Kin Khao

photo - Yelp, Faye L.

Kin Khao, Dinner, Tenderloin
April 17, 2016

P&J:
Mushroom Hor Mok Terrine - curry mousse in-a-jar with mushrooms, crisp rice cakes
Yaowaraj Noodle - Bangkok Chinatown stir-fried noodles with chicken, XO sauce (dried scallop + dried shrimp + dried ham), egg, green onions, cilantro
Black Cod Taypo Curry - Monterey black cod poached in taypo curry, coconut milk, Chinese morning glory
Black Rice Pudding - served with burnt coconut sugar caramel, salty coconut cream, puffed rice+peanut+sesame praline all on the side

Cocktails:
Hua Hin Beach -  skipper demerara rum, coconut cream, lime, chocolate stout, salt, kaffir lime
Phuket Punch - gran classico, old tom gin, turmeric, lime, seltzer
Tom Yum - tanqueray gin, imbue vermouth, lime, galangal, lemongrass, angostura bitters, kaffir leaf


Notes:
Our first date was at a Thai restaurant, two years ago.  It wasn't particularly good (not that we were paying much attention), but so far we've made a tradition out of having Thai food on this particular day.  This was Patrick's first time here, and I'd been to Kin Khao only once before, soon after they opened, also about two years ago.  I don't remember my first visit too well, only that it left me with memories of "just okay", but some food-loving friends of ours had gone within the past year and raved about it, so it was time to give Kin Khao another try.

This restaurant is the brainchild of once-food blogger Pim Techamuanvivit, aiming to take back the cuisine of her native Thailand.  If you are no stranger to Thai restaurants, you might know what she means.  Most menus at most Thai restaurants are remarkably similar; they contain multiple sections of choose-your-meat, choose-your-spice-level dishes and nearly all of them include the obligatory Pad Thai (noodles), Som Tum (green papaya salad), and Gang Keow Wan (green curry), to name just a few.  And, sure, you'll find noodles, green curry, and a cucumber version of Som Tum on Kin Khao's menu, but the similarities end there.

We started with a couple of cocktails, Patrick chose his by recommendation of the server, I just picked one that appealed.  His, the Hua Hin Beach, a pretty, pinkish snow cone complete with paper umbrella, tasted not at all as fun.  It was pretty terrible, actually.  What smacked of tropical flavors was oddly savory and acrid; we couldn't tell what we were tasting, or what would have made the drink taste that way.  I tried the power of positive thinking "I bet those flavors will pair well with the food," but that didn't work - this was a big fail.  My first go, the Phuket Punch, was so strong on the Gran Classico (a bitter liqueur infused with 25 aromatic herbs and roots), it was all I could taste.  I love me some bitters (Angostura, to be exact, and reminiscent of Gran Classico) and soda (club, to be exact, and reminiscent of bubbly water), but this just wasn't for me.  My second attempt was a score, though.  The Tom Yum was a well-balanced, sweet and sour, refreshing concoction.

Less than 5 minutes after ordering, our meal began with the Hor Mok Terrine with crisp rice cakes.  Served in a little Mason jar, this light and creamy mousse was packed with red curry flavor, a bit of heat, and garnished with a dollop of salty coconut cream topped with threads of kaffir lime leaf.  But here the rice cakes stole the show.  They somehow managed to compress individual grains of puffed white rice into a crispy, delicate but sturdy square cake.  Do not conjure in your mind anything related to what you know as a rice cake, this was nothing like that.  When we finished the meal with less than a single square, we had them pack it up along with that one last bite of curry mousse - it was that good.

Next, we had the Yaowaraj Noodle which reached the table shortly after the terrine.  This was SO, so delicious.  Perfectly cooked, well-blackened noodles (I love that charred, smoky flavor) were generously seasoned with the complex, meaty sauce, most of which the noodles absorb.  Hidden in the tangle of noodles were wok-seared bits of chicken breast and fried (scrambled) egg, with cilantro and green onion strewn across the top to brighten things up.  A small dish of white vinegar(?) with little slices of Thai chili was nestled inside the bowl to be used as a condiment.  It was so perfect with the noodles, yet the noodles alone were so good, I couldn't decide which way I preferred it: with or without.  Patrick couldn't choose, either.

Third came the black cod.  Patrick is a sucker for black cod, and with good reason, it's a luscious, buttery fish.  The proportions of this dish were a little off though, or so I thought at first.  Just a few ounces of fish and a dozen or so thin stalks of Chinese morning glory (think spinach with crispy stems) were floating in a sea of curry sauce.  It would have been more appropriate to call this soup by the looks of it, but once we tasted that curry, we were happy to have so much of it.  The curry was bright, fresh, citrusy-sour, spicy and rich with velvety coconut milk.  The beautifully cooked cod stood up well to the strong flavors, but even still, there wasn't enough of it.  We ordered sticky rice to have with our meal; in hind sight steamed Jasmine rice would have been the way to go - there just wasn't enough of anything to soak up all that curry!  And yes, I straight ate it with a spoon half the time.

We finished the meal with the Black Rice Pudding, their only dessert offering and a phenomenally good one.  The pudding alone, more like a porridge, was fine but didn't have a ton of flavor beyond mildly sweet rice.  But the three simple toppings served on the side are what transformed the dish.  The coconut sugar caramel was silky and complex without being too sweet, the coconut cream was surprisingly light in texture and very salty, and the crunchy bits had bold, toasted flavors.  None of these toppings alone were quite as magical as all of these toppings together (well, I suppose you could go without the crunchies, if you had to).  We were each provided our own bowl in which to experiment with different combinations and ratios.  It was so much fun, and so extraordinarily tasty; what a great way to end the meal.


I loved the food here, though the cocktails were a little too try-hard, which was disappointing.  But, would we come back?  It's hard to say.  I'd like to.  I mean, I'd love to, but the place is ridiculously expensive.  We were there, from start to finish, for little over and hour and the tab was much more than you'd expect for such a laid-back yet fast-paced experience.  The service is casual and not terribly attentive, though friendly.  A handful of silverware is kept at the table in an enameled blue mug, chopsticks in a tin can.  It's hard to believe, but the restaurant was once on Michelin's Bib Gourmand list (defined as a favorite for good value - two courses and a glass of wine or dessert can be had for $40, which is definitely not the case now).  In October 2015, however, the restaurant was elevated to a single Michelin star; our area food critic revisited the restaurant this past February, noting that a particular dish received a whopping 35% price increase "in the last year".  Coincidence?  Probably not.  In my experience, it's not at all uncommon for menu prices to change after receiving a significantly good rating, but it's an unsavory practice at best, in my view.  I'm just not sure Kin Khao is worth it.