Aunt Noi Santitham Crispy Pork • Sisters Spicy Fried Pork Rice in Chiang Mai • Life is Good with Moo Krob

Sisters_Spicy_Crispy_Fried_Pork_Rice_Chiang_Mai_Moo_Krob_แซ่บข้าวปุ้น ส้มตำ อาหารอีสาน

Buddy Marcus knows Chiang Mai well, and with him we deep dived into little known eating places here 🙏 I did come with a list of eating suggestions but he said "those are for tourists" 😂

He brought us to this quaint wooden corner house. There's a tiny food stall tucked away at the ground level where locals sauntered in and out like their own home. There's no signboard.

Sleepy, quirky, laid back place.

It's run by two sisters and they sold spicy fried pork or moo krob over rice or phat kaphrao moo krob.

On Google map where they have yet to score their first review, it says แซ่บข้าวปุ้น ส้มตำ อาหารอีสาน. Google translate says it means "spicy khao pun, papaya salad, Isaan food". Khao pun is Laotian spicy noodles. ~~There was no signboard so I shall title this article "Sisters Spicy Crispy Fried Pork Rice"~~.

I got it wrong, Marcus corrected me that this place is known as Aunt Noi Santitham Crispy Pork 🙏 🙇

Anyway, Marcus said we were here for his favourite spicy fried pork rice or phat kaphrao moo krob.

They boil slabs of fresh pork belly till cooked.

Then, air dry them under the sun.

Next, the pork belly are deep fried into crispy, golden slabs. The type you will see everywhere when visiting Thailand.

(This photo from Nai Ek kway chup in Yaowarat, Bangkok.)

The crackly deep fried pork slabs are then chopped into bite size cubes. I can hear the pork rind crackle as the chopper blade cut through the rind, meat and fat layers of the moo krob.

These are then further stir fried with spices e.g. Thai basil, chili, and sauces e.g. fish sauce.

The spiced deep fried pork cubes were heaped over boiled white rice. The sisters also offer fried duck eggs which we Singaporeans, of course, must order 😂 (Duck eggs are not sold in Singapore.)

Truth be told, after so many times in Thailand, this was the first time I am seriously trying fried pork belly with rice or phat kaphrao moo krob 🤭

It turned out to be a very nice, comfort dish. The fried pork which included the rind, lean meat and fat, was crackly hard, crispy, crunchy, chewy, soft and juicy. So many textures!

The spice flavour and aromatics were robust so it tasted savoury, tangy, spicy hot, and sweet. Complex but balanced.

The strong tasting fried pork paired perfectly with the sweetish rice which moderated the intensity and balanced the various robust flavours on the plate, holding the whole dish together.