The Tale of Goldilocks and the Three Stinks…

Gam Som Gung
I was taken to experience Southern Thai food in a wooden house, surrounded by a moat, called Ban Peung Chom. You would think I would have to go to Southern Thailand and the Islands to experience this super-hot, fish based cuisine, but much to my chagrin this excellent restaurant can be found in the sois of Bangkok.


Tord Mun Hua Pee
We chose typically Southern dishes of Gam Som Gung (Sour soup with prawns), stir fried noodles, Tord Mun Hua Pee (deep fried banana flower), Nam Prik Poo (spicy crab relish with raw vegetables), chicken wings with a spicy sweet marinade topped with deep fried cabbage (very Chinese in flavour), and cowslip in Oyster sauce. The principal protein was prawns or seafood such as crabs, as typical from the sea-surrounded islands of the South.

Spicy Chicken Wings with Deep fried Cabbage
All of it was great. I actually expected it to be spicier as Southern food is supposed to be exceptionally hot, with dishes like the Southern Curry with Turmeric topping the Richter scale in heat. But Boworn explained we were eating Southern Thai from the Island of Phuket which meant that it was milder, as it had been influenced by the Chinese Fujian-style of cooking brought with them when they emigrated to this Thai Island.

Nam Prik Poo
My favourite dish by far was the stir fry, or ‘Mung Bean Noodles with 3 Stinks’. I loved it not least because of its awesome name! The ‘3 stinks’ in question were stink beans (that looked like large shelled wrinkly broad beans but tasted strongly, like garlic), pickled garlic and leed tree leaves (pungent, again quite like garlic). It provided the source of many jokes at the table(!) but was in fact a seriously good dish. They make use of the fantastic mung bean vermicelli noodles, that are translucent when cooked, and have a great texture. The vegetables worked will in it, and there was a smattering of cooked pork mince and stir fried egg stirred though it to add interest and texture.

3 stinks stir fry
I enjoyed the meal very much and left feeling pleased that I hadn’t been subjected to bowls of rice porridge (also called Congee, like the real Goldilocks) but had dined on delicious traditional Southern Fayre!

Happy Cooking!

HJ