A Flavor Explosion - The Delicious Northern Thai (Off-Menu) Dishes of Pailin Thai Cuisine! [Thoughts + Pics]

Hi @CiaoBob,

Nice! :slight_smile: Yah, I’ve been thinking about that Tam Kanoon (Young Jackfruit Salad) ever since I had it (seriously). Can’t wait to go back again.

Thanks to this thread I took my friend visiting from SF to Pailin after she mentioned wanting Thai food. Delicious and budget friendly. We ordered the shrimp paste fried rice and pad kee mao with chicken. The former was my favorite of the two, but we devoured both. The fried rice had such a wonderful mixture of flavors and textures. The pork in it was just wonderful, and the funk of the dried shrimp, freshness from the cucumber, sweetness from the apple, and acidity from the lime just put it over the top.

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Hi @chinchi,

Thanks for the report back. Glad you and your friend liked it! :slight_smile:

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Just re-read your post. I didn’t realize the fruit was green papaya and mango. I only detected one sweet, crunchy fruit, and I assumed it was sliced apple :speak_no_evil:

Edit: it was sliced apple! I just looked at the photo my friend took of me and the slices have distinctive red apple skin.

Hi @chinchi,

Thanks. :slight_smile: I’m guessing they might use various fresh fruit depending on the week? That’s really cool to know (ours definitely wasn’t apple). Thanks.

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Shrimp Paste Fried Rice.

Incredible. Every bite is different. The many combinations of the shrimp paste fried rice, dried baby shrimps, fresh shrimps, mango, cucumber, raw red onion, carmelized onion, egg, and pork.

Fans of Canto style Salty Fish and Chicken Fried Rice need to have this in your life.

I hear Darabar does a really good shrimp paste fried rice.

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Nam Prik Noom.

Not spicy at all. Nice and flavorful. I should show up to parties with this. Why chips and dip when you can nam prik.

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Young Jackfruit Salad.

Didn’t like this as much as I thought I would. 3 of the most trustworthy FTC’ers like this dish. So like Costanza, It’s Not You It’s Me.
It was just gingery.

Got to make room for Bhan Kanom!!!

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Thanks for the report back @JeetKuneBao. Glad you liked most of the dishes on this visit. :slight_smile:

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I think they changed this dish. A few years ago it completely melted me down. Now it is pretty mild.

Right on’. It looks fairly simple to make too.

My March 16, 2016’s post in response to @Nemroz’s Palin Thai thread on this board was as follows
“Based on this recommendation, I ventured to Pailin last night at 8pm. Unfortunately, parking in the neighborhood by then was worst than impossible. I circled the adjacent three blocks four times and gave up.
Palin is adjacent to numerous apartment complexes with few other business open in the evening. As a result, not a single open parking space was available.”
Has the parking situation improved?

I saw quite a few people order to-go on my weekday afternoon visit so I assume some parking available.

Maybe do some shopping at Ralph’s or Ruen Pair/Bhan Kanom plaza?

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Hi @fallingleaves,

I remember reading your post back then and being prepared for bad parking during our 1st visit. We were able to find parking (lucky?) for our first 2 visits with no problem. But our 3rd visit, we did have to drive around the neighboring blocks a couple times but found a spot.

Being a small business I don’t think they can build their own parking lot (ideal).

However, there’s a Marshall’s / Petco shopping center 1 block away, and then a Ralph’s parking lot 2 blocks away. That might be an option?

More apartment buildings have gone up so it’s unlikely to improve any time soon.

Yes it’s tough, and only going to get worse with the condo buildings going up. But I’ve never once not been able to find a metered spot. I can see it happening though. Also most of it is 1 hr limit. But yea, we’ve always made it work

The Hollywood / Western metro stop is two blocks away.

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You’re so funny.