Khao Soi at Ben Thai

Ben Thai is a restaurant on Nob Hill in San Francisco that has my favorite dish in the world on the menu: Khao Soi, a Northern Thai coconut curry noodle soup.

Finding the best Khao Soi is like a sister side quest to finding the Perfect Taco (see Chapter One of that quest here). I've spent a good amount of time in Northern Thailand (the birthplace of Khao Soi) and seek it out at Thai restaurants wherever I go. Outside Thailand, I've had it in Canada, Hawaii, and USA's South, Midwest, East Coast, and West Coast — and in multiple cities and restaurants from most of those places. Through those experiences, I've formed strong opinions about what makes the dish so great and how to make a good one.

So first, let me describe my Platonic Ideal of Khao Soi so that you may begin to appreciate its glory. For me, each of the following elements are crucial; without one of these elements signing through loud and clear, it isn't quite right. If there is another added element not listed here that sings too loudly, it distracts from the Khao Soi essence.

1. Boiled egg noodles.

   1. And lots of them, cooked on the chewier side of al dente — not much bite, if any. We want the chewy texture so the noodles provide a pronounced contrast with some of the other ingredients. Like, for example...

2. Fried egg noodles.

   1. And lots of them, piled high above the broth, providing a stark, crispy textural contrast to the boiled egg noodles.

3. Pickled mustard greens.

   1. And lots of them (sensing a theme here?). The green color provides variety in the sea of reddish-orange curry and noodles, and the taste lends a sharp, vinegary kick that should stand up to and cut through the coconut curry.

4. Shallots.

   1. Don't need a lot of these, but they play a similar role to the pickled mustard greens: slicing through the curry while offering another color and texture contrast. But instead of being crispy like the fried egg noodles, they're crunchy, especially compared to the soft egg noodles and mustard greens.

5. Yellow(ish) coconut curry base.

   1. Should have incredibly deep and rich flavor, and coat everything in a unctuous umami blanket, clinging particularly strongly to the boiled egg noodles and saturating the pickled mustard greens. It's not exactly what you'd get if you had "yellow curry", but I'm not 100% sure what makes it different.

6. On-the-bone chicken.

   1. It's important for the chicken meat to be bone-in, not sliced. A drumstick is fine, but dark meat is even better. Being on the bone instead of sliced means it will be juicer, and we want as much juicy, fatty contrast as possible against the sharp, vinegary elements.

7. On the side, to season your bowl to taste: chili oil, prik nam pla (basically, fish sauce with chilis), and at least one other sauce with good amount of vinegar.

   1. Having these on the side not only allows you to customize the flavor, but also is fun and interactive.

      
      

To me, if you do all the above, and don't add some extra element that draws more tastebud attention than any of the elements above, then you've done Khao Soi as well as can be done given the Earthly constraints we all face.

In my experience, restaurants here in the States fail at Khao Soi in one of the following ways:

1. No sauces (chili oil, prik nam pla, etc.) on the table to season to taste.

   1. I don't understand why restaurants in the USA don't do this. It's extremely rare even though it could potentially bump the entire restaurant experience up an entire notch or two. Same problem at Mexican restaurants in the States. In Mexico City, you almost never see a restaurant with less than three probably-house-made salsas just sitting there on the table. Very rare here in the States.

2. Not enough pickled mustard greens.

   1. I've often seen an embarrassingly small amount of pickled mustard greens, to the point where I've asked for more on the side. You need this sharp flavor to be prominent.

3. Not enough shallots.

   1. Less of an issue than skimping on the mustard greens since raw shallot is a relatively stronger flavor, but having too few can still present a similar flavor problem.

4. Adding some random ingredient to try and "make it their own."

   1. I politely say, please don't: Khao Soi is perfect as is.

5. Sliced chicken instead of on-the-bone chicken.

   1. I get it, the typical American palate and sensibilities have a bit of trouble with the concept of bone-in chicken in a soup. But it is so much better: It's juicier and tastier, period.

6. Not enough fried egg noodles.

   1. It's pretty disappointing when the Khao Soi comes out and the crowning jewel fried egg noodles on top weighs an anemic fraction of a carat. Please pile those high so I can keep some relatively dry and crispy for as long into the eating experience as possible.

   
   

Now that I've piqued your interest in Khao Soi, let's get to Ben Thai's version.

Khao Soi. Enough Said.

It really is a handsome dish, whose looks clearly communicate the variety of textures and rich flavors that await you. Like everyone else, I eat first with my eyes, and my eyes are now full.

However, notice the deviation from my Platonic Ideal in the bottom left: crispy pork skin. You just don't need those. I mean, it's fine, it tasted fine, and there weren't a lot of them, but to me it did change the character of the dish to something slightly different than straight up Khao Soi, which is not what I'm looking for.

So overall, how did this version compare to my ideal?

It was a good, not great Khao Soi. It had most of the right elements, and despite that picture above it did have enough pickled mustard greens (there's more hidden under the noodles and pork skin). I really wish there was prik nam pla and chili oil on the side so I could season to taste. But in my experience, that courtesy is rare outside of Thailand, so it's hard to subtract too many points. It had an ample amount of both types of egg noodles, which was great, but the chicken was not bone-in and sliced pretty thin, making it drier than it should be, and there wasn't much seasoning of note on it. I could nit pick a million things because I love this dish that much, but overall, pretty run of the mill Khao Soi, which is still beating out most anything else you could order at any kind of restaurant, not just Thai. So, I enjoyed it.

I love the green and purple contrast against the oranges and reds.

Harmony between crispy and chewy egg noodles.

This version of Khao Soi had fried shallots in addition to raw shallots. Yum.

I also ordered green papaya salad — one of my other favorite Thai dishes — and roti.

I'll spare you another food dissertation, this time about green papaya salad. Suffice it to say, the papaya salad was bright and tasty, but had exactly zero heat, which was an incredible miss. Papaya salad with no spiciness? I guess it's not a surprise if you're catering to the American palate, but that's not how it is supposed to be. Give me at least some heat!

Green papaya salad.

The roti was quite flavorful. I am learning that the Thai version of roti is very different from the Indian version. This one was fried, with a light and crispy texture, and was oily in a satisfying way. The oiliness went well with the bright flavor of the papaya salad, and the roti was especially good used as a sponge for the coconut curry from the Khao Soi.

I'd go back to Ben Thai, probably to sit at bar, which was small but warm and inviting, with a sleek, clean look with lots of dark wood (or faux-wood) accents. Final Khao Soi verdict: yum.

Thanks for reading!

ryan@ggfoto.com