The Rainy Season: Green Peas, Dengue Fever & Caviar

The Rainy Season: Green Peas, Dengue Fever & Caviar

A letter from Chef James Noble

As I watch the rain fall against the window — betting in my head which drip gets to the bottom first — I welcome you into my week. It’s one of gambles and emotions and feelings I never knew I could feel or even had in me.

Are you sitting comfortably? Then let us begin.

As you know, the rainy season is well upon us now in Chiang Mai. With it, the great leafy green selection of vegetables and seasonal fruits is a bountiful gift for the creative chef. The weather is cooler for the heroes in the fields as well, so we should welcome Mother Nature’s tears with open arms, hearts, and minds.

There is a downside, however, to this great produce and climate. The pools of water left by the monsoon create breeding grounds for the world’s deadliest animal — the mosquito. Yep, you guessed it. I’m racing raindrops from the dry side of a window on the 3rd floor in the ICU at the local hospital.

Nancy has dengue fever, and it has knocked her off her feet. As tough as she is, this deadly virus has challenged her inner strength and patience with the severe pain. It’s day four and the hardest day yet. She battles with the fever and muscle pain whilst gripping my hand so tight when the tummy cramps double her up.

As parents you know the feeling, the feeling of I’ll sell everything and anything to raise the funds. I know money doesn’t help and I need to hold back the tears so she doesn’t see my concern with have they got it right, are they doing all they can?

Well, I can tell you this, the team here is amazing. The sofa for a lump like me, however, isn’t.

That’s my week. Driving the opening of The Home of Ikigai through a rainy window whilst directing all my energy towards Nancy so she has the strength to see the gift given by the smallest unwelcomed animal in the world. Mother Nature giveth and taketh way in a swish of your hair. Give us a thought as your days go by.

The Kitchen Update
How’s the kitchen, you ask?

Well, the team is really galloping along. Our collection of jars of comfit and pickled items is getting larger. Treasures range from local lemons to small aubergine, pickled, roasted chilies and fermented pastes, and lactose fermenting vegetables.

The yoghurt has been made and hung. The test run on the aged buffalo carpaccio has turned out amazingly and the black pudding and preserved lime Dukkha to top it has an amazing, layered flavour with the crispy suet running through. A great dish so far and one I can’t wait to present to you with the team.

I’m tired of eating chicken. I think we finally have our supplier and the chamoula chicken can now be created in its entirety. We tried to soften the Barnyard chicken as the flavour is intense but we had to resign to the fact it was chewy even after the brining so we went back to the free range hen. It’s delicious with a 24-hour brine, a 12-hour marinade, a pre-roast, and then charred outside on the grill.

We also got our sunflower seed paste ready for the garlic hummus and will use the roasted skinned lactose fermented chilies on it with a lemon or two.

BIG SHOUT OUT to the Laughing Monkey for working with us on some Ikigai-only ingredients and recipes. Butchers can do what supermarkets cannot. Support the local artisan, in this case Ian, the monkey himself.

The funniest part of this week was developing our own vintage Coke syrup. No cocaine was used in the development of said syrup but we did try a little Mary Jane in one recipe. Boy, we giggled and then devoured the chicken that was for a photoshoot! The munchies upset the photographer, so we gave her a coke- she now loves the chamoula chicken — circular, but funny and the chicken still needs a picture. FYI. The vintage herbal Coke is for a vegetarian dish. More on that later.

So a fun week in the kitchen! All the equipment has now arrived. The plateware is here and polished. All the tiling is done and the final lights are installed. Nowhere to hide. Now time to cook!

Lights. Camera. ACTION …..once we get Nancy home that is.

Chef Blue brought in wonderful dark lychee honey from his mum’s farm and some amazingly intense dark bee pollen for the dukkha. He was excited and proud as was I, until I said “Honey is in essence bee vomit” and he went quiet.

The final uniforms for our apparel range arrived this week from the seemingly stress-free seamstress. I’ve been testing the trousers all week — they don’t burn, they repel water and can hold in a fart. They will be added soon to the website along with the list of library books and a full brand range of Ikigai chefs’ apparel and paraphernalia.

Our little knife shop — The Past Knife — has had some rave reviews and is doing brisk business. Our Japanese scouts are scouring Japan for more vintage gems.

Remember, we can ship anywhere and an up-to-date list can be sent to your email with all the details on each knife. Also, if you drop your battle-scarred knives at the shop we can breathe more life into them with a spit–polish, re-edge and if you have dinks in them we can grind them out too.

The David and Goliath battle with Google goes on. We still can’t get them to close the old location and add the new one. Actually, we have the new address on there but can’t get it temporarily closed. We have the new opening hours, etc. but we asked for it to be flagged temporarily closed and that seems to be a click too far for the Google gang. So strange cars are popping up early…

We also can’t get a one-star review removed. We were not even open, and it wasn’t us! They reviewed our old location with the new, not-so-creative tenant under our name… oh the double-edged sword.

So all my ducks are in a row for the 10th.

10/10/23. Save The Date!

The restaurant is set up. The menu is programmed into the machine. The printer is working. The bathrooms are finished and the new signage is up.

Come on Nancy, rally! Daddy needs his assistant manager.

This Week’s Funniest Fail

Chef Blue kindly fed the fish and I asked him could he clean the tank as I was at Nancy’s bedside. As always he replied “nonproblem chef” in the tone of the Green Mile character played by Michal Clark Duncan. Well, when I got back all the poor fish were dead. He cleaned the tank with detergent and didn’t rinse it well enough. Nancy loves the fish so we got more fish sent over and re-cleaned. Hopefully, she’s none the wiser when she gets home, although they are a fair size bigger.

Great hearts don’t make huge mistakes.

So, that’s my week in a nutshell. Keeping positive and thankful, gracious in hard times, and happy where we can. God only knows how we are going to pay for it all, but care comes first. Ikigai’s food is cheaper than the hospitals and a lot more balanced and delicious.

There’s no closing message from Nancy — the Chicken — this week. But I can tell you this. There are 48 elephants on the hospital wall. And 18 different species of animal. In total, 773 animals but I’m not sure how many there are when the fever gets high. She would want you all to know this.

Keep us in your thoughts this week — but make sure you’re looking after yourselves first!

Expect a big photo bomb next week! The new menu is live on our website so take a look. And check out The Perfect Knife and the Culinary Library as well.

Have I bored you yet? Hope not as this is as real as it gets. Much love from the dry side of the window.