Restaurants of Chiang Mai

While the street food in Chiang Mai is excellent, we also ate at a few restaurants worth mentioning. The first is a new restaurant hoping to become a chain that focuses on a northern specialty called khao soi. The second was an expensive (but not after the currency conversion) high-class restaurant that offers Italian molecular gastronomy. Finally, we went to one of the high-end Thai restaurants just off the beaten path enough to cater primarily to Thai locals out for a special location. All three of these restaurants were top quality and made it into our "Best of Thailand" list.
Nov 1-5, 2009

While the street food in Chiang Mai is excellent, we also ate at a few restaurants worth mentioning. The first is a new restaurant hoping to become a chain that focuses on a northern specialty called khao soi. The second was an expensive (but not after the currency conversion) high-class restaurant that offers Italian molecular gastronomy. Finally, we went to one of the high-end Thai restaurants just off the beaten path enough to cater primarily to Thai locals out for a special location. All three of these restaurants were top quality and made it into our "Best of Thailand" list.

(Just) Khao Soi

Khao soi or kao soy is a northern Thai curry soup with egg noodles and a variety of mix-ins to choose from. We were excited to try it but hadn't come across any street vendors selling it yet, so we were forced to accept the recommendation of Lonely Planet, which in this case turned out to be just fine. The restaurant we went to specializes in khao soi, and in fact is called, "Just Khao Soy."

Just Khao Soy is a bright, clean restaurant, which I think usually means it's new and/or caters to tourists. In this case, both were probably true, but we did see a Thai family eating here, so at least it might serve as a nice place for Thais on vacation or out for a celebration.

The main thing on the menu here is pretty obvious. There were a number of interesting-sounding appetizers, but we wanted to focus on the main event and so we got right down to business with two orders of khao soi: Mine with vegetables, tofu and Chinese mushroom; Ryan's with chicken on the bone (the "Thai favorite"). We both selected "Chiang Mai style" - with coconut milk in the curry broth, vs. "Lanna style" which more resembles a hot & sour soup. We also had a choice between flat noodles or the round, yellow ones. Ryan went for the flat noodles and I chose round. Each of us was also given a tray of tiny platters of optional ingredients to stir into our soup. The menu explained the purpose of each item - pickled cabbage to add sourness and reduce sweetness, sugar, fish sauce for salt, chili paste, shallots, lime (for more sour), coconut milk, and banana. The banana was offered "to soothe the sting" of the chili, or else it could be stirred in with everything else. These last two ingredients - especially the banana - seem to be something that Just Khao Soy does give a better experience. Crunchy, slightly salty fried noodles are served atop the soup.

The khao soi itself is quite delicious - salty, sour, spicy, sweet, and nutty. All five tastes are covered, and with the mix-ins, you can adjust the balance to suit yourself. It's really quite a remarkable dish, especially for one so cheap. Since we were at a restaurant, I think our khao soi cost 100฿ each, but when we eventually found it in less lofty establishments, the cost was closer to 20 or 30฿ for a bowl. In those places, the mix-ins were still available, except for the banana and the coconut milk, though one could always ask for a little more coconut milk.

High-end khao soi at Just Khao Soy

After having khao soi at Just Khao Soy, we knew we needed to try it at an authentic streetside restaurant. We consulted the Lonely Planet (reluctantly again, since by now we'd gotten some very inaccurate reviews and advice from the guide book, a problem that only became worse as we traveled on through Thailand) and headed to something the book called the "khao soi ghetto" where there were a number of small shops offering the dish. We took a tuk-tuk out to the ghetto because it was a bit of a distance. The driver asked the name of the restaurant we wanted to go to, so we told him the one name given as example in the book, Khao Soi Lam Duan. I don't know how it is the drivers can not know how to get to a certain bridge but they know exactly which tiny restaurant you mean. I have two guesses: 1) since the restaurant name is in the Lonely Planet, everyone asks for that one (this leads to serious quality issues in Thailand, as some restaurant seem to stop trying once they get a LP mention, not to mention the number of obvious copycats, such as a similar sounding name, or just a blatant, "We're the one Lonely Planet recommends," when the book-given description casts serious doubt on the claim); or 2) we didn't go to Lam Duan at all, and instead got dropped off at a restaurant of the driver's choosing, since all the signs were in Thai which we clearly couldn't read (I hope to fix that by my next visit to Thailand. That'll show them!)

At any rate, we were at a small streetside restaurant that served khao soi, and khao soi is what we were getting.

The difference between the khao soi here and at Just Khao Soy was both near and far. At Lam Duan, there was no vegetable option. I had so much liked the inclusion of vegetables and mushrooms at Just Khao Soy that I asked if they had one here. I told (I tried to tell) our server that I wanted vegetables in mine, but that I wasn't concerned about its being vegetarian, per se, just that it had vegetables. What I got was the chicken khao soi with the chicken scooped out of it and no vegetables or meat then at all. What a disappointment. Ryan's turned out much better, because he's not complicated like that. (He had his with beef.) The other big difference was the absence of banana and extra coconut milk. The coconut milk didn't matter since the curry broth had plenty in it already, but I missed the banana. On the other hand, the khao soi here tasted wonderful, and it was only about 25฿.

"Street" khao soi at Lam Duan

As the week went on, we did get more khao soi in all sorts of places, including once at a take-away place in the mall, where we received separate plastic bags of broth, noodles and toppings. We did eat at Just Khao Soy one more time, and while it was still good, it wasn't as amazing as our first experience. The bananas were nice, but the overall 100฿ price and the clean atmosphere felt wrong to me. (Don't worry, I'll get used to 100-200฿ dishes by the time that's all that's available in the south. Of course, I found that with a little effort cheaper dishes can be had, but for some reason the fish dishes in the south just don't get cheap.) In the end, I hope that Just Khao Soy succeeds in bringing the taste of this delicious northern specialty to other regions through franchising. I think one would go over quite well in San Francisco or LA, and they could certainly use some khao soi in Bangkok and the southern islands.

Molecular Gastronomy @ Favola

There's a fancy restaurant in Chiang Mai at Le Meridian hotel called Favola that specializes in molecular gastronomy. I'd seen a show about molecular gastronomy before and thought this would be a good introduction to it. From what I'd seen, molecular gastronomy uses a scientific approach to cooking and accomplishes some pretty spectacular feats through an advanced understanding of the cooking process and some pretty nifty technologies, too. I was looking forward to gin infused cucumbers, cranberry cakes with duck jelly, spinach foam on tamarind latkes, and other such marvels. I guess Favola doesn't go as far as that, which is a disappointment, but at least they did make various flavor-infused foams (though they went a little overboard with the foams on every dish we got).

My notes are brief and I'm missing the names of most of our dishes, but here's my best recollection, aided by the photos we took.

I think we ordered 4 dishes total (not counting dessert) and had asked them to bring them one at a time, so we could enjoy each one by itself and give it all our attention. Unfortunately, they managed to bring them out in the wrong order at first, and then - whump! - all at once. Oh, well.

We had (and again, I don't know what the name of the dish is. Words used to describe the food are of my own choosing, except when influenced by what names I think I can remember. My notes do not discriminate between these.):

• Duck confit ravioli, with foam - I don't know what flavor foam. In my opinion, the foams rarely had enough flavor for me to tell. (I hate to say it that way, because the food was in fact very delicious. Only the foam was lacking a bit, but that didn't matter at all, except to minimize the "molecular gastronomy" aspect of the meal. Without it, it's just a 4-star meal.)
  
• Carpaccio rolled around foie gras
  
• Risotto with fig and parma ham
  
• Pumpkin tortellini

All these items were delicious (and all had foam). The foie gras was creamy; the tortellini had a savory pumpkin flavor rather than the usual sweet pumpkin; the risotto was also savory, even with the fig in it. We went around and around the dishes, tasting and savoring, comparing and contemplating, until it was all gone and we were full. However, one cannot go to a restaurant like this and skip dessert. For the sweet finish, we had:

• Cherries stewed in red wine, served with cinnamon ice cream. The ice cream was topped with a crisp cinnamon cookie, and a bright red stick of cinnamon sugar. This was our favorite.
  
• Pear and chocolate torte with pistachio vanilla ice cream and balsamic reduction. The torte was good, but the pear needed to be emphasized or incorporated just a little more. The balsamic reduction looked like chocolate sauce, and that's what I was thinking it was until I remembered the description from the menu. At once, the unfamiliar flavor in the sauce sprang to life and I could taste the sweet vinegar of it, which complimented the vanilla ice cream quite nicely. The sauce was a definite winner, and only the weakness of the pear flavor held this dessert back from its full potential.

Carpaccio with foie gras and duck confit ravioli	Fig and Parma ham risotto
Stewed cherries with cinnamon ice cream	Pear and chocolate torte

This restaurant was definitely a splurge, and if we'd been in the US or Europe we wouldn't have wanted to afford it. But with the favorable exchange rate, the total bill was less than $100, including 2 cocktails.

Dalaabaa

The very next night we took the tuk-tuk from the Night Safari to a fancy Thai restaurant on the outskirts of town, Dalaabaa. We'd had refined Western cuisine last night, so now we wanted to try one of the top Thai restaurants in the city. Dalaabaa is described as offering a mix of Thai fusion and uncommon northern specialties. When we arrived, the night was just becoming cool, but we chose to sit outside near the pond and garden. While we waited for our food, we were entertained by about a half dozen white rabbits chasing each other around the garden.

We started with some unusual fruit juices: gooseberry and bale fruit (also called bael fruit). For appetizers, we ordered the following:

• Crab spring rolls - long and skinny, deep fried and with a sweet chili sauce. The presentation was intriguing, too.
  
• Deep fried lime leaf with beef - Both were good, but Ryan and I have become especial fans of fried lime leaf.

For the second course, we shared:

• Spicy lemongrass salad with raw salmon sliced on top - The salad was quite delicious. The lemongrass contributed a strong flavor and really carried the dish.
  
• Tom kha gai (Tom kha soup with chicken) - The broth was smooth and buttery, and this is Ryan's favorite soup (I like it, too).

Finally, for the main course, we had:

• Fried pea and crispy fish - The peas are really more like a bean, and they were very good. The fish in this dish was the only thing that needed improvement. I don't know what kind it was, because the name wasn't given.
  
• Deep fried red tilapia in dry curry - Ryan chose this dish, and picked the variety of fish for it, too. Perhaps that made all the difference, because the tilapia was very good. Ryan had initially tried to order the serpent-headed fish, but was advised against it by the waiter, who feared that we wouldn't like the taste. Undaunted, we managed to order serpent headed fish several times later in the trip, and the taste is quite fine, I can assure you. The smell, however, takes a little getting used to.

We were too full for dessert, and in fact, we decided to walk home because we were that stuffed. Oh, for as delicious a meal as the night before? Our bill came to about $30.

Crab spring roll and beef with fried lime leaf

Pea with crispy fish and tilapia with fried red curry

More pictures of food in Thailand here.