Just got back from Isan again. What happened while I was away? HAHAHAHAHAHHA.
If you, like me, were disappointed by the outcome of an election that feels like 5 years ago, I think we are all due to learn something from our differently-minded “friends”. That lesson is: focus on your own shit. If you feel exhausted or burned out, take care of yourself. Live to fight another day. I’ve been living in Thailand for longer than Timothee Chalamet has been alive. I’m “a’ight”, as the 30-40-year-old kids say. Concepts of thoughts and prayers.
Of course, a big part of my self-care always involves food. Increasingly that food, for me, can be found in every nook and cranny of Isan, somewhere off of a highway and tucked into a mountain hamlet or lurking behind a morning market, unheralded and unsung but always serving food packed with enough chilies to blow the part of my brain that thinks about elections away.
Road trips are always the best way, for me, to explore Isan, especially since everything is 2-4 hours away. A perfect stop for lunch/brunch: Kanom Jeen Pradok Baan Krung Yod, where, obviously, the ever-popular fermented rice noodle take center stage, accompanied by a battery of curries that includes my personal favorite, their “gang gai” (chicken curry), bulked up with yummy cubes of chicken blood. Mindful that we were in Korat (Nakhon Ratchasima), we also ordered “tum Korat” (som tum with peanuts and pla rah, a fusion of Central and Isan styles) and “pad mee Korat” (fried noodles with pork and lots of chili powder).
Just a note to point out something that I’ve noticed since working on a “spicy snack” project with a company that I signed an NDA for: if I order som tum in my broke-ass bad Thai accent, I get bland som tum, even if I assure them that I can take the heat. This has happened to me at Emporium Food Court, where I asked for 5 “met” (chilies) and got something for children (other people: why are you ordering som tum at Emporium Food Court), at Som Tum Nong Rejoice (granted, I was with a German person), and now in Korat. This wasn’t a problem when I was new to Thailand, but now that my tastebuds are as leathery and worn-out as any old Thai person’s, it’s becoming an issue. Have a look at the som tum ordered by my sister-in-law Wikki:
Now look at what I get when I order.
There is a difference, right? I’m not hallucinating? This is nothing to me! I feel like Mark Wiens!
That night, we ended up in Khon Kaen, where we were lucky enough to score a table at Kaen, arguably the fanciest place in town. Chefs Paisarn and Jib turn out thoughtful Thai dishes with purely local ingredients, and I am always looking forward to trying out what I missed last time. That night, we tried their take on “mee krob” (finished table side), a mind-blowing “thom saap” (Issn-style spicy soup) flavored with pickled plum, and a beautiful pomelo salad paired with calamari and the requisite wild betel leaves.
After a quick pit stop in Udon Thani for breakfast and an overnight in Nam Nao, we ended in Chiang Khan, a lovely Mekong riverside town that was featured in the best edition of Lonely Planet (for Isan coverage) a few years ago. From there, we could explore everything around us: the soaring peaks of Phu Kradung, the cutesy shops of Kaeng Khut Khu, and, repeatedly, the damn walking street in downtown Chiang Khan. This is where I finally got to challenge my spice threshold (it’s like going to the gym, doncha know).
We raided the morning market multiple times for some seriously kick-ass pork rinds that we could snack on with whatever chili dip we found, and saw that the locals obviously shared my yen for spicier things:
And that my love for som tum pu pla rah (som tum with pickled crabs and fermented fish sauce) would be well-matched:
But, alas: with all of the chilies I was housing, well, you can imagine how my next few days were. I picked up some activated charcoal tablets at the 7-11 (where there is a whole section of my-tummy-hurts medicine) and took it easy on my last day. This was lucky for me, because we discovered a morning/lunch vendor serving “khao poon” (the Laotian version of kanom jeen) in “nam jaew” (clear broth) with lots of special pork bits (intestine, heart, lungs, liver, kidney) that were seriously delicious after a judicious squeeze of lime and, um, more mashed chilies.
God help me, because I couldn’t help myself — I added a heaping spoonful of that mashed Karen chili to my bowl. We’ve got to get our thrills where we can, I guess. Please send me your thoughts and prayers.
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