Famous Grilled Chicken – Huai Thap Than Gai Yang Mai Madan (Si Sa Ket, Thailand)
Thai marinated grilled chicken (Gai Yang) is the most common food eaten with sticky (or glutinous) rice by the local people of Northeastern Thailand. Beside Som Tam (Green Papaya Salad), Thai people love Isan-style grilled chicken so much that you can find it on every street corner in Thailand. This is a classic dish everyone needs to try when in Thailand.
The chicken is grilled on madan (Garcina schomburgkiana Pierre) wood (Si Sa Ket, Thailand)
Huai Thap Than district in Si Sa Ket province is the home of the famous gai yang Huai Thap Thanaka gai yang mai madan. The chicken, which was first served some 80 years ago at Huai Thap Than railway station. The chicken is grilled on madan (Garcina schomburgkiana Pierre) wood so the chicken absorbs the delightful flavour and fragrance contained within the plant. The meat is pleasantly dry and aromatic due to marination with Si Sa Ket’s famously strong garlic.
Huai Thap Than Gai Yang Mai Madan (Si Sa Ket, Thailand)
How much does it cost?
Whole grilled chicken – 150 THB (S$6.50)
Grilled chicken on a stick (depends on the size of the chicken) – 50 THB (S$2.00) or 70 THB (S$3.00)
There are hundreds of Thai dishes and each dish has its own characteristics in flavor and feature. The south has a very strong flavour of food with spicy herbs, like turmeric (Curcuma longa), and tend to contain coconut milk. Turmeric is a popular spice in many Indian and Asian dishes and a critical ingredient of curry. The food of southern Thailand is noted for its sharp, intense flavors such as Kua Kling.
Kua Kling is a signature dish of the south that you must try if you are in Phuket, Samui or Krabi. It isan extremely spicy, dry curry dish like Rendang, one of the more popular Indonesians dishes in Singapore and throughout Asia. There are numerous recipes that you can try out. You can use minced pork, beef, chicken or fish at your choice. Garnish it with some finely chopped Kaffir lime leaves and served it with fresh vegetables and jasmine rice.
Kua Kling is one of my favourite Southern Thai dishes and this is a dish you just want to try again and again despite the “tongue burning sensation”. Yummy!!!
"Khun Nai Teun Sai" literally means a lady who wakes up late. Actually, the restaurant is named after a flower that opens up in the evening, according to the lady owner. The restaurant used have Khun Nai Teun Sai flowers growing everywhere, and the opening of the flowers in the evening signals the opening of the restaurant. Recently, however, the restaurant started opening for lunch as well.
Khun Nai Teun Sai is set in a Thai house on Nimanhaemin Road. It's a cute and cheery restaurant, so comfortable we felt like we were lounging around at home. The walls are decorated with colourful paintings, and even the toilets are quite artistically designed. What a lovely place! ...and I was instantly glad I brought my two camera wielding friends from the Philippines - there were plenty of photo opportunities!
Of course, ambience is not the only factor in a good restaurant, and the food here is very good. We only ordered a few dishes from their huge menu, and all of them turned out to be very nice:
Fried Mushrooms Tossed with Sesame Seeds. The mushrooms were amazingly tasty. The first bite brought out contented "ummm" from all of us. The mushrooms were quite chewy, but not tough. Actually, when the owner's husband cum waiter brought out the dish, we thought it looked rather like meat, more specifically for me, deep-fried sun dried pork. This must the the vegetarian version, I think. 77 baht.
Mango Salad with Grilled Pork. Another delicious, but very spicy dish, even for me. This is of course, after I asked for "mai ped" - "not spicy". LOL...I guess it's "mai ped" for the chef, but still very "ped" for us! Still, I really enjoyed it, and one of my friends did too. He valiantly tried to eat as much as he could despite the sweat pouring out of his head, and having to gobble down a few glasses of cool water! The other friend wouldn't even touch it. In the end, it was left to me to gladly finish off. I must say though, that Westerners would most probably not appreciate this dish because dressing is made from shrimp paste (which has a rather strong aroma). 87 baht.
We also had Stuffed Chicken Wing - deep fried & and huge!
Khun Nai Teun Sai also serves coffee, fruit shakes, and some cakes.
So, I'd say Khun Nai Teun Sai is a lovely little restaurant - very relaxing and comfortable, and has great food. Definitely worth a try. I'll certainly go back and try some of their other dishes.
