My Survey of Vegetarian Khao Soi in Chiang Mai

I am someone who’s always loved Thai food, and I can’t even count the number of Thai restaurants I’ve been to in the US. As much as I’ve loved the food in Thailand, strangely, it’s often not necessarily better than what I’ve had at home–that’s not an insult to local Thai cuisine, but rather, a compliment to the Thai cuisine in the US. Thai restaurants I’ve been to in the US always have an assortment of soups, noodle dishes, curries, stir fries, salads, etc., but the one thing I don’t ever remember seeing is khao soi. After being in Chiang Mai for quite some time and getting to try a variety of options, this dish has become one of my absolute favorites.

Khao soi is a Northern specialty soup that consists of a yellow coconut curry broth, flat egg noodles and a variety of garnishes (any mix of fried noodles, shallots, cilantro, green onion, lime, fresh chili and pickled vegetables). The meat version is usually served with meatballs, and the vegetarian versions can have anything from meat substitutes to tofu and all sorts of vegetables.

For some quick further background, Chiang Mai is a vegetarian’s paradise. To give you an idea, I’m pretty sure I could eat at a different dedicated vegetarian restaurant for every meal for weeks and still not try them all. That’s why I’m not doing a survey of vegetarian restaurants in general; it’s just far too overwhelming. So instead, I decided to try as many different vegetarian versions of khao soi as I could during our time there. Some I tried after deciding to write this blog post, and some I tried before that, so I didn’t get photos or detailed information about all of them. Anyway, here goes!

These are listed in no particular order, and prices are approximate because I didn’t always remember to write them down. (30 baht = $1)

Morning Glory

34 Prapokklao Rd. (Near Chiang Mai Gate)

The first thing I noticed about this dish was that it seemed somewhat small, and there was very little broth. The broth itself was pretty spicy but not super flavorful otherwise. The crispy noodles on top were quite good, obviously house-made. Not my favorite but still good. (60 baht)

Bamboo Bee

177 Ratchaphakhinai Rd. (North side of the Old City)

This one was piled high with fresh-looking garnishes (cilantro, green onion and fried shallots), so I knew I was going to like it. It had a generous amount of broth which wasn’t spicy but was very flavorful. The broth was actually almost over seasoned, as if they’d used a bit too much curry paste, but was still very delicious. This one included some fake meat and broth but no vegetables. One of my favorites. (90 baht)

Bird’s Nest Cafe

Sinharat Lane Soi 3 (near northwest corner of the Old City)

Luckily, I actually ordered this one by accident the first time because it’s not listed as khao soi on the menu. This was probably one of the largest portions I sampled and also one of the creamiest. It had a light, delicious flavor and some vegetables. Garnishes were shallot, cilantro and lime. Another favorite. This one was also particularly special because it was shared with several friends, a great accompaniment for tying on friendship bracelets! (85 baht)

Free Bird Cafe

116 Maneenoparat Rd. (just outside the Old City, to the northeast)

This one definitely took the cake for the greatest quantity of garnishes, which included red pepper, pickled vegetables, purple onion, cilantro, lime, cilantro and house fried noodles. I would actually venture to say that this was more a bowl of garnishes with a few noodles, broth, potatoes and carrots at the bottom. It was actually almost hard to eat because of all the garnishes. The thin creamy broth had a kick and was very flavorful. (90 baht)

Free Bird Cafe supports Thai Freedom House, a non-government, not-for-profit, language and arts community learning center in Northern Thailand dedicated to assisting families and individuals who are refugees from Burma and members of minority groups of Thailand.

Aum

319 Moon Mueang Rd. (near Tha Phae Gate)

Aum’s khao soi has been voted the best in Chiang Mai. Frank said it was his favorite, and I liked it a lot as well. The broth was very flavorful and slightly sweet with medium creaminess. It included baked tofu, potatoes and mushrooms. The top was garnished with green onion and coconut cream. Garnishes served on the side were lime, shallot and pickled vegetables. (70 baht)

Angel’s Secrets

27 5, Moon Muang Rd. Soi 9 (east side of the Old City)

I tasted this one before I started the research for this blog post, so I don’t have any detailed information about it. It included vegetables in addition to the typical ingredients, and it was delicious.

Blue Diamond

35/1 Moon Muang Road, Soi 9 (northeast corner of the Old City)

Many people rave about Blue Diamond’s vegan baked goods and nice patio atmosphere, but most say that the food is just ok. I would mostly agree with that. The khao soi was decent but not super memorable, but it did include lots of vegetables and tofu. The broth was somewhat thin but had a decent flavor, especially after I asked for a lime wedge.

K’s Kitchen

3/1 Ratchaphuek (across from Kad Suan Kaew Mall)

I’m grateful that a friend recommended this place because it’s quite hidden and I never would have found it otherwise. Their vegetarian version of khao soi is the pumpkin khao soi. It had a relatively thin broth which was somehow also nicely creamy. It has a complex, slightly spicy, slightly sweet flavor. Vegetables included were carrots, green beans and pumpkin. Red chili, green onion and cilantro garnished the top, and served on the side were pickled vegetables, shallot and lime. My only complaint was that it was a slightly small portion, but I guess at that price, you can order 2! Another favorite. (55 baht)

Kanlaya

27/2 Mun Mueang Road, Soi 9 (northeast corner of the Old City)

I tried this one all the way back in August and almost forgot to include it. Unfortunately, I don’t remember anything specific about it, but I remember enjoying it. I’m pretty sure it was the first one I ever had, so it must’ve been good for me to want to try so many!

Maya Food Court, Vegetarian Food Stand

Thanon Charoen Mueang (northwest corner of Huay Kaew and Nimmanhaemin Roads)

B1 level of Maya Mall, near the glass elevator

This one was probably the most authentic, which meant that it was less creamy than others but also more savory and spicy. It was a large portion that included mushrooms, several kinds of fake meat and was garnished with celery leaves. (40 baht)

I decided to include this one last, not because it was necessarily my favorite (it was very tasty though), but because of the relationship I had with the cook, Mile (pronounced more like Mai). Frank and I visited this vegetarian stand at the Maya food court almost daily for lunch for quite a while, and we developed a relationship with the family who runs it. The mother, son and daughter who run the place are always cheerful with genuine smiles on their faces. Mile always called me “Bonnieeee!” and she called Frank “Bonnie husband.” Seriously, we loved them. After the brother’s wedding one weekend, they gave us a special cake they’d saved for us from the wedding. It’s supposed to bring good luck to couples who eat it together.

Anyway, if you go to Chiang Mai and you’re a vegetarian (or you like vegetarian food), you have to visit them; they’re very popular. They have probably 20 delicious dishes available every day, all vegan, and you can add a fried egg on top if you want. These include vegetarian versions of many northern Thai specialties, such as lemongrass-y sausage and a chili tomato dish that’s just delicious. Everything tastes fresh, and if it’s not hot enough for your taste, they’ll pop it in the microwave for you. Rice and one item costs 30 baht, and each additional item costs 10 baht more. And just remember, 30 baht equals $1–it’s really impressive.

Cooking where no one cooks – Part 2

In part 1, I talked about why everyone in Chiang Mai should cook, even though eating out may be cheap, convenient and delicious.

Now let’s get down to the practical stuff.

This post is specifically directed toward people living in Chiang Mai, but many of these tips may be useful for others.

 

You can make a kitchen anywhere

I worked for the Community Food Bank of Southern Arizona, in Tucson, for several years, two of which involved regular cooking demonstrations. My job often required basically carting around an entire kitchen. This isn’t as ridiculous as it sounds. I had a variety of supplies available to me, but most of the time, my mobile kitchen consisted of an electric frying pan (with extension cord) and a large plastic tub filled with various other kitchen essentials (knife, cutting board, spatula, large spoon, bowls, etc.). And depending on what I was making, I sometimes had a wheeled cooler as well. I became adept at setting this up quickly just about anywhere, including on a folding table at a farmers’ market. And if I didn’t have electricity available, a propane camping stove worked great outdoors.

What I’m trying to say is that if your place doesn’t have a kitchen, it’s very easy and pretty inexpensive to set one up. Hopefully your apartment has at least a kitchen sink, small counter space, and a refrigerator. If not, I know this can all be done on a table. (If you don’t believe me, see the previous paragraph.) And if you don’t have a refrigerator, stock up on the things that don’t require refrigeration, and then just buy what you need for the day.

 

Our setup

Here is what we started out with when we moved into our apartment:

 

• small countertop
• kitchen sink
• decent sized refrigerator
• electric kettle
• 2 glasses
• 1 spoon
• 1 cabinet above the sink/counter

 

 

 

 

We immediately bought:

• electric wok (came with a lid)
• rice cooker (cheapest, smallest one we could find–only has an on/off switch–we can make about 4 servings of rice at a time)
• surge protector/extension cord (our kitchen area has no convenient plugs)
• 1 small sharp knife
• 1 wooden spoontula (thanks, Brian, for the name)
• 1 small cutting board
• 2 glass bowls (deep and large enough to double as plates)
• 1 spoon (because we already had 1)
• 2 forks
• 3-pack storage containers (which can also double as bowls for cold food and for serving fruit)
• 1 sponge
• 1 small bottle of dish soap

All of this came out to about 1500 baht (about $45 USD). We bought all of this at Central Department Store inside Central Kad Suan Kaew Mall. If you shop around, I’m sure it’s possible to find these things for less at local markets or smaller stores, but we were on foot that day and enjoyed the convenience of this option. Ours are also pretty decent quality and have held up well so far over a month of continuous use.

 

We later bought:

• 2 mugs (for hot beverages for ladling soup)
• 1 larger knife (not completely necessary but nice for mincing garlic, cutting carrots, etc.)

We purchased these items for approximately 100 baht total at Tops.

 

Food

Kitchen staples:

• brown rice
• dry noodles
• lentils
• textured vegetable protein
• dried mushrooms
• quick cooking oats
• muesli
• onions
• garlic
• spices (coriander, cumin, black pepper, salt)
• soy sauce
• cooking oil (we use soybean)
• sesame oil
• mushroom sauce

(if you’re not a vegetarian, fish sauce and oyster sauce are often used locally instead of soy sauce and mushroom sauce)

 

Other foods we like to keep around:

• all sorts of fruits, whatever looks good and is a good price
• variety of vegetables for cooking and for salads (again whatever looks good and is a good price)
• bird’s eye chilies (if you like spicy food)
• limes
• green onions (aka: scallions or spring onions)
• cilantro (or other herbs that look good)
• yogurt
• eggs
• bread
• peanut butter (no oil added)
• jam (only fruit, sugar, and pectin if possible)

To give you an idea, we spend about 500 baht ($15 USD) every 2-3 days and get about 6 meals (between the 2 of us) and several snacks from that. Those trips are mostly for fruits and vegetables and sometimes the occasional staple that ran out. We’ve made a huge effort not to let anything spoil, so we buy only what we think we can use within a couple of days, and it’s really paid off. We find throwing food away quite painful, especially since it’s not really practical for us to compost at the moment. There are some chickens nearby that we’ve considered throwing scraps to, but we’re not sure how their owners would feel about it.

In the next post, I’ll give you some more practical tips for cooking with electric appliances, as well as some of my go to recipes.

Cooking where no one cooks – Part 1

Where are we now?

We’ve now been in Chiang Mai, Thailand for just over a month this time around. It’s a haven for digital nomad expats–apparently, there are 40,000 expats living in Chiang Mai, and walking around town, I believe it. Living expenses are very low, internet is fast and widely available, and there’s lots of fun stuff going on all the time.

Yes, we cook

For those who may be unfamiliar, food in Thailand (especially street food) is cheap, convenient and delicious. So understandably, people we talk to are constantly amazed that we actually cook here (though, admittedly, most of the people we talk to are expats). They’re even more amazed that we cook daily, usually at least 2 meals every day. When you talk to expats who live here about getting a place with a kitchen, most will say “don’t bother.” But I say otherwise. If you’re planning to stay for any length of time, get a kitchen–even a little counter space and a sink is sufficient, as you really don’t need more than that, and electric appliances are very affordable. (More detail on that in the next post)

Here are my reasons.

1.  It’s also inexpensive to buy and cook food at home

Even the Western-style grocery stores by us (Rimping and Tops) are cheap if you’re careful about what you buy. Interestingly, both Tops and Rimping are inside shopping malls, one very modern, and the other…well, let’s just say its heyday has passed. You can find basically any food item you could want from the Western world, but much of that category tends to be pretty expensive, so we’ve tried to stick mostly to what the locals might buy there.

But even better–there are tons of local markets all around. These markets can either be pop-up style like farmers’ markets back home, or they can be more established in an open-air, warehouse sort of building. The latter type might require a bit more courage, and ideally, an orientation from a local. You can find everything from a huge variety of fresh fruits and vegetables, to recently butchered meats, freshly made curry paste, coconut milk squeezed while you wait, flowers and candles for visiting temples, and much more. They’re great places to find just about anything you’d want, inexpensively.

Admittedly, we haven’t taken advantage of local markets as much as we’d like to, but we’re going to start. This morning we tried one that’s more of the farmers’ market kind, at Baan Kang Wat, and maybe it’s just getting started, but it was rather small. We did find some delicious jam and a woman who sells hummus, but sadly she ran out by the time we got there. Frank did get a delicious grilled cheese sandwich, and we shared some nice local kombucha. But just remember, don’t shake your kombucha. I turned it upside down a couple times just to try to mix it and managed to explode it somewhat. Oh well!

 

2.  You can control what goes into it

Since it seems like all the other expats eat out for every meal, I’ve heard complaints that restaurants use MSG, too much oil, and often that vegan/vegetarian food is not actually vegan/vegetarian. The reason for that last complaint is one that I’ve personally experienced. Many Thai cooks don’t realize that fish sauce and oyster sauce aren’t vegetarian by many people’s standards. They just think of the meat itself and not the sauces. Interestingly, though, sometimes if you order your meal vegetarian, they do often ask if you want egg. Coming from the US as a vegetarian, it’s interesting that here they would be more careful about eggs than about fish sauce or oyster sauce.

3.  You’re probably tired of eating out for every meal

As much as we love restaurants, after 4 months of travel through Vietnam, Thailand, Brunei, Malaysia and Singapore, eating almost every single meal out, we were really getting tired of it. We absolutely love waking up, making some oatmeal, cutting up a bunch of fruit, making some tea, and relaxedly eating at home. This takes us maybe 5 minutes even when we’re not rushing. In the past, breakfast involved getting up and dressed, going out and often having to settle for something we didn’t actually want. If we were lucky we could find some kind of yogurt/fruit/muesli bowl, but that wasn’t always an option. Traditional Asian breakfasts are rarely vegetarian, and the “Western” alternative was often expensive and included some kind of unknown sausage, oily eggs and a couple pieces of white toast.

4.  It’s fun to use ingredients that you don’t have at home

Bird’s eye chilies, galangal, lemongrass, kaffir lime zest, kaffir lime leaves, Thai ginseng, passion fruit, star fruit, soursop, dragonfruit, many varieties of bananas, longan, rambutan, mangosteen, etc., etc. The list goes on and on. You may be lucky enough to have an Asian market at home, but odds are, these ingredients will never be as fresh or as cheap as they are here. And do we really want to support the importing of foods from all the way across the globe? So use them now while they’re local.

5.  You can practice new skills

How many of us have a souvenir cookbook from a cooking class that’s just been sitting on a shelf? Use it! Another side benefit is that getting used to cooking in a tiny space will make anything back home seem luxurious.

In part 2, we’ll get down to the practical stuff.

 

Some more photos from Baan Kang Wat

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

Photos from a market we visited in Bangkok in June