Presenting The Faux Gourmet!

The Faux Gourmet has been on hiatus for a while. I began this blog as a creative outlet during law school. After law school, I started other blogs on other topics and no longer needed this as a creative outlet, not to mention my diminishing free time.

But I kept cooking, kept taking food pictures and garden pictures, kept wanting to share the little tidbits of what I'd made. I occasionally did this on my personal blog (to which, I'm sure, people yawned and wondered when I'd post another cat picture). But I started to miss this space. Of all the blogs I have, this format, culled over several dedicated years and incorporating that adorable illustration by Sam Wedelich (see info the left) is by far my favorite.

So I'm back!

Expect short and sweet posts. Less food porn, more recipes and tips. If you want food porn you can look at any of the 5000 million existing food blogs. I don't have good lighting in my apartment and don't have time to style plates. I just want to make something yummy and eat it. If that sounds ok with you, stick around.

Looking forward to being back in touch!

xx

The Faux Gourmet

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    Thursday, November 8, 2007

    Giow Ba Mee Moo Dang

    A bowl of heaven, served up at any old street vendor in Thailand.

    Taste & See: Getting from

    to


    As if ordering in Thai weren't enough of a challenge, a persistent problem for even the most sign-language adept tourists and ex-pats in Bangkok is, I imagine, connecting the dots from a finished product you see people eating on sidewalk tables to (English) menu-less vendors with mounds of raw materials lining the streets. After a while you begin to decipher the more familiar parts of the code; you see blender, you think fruit smoothie; you see wide flat pan and rice noodles, you think phad thai; you see skewers of chicken, you think, skewers of chicken. And with the abundance of smoothies and phad thai, it is tempting for newbies to remain in the "what I have had back home" comfort zone.

    But maybe one day your Thai friend shows up at work with a tasty snack you'd never have know to try but can't stop munching on. Or maybe the someone else who always did the ordering while you just ate blindly moves away. Or maybe one day you just wake up and think, I'm going to stop being a sheep, I'm going to eat something I can't pronounce, I'm going to live a little!

    And you come to me for help. Good. Admitting you have a problem is the first step. I'm here to help you move from admiring on the sidelines to your own place at the table with the eaters with their hands dirty and smiles on their faces. In short, I'm here to help you learn to decipher the code of Thai street food, one noodle dish at a time.

    Thailand's noodle soups are collectively known as "Goyteow." They're ubiquitous throughout the country and available at all hours of the day; have a bowl for lunch with your workmates at the goyteow stand that is bound to be across the street, have one after a few hours of clubbing has you in the mood for a 3 AM snack. There are endless varieties, but today I'm pleased to present my personal favorite, a soup of Chinese origins colloquially called Giow ['g' as in go; 'ee' as in tree, 'ow', as in 'ow, you hurt me']. A Giow stand generally looks like this fine establishment, up the road from my old apartment in Bangkok. NB: The chef's apron [you see the straps in back] certifies that he makes food "happy & healthy," aka, it is clean and safe to
    eat.


    I used to think Giow was a rare kind of goyteow. I knew one little noodle stand in the village where I lived that made smashing Giow, and I'd moto by there daily at lunch to see if the noodle-lady had fresh wontons left. Whenever they saw me, they knew in advance what I wanted and would should out the daily wonton-report as I approached. Heavenly were the days I got my big, steaming bowls of Giow.

    Only later did I find that Giow is all over the place; you just have to know what to look for in a street cart. All you need to do are find the following components, then ask for "Giow Ba Mee Moo Dang" and prepare to be happy.

    1. [Giow] Giow means wonton. The wontons are usually made to order, tiny wonton wrapper stuffed with [usually] a pork/green onion filling.



    2. [Broth & Noodles] The base of Giow is pork broth, served in big metal tubs, and Ba Mee, or egg noodles, usually piled fresh in the window and dunked in the hot broth for just enough time to soften & cook. Some people [tiny Thai women] skip the noodles in favor of fitting into child sized clothing, but I think the chewy yellow noodles are certified comfort food. I also do not wear child sized clothing, but I'm happy, and this is a food blog, so what do you expect? Definitely go for the noodles.


    NB: You can order it dry, or 'hang,' which means you get all the sauces poured on top of the noodles but no broth, advisable if you are eating with someone you don't want to see you drip broth all over your chin. I like it with the broth on the side, spooned in little by little to loosen up the noodles.

    3. [Meat] Another option is Moo Dang, or red pork. You'll see big hunks hanging in the window. You can have your soup with both Giow and Moo Dang, usually for an extra 5 B.


    4. [Fish Balls] I'm not wild about them, but some people love Luk Chin, or fish balls. Wish I could give more of a ringing endorsement, but to me the rubbery blobs with occasional bits of fish gristle don't get me going. But see for yourself; no fair turning them down unless you give it a shot [and some people do make decent versions of it].

    5. [Veggies] Usually chefs will toss in a bit of Pak Kana, [kale?] a dark green leafy vegetable with fibrous stems. It is chopped to order, and like the Ba Mee, Moo Dang and Giow, dunked briefly in the broth.


    This ingenious method of cooking means cooks just have one continuous pot from which they can cycle hundreds of made-to-order bowls of soup in an evening. This talented fellow never stops moving. He's probably juggling about 5 distinct orders at any given time, constantly putting new servings of noodles in the broth while putting finishing touches on bowls his wife then serves to eager customers sitting on small tables behind the cart.


    6. [Crunchy wontons] The finished soup is usually topped with a few crispy wonton bits, which promptly lose their crisp factor upon touching broth. If you order soup to go, I advise skipping the crunchy wontons, unless you like limp, greasy things.

    When ordered to go, the dry parts of the soup are packaged neatly in a paper wrap and tied up with rubber bands.* This is what you have to look forward to at home:


    *Look for an entry on how street foods are packaged soon!

    All of these ingredients form the building blocks, but Giow wouldn't be complete without the condiments. Chopped green onion & bean sprouts may make an appearance. Expect a dousing of sugar, fried garlic & red onion pieces, and some thick, sweet soy sauce ["Indonesian" style, if you're buying at a US Asian store]. You can decide for yourself if you want to spoon white vinegar [a bit spicy from sliced bird chilies soaked in it], red pepper flakes, or more sugar. This version of Goyteow does not use fish sauce, but maybe a bit of soy sauce for salt. Put it all together: amazing meal, 25 B.


    And whereas I've never actually had satisfying normal Goyteow outside of Thailand, since Giow is of Chinese origins you can get it at Chinese and Vietnamese [Pho] restaurants in the US. I had some last months from a Vietnamese place in inner city Oakland. Remote Thai village to inner city Oakland . . . the culinary side of me is loving our shrinking world.

    1 comment:

    Anonymous said...

    Hi,

    Nice to see your interested in Thai street food, here is a guide in case you are in Bangkok and want to try some great street food.

    Street Food in Bangkok

    Enjoyed your story about Persian food, maybe we can trade recipes someday. Please contact me again someday... enjoy Thailand chok dee.

    -Yaowalak