My “foster” parents, Ajarn Prasert and Ajarn Ying, introduced me and my project mates to khao soi—or “cut rice” in Thai, a Chiang Mai specialty with Burmese and Chinese Muslim influences—during my summer semester in Chiang Rai in June 2004. Ajarn Ying, who ran a small-time restaurant in Mae Sai, less than 300 metres from the very northern edge of Thailand, would often whip up her signature khao soi for us, the four girls, when we dropped by for daily meals during our one-month fieldwork stay in the frontier town. I was still new to Thailand then and couldn’t tell the nuances in Thai cuisine, but her khao soi was the most marvellous dish tasted during my time there—tangy noodles simmered in a thick red curry-and-coconut broth, with sliced shallots, lime and pickled mustard on the side.
I haven’t been able to taste such memorable khao soi since.
