San Francisco Chronicle - (Sunday)
SOLEIL HO THRILLING THAI DRINKING SNACKS FROM A KIN KHAO ALUM.
Spicy, smoky drinking food thrills at wine bar
The beef jerky at Isaan popup Intuon is a bold rendition of Thai drinking food. Fried and served in hunks with visible grains, the pieces look like twisted trunks of the coastal tea trees in Golden Gate Park. They then pop in the mouth with the help of dried red chile flakes, while fried makrut lime leaves lend citrusy perfume to the dish. It’s an invitation to take a sip of crisp, cool wine — and it’s a display of sour, spicy and salty drinking food at its prime. Such is the strength of chef Intuon Kornnawong, whose popup at cozy Hayes Valley natural wine bar Birba is a formidable addition to the region’s Thai scene.
Kornnawong, formerly a sous chef at Kin Khao, has been taking over the kitchen of Birba on Sundays for some time, specializing in food from the Isaan region, where she grew up. The popup format, and her ability to set up in someone else’s kitchen, helps her to circumvent a common dilemma regarding Thai food in this country: As with Chinese American cuisine, Thai American restaurants crank up the sweetness to win over American customers, a move that makes sense for finances but not necessarily for deliciousness. Like her peers in the industry who have recently taken the pandemic — and their changed job status — as an opportunity to cook the food they love, Kornnawong is serving up her idea of what great Thai food should be, without worrying about mass appeal. Her Isaanstyle drinking snacks, with their emphasis on smoke, acid and spice, are a refreshing change from the norm.
As with the other styles of drinking foods, richness is often key here. For a shrimp toast, Kornnawong slathers a mousse of pork fat and pulverized shrimp onto a thick slice of milk bread and fries it. It’s a more substantial, and fluffier, take on a dish commonly found on both Thai restaurant menus and dim sum trays. The customary side of sweet chile sauce gets a glowup in the form of dollops of spicy mayonnaise and a garnish of pickled sweet chile. The totality is what the British would call “moreish” — so wonderful to eat that you’ll find yourself unconsciously reaching for another piece.
The kanom krok, a hot cake made in a special divoted pan, has a luxuriant, puddinglike texture and is fragrant with the aromas of jasmine rice and coconut milk. Kornnawong tops hers with flakes of subtly sweet crabmeat. Over the summer, she paired with it pickled corn; as the season has changed, it gets pieces of delicata squash.
The changes are a reflection
of her ethos. Informed by her lengthy training in both Thai and farmtotable Californian restaurants, Kornnawong imbues her dishes with a focus on good produce, with most every dish highlighted with the snappy textures of raw vegetables and greens. Fresh, pungent herbs crown the mushroom jaew hed, a spicy relish pounded with lots of garlic, chile pepper and shallot; crunchy peeled carrot and slices of green eggplant are provided for dipping. The flavors of raw alliums clang on the palate with each bite, calling for the balance of a chilled wine. Plus, everything arrives on compostable plates or, in the case of takeout, in compostable contain
ers. You know she’s a California hippie at heart.
You can grab the dishes either a la carte or in smaller portions as a fouritem, $30 bento box. The latter is great if you’re primarily there to eat slowly while enjoying a bottle of wine, a sentiment that likely applies to most who come here. Birba has a ridiculously cute backyard garden, set up with fairy lights and populated with palms and fruit trees. It’s ideal for outdoor dining, and yes, there are heat lamps. At the suggestion of a server, my table tried the dishes with a bottle of 2018 Losonci Riesling, a skin contact wine from the Mátra region in Hungary. It was spicy and dry, with enough power to complement Kornnawong’s equally powerful flavors.
For those getting takeout, be aware that not everything travels. The caramelized pork jowl — which is grilled and comes with generously scattered fried garlic and a thin, meltinyourmouth cap of fat — is less fun to eat as it cools off. Reheat it in the oven for a few minutes upon your return home and then dip it into the customary Isaanstyle dipping sauce, nam jim jaew, to avoid a heavy umami bomb. Kornnawong’s rendition of the sauce balances the sourness of tamarind with sugar and dried red chile flakes.
A common sentiment among Thai food connoisseurs (and Thai people) in the Bay Area is that there’s not much good Thai food here — certainly not to the extent of more concentrated enclaves like Los Angeles’ Thai Town. I tend to agree. But I also think that Intuon Kornnawong’s work is a testament to how a few really great places, like Kin Khao, can have an active role in fostering talent and giving people the means and opportunity to break out on their own. It’s slow work, but, as Intuon has proven, it’s hugely worthwhile in the long run.