E-Sarn

Thai food used to be a favourite of mine... an emphasis on "used to be". This should not come as a surprise to many though as with the germination of heinous "expresses", mass-produced mediocrity has became a regular fixture in most restaurants. Consequently, Thai food soon became as desirable as last season's viral flu and this was further compounded by my culinary retreat in Chiang Mai, which taught me that delicious thai food wasn't that difficult to make.

But thanks to an inconspicuous restaurant along bukit timah sixth avenue, I managed to veer off the highway of mediocore Thai food. With a homely atmosphere and an obviously "regulars" client base, E-Sarn sits no more than 30 customers at any one time. Luckily apart from dining in, you could also call for delivery or in advance for takeway. Word has it, they are even planning to venture into the home catering business.


Green Papaya Salad Som Tum


Green Mango Salad Yum Ma Muang

We were in a Thai restaurant, so of course we had to order the salads! Once our salad orders were made, I immediately heard the knocking of the mortar, which added to the anticipation of our starters. I have got a small confession to make- I couldn't make out the difference between the green papaya and green mango due to almost-identical appearance, taste and crunchy texture. But other than that, I thoroughly enjoyed the zesty perk-me-up lime dressing and pronounced aroma of dried shrimps and roasted peanuts.


Thai Vegetable Omelette Cha-Om Kai Tod

The amount of greens was a huge turn-off for me as I have never quite seen an edible vegetable that resembles nuances of what you would find under the bottom of the fish tank. Casting away my prejudice, I took a bite and gained a lesson on inner beauty HA! The cha-om (a unique vegetable imported from Thailand) left a barely-there bitter aftertaste, which was easily overwhelmed by the prawn paste blachan dipping sauce. Unlike most omelettes, this wasn't swabbed in oil.


Claypot Beef Nuea Mor Din

Equally engaging was the hearty claypot beef stew. As far as food quirks go, I am very much guilty of ladling gravy over my rice, thus I highly recommend the tender beef stew, especially if you have a weakness for “brown thickish gravy”.


Green Curry Chicken

However, not all our main courses enjoyed high ratings. When it came to the green curry chicken, my satisfaction was misplaced with the churlish milkier-than-usual curry and pedastrian chicken breast meat.


Olive Rice Khao Ob Nam Liap

I actually misread the name and was expecting fried olive rice, instead of steamed rice topped with minced pork & olive. The only glitch was the droughty minced pork and olive stir-fry but that was easily rectified by mixing it with steamed Jasmine rice. But somehow I think this was slightly amateurish, compared to Patara’s olive rice.


Sticky Rice with Mango Khao Niao Ma-Muang

Not leaving room for Khao Niao Ma-Muang would amount to serious injustice, as this was easily the best mango sticky rice I’ve had in a long time. The ripe mangoes were undeniably sweet and as the warm sticky rice spontaneously coalesced into my tongue, I wondered what I had been doing all along, wasting my time and calories with dry hard varieties.

Like a relationship, there are inevitably ups and downs in E-Sarn. You might visit E-sarn and be bewildered by the fuss I'm creating because when it really comes to the crux of their allure, there really isn't anything remotely mystifying about E-Sarn. All they did was to take simple fresh ingredients, utilize tried-and-tested cooking methods to whip dishes that made cooking at home seem redundant. But the real mystery is how so many eateries think they can get away with so-called Thai food, by throwing in a couple of kaffir lime leaves and some food colouring.

So, how doe it feel like to fall in love all over again?
-Simply wonderful.