Thai Kitchen 101

It had been a while since my last visit to Thai Kitchen 101, a great Thai restaurant that specialises in north eastern cuisine, and an odd set off events set this encounter into action.

A drunken night at Mandalay Way on the Edgware Road, a small no thrills restaurant that I heartedly recommend you all visit, but make a reservation, it’s small and very popular.

The Pepper Tree

I knew it would be just a matter of time before my sorry arse ended up in the Pepper Tree for a quick lunch, it has now happened and surprisingly it wasn’t that bad.

Thai Food @ Kaosarn in Brixton Village

My mistrust of certain cuisines being cooked well in London restaurants has left me either missing out completely or just eating my favourite foods on a very in frequent basis.

The Mexican revolution that happened what, last year. Yes, I was the only one who never went to certain joints to try their tacos and wraps.

Mexican food does not travel well. It should. Like any other complicated cuisine it just takes time and a bit of love to reproduce those wonderful dishes.

But for some reason all we get here is a slap dash bad reproduction churned out to the masses as gourmet food. Tacos are not gourmet food. You go to Mexico and tacos are less than 10p each and sold on street corners as a quick snack.

Thai food, also has that same feeling with me. I love Thai food, in Thailand, just not over awed with it here in London. Although I have found a few places that I think do a pretty bloody good job of recreating another great food on these shores.

Kaosarn is another exponent of this. I’d been meaning to eat there on my last few visits to the new and trendy Brixton Village, but we always got sidetracked into a certain Colombian restaurant, Santafareño.

Now this place does a very good job of producing good Colombian food, like you would get back there. Although that is not difficult as the food is not the best in Latin America. But it is hearty and tasty.

Kaosarn is a small eatery with lots of tables outside for the lucky punters who got there before us and were able to sit in the sun. We were in the comfy and cosy interior.

The menu is short and sweet and is perfect for the size of the place and kitchen. Finally a place that has taken into consideration the space they have to cook in, and shrunk the menu to fit. I wish other places would learn and do the same.

As this was just going to be a light lunch we only opted for a few dishes to get an idea of what they could do.

As we were waiting to order this lovely family and friends were sitting outside eating away with their children, when one of the mothers asked where the toilets were. The waitress told her there was one in the main hall for everyone to use.

This brought on an amazing outburst of this upper class idiotic woman who could not believe that this small simple place had no toilet.

I mean you only have to look around you and see that this is a pretty basic place, and where in the world would they put a toilet.

This woman for the next 5 minutes or so was off on a rant with her friends about how this is just not done. How can it not have a toilet. At one point I wanted to go out there and slap her to shut her up.

I blame Jay Rayner for this, and his reporting of Brixton Village. He was actually eating at Honest Burgers later and I wanted to give him a piece of my mind, but there were a lot of other customers around and I didn’t want to disturb their meals.

Anyhows off from my rant and back to the food. First up were some piping hot fried chicken wings. Damn these were so good. They were crispy and spicy. Man I was a happy bunny. Things were off to a good start. The tamarind dipping sauce was a nice contrast to the spicy skin.

We also ordered a Pad Thai with prawns and the khao pad kra-prow with pork. Both were cooked very well, and the pad Thai was one of the better ones I have had in London. A nice mix of flavours and textures. Big fat juicy prawns as well. No messing here.

The home style stir fry of pork, chillis, Thai basil served with rice and topped by a fried egg was simple, but hit all the right notes with me. Well anything with a fried egg gets my vote.

This is the type of Thai food you get at simple places tucked down alleyways in Bangkok or Chiang Mai that you stumble upon and never ever forget.

When trying to say if the food here is better than say at Thai Kitchen 101, is difficult, as the menus are very different, but what we tried was cooked very well and had a good balance of flavour, texture and spice. Another winner in Brixton.

It’s just a shame that Brixton Village is being gentrified and visited by complete twats. You can’t have everything I suppose.

Thai Kitchen 101

I’ve been meaning to step inside the fabled doors of Thai Kitchen 101 for many a year. But on so many occasions either Green Chilli (now sadly closed) or Mahdi, (still one of my favourite restaurants on the planet) always got in the way.

Thai Kitchen 101 was starting to become a holy grail to me. Always in reach, but yet unattainable. A bit like Uyuni in Bolivia with my wife.

So after doing the umpteenth quote for holidays to Burma that day, I really couldn’t be arsed to go home and cook. I needed someone else to cook for me, plus I was hungry and I had to eat now now like. There was no way I was going to survive that 90 minute trip home. So after deliberating for a while and ticking off every place between my work and Hammersmith, (as Soho was too far) I was left with only a few options.

Mahdi is always on these lists, but I wanted something with a kick to it. Maybe it was doing all those quotes to Asian countries that I needed a little bit of Asia that night. So this ruled out the Chiswick branch of Franco Manca, maybe Tosa, hmmm could be, may not have the spice I wanted, but it was definitely Asian. Then it dawned on me. An idea was forming in my mind, it was hurting. It’d been a while since I last had one you see. My last great idea was to return home after 6 months in Asia instead of continuing onto China. Dohh!!! That’s why I stopped having them.

To be honest I’m not a great fan of Thai food in the UK, as a lot of what I have tried has always been watered down to suit the gentle western palette. I prefer it the Thai way, harsh and in your face and able to knock your socks off at 30 feet.

The décor inside Thai Kitchen 101 is very pink, and I mean pink, so pink in fact that it reminded me of a chavette’s boudoir.

The menu is pretty vast, which I am starting to hate in restaurants as it takes me forever to narrow down my choices, and makes me wonder how fresh the dishes really are.

The starters were really hit and miss. The hot n sour soup was more or less spot on, with nice sour notes, only needed a bit more heat to put it up there with the best of them.

The fish cakes were really bad. Actually they were pretty rubbish. Soggy, limp, greasy, lifeless and a tad rubbery. I thought I heard a ping just before they brought them out. They really had to be some of the worst fishcakes we’ve ever seen or tasted.

The mussaman curry looked like no other mussaman curry I’d ever seen before. But it tasted really good. It was a lot drier than how I prefer it. I’m still not sure what meat it was, it could have been beef or it could have been mutton. Not really sure. Let’s call it the mystery meat curry. Apart from that the textures were good and the taste was good as well, nice and mild.

The Pad Thai was not bad at all. It’s not the best pad Thai I’ve ever had, but it isn’t far off. There was a nice mix of tart tamarind, pungent fish sauce, heat from the chilli and good textural senses form the crushed peanuts and crunchy bean sprouts. All in all a very good dish. Hats off to the chef.

The service is swift and friendly and with plenty of smiles. I’m just amazed that it took me so long to come here. The next visits will be in quick succession.

Video of the Sea Food Market & Restaurant

I am in the process of getting a flip camcorder, which basically means I will be torturing you all with new videos of life in London and elsewhere. In the meantime I will be posting some old ones that have been lingering on youtube for a few years now.
This rather short video is of the Sea Food Market in Bangkok. It's basically a supermarket cum restaurant and a fun and tacky, but expensive place to have a meal. A longer video can be found here at the 7 minute mark, and part two here.
Don't forget to have your speakers turned on and enjoy the music.

Foto Friday # 46

These Northern Thai sausages were the highlight of the street food to be had at the sunday Chiang Mai market.

Busaba Eathai – Faux Thai Eatery in Soho

Our one and only visit to Busaba Eathai was so long ago I cannot remember much about it. Apart from Lina was violently sick for 2 days solid. So obviously we never ever returned. Every time we walked past it, I could she her shudder as the memories came flooding back.

At least 10 years later, we were stuck for some cheap chow in Soho. China Town was an option, but I just didn’t fancy it. Strangely we were standing opposite Busaba. I just threw it in there as an option, as we were standing outside. Amazing Lina said OK. All was forgotten and forgiven for said mentioned illness, the specifics of which I will not get into, as this is not a medical blog.

I’m sure everyone knows what the interior of this Thai style eatery is like. Large square wooden tables that seat about 12 people on each. Well over a hundred people can cram into its space, and I’m sure on a weekend nights it does. I’ve seen the queue outside. It has that Wagamama feel to it. No backs to the benches, so you do not linger after your meal. Eat, pay and leave it what they want.

The menu is knda Thai in a way. I know so many people who rave about this place, but to be honest we were truly disappointed. I must ask them if they have ever been to Thailand. As the food has been watered down to fit a Western palette.

My lamb red curry Chiang Mai noodles were weak and feeble. There was some heat to the dish, and a lot of coconut but not much else. The lamb was tender but the coconut milk dominated everything in the dish that I could not taste it too much. Good portion though. The paste I’m sure was a factory made, not blended in-house by the kitchen. 

Lina’s crab pad thai was ok. Nice white crab meat, but not a lot of it. Noodles ok, but it was badly under seasoned and needed a dash or two of fish sauce to give it some taste.

If you are going to say Lemongrass tea, then please put some lemongrass into the pot to give some taste. Not just one small bit.

For the quality of the food and the price, it’s just not worth it. But this is Soho, so it is constantly busy. A nice little earner for the owner.

The only good thing of the meal was that at least neither of us was sick this time.