Nam Prik Ong

I have really enjoyed the nam prik ong at Sticky Rice and wonder if there are other restaurants that serve this dish. I also feel like there might me a more traditional method to eating the dish as opposed to the way I just spoon it over rice. Are the vegetables served alongside to serve as dipping instruments? Also, all though the menu does not denote it as a spicy dish it does carry a small amount of heat and to my taste would also be quite good if made considerably spicier (although I have no complaints with the version I have sampled).
Thanks,
Thomas

Of course, Erik can give you the comprehensive lowdown, but I'll drop a few initial remarks. Nam Phrik Ong (or nahm prik ong) is northern in origin; from Chiang Mai, the province west of Isaan. Nam phrik - which my fundamental vocabulary deciphers as "water pepper" - are actually a broad category of dishes that fall, to my category driven mind, somewhere between a condiment, a sauce, and a dip ... different N.P. fall in different points of the complex Venn diagram. Some are raw; some are cooked. Some, if I can generalize from Sticky Rice's N.P. Num (?), seem remarkably like a table salsa. Accompaniments are an integral part of the "dish." Seeing as N.P. Ong is a northern dish, sticky rice rolled into balls and dipped in the sauce is probably more "authentic" than long grain jasmine. But the dish has spread across Thailand and I'm sure both are done. Taste, of course, is the final arbiter, even if it has to reject tradition.

The vegetables served with the N.P. are for dipping. Some N.P. are served with raw vegetables, others with pickled vegetables, and others still are with boiled vegetables. Fried items (fish, pork skin, vegetables) and omelettes slot in as well, as with TAC Quick's Nam Phrik Gapi (shrimp paste) with omelette/fried eggplant/fried mackerel. Fried pork skin is a common accompaniment to N.P. Ong, though I don't think it's provided at Sticky Rice.

The basic idea - greatly simplified from the pages that David Thompson dedicates to Nam Phrik in is Thai Food treatise - is that the condiment and the items accompanying it should strike a balance of salty - sweet - sour - spicy when eaten together. Again, Erik can flesh this out far better than I.

I think TAC serves a Nam Phrik Ong. Or used to. Regardless, their Nam Phrik Gapi is excellent - very pungent - and, according to Thompson, gives Gapi is sort of the Ur-Nam Phrik.

rien

I don't think TAC serves nam prik ong anymore, maybe erik will chime in.

One very good source for a couple nam priks is the thai grocery where both green and red ones are usually avaialble. I am VERY fond of the green

I am a huge fan of nam priks. I like that they vary substantially from place to place (like the sausage, which varies remarkably within Chicago Thai). Sticky Rice's is training wheels or, to be more accurate, Space Mountain. TAC's and Spoon's versions of nam prik ong are (were) Batman, The Ride and the Raging Bull.

I give the nod to Spoon's version with Thai mackerel.

zim wrote:I don't think TAC serves nam prik ong anymore, maybe erik will chime in.

One very good source for a couple nam priks is the thai grocery where both green and red ones are usually avaialble. I am VERY fond of the green

If I'm not mistaken, the red is nam prik ong and the green is nam prik num.

rien

Thomas D. wrote:I have really enjoyed the nam prik ong at Sticky Rice and wonder if there are other restaurants that serve this dish.

To my knowledge, TAC is the only other restaurant in town that has nam phrik owng on the menu, and the relevant details of this fact have already been discussed.

In addition to an array of crudites like that served at Sticky Rice, this type of nam phrik is traditionally served with khaeb mũu, or fried pork skins*.

Thomas D. wrote:Also, all though the menu does not denote it as a spicy dish it does carry a small amount of heat and to my taste would also be quite good if made considerably spicier (although I have no complaints with the version I have sampled).

Although it is not described as such on the English menu or on my Thai menu translation, nam phrik owng is frequently described as a "spicy" relish, dip, or sauce. While it does contain a certain amount of dried chile, here, "spicy" does not denote chile heat per se. The relative "spinicess" of the dish is greatly attributable to the large amounts of raw shallot, garlic and lemongrass used in the paste**.

If it is your feeling that the dish would be as good, if not better, if it were made "considerably spicier," well, that is just fine. There would always seem to be those folks of the opinion that "hotter is better."***

Erik M.

* These can be found on the English menu, as well as on my Thai menu translation, in a section titled, "side orders."

** In the fashioning of the "dip," the raw paste is subsequently fried and tempered by the addition of minced pork, tamarind paste, chopped tomatoes and palm sugar, but a certain amount of the s/g/l's "warmth" should remain.

*** Generally, it is my feeling that they are misguided in their opinion, but I digress.

I just went to TAC last night and was told by our extremely nice waitress that they were no longer serving the Nam Prik Ong...I was so crestfallen that I forgot to ask why. However, I had the sour curry with cha-om omelette and my sorrows were soon forgotten.

The Nam Prik Kapi is still being served, so that's next on my list.