Ka Nom Pak Kard

If you have ever lived in LA for some time and been a pub crawler, club goer, or general night owl; there is a good chance you have eaten at the Sanamluang Cafe. It's an authentic thai restaurant in Hollywood open until 4am. I have ended up there many a night in my youth and many a day. The problem is, it is an authentic thai restaurant. When I used to go they only had two vegetarian options on the menu, now they have seven. Of the two I always chose Ka Nom Pak Kard which is "Radish rice biscuit stir fried with green onion, bean sprouts, and egg in Thai style served with hot sauce." I always ordered it without the egg and even for only two options, this one pretty much blew any other thai food out of the water.

Now that I no longer live in LA and haven't for quite some time, I decided it was high time I figure out how to make my favorite dish from their menu. I have been making the radish cakes on an off for over a year now, but I hadn't put it all together yet. Well now I have and it is good, the only thing missing is their homemade siracha, but cock sauce is a fine substitute. For this version I really should have doubled the scallions and the bean sprouts, but as it was I bought all the bean sprouts they had in the only store I could find them at. The scallions I could have fixed. Also note the radish cakes have to set up overnight, so you need to plan ahead if you are making them.

make the radish cakes with daikon, salt, and glutinous rice flour

box grate the daikon

add salt and a little water and soak for an hour

squeeze daikon dry and mix in an equal amount of glutinous rice flour

pour daikon mix into a flat baking dish and refrigerate overnight

the next day prep your bean sprouts (I pull off the yellow ends) and scallions

invert the now solid radish cake onto parchment and cut into cubes

deep fry those yummy cubes

drain and set aside, but re-warm briefly in a hot oven before serving

saute the bean sprouts and scallions with lots of soy sauce, oil, and a pinch of sugar

here I added mung bean noodles as I didn't have enough sprouts

serve with plenty of siracha

kŏr hâi jà-rern aa-hăan!