Noodle Soup On Top of a Mountain
August 28th, 2008
Rice Noodle Soup with Black Chicken at Mr Huang Yun’s Shop in Mae Aw
To get to Mae Aw in the rainy season, it’s really best to take a motorbike since public transportation is limited. The problem was that I didn’t even know how to turn it on, but how hard could it be? I learned how to drive a car on stick, riden my fair share of bikes, and ski raced through college. Theoretically, I should already have the balance and basic ideas down. Theoretically. My first attempt at driving a motorbike was a bit of an embarassment. After a quick demo from a shop girl, I nearly drove the bike into a car and/or the lake while she ran down the street after me. “Maybe automatic is good for you,” she said, breathing heavily and clasping her chest. “Maybe later,” I said, backing slowly away from the shop.
My next attempt at the motorbike, asking for lessons at a different rental shop, didn’t inspire much confidence in the shop’s owner Td. In fact, I was so pitiful that he offered to drive to Mae Aw in a few days time. I just had to pay for petrol.
Two days later, we took off for Mae Aw, about 43 km north, with me safely on the back of the bike far enough from the controls. We drove through wet green valleys and up curving mountain roads, with dense forest on either side and a dark sky threatening rain above. By the time we reached our destination it was full-on raining. Though in Thailand this town is an outpost of old KMT fighters, where the language and food is Chinese. We sat down in Mr Huang Yun’s Shop and sipped on hot green tea, made with tea from local plantations, while looking out onto the rainy village center of dirt roads and small tea shops. During high season, I’m told, the center is filled with cars and tourists. On this rainy day, it was nearly empty.
Lunch came quickly. It was a noodle soup, so deeply savory that I thought beef was used in the stock. As it turns out, it is a special breed of chicken that lends lends this soup its unctuousness flavor. The noodles were hand-made by the shop’s owner and the chickens from the village itself.
Sun broke for our trip home filling the valley with light and transforming the landscape from what we had seen on our ride there. Breathing in the sweet, green air, we drove past rice paddies, small villages and mountains until we arrived back in baking-hot Mae Hong Son.
Black Chicken in Mae Aw
Mr Huang Yun’s Shop in Mae Aw
Tea at Mr Huang Yun’s Shop in Mae Aw
Mae Aw Tea Plantation (on the way to Mae Mae Aw from Hong Son)
Rice Paddies in Mork Jume Pae (on the way back to Mae Hong Son from Mae Aw)
For more pictures of Mae Hong Son province, click here.
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