There is an amazing noodle shop on Silom road that servers absolutely the best baa mee giaow nam in the whole city. There are pictures all over the walls of Thai super stars who’ve come to enjoy their famous noodle soup. When you go to leave and pay, the old lady at the counter gives you this knowing look, as if you shared an unspoken secret with each other. She knows you’ll be back for more, and so do you…
So, this recipe should help you recreate a bowl of noodles as good as you’ll find there, only it takes a little longer to prepare as we are going to do it from scratch. You’ll find recipes for roast pork belly, pork stock, and dumplings, perfect for this dish, in the previous posts.
Serves 2
Ingredients:
200 – 250 grams roast pork belly, sliced into bite sized pieces
1 litre pork stock
handful of fresh thin egg noodles
hand full of chinese broccoli
1 spring onion, chopped
2 teaspoons of fermented cabbage
2 teaspoons fried garlic in oil
2 pinches of sugar
4 Thai chillies
fish sauce to season
vinegar to season
chilli flakes to season
coriander to garnish
Method:
1. Into each of the 2 bowls place a splash of fish sauce, a splash of vinegar, 2 Thai chillies, pinch of sugar, 1 teaspoon fermented cabbage, half the chopped spring onion.
2. Bring the stock to a simmer. Turn the heat to it’s lowest.
3. Bring a large pan of water to the boil.
4. Cut the leaves off the chinese broccoli, then cut the stems into pieces a couple of inches long. If the stems are thick, slice them lengthways too.
5. Throw the stems into the boiling water and simmer for 30 seconds. Remove, and place half in each bowl.
6. Blanch the leaves, remove and place half in each bowl.
7. If not yet cooked, cooked the dumplings till the float plus 1 minute (about 3 mins). Place 4 in each bowl.
8. Throw the noodles into the water and count 30 seconds. Remove immediately and place half in each bowl.
9. Pour stock over the top until it looks like the picture.
10. Lay half the slices of roast pork belly into each bowl. If the crackling has puffed nicely, it should stay crispy just long enough for you to finish the last bite.
11. Garnish with coriander, chilli flakes and 1 teaspoon of fried garlic in oil for each bowl.
12. Serve with chopsticks and a spoon. The spoon should be held in the left hand and chopsticks in the right (opposite for lefties, I guess!). The spoon is there to assist with the noodles. If you don’t use this combo, you’ll find eating this dish rather challenging to say the least.
13. Stir to bring all the goodies up from the bottom of the bowl. Taste and season with fish sauce of vinegar, if necessary.
14. Eat.
Tasty huh?! Oh yes, you’ll thank me for this one.
One final thing: noodle soups are among the very few Thai dishes that chop sticks are needed for. Please don’t use chop sticks to eat other Thai food, unless you want to look like an idiot. Fork and spoon are the norm.