i’m pretty stoked, armed with a cookbook from costco, ingredients from huaxin street and a food processor came up with a more than passable khao soi. no more of those plastic curry bags for me, lol.
I gave it a go recently, and I was pleasantly surprised with the results.
still i guess i will have to take the next step and get a mortar and pestle. the food processor doesn’t get you that fine.
khao soi? Isn’t that just white rice? It took you all that just to make white rice? 
if you buy a mortar and pestle specifically for Thai cooking (and really, what other reason is there?), don’t skimp and buy a wimpy one, or you will curse the day.
invest a little more and get one of those marble whackers that’s about the size of a small bucket, with a decent heavy pestle so you can pulverise quickly enough to finish cooking dinner and still catch Home and Away on the telly…
galangal is tough, as are the seeds of the chilis, so you need something with a lot of weight. and a big capacity is handy too for adding liquids like lime juice, etc, to the mix as it develops and still avoid splashing over the sides.
I can’t stand food processors, especially as i am cooking for only one or two people most of the time. i have absolutely 0 electric machines in my kitchen. the number of times i need one is so small, and besides, mincing by hand is therapeutic. plus, i have no problems with stripped gears and worn out motors.
I tell a lie: i do have an electric coffee grinder: a Krups, so it’ll be here next century too.
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it seems dragonbones you only know enough thai to be dangerous, lol. or at least you have yet to partake of the sublime “khao soi”.
thanks for the tips urodacus. my mom actually sent us a mini-sized food processor a couple of years ago that has pretty much sat in the closet until now but is perfect for this. i have been told a “processor then mortar” technique saves time and gets good enough results.
Ouch! Spot on there Temp Gain, and I’m sure DB aint gonna like it. Although I’m quite sure he’ll bitch about how if there were tonemarks he wouldda got it. 
But the mortar and pestle are crucial to the full home Thai food experience. Erh, add one Thai wife to clang clang away. The rhythm or tempo of the mortar and pestle lets the neighbours know how life is in the matrimonial sense for a given household. Yes, they can fake that too.
HG
Both, I guess. Well, in this case I just misinterpreted the romanization. I’m thinking khao suay, with suay as in beautiful. And I assumed the ‘soi’ was a variant romanization of the same word (seeing as how romanization varies). Baka gaijin desu.
som tam today, can’t believe i never did this before, too easy.
I took a cooking course in Bangkok a coupla years ago, came home, scoured the lands for ingredients, cooked heavily for three months and haven’t done it since. And I really like Thai food. It was good while it lasted…
being in thailand and seeing the mortar and pestle, of course i bought it. mua ha ha ha ha!
Ran into some nice ingredients at Breeze the other day, thai eggplants, green peppercorns and galangal. Gonna have to head by there more often.
Thai rellys! I knew there was some reason I came to the angkrit.
If you need real deal ingredients & implements - head out to Hsin Zhuang. There is an entire street devoted to Thai cuisine. One of my son’s Thai classmates mother introduced us to the place. It’s supported by all the Thai laborers there. Great stuff & cheap with lots of good Thai food stalls.
[quote=“Elegua”]
If you need real deal ingredients & implements - head out to Hsin Zhuang. There is an entire street devoted to Thai cuisine. One of my son’s Thai classmates mother introduced us to the place. It’s supported by all the Thai laborers there. Great stuff & cheap with lots of good Thai food stalls.[/quote]
I’ve heard about this. I will have to make the trip. Is it every day? I remember hearing something about weekends.
Thai eggplants at Breeze! great.
Why trek all the way out to XinZhuang when i just have to cross the road?
(In fact, why go to XinZhuang at all, if you can help it?)
But tell us the name of the street anyway, thanks old chap.
Yes, do let us know the name of this street! I try to avoid going to Xinzhuang since it’s a bit of a trek to get out there. However, my in-laws live there, so it would be great to try some good Thai food eaten by actual Thai people when I am in Xinzhuang. I’ve been asking my wife and her cousin about Thai food in Xinzhuang since I sometimes see laborers riding their bikes around there. Unfortunately, I haven’t been able to find anything out.
Yes do tell please, now that i think about it the place I heard about was in Wugu.
Sorry, can’t help with the name of the street or even the rough location beyond - somewhere near the river in Hsinchuang, but I got lost out there on a scoot looking for something else and stumbled on this street. All the shops are mom and pop like stores with Thai and Chinese written all over the place. There’s even a Thai gold shop. This isn’t a market, these are stores that are open everyday. Looked like some great little eateries around there also.
HG
Dragonbabe says there is one in 中和 Zhong1he2 and it is colloquially called 緬甸街 Mian3dian4 Jie1 (Burma Street) but it’s formally 華新街30巷 Hua2xin1 jie1 Lane 30. Here are some pics: wretch.cc/blog/HappySewing/7878575
And there’s another called Tai4guo2 jie1, Thailand Street (formally 化成路 Hua4cheng2 Lu4), in 新莊 Xin1zhuang1.