Dessert Bowl

The other night I went out with some friends for a hot pot (more on that later). After stuffing ourselves to the point of exhaustion, the waiter showed up with the free dessert we weren't expecting. Oh no, I thought, have I met my match? A meal I can't finish? Dessert arriving when I'm already stuffed to the gills? Luckily, the dessert bowl, as it was titled, was light and refreshing and allowed me to retain my hard-earned title of Meal Slayer.

The bowl contained some tiny pieces of lychee, pineapple and guava. The white thing in the picture that looks like half of an egg is actually a bland, mildly-sweet piece of jello (I don't care for using brand names, but calling it panna cotta, though technically correct, seems inaccurate given the Asian context). All of this is floating in a vaguely fruity simple syrup. The entire portion was gone in less than five bites.

This dessert bowl is far from groundbreaking. As one fellow diner put it, "it's not interesting enough to hold my attention," but maybe he was just trying to save face when he didn't finish his. Still, I appreciate the effort, and not just because dessert soup is a novelty to my western palate. Sometimes a meal just doesn't isn't over until something sweet has crossed my tongue. I'm sure this is a learned response after years of dessert indulgence. There are nights, however, when I over do it with the main course, especially when faced with a buffet, and the thought of ordering dessert makes me grab my gut and moan. So for the evening in question, this sweet finisher was spot-on.

Best Cookie in Town?

I took a walk down Huay Keow while waiting for my visa photos to developed and passed by a sign for Double C Coffee & Cookie. It's a very typical coffee and dessert place designed to attract Farang like myself. Most days I would have kept walking since these places charge twice as much as the more Thai-focused cafés, but then I read their claim. "The best cookie in town," they say. I take my superlatives very seriously, so I couldn't resist putting them to the test while grabbing some espresso.

First, the atmosphere. It's inside of a large modernist shopping complex that is exactly the type of building some activists don't want to see in Chiang Mai. Somewhat at odds with this is the interior of the café, which looks like my grandma found a sale on Laura Ashley's Dorm Collection at Bed, Bath and Beyond. Ottomans, wicker, and teddy bears, oh my!

I bought a chocolate almond cookie, above right, and there was a promotion that day that gave me a free caramel pecan cookie, above left, with my coffee. Were they the best in town? I haven't had many cookies in town yet, so I can't say, but I'm willing to bet not. They didn't even rank in the top 10 cookies of my life thus far. Then again, maybe these just aren't the cookies for me. I prefer a big, thick, moist, buttery cookie, and these were the dry, crumbly variety. The chocolate cookie didn't taste much like chocolate. I was happy to have the free cookie, however, because it was the better of the two. The taste harkened back to the Pecan Sandies of my youth, only with the happy addition of caramelized sugar swirls. One pro was that the cookie I did pay for was pretty cheap at only 10 Baht, compared to the 50 Baht beverage.

Will I stop by again? Probably not, unless the caffeine monkey on my back strikes again when I'm in the area. Should you stop by? If you like teddy bears and crunchy cookies, absolutely, but only if you find yourself on Huay Keow west of Canal Rd. Don't go out of your way as these places are a dime a dozen.

Raw Jungle

Even though I've just arrived in Chiang Mai, I managed to score an invitation to a raw food potluck happening last weekend in a house in the jungle. It's just as exotic as it sounds. I don't have a kitchen yet so I just grabbed a bunch of tropical fruit at a street market. Luckily there were others in attendance who not only have kitchens but put them to use and made some lovely raw food for me to sample.

What a lovely spread! Clockwise from top left we have vegetables for dipping, apple, a green salad, two bowls of cut fruit, spicy fruit salad, tomatoes stuffed with olive tapenade, guacamole, sum tam, sauerkraut, and pesto dip. Not pictured: kim chi and a lovely cashew date cake. My favorite was the sum tam, but I'm a sucker for spicy food.

Big bowl of yum

This fresh, vegetable-heavy meal was a welcome respite from all of the greasy street food I've been eating. Don't worry, that doesn't mean I'm going to stop eating the greasy food before I blog about it.

Thai in Chicago

Transition time! Your Chicago Saucy Chef is packing up her knife roll for an extended trip to Southeast Asia. I'll be spending most of my time in Northern Thailand, Chiang Mai to be exact, with various trips to surrounding areas. As a precursor to my east-meets-west(erner) adventures, I'd like to spend a couple paragraphs fawning over my absolute favorite restaurant in Chicago. Appropriately, it's a Northern Thai place. I've heard from people who should know that this Thai food is on the "very" side of authentic. I guess I'll find out for myself soon. To the left is Red Curry, which they do very well, just like everything else.

Sticky Rice is on N Western Ave just north of Irving Park Rd in the North Center. Basically right next door is a mysterious dark restaurant called Thai Kitchen, but that isn't it, so don't be fooled. Let your eyes go where they're drawn: the bright yellow facade of Sticky Rice, the new best thing that's ever happened to your mouth.

Insider Tips:

-The menu is more than a little imposing. Don't be scared, everything is delicious so feel free to close your eyes and point.

-There is a very confusing section on the back of the menu called Vegetarian Dishes that has only a few entries with no descriptions. Ignore this. If you want to go veg, you can order almost anything with tofu or mock-duck seitan instead of meat. They know what vegan is, so if this is your concern, let them know you don't want egg and they'll be down.

- Try to get at least one noodle dish, one rice dish and one curry. How can you eat so much, you ask? Go with a lot of people and share everything family style. In fact, do this at every restaurant, everywhere. Why not?

-Order an appetizer, any appetizer. The Thai Spring Rolls are practically archetypal. The Crab Rangoon are hand folded to look like little crabs, OMGsocute. The Crispy Banana Skins make me sing that song, "Simply the best..." The Quail are yummy and make you feel like a giant sucking on chickens proffered by Lilliputians.

-The Pineapple Curry is not on the menu but is delicious. It comes in a hollowed-out pineapple and is best ordered spicy with shrimp. Don't forget to scrape the insides of the fruit for leftover goodness when it's all gone!

-Curry Noodle with Tofu is banished to the Vegetarian section, but don't miss out on it! It's similar to Pad See Ewe but better and comes with egg and brocolini. Just trust me, it's amazing.

-Order a fresh young coconut to drink. It will cool your mouth when the spice starts to make steam shoot out of your ears. After you drink it, scrape out the meat and eat it with chile sauce.

-Sometimes they have bamboo caterpillars. This is a popular snack food sold deep fried by street vendors in many parts of Asia. Order them if the thought doesn't gross you out. They come with a sprinkling of cilantro and shredded carrot and taste just like anything deep fried: crispy, greasy and delicious.

Catepillers! Bonus points if you can eat them with chop sticks.

What really sets Sticky Rice apart from the rest is how fresh the food is. Don't you hate ordering Pad Thai at a new place and receiving a greasy pile of noodles with sauce from a can and limp, sorry excuses for vegetables that obviously used to be frozen? None of that here. The kitchen is fast, but this isn't the Asian fast food that has unfortunately become the norm in America.

I could go on and on about this place, so let me stop here and try to gain focus. Why is it the best? For every reason that makes a restaurant good. It's cheap. You can eat for less than $10 if you get the veg dishes. It's open late. Some nights as late as 11pm. The service is friendly, if a little frantic during peak hours. I've never waited more than 5 minutes to be seated. It's BYOB with no corkage fee. The portions are big but not too big. The atmosphere is adorable, with rotating Thai tchotchke adorning the walls and display cases. The specials are excellent, like Stingray Shu Chee.

Just go there. Thank me later.