A Meal in Brief: Saan

We came here because we had read glowing reviews about this northern Thai (Lanna and Isaan) restaurant in Ponsonby.

The menu was printed on one page, with four sections which the waiter explained were like starters, small sharing plates, larger dishes, and sides. Everything looked different from what we have seen in other Thai restaurants—where were the spring rolls and numerous curry options? Or white jasmine rice for that matter? Is this what it means to eat northern Thai?

The setting was beautifully fitted out, as one would expect from a Cheshire Architects design, with ceramics made in Thailand by an artisan potter. The sun came in through the slats of venetian blinds, illuminating a bit of smoke, giving the room a hazy atmosphere.

Beautiful restaurant fitout.

At the back of the restaurant was an open kitchen area, where you could see the chefs preparing the meals.

Open kitchen area.

The service was flawless, with our water topped up discreetly and regularly. Staff were available when you wanted them, without being overly attentive. When our larger dishes arrived, we were given a little bowl of cucumber, cabbage and crushed ice as a palate cleanser—a nice touch!

Weeping Butterfly cocktail and caramelised pineapple shrub.

What we ate included:

• Theu Kha Kho (deep fried taro cakes and tofu, chilli dipping sauce and peanuts, $12) - while the taro cakes were surprisingly firm and dense (probably more rice flour than taro), the tofu triangles were fried to perfection, crisp on the outside and moist and soft inside.
• Pak Som (house pickled seasonal vegetables, $8) - a mix of stir-fried cabbage, dark greens and pickled vegies, this side dish had a tangy flavour and reminded us of something we've had at Chinese restaurants.
• Somtum Phu Plarah (pickled crab and spicy green papaya salad, tomatoes and snake beans, $14) - this version of a papaya salad came with hard and salty crab legs for sucking on, but was somehow less exciting than the other items we tasted.
• Miang Jin Nuea (semi cured beef on perilla leaves with peanuts, toasted coconut and tamarind chilli jam, $15) - it was good that we could see the fried shallots, fresh chilli slices, coconut flakes and chopped peanuts, because once you wrapped everything in a leaf, it became a more mellow blur of flavours.

Clockwise from left: Theu Kha Kho, Pak Som, Somtum Phu Plarah, and Miang Jin Nuea.

• Sai Ua (Lanna pork sausage with aromatic spices and kaffir lime with young green chilli paste, $15) - unlike any other sausage we'd tried before, the kaffir lime flavour came through clearly in this dish recommended by the waiter. The accompanying Vietnamese mint leaves, chopped shallots and green chilli paste added extra aroma and freshness. Well worth trying.

Sai Ua - Lanna pork sausage.

• Gaem Wua Sarm Ros (twice cooked beef cheeks with spicy pickled chilli and tamarind sauce, $26) - we enjoyed the beef cheeks in its sour and spicy sauce, but there was a lot more meat there and they could easily have cut back on it.

Gaem Wua Sarm Ros - beef cheeks.

• Larb Ped (wok seared spicy duck and mint salad with ground toasted rice and fried kaffir lime leaf, $25) - this was the best larb we have had, with a fatty duck mince complemented by the minty, spicy dressing, and garnished with crunchy fried duck skin.

Partially eaten Larb Ped - warm duck and mint salad.

• Tub Tim Grob (caramelised water chestnuts, palm fruit, jackfruit, and young coconut meat in jasmine and rose syrup, topped with smoked coconut milk, $12) - drizzled with coconut milk at the table, this delicate and floral dessert was thankfully relatively light and a great way to end our meal.

Tub Tim Grob dessert.

Overall, Saan is almost certainly the best Thai restaurant in Auckland today. The food is exquisite, particularly the larger dishes we sampled, playing confidently with flavour, texture and presentation, and making good use of fresh herbs (though we were tempted to pluck some more Vietnamese mint from a pot plant next to our table). We can't wait to come back again.

Restaurant Details

Saan
160 Ponsonby Road, Ponsonby, Auckland
(09) 320 4237

Opening hours:
Mondays to Tuesdays 5pm till late
Wednesdays to Sundays 12pm till late

Review: Faro (화로), Newmarket

The best, and perhaps only, modern Korean BBQ restaurant we knew of was Faro in town, and I'd been meaning to write about it for a while.  We were therefore excited to hear that a new branch opened just over a week ago in Newmarket, where HP8 on Nuffield Street used to be.  Not only that, there were new items on the menu, including sesame leaf rolls!

We headed off immediately to try this new venue out.  It seemed to be less dark than the Faro in town, and tables were partitioned off to give a sense of privacy.  There was also an area to the right that could accommodate larger groups.  Otherwise, it was much the same, with a grill ring in the middle of the table for you to BBQ your food, a button on the side of the table for summoning your waiter (common to Korean restaurants) and a pipe which you can adjust to hang above your grill, for extracting the smoke from your cooking.

Extraction pipes hung above each booth.

Floor seating for a larger group.

After perusing the menu for some time, we decided to go for a selection of entrees, as well as getting some meat and veg for the grill.  We also opted to try a rice dish with radish greens called shiregi (시래기영양밥), and were mildly surprised when the outgoing waitress suggested that it would taste "healthy" and that she wouldn't recommend it.  The vegetarian had had enough of bibimbap (비빔밥) though (mixture of vegetables, optionally with egg and/or meat, on rice, served with a fermented chilli sauce, which seems to be the safest vegetarian option), so we ordered the shiregi rice despite the warning.

Our entrees came first, the stir-fried peanuts labelled kong (땅콩무침) to begin with, then the sesame ssam with rice (깻잎밥).  And here I have to digress...

Sesame ssam: rice and black sesame seeds wrapped with a pickled perilla leaf.

While I was looking up the Korean for this dish, I discovered that kkaenip ssam (깻잎쌈) is actually a wrap with a perilla leaf, not sesame, the common mistranslation.  I confirmed this with a Korean friend:

Perilla is correct. Because both perilla and sesame seeds are used in the Korean cuisine in similar (but distinct) manners, one word, '깨', refers to both.

참깨 ('true' 깨) refers to sesame, usually more expensive, used as garnish or to get sesame oil (참기름, or 'true' oil)

들깨 ('field' or 'wild' 깨) refers to perilla, used for flavouring soups, or making oil (들기름), which is used as marinade or dressing for vegetables. 

Because the word '깻잎' simply means the 'leaf of 깨', not many Korean people would know which one it refers to. But the correct answer is perilla :)

Yay.  So we seem to have eaten a green version of what is growing in my garden.  It was a bit soft and fibrous, quite unlike the crisp and juicy feeling you would expect with a lettuce leaf, though perhaps not so different from a stuffed vine leaf in Greek or Turkish cuisine.

A couple of dishes from the Dinner Special page came out shortly after this (though they still looked like entrees to me): stuffed chillis called gochu jeon (고추전) and chicken on fried tofu, or dubu dak (두부닭).

Dubu dak and gochu jeon.

Then came the food for the grill, along with the usual Korean side dishes.  Each person was given two varieties: the pickled onion and a daikon salad.  We also had four larger bowls to share between the table, which contained kimchi, a green salad, a white jelly made of mung bean starch, and a sliced soy egg.  When we polished them off, they were later replaced by battered courgette slices and a mung bean salad.

Marinated boneless beef rib fillets, fresh cut top blade, marinated chicken with hot hot hot sauce, and side dishes.

I guess the thing about cooking your own dinner is that you've only got yourself to blame if it's burnt or otherwise suboptimal.  When the bars on the grill got black and sticky, a waiter would come rushing up to replace it for you, so vegetarians don't even need to worry about contaminated cookware.  Our marinated meats were good, but we could have done with some salt for the plain one.  Thinking back afterwards, they must have just forgotten to give us the sauces they'd advertised on the cover of their menu, which were supposed to be:

Galbi-Jang: best with marinated beef
Roast Salt: best with fresh beef & pork
Ssam-Jang: best with vegitable wrap

Marinated beef rib fillets on the grill.

You can also grill vegetables, though they were quite dry and tended to burn easily.  The tomato, in particular, wanted to disintegrate and stick to the grill.  Again, these could really have done with some sauce.

Grilling vegetables.

Finally, we received the shiregi rice, which was the $17 bowl of grains that the waitress had tried to dissuade us from. Yes, it did taste healthy, but it was also delicious.  I would have liked it more if it had had more radish greens, and where was the chilli paste mentioned in the menu?  It was also served with a decidedly unvegetarian soup: we found a prawn, some little clams and dried shrimps in the doen jang soup (된장찌개), which had tofu and vegetables in the soybean base as well.

Shiregi rice with doen jang soup and soy sauce.

We were so full after all this that we unfortunately had no room for desserts.  We were happy pandas after a fun and pleasant meal.  Although some of the food was bland, partly due to the missing sauces, this was no doubt due to the fact that the restaurant had opened less than two weeks ago, and we look forward to coming back when these mistakes will have been sorted out.

Panda Recommends

Mains: something off the grill menu ($11 - $13).  This is a Korean BBQ restaurant after all.  Don't forget (as we did) to ask for your sauces.

Vegie Pandas
Unlike the menu from Faro in town, the vegetarian options are not clearly marked here.  There are a number of beautiful entrees which you could order, as well as a plate of vegetables to grill, or go for the default option of vegetarian bibimbap (비빔밥).

Menu - page 1

Menu - page 2

Menu - page 3

Restaurant Details

Faro
49 Nuffield Street, Newmarket
(09) 529 4040

Opening hours:
Mondays to Sundays 11:30am - 3pm, 5:30pm - 10:30pm

The Newmarket branch of Faro is not far from Hansan, where HP8 used to be.

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A Week in Hong Kong: Upmarket ramen @ Mist (創作麵工房)

(See closest Auckland equivalents)

You know how we said Hong Kong was a great place for cheap food, and you could have a filling meal for less than 30 HKD, or around 5 NZD?  Well, that's obviously the low end of the scale, and prices can go a lot higher.  We wanted to try out the other extreme with a 3-Michelin-star restaurant, but unfortunately it was booked out.  Instead, we picked a nearby ramen restaurant, one with one Michelin star.

Tucked away in a quieter part of Causeway Bay, Mist (創作麵工房) was full when we turned up for lunch, so we left our name and number and went for a walk while we waited for a table.  We barely had time to shop, as the call came surprisingly quickly.  We were seated at a bench overlooking the kitchen and presented with a beautiful hard-cover menu listing 5 or 6 choices, which you could have alone or as a set (i.e. with drinks and dessert).  There was also a recommended special, the abura soba, over which everyone had food envy.

We were seated at a bench looking right into the kitchen.

I'll tell you right now: these were probably the most expensive noodles we have ever had, at around 150 HKD a set, or about 25 NZD.  They were also probably the most delicious ramen and soba noodles we have ever had.  You get asked what extra toppings you would like, and you absolutely want to be upsold the BBQ Pork (which you can see a chef flaming with a blowtorch) and the boiled egg (which is so much more delectable than the name suggests).

The abura soba special was the first to arrive.  These were thin, dry noodles topped with meat slices, with broth on the side, as well as two little jugs of sauce for you to add to taste.  If I remember correctly, one was an oily soy based sauce, and the other was a light vinegar.  We tried not to drool as the waiter showed where the cutlery was stored, in a personal drawer underneath the table.

The abura soba (red bowl) was served with broth (black bowl) and sauces (white jugs).  We also ordered an egg and BBQ pork as extra toppings.

The ume shio ramen is recommended in the TimeOut guide, and was served with a preserved plum as well as a shiso or perilla leaf.

Ume shio ramen

We were particularly impressed by the "boiled egg", which was not quite hard boiled and not quite soft boiled, but something in between.  The yolk was neither runny nor powdery, but just set, and the white was coloured by a soy marinade.

Get the optional "boiled egg" - it's delicious.

The next day, we came across a picture of a similar egg for sale at a roadside eatery in Sham Shui Po, where it cost 4 HKD—a fifth of the price of the egg at Mist.  It was labelled 溫泉蛋, meaning "hot spring egg", so for a while there, I thought we had been eating what the Japanese call onsen tamago (温泉玉子), with the egg cooked for the best part of an hour at a low 65 degrees C.

A similar looking egg for sale at a fifth of the price in Sham Shui Po.

After further research though, I discovered our eggs did not look like onsen tamago (温泉玉子, "hot spring egg"), which are more like soft poached eggs.  No, what we so enjoyed must have been ajitsuke tamago (味付け玉子, "seasoned egg") or hanjuku tamago (半熟玉子, "half-boiled egg"), marinated "half-boiled" eggs which hold their shape, which are apparently often served with ramen, though we've never seen one before (we'll definitely have to make it to Japan one day.)

All in all, we had a fantastic meal at Mist, with high quality noodles, broth and toppings all working together.  The food is well presented in a stylish dining room, and the smartly dressed wait staff complete the picture.  Just remember to request a drink and a mouthful of dessert if you order a set though, because for some reason, only those ask will receive.  It seems strange that a restaurant of this calibre will happily charge you 20 HKD extra for nothing more than having said the word "set", but this is only a small thing and the meals are well worth the money.

Closest Auckland Equivalents

There are many places where you can get ramen in Auckland, but not to the same level of excellence.  I have also yet to see hanjuku tamago offered here, though perhaps I need to try adding a boiled egg to my noodles more often.

* Ramen Do
167 Symonds Street, Eden Terrace
(09) 377 1313

The sign outside with "Japanse Noodle Bar" in some bubbly comic font doesn't inspire confidence, but this little eatery probably serves the best ramen in Auckland.  The glossy menu with coloured pictures calls them Hokkaido ramen noodles and they are very well cooked and beautifully presented, with half a hard-boiled egg in each generous bowl.

* Ramen Daikoku
Tyler Street (next to Britomart Station), Auckland Central
(09) 309 2200

Part of the Daikoku family of restaurants, Ramen Daikoku offers a good range of ramen in addition to other dishes such as donburi.

* Mentatz
28 Lorne Street, Auckland Central
(09) 357 0960

Popular with students due to its proximity to the university as well as affordable prices, Mentatz turns out tasty meals, though service can be hit and miss.

Restaurant Details

Mist
4 Sun Wui Road, Causeway Bay, Hong Kong (香港銅鑼灣新會道四號地下)
+852 2881 5006

Opening hours:
Mondays - Fridays 12 - 3pm, 6 - 11pm
Saturdays 12 - 11pm
Sundays 12 - 10:30pm

Avondale Sunday Market

The weather may be all up and down these days, but it's been feeling more and more like summer. I've discovered all sorts of interesting produce for sale too. At Tai Ping on Dominion Road the other day, they had cherimoyas and passionfruit on display. It's not every day that you see these fruits around, but I have enjoyed them in Auckland before. No, what I was really excited by was what we have been searching for for years: an authentic Vietnamese phở, with a mountain of leaves served on the side, or failing that, then at least the right herbs, so we could make our own.

I've already given up on the former.  I have never found a Vietnamese eatery here which provides the requisite quantities of the more commonly available bean sprouts, coriander, mint and lime wedges, not to mention the delicious garnish of fried shallots and of fresh red chilli slices.  I've seen Thai basil for sale at garden centres, but the more exotic herbs like sawtooth coriander (also called culantro, distinct from cilantro/coriander)?  I didn't have a clue where to begin.  That is, until a search for galangal (which I have still yet to find in Auckland) led me to the Avondale Sunday Market.  There, amongst the young bitter melon and snake bean plants, next to the holy basil, I came across the perilla with its distinctive purple underside, as well as the long spiky leaves of the sawtooth coriander.  Hooray!

Vietnamese herbs like sawtooth coriander (a.k.a. culantro) and red perilla were available

Actually, I had walked right past this stall the previous week, and only paid attention to it at the Otara Market on Saturday because there were fewer things competing for my attention.  Seriously, for sheer variety and market atmosphere (read: crowds), nothing beats the Avondale Sunday Market.

It's not one of those markets where you go to eat, not unless you are into deep fried hot dogs and the like, though you can certainly choose to sample pre-made Asian food like taro sticky rice rolls wrapped in banana leaf, if you are not worried about moist food stored at room temperature.  You also need to shuffle your way past the stands selling Korean socks, cheap underwear and second hand goods, before you reach the vegetable section.  But once you get there, what a reward!  Here are some things that piqued my interest.

Banana trunks and artichokes

Three kinds of eggplant

Green papaya

Fresh longans

Not sure, black sugarcane and burdock root

Relatively cheap tomatoes (to think they were briefly sold for $12.99/kg at Countdown earlier this year!)

Possibly arrowroot and Jerusalem artichoke

Goose and duck eggs

Gorgeous flowers

Try to get there early, for the best selection of produce and to avoid the worst of the crowds, and don't forget to bring cash!

Market Details

Avondale Sunday Market
Avondale Racecourse, Ash Street, Avondale

Market hours:
Sundays 6am - 12pm

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