Khao Soi at Fat Mao in Vancouver

Living in Bangkok for eight years, we were lucky to live right around the corner from an awesome Thai Muslim restaurant that made incredible khao soi.  Krua Yusuf (ครัวยุสุฟ) had that rich, tangy yet slightly sweet broth that makes kao soi so good.  The chile paste had bite with a nutty taste from the roasting of the chiles.  Heaven...for 45 baht (about a dollar and a half).

We've been loving Vancouver but missing a lot of our Thai staples, so when we saw that Fat Mao had khao soi we had to try it.  I am learning (slowly) that my favourites from Thailand are going to cost me around ten times as much as they did back in BKK.  I really have to remind myself repeatedly because, otherwise, I couldn't enjoy the food.  I would be in a constant internal loop repeating to myself that, "I could get better than this back home for ______."

But this is home now, and I have to learn to appreciate the food for what it is.  Thai food can't really be expected to be as good here as there, can it?  I am, I believe, making progress in this regard.

Anyway, back to Fat Mao.  The first thing to note is that we have had a bit of a cold spell here in Vancouver.  This gave khao soi a whole new appeal - hot soup on a cold day.  A novel idea after eating it for eight years with an average temperature of 35C.

The staff at Fat Mao is soooo nice.  Like they're almost excited that you are there to eat their noodles.  They seemed thoroughly pleased that we ordered the khao soi, and when it came, they gave their recommended condiments.  Rightly, they recommended the lime and the chile paste.  We didn't out ourselves by saying, "Yeah, yeah, we know."  We did, however, use up about half the chile paste in the jar.  If anyone had been paying attention to our condiment usage, they might have known something was up.

Fat Mao does khao soi right.

This hogging of the chile paste was really for two reasons.  The most important reason was that it tasted good.  Secondary to that, it wasn't as hot as we had hoped, so we needed a lot of it.

The soup broth itself was rich and dark.  It didn't have the same tang or quite the right hint of coconut, but I have to say it was really good.  The crisp noodles on top were awesome, and the noodles in the soup itself were flavourful.  At first bite, I started that familiar 'well, it's not as good as the...' but quickly stopped myself.  When I did, I started to get into the tastes and smells of each bite.  I felt that sensation that comes with eating really good soup on a cold day, and it just got better and better.

This was a damn fine meal.  I will be back, Fat Mao.  I think I'll try your dan-dan noodles next time.