Huan Phen might not get your attention from the outside, but this wooded-picnic-table and curry-buffet joint is listed in the Lonely Planet (guidebook and food guide) and the Nancy Chandler Guide for it’s authentic Northern Thai food.  As I am on a bit of a regional food kick right now, I checked it out at lunchtime.

The panda is an easy way to recognize this restaurant

The menu is in Thai and English, so Huan Phen’s food is accessible if you don’t speak Thai.  If you don’t know what to expect from Northern Thai food, begin by guessing that it will be less spicy and have much less coconut.  Overall, what we ordered at Huan Phen was rich, meaty, and a little bland — tasty, but very different from the food at most Thai restaurants.  Dishes 30-60 baht.

This dish, called “Northern-Style curry sauce with kao ngew” was a thin pork curry with congealed blood, pickled vegetables on the side.    Satisfying as a soup and a sauce for dipping sticky rice, with red oil floating on the top.  Not spicy, with a taste and texture that reminded me a little of Hungarian goulash or a thin beef stew.  45 baht.

This “fried dried pork” was overall my least favorite dish.  Though my first impression was that the meat tasted a little putrid, that impression had gone away by the second bite.  Dried, slightly salty, pork-jerky.  Not exciting but probably good to much on with beer.  50 baht.

The Northern-Style Minced Pork with Red Chili Paste was my favorite dish, and I will probably come back to Huan Phen to eat this again.  Tender pork stewed with cherry tomatoes and spices, satisfying with the steamed vegetables or sticky rice.  It did, though, closely resemble an excellent, very thick, pasta sauce, and my friend observed “You could just put this on pasta, no questions asked.  Maybe leave out the fish sauce.” 30 baht.

So overall: food at Huan Phen is not your average Thai food, and it’s quite tasty.  The few dishes that we ordered were surprisingly similar to familiar Western foods.  This was strange to me, but the place was packed with Thais grabbing a quick lunch alone or an extended meal with the entire family.  Check out Huan Phen if you want to try a different, but authentic, kind of Thai food.

*Totally unsubstantiated rumor has it that Huan Phen turns on the a/c, raises prices, and dumbs-down the food at night, when it fills up with tourists — though, as I’ve just discussed, I’m not sure what they would change about the food to make it better suit Western tastes.  Anyway, if you don’t want to risk it, go at lunchtime.

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