just_Elaine

As I said in another post, my favorite restaurant has become inconsistent and now we are longing for some good gaeng khea. I went to the market and bought the curry paste, a bunch of vegies and added a little pork. It came out very good, but it's more time-consuming and costly than getting this at a restaurant. Does anyone know of a good place to get this dish?

Thanks,

Just_elaine

My understanding is that Vietnamese spring rolls are made with "rice paper". These manufacterers (http://www.cuchi.netfirms.com/index.htm) say that rice paper is made with rice flour with some tapioca powder. So your vendor probably makes her/his own batter and cooks it in a pan instead of using the dried rice paper product and soaking it before using it. Anyway, I would think that they are still spring rolls.

Here is a link I ran across of recipes to make spring rolls. http://www.levork.org/2006/11/13/vietnamese-spring-rolls/ At restaurants in the US, I'm used to seeing the rice paper stuffed with lettuce, mint leaves, a few shreds of carrot and maybe cabbage, grilled pork and shrimp with the peanut dipping sauce.

The resturant with the big yellow sign may have tasty fare but they have been caught out "Dual pricing" with their grilled meats.. Beware.. Don't support this unethical practice please..or if you simply can't do without it, get a Thai to order for you..

Thanks for the heads up.

I once bought the wrong bread by accident at Carrefour - something like "Mediterranean" bread

Has red (pepper?) fleks in it and a yellowish colour. Very yummy.

A good mistake.

There are a couple of other good ones there. Can't remember the names - one has olives in it, one has different grains in it... Very good bread with some texture to it...

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If they want Thai food though, we go to 'Ron Kaeng Baan Suan' quite a bit. It is our favorite restaurant in Chiang Mai.

just_Elaine

Just an update. We have been getting inconsistent results from 'Ron Kaeng Baam Suan'; sometimes the food is good, sometimes not.

Our new place for Thai food is a restaurant with only the name in Thai (something about banana leaves). It is on a street between the road that Tesco Lotus Hang Dong is on and canal road. To get there: going South with Tesco Lotus Hang Dong on your left, continue until you reach the light and make a right. It is across from Mountain Green Restaurant. Recommended: Boneless fried tab tim (comes with a green mango dip on the side), Grilled Eggplant salad (nice smokey flavor), pork salad with lemon, wing bean salad. The steamed tab tim in lime and chilli sauce was very good, but we've only had it once. There is a vegetable and shrimp dish made with green peppercorns that is really good. It is on the one page special menu with about a half dozen pictures. Warning - the food can be quite spicy! If you can't take spicy, try the boneless fried tab tim and a mixed vegetable.

Also, on Huay Kaew Road across from Hillside 4 Condo, there is a a restaurant with a big yellow sign. We've had laab and yam woon sen for lunch a couple of times. Very good.

That's great, but how can I find out where Tsutaya stores are located. I tried the websites, but nothing is in English.

There is Tsutaya store at the Tesco Lotus Hang Dong and I'm pretty sure there is one at Carrefour on the bottom level.

Elaine

I thought one of the magazines had all the flights listed, but I can't remember which one. Anyway, here is a link to the list of airlines that fly into Chiang Mai. I hope this helps.

Airlines @ Chiang Mai Airport

My family and freinds asked me to recommend a restaurant to go to when they were all here over Xmas..I recommended The Duke's......they were very dissapointed...the portions were large but the quality was poor according to them.

they did not ask me for a recommendation when they next went to dine out

They brought a lot of the food back in a container for my Dog..can't really tell what She thought of it.

Did not cover myself in glory there ..for someone who is supposed to know something about food having had my own restaurant before.

If they were looking for something upscale, I would recommend "The House". However, this is based on only 1 visit (last month). The tables looked very nice. The cocktail selection was interesting and we really liked the drinks. We were not crazy about the lighting. It's a little ridiculous when the wait staff have to bring flashlights to you so you can read the menu! However, the food was good and the wine we ordered was okay. When we were there, there was a long wait for the cocktails. I think they brought the wine before we got our cocktails so wait staff could use some training here. Anyway, we had good food and a good time...

Another place we tried (once in 2005) was the restaurant at the Amari. I think we went there for Thanksgiving and they had a set menu. We thought the food was pretty good and the restaurant is nice. There was also a timing problem with the wine.

Anyway, we would go back to both of those restaurants. We don't normally do 'upscale' so that's why it's only one time each at those restaurants for us.

If they want Thai food though, we go to 'Ron Kaeng Baan Suan' quite a bit. It is our favorite restaurant in Chiang Mai. To be fair though, we liked this one so much that when we are thinking of eating out we automatically go there. We were a bit worried about this restaurant when we left in March - they weren't getting enough business. So we go there in December and just barely get a table! It was like that the 3 times we went. We really like the food there. The things we order are gaeng khea moo (Northern curry pork - can't find it on the menu), Northern pork salad, wing bean salad (has squid in it), fish in lime sauce (the cheaper one - it's whole so people can't be squirmish about heads) or this whole deep fried fish with fried herbs (green peppercorns, kaffir lime leaves, basil) and a sauce. The tom yum shrimp is good too. Mmmm. I'm getting hungry. Anyway, most of the restaurant is outdoors. There is a covered area. Sometimes they have Thai musicians or dancers. Note: I posted detailed directions to this place on another post awhile ago.

just_Elaine

Thank you!

We're interested to know if you found a suitable flat sheet. We had the same problem a couple of years ago.

Ajarn -- Get well soon! -- Elaine

We also like Sompet Cookery school. We've recommended them to several people and everyone was very happy with them. Also, they are pretty flexible and will work with you if you have special requirements.

A link that we found: http://www.yummytaste.com/school/print/sompetcookery.htm

last e-mail: [email protected]

I’m so glad to hear that P1p’s sauces have hit the market. Bill and I were lucky enough to have tried them in February (just before we left Chiang Mai) and we were both very impressed. The sauces were far better than any commercial sauce we have ever tried.

Many spaghetti sauces seem to have a problem with the acid balance. They try to correct the acidity from the tomatoes by putting in a lot of sugar or even worse corn syrup. P1p’s sauces, on the other hand, seemed to be perfectly balanced with a subtle, but complex herbal character.

Please forgive us for sounding too much like a commercial, but we really liked the sauces.

Elaine

Not in the center of town, but here is one:

http://www.viangbua.chiangmai-online.com/

I think the Peninsula has serviced apartments, but also not in the center of town.

If the Hillside Condo 4 area on Huey Kaew Road is okay, I think they have condos for rent on a short term basis.

Regarding Sam Wo's - I go into SF Chinatown about once a year. I totally forgot about that place, but I guess I only went there after some bar hopping. I thought the 'jook' (rice porridge) was the famous dish there. Well, I think I'll get my fill of Chinese food next week... mmmmm. Thanks for reminding me about Sam Wo's though - it takes me back about 30 years...

Thanks.. No, I didn't sift the flour first, but I think that I need to improve the storage conditions (place and length of time) to try to keep moisture out of the flour.

Chuckfee,

We, my husband and I, can only tell you what our experience has been. When we first moved overseas (to Saudi Arabia) 15 years ago, our employer had quite a liberal annual shipping policy. Each year we would load up on our favorite food items and put them in our shipment. After awhile, we noticed that the stuff would just sit in the pantry. We found that we had adapted to what was available locally and ate what was fresh.

Have you been to Thailand before? Do you like Thai/Oriental food? If so, you’ll love the fresh produce (not to mention the prices). For instance, we get a bunch of great looking basil for less than 10 cents. Fresh coriander (cilantro) is used a lot here so it is easy to make a Mexican salsas and soups. The dry black beans are easy to find so you can easily whip up a delicious Mexican meal. Both corn and flour tortillas are readily available. You may want to bring dried chilis if you’re used to using them.

Here in Chiang Mai, there are a couple of stores that have a nice selection of imported groceries. I imagine Bangkok is even better. We’ve been to Foodland and Emporium in Bangkok which although expensive has a great meat selection including Kobe beef.

I’ve seen the brown lentils and the yellow split lentils here. I’ve not seen the orange ones.

I haven’t ever looked for tahini here, but we’ll look next time we go shopping.

One thing you may want to check is to see if the place you will be staying has an oven. If so, you may want to bring a pizza brick and paddle.

Elaine

TP - Always opened for me? Would you please post a phone number then? Just kidding... On a serious note, thank you for posting the hours. We'll be over for lunch or maybe dinner within the next couple of weeks.

CMcool - If that comment is for me, yes, it's a no.

Elaine

Sounds like it might be fun, but we will be gone by then. However, we will try to make it over there for lunch before we leave. Would you please post the restaurant's hours?

Thanks,

Elaine

In Chiang Mai on the CM-HangDong Road going South, make a right at the timed intersection past the Tesco-Lotus, go straight about 3/4 of the way to Canal Road and on the left is a new Pub/Restaurant called Lotus something. Maybe Lotus Garden Restaurant. It's only been opened a month and a half.

We really liked the beer battered fish and the night sky was clear and the stars shining brightly. The staff were pleasant and friendly - Good atmosphere. Customers seem to be enjoying their selves. Fish was served with tartar sauce and thought that some malt vinegar would have been nice.

We've only eaten there once, but I thought I'd mention it since there aren't too many good restaurants south of the city and it may be awhile before I crave fish and chips again.

Elaine

Just checked... It's called Lotus Restaurant and Beer Garden...

Just wondering if anyone has information about the all-purpose flour here....

When I had an oven, I made chocolate chip cookies and had to add flour and more flour. And I wasn't crazy about the texture so I never baked again.

The other day, I made naan (Indian flat bread) dough and had to add a lot of additional flour. It tasted pretty good just cooked in a frying pan instead of a grill, but now this flour thing has me wondering....

Thanks,

Elaine

In Chiang Mai on the CM-HangDong Road going South, make a right at the timed intersection past the Tesco-Lotus, go straight about 3/4 of the way to Canal Road and on the left is a new Pub/Restaurant called Lotus something. Maybe Lotus Garden Restaurant. It's only been opened a month and a half.

We really liked the beer battered fish and the night sky was clear and the stars shining brightly. The staff were pleasant and friendly - Good atmosphere. Customers seem to be enjoying their selves. Fish was served with tartar sauce and thought that some malt vinegar would have been nice.

We've only eaten there once, but I thought I'd mention it since there aren't too many good restaurants south of the city and it may be awhile before I crave fish and chips again.

Elaine

On another thread, Saibaijai recommended Libernard as a place to get fresh roasted coffee. We've bought coffee beans there a few times and really like it. We also tried espressos (before we bought the coffee beans) and they were really, really good. We've only run in and out so I can't say anything meaningful about the atmosphere.

Libernard Cafe's location - From Chaiyapoom and Chang Moi Rd, pass Mike's Burgers and a Photo Shop on Chiyapoom Road, then turn left.

Elaine

We really found the food/restaurant discussions on this forum helpful. We think the discussions are great and it is up to the reader to believe or not believe others' opinions.