Friday, July 8, 2011

The best thing I ever ate.....

While in Thailand in 2007 with Jude and Natalie, we visited the town of Chang Mai in the north.  We got off the plane and checked out the city right away. Naturally, we were starving and we had read that  Chang Mai was famous for their Khao Soi noodles. Ok. Noodles. Great. We stopped at one of the first restaurants we saw, with plastic tables and chairs, and condiments, such as spicy sauce and cilantro on the table.  The place didn't look like much but most of the restaurants in Thailand don't..... and let me tell you, I have eaten some of the best food of my life in these "restaurants" most Americans would be scared to step foot in.  Anyway, everyone was eating noodles.  In fact, that's all they served.  Soooooo we ordered the noodles.  The big steaming bowls arrived and were accompanied by strange sides...pickled cabbage, shallots, lime. The bowl was topped with crispy noodles. We dug in. We slurped. We were silent. We looked at each other. I don't remember which one of us was the first to be like, "Holy shit, this is the best thing ever" but one of us did and the other of us agreed.  Back to the noodles.  The broth was some sort of curry with so many flavors, some heat and coconut milk.  There were thin rice noodles, chicken and  of course, it was topped with crispy noodles and the shallots, pickled cabbage and lime.  So many flavors. So many textures. So effing ridiculously good. Perfect.
We ate this dish a buncha times our 3 days in Chang Mai and vowed to learn how to make it.

When we got home, Natalie and I to the west coast and Jude to the east, we were all on a quest to find Khao Soi somewhere close by. Natalie bought me a Thai cookbook and I tried my hand at the dish.  Not bad, but not what I ate in Thailand.  Nat and I also scoured la and found nothing. Even in Thai town they looked at us like they didn't know what we were talking about or they just didn't serve them.  It was a Northern specialty after all and I'm still on a mission to find a Thai restaurant in la that specializes in northern dishes.  I did recently, at Lukshon, encounter what they call Northern Thai Noodles.  Very good and similar, but NOT Khao Soi sadly.   Jude had more luck in NYC. She found two restaurants that served the dish and both were really good.  Ok.....so this was all 4 years ago.....I'm still waiting to have that holy shit moment with the dish again.  I was in NYC a few weeks ago and  being on a budget, thai food seemed like the perfect choice.  I asked her to take me to one of the places with Khao Soi.  We went.  We read the menu.  We looked at each other. Where was it?  Not there. Was it a secret dish? Hmmmmmmm....we asked the waiter and he said they took it off the menu. WHAAAAAA?  Instead they served things like fried appetizer samplers (which we had so don't think I'm hatin')   Maybe they only wanted to serve "American friendly " thai food?  Sates and such.....
We ate our platter of fried, pounded our Singhas and walked a block to the next place. Determined to get what we came for.  Please dear god still have it on the menu. Please. We walked in and the place was packed, waiters running around and the smell of delicious thai food smacked us in the face. There was a thai woman cooking in the heat of the smoky kitchen and speaking to the other cooks in thai. We glanced at the menu and found what we were looking for.
THERE IT WAS. HALLELUJAH!  KHAO SOI NOODLES!!!!
We ordered a bowl to share, as our fried thai food sat in our stomachs not leaving much room.

It came.  We looked at it.  Holy Shit it looked like the real deal.  The pickled cabbage, the limes wedge, the crispy noodles.....We ate it and were fucking giddy.  It tasted like Thailand.  It tasted like our trip.  It brought back memories, smells, that first little restaurant in Chang Mai.  The broth was insane. It was so good.  Go on a quest of your own and find it. Or hop on a plane to Thailand.


UPDATE:  I have found a Northern Thai place in LA and plan on going this weekend.  It's called Spicy BBQ on Santa Monica and Normandie. I'm going to have this:

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