Destination
Hua Hin
The story
Miang kham ("one-bite wrap") — sometimes called yam miang — is one of Thailand's most photogenic and playful dishes: fresh cha plu (wild pepper) or spinach leaves are used as a wrap for tiny cubes of lime (skin and all), fresh ginger, dried shrimp, roasted coconut, chopped bird's-eye chili, minced shallot and roasted peanut, then drizzled with a specific palm-sugar-and-fish-sauce dipping sauce. The eater assembles each wrap and pops the whole thing in mouth for a single bite that explodes with sweet-sour-salty-hot-fresh flavour at once. Sold at every Thai fine-dining Thai restaurant and street food carts near temples; a classical Thai one-bite starter.
Method
In a saucepan, combine palm sugar and water. Simmer 5 minutes to dissolve. Add fish sauce, shrimp paste, minced dried shrimp, galangal and toasted coconut. Simmer 15 minutes until thick and glossy — should have the consistency of heavy syrup.
Strain sauce through a fine sieve to remove galangal. Cool.
Toast fresh grated coconut in a dry pan 4 minutes until deep golden.
Cut lime into 5mm dice with skin. Prepare ginger, dried shrimp, chili, shallot and peanut into small dice.
Wash cha plu leaves. Pat dry.
On a large platter, arrange stacked cha plu leaves in the middle. Around them, arrange small piles or bowls of each dice ingredient. Place the sauce in a small dish.
Each diner takes a leaf, places small amounts of each topping in it, drizzles with sauce, folds into a small parcel, and eats in one bite.
Miang kham is a Thai starter or amuse-bouche. Serve 4 to 6 wraps per person.
Tips
- Cha plu leaves are essential. Wild pepper leaves have a specific peppery flavour that spinach can't replicate. Any Thai grocer sells them.
- Lime cube with skin. The lime piece includes the skin — this is the classical flavour marker. Do not just use lime juice.
- Fresh toasted coconut. Freshly-grated toasted coconut is markedly better than dried packet coconut.
- Assemble at the table. Half the pleasure is the assembly ritual.
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