Food review: Chachawan serves welcome homestyle Thai dishes
It's the modest, homestyle dishes that prove the most satisfying at this neighbourhood Thai, writes Susan Jung
It's hard to go out for Thai food in Hong Kong when your domestic helper - from Thailand - was chosen primarily for her ability to cook. That she's from Isaan - the northeast region that Chachawan on Hollywood Road specialises in - made us a bit hesitant to try the place, since some of the best food in Thailand is served in homes or on the street, rather than in restaurants.
So it was no surprise to us that Chachawan's best dishes were the homestyle ones. The green papaya salad with cherry tomatoes, chilli and dried shrimp with sweet and sour tamarind dressing could be ordered with "additions", but we chose the humblest - salted egg yolk (HK$95).
The egg yolk wasn't as salty as many we've tasted, and its gooey richness went well with the pungency of the other ingredients. Chopped duck salad with shallots, spring onions, mint and spicy and sour dressing (HK$118) also had vivid, balanced flavours. A salad of tender squid and coriander (HK$98) was spicy, as the waiter said, but it was also a little too garlicky.
We tried two pork dishes, one with Kurobuta pork, the other with Iberico. We thought we'd like the second one more, but didn't. The spicy grilled Kurobuta pork collar salad (HK$140) featured tender pieces of meat, smoky eggplant, herbs (mint and coriander), thinly sliced shallot and a nice crunch from toasted rice powder.
The chargrilled Iberico pork (listed under the meat and poultry section, HK$158), on the other hand, didn't have the fatty, soft texture you expect from the breed, so the flesh was too firm. And another meat dish, deep-fried chicken (HK$168), didn't have much flavour at all.
Two large tiger prawns (HK$188) had been grilled before being served with a rich, intensely flavoured "dry" (as in not saucy) curry. But our favourite dish was the simplest: a Thai omelette - something I eat at home for lunch. Here it's made a little more upscale with the addition of crab (HK$122), and the omelette had a delicate crisp browned exterior and soft, eggy interior.