all five posts of her Pad Thai series. Condiments. In Thailand, noodle dishes are always served with condiments. The condiments come in what is call a Khrueng Puang (เครื่องพวง) or ring of spices. Usually this is four or five containers with little spoons arranged in a metal holder. Ask for it if you don’t see it on the table. Each container had a different condiment, usually white sugar, crushed hot pepper (prik pon, made from dried prik ee nu), fresh green sliced chilies in vinegar (prik chee fah, milder bigger chilies or finger hots), fish sauce or fish sauce with chilies, and crushed roasted peanuts. Each diner is expected to season his or her own noodle dish to their liking. Here is some quick advice. Chilies in vinegar is a must for Pad See Ew and Lard Na, crushed dried chili (prik pon) is a must for Pad Thai (along with a squeeze of lime). Everything else is up to you. Thai noodle dishes are not part of a regular Thai meal. They are some of the few Thai dishes that are meant to be eaten alone. They are considered one-dish meals. They are usually eaten for breakfast or lunch and are not usually shared. Consider them as we do sandwiches. Now, do you judge an fine Italian restaurant by its subs? Do you order a sandwich as part of your multi-course meal? Generally no, but that is what you are doing when you order your Thai noodle dish along with your curry and soup and other dishes. Thai noodles are specialty foods made by vendors with special equipment who usually specialize in only one or two dishes (like a deli or pizza parlor). Thai restaurants in Thailand (that don’t cater to tourists) don’t usually have Pad Thai or other noodle dishes, because you buy those from street vendor specialists. A regular Thai meal however, is always multiple dishes, never in courses, but all at once and shared “family style”. It is called ahan kap khao, or just kap khao. Ahan means “food”, kap is “with” and khao is “rice”. Variety and contrast is very important to the Thai diner. There must be an array of flavors as well as textures and different dishes balance one another. But noodles have a place outside this type of meal and are dishes unto themselves. By all means eat Thai food however you like, eat noodles with your other dishes if you want. I hope I have added some context and understanding that will add to your enjoyment of Thai noodle dishes. BTW there are many many more delightful Thai noodle dishes and more being invented everyday. Feel free to ask me questions, argue or disagree. I haven't even mentioned boat noodles.

I am currently surrounded by 3000 police officers, but when I get a chance I'll post a little Thai noodle language lesson.

It looks like drunk noodles with tofu.

This jumped out at me: Aged kimchi is a not common dish? Would not most Korean restaurants (and homes) have kimchi in various stages of fermentation, with the most sour being used for kimchichigae among other things?

Last night, Jeaw Bon. Beef simmered with kaffir lime leaves, galanga, and lemongrass. I used some homemade chicken stock in lieu of the more traditional beef bullion cube and MSG. I also added some beef tendon balls instead of tripe, lung or other parts (in deference to others taste). Simmered for about an hour till it was tender then added fish sauce, lime juice, roasted chilli powder, roasted rice powder, and sliced shallots (basically the dipping sauce Jeaw, which is also the dressing for Laap). I opted for regular fish sauce instead of Pla Rah/Pa Dek, a fish sauce made from fresh water fish (often snakehead) that has been deemed too pungent by the powers that rule my household. After seasonings are added, the hot soup/stew/curry is poured over some fresh greens (gai lan, as pak boong aka morning glory, swamp cabbage was not available) and Thai basil. Also stir fried some bok choy, made some pork larb (laap mu), and some egg with sriracha. We had jasmine rice (instead of sticky rice). Jeaw bon is usually served hot pot style, but I opted for a (slightly) less messy eating experience.