Friday, January 21, 2022
Khao Soi Khun Yai, Finally

Today the sore muscle in my upper-left abdomen is healing gradually, more slowly than I had hoped, so I am opting out of yoga practice to avoid making it worse. I am certain I caused the injury myself. In yoga, there are many twists to improve the flexibility of the upper body, the core, hips, and other structures. Standing twists, seated twists, lying twists. In a standing twist, when one is to leave the hips square to the front of the mat and twist the upper body, it is important to raise the chest first. I have not having been practicing consistently over the last two years, and thus some of the fundamentals are not automatic as they once were. A few days ago in class we did a high-lunge upper body reverse twist (high lunge, right leg forward, keep hips square to the front, twist upper body to the left, right arm forward, left arm back), I got caught up in the moment, forgot the inhale and raise my chest, twisted and compressed that area of my abdomen. There is probably a official Sanskrit name for the pose I described, but I do not know it.

Instead of yoga practice, I decided to spend a part of the morning making a blog entry or two. One post was to be the khao soi dinner with Rudy at Dash. Having gotten a question about what exactly a “soi” is, I decided to make the walk to Dash, photograph the sois along the way, and post those photos along with the khao soi at Dash. After getting what I wanted, uploading the photos to my Galaxy Android tablet, selecting representative photos, cropping them, resizing them, uploading them, and making the blog post, it was almost 1:00 PM and I was feeling very definitely hungry. I remembered that Khao Soi Khun Yai was open until 2 PM, and if I hurried I could get there in time for a khao soi lunch. Instead of walking and having to practically run, I got a tuk-tuk. All the drivers know Khao Soi Khun Yai – it is very well-known in the Thai community.

I got there, and saw the relatively non-descript signs.

And this one on the gate to the lot in which Khao Soi Khun Yai is located:

Khao Soi Khun Yai is across the moat from Wat Lok Molee, one of my favorite temples, at Sri Poom Road Soi 8.

Now, on to the khao soi. They offer a smaller bowl for 40 THB ($1.35) or a larger bowl for 50 THB ($1.70). I chose the smaller bowl. And it was served in about 1 or 2 minutes.

The pickled mustard greens and shallots are served on the side, but I always just dump them in, squeeze the lime over the bowl, stir it all together, and eat. I did not add the chili sauce that was at the table – I tasted the curry broth, and it was spicy enough for me. Here is the bowl ready to eat:

This may have been the best khao soi of the six places at which I have tried khao soi. Or perhaps it is tied with Khao Soi Islam. Running just behind Khao Soi Khun Yai and Khao Soi Islam is the khao soi at Dash, also very good. Here is the rather short menu at Khao Soi Khun Yai:

Overall, except for the khao soi place south of the old city (Khao Soi Lung Prakit Kaat Gorm) that I did not like, but is very popular with the Thais, I had many really delicious bowls of khao soi. Much good food to be had in Chiang Mai. Mmmm…

Next: Dinner at Dash with Rudy, Iva, John and Rose