nam crook?

One of the best appetizer-type dishes that I’ve had here so far is nam crook. At least I think it’s nam crook, that’s what I say to the som tam lady at my favorite veggie restaurant, and this is what she always gives me. Of course one time she wasn’t there and then I tried to order it and the man taking my order had no idea what I was talking about. So I digressed into limited choppy Thai vocab/hand signals: “fried ball” (mashing motion) “leaf” (spooning motion). He got the idea and I got what I call nam crook. If you’re reading this and you know what it’s really called, please post it in the comments.

Since I can’t find a recipe (maybe because I don’t know its name), I’ll explain how nam crook is made in my imagination. You first make a kind of fried rice with chopped up kaffir lime leaves, these awesome dried roasted chilies, peanuts, and other magical Thai spices. You then form this rice into pool-ball size spheres and deep fry it. You leave the balls in this stage until just before you are ready to eat. (It is at this point that I actually begin to witness preparation).

When you are ready to serve nam crook, you place one of the balls in a bowl and mash it up with your hands (preferably gloved). You then add fresh mint leaves, lime juice, maybe something else if you think it would taste good. It is then served on a plate with fresh leaves, generally of the same unknown variety (occasionally supplemented or substituted with a less tasty unknown variety).

I then spoon the rice mixture into a leaf and wrap it up before popping the morsel in my mouth. However, I can’t say if this is the proper way to eat nam crook, but no one’s ever corrected me (although maybe they’re just too polite).

Like many Thai dishes, Nam crook has a nice balance of spicy, salty, sour, and sweet (not really sure where that last flavor comes from, but it’s there). The texture is also amazing, with the soft rice mixed with crunchy dried peppers, peanuts, and bits of the original deep fried shell wrapped in the smooth and fresh-tasting leaf. It is amazingly arroy (delicious-- one Thai word I know very well).