In-Chan's Little Secret

A dish of fried catfish arrives looking like Baltimore lake trout, skin on and speckled with bones, with a bowl of sweet Thai chili sauce for dipping. It's a bit overcooked and rather bland, but according to tradition is meant to pair well with kaeng som, a sour curry popular in central Thailand that has been tweaked for northern tastes. The broth gets a puckering punch from tamarind pods and pickled ginger — the smell alone would probably revive a knocked-out prizefighter — and floating inside are miniature, pale-green omelettes made from fried cha-om leaves, which look eerily similar to what Charlton Heston spotted on the conveyor belt in Soylent Green. It's odd, potent and not like many other things I've tasted, but also strangely mesmerizing on a brisk fall day.

There is also something here that Spicy BBQ lacks, along with all the other great northern Thai places in town: a rather inventive version of the Thai stuffed chicken wing, which usually is packed with a mixture of glass noodles and ground chicken. Here, instead, it is stuffed with the sour sausage In-Chan is rightly famous for, sai oua, and then chicken-fried until its breaded exterior is as crispy as the crunchy prawns they give you as appetizers at old-school Chinese restaurants. It's sort of a meat Inception, with an outer layer of juicy chicken giving way to funky, herb-flecked pork underneath.

PHOTO BY ANNE FISHBEIN

In-Chan's spicy and sour curry with shrimp

Location Info

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In-Chan

15333 Sherman Way, B
Van Nuys, CA 91406

Category: Restaurant >

Region: San Fernando Valley

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More About

• Sanan Intasen
• Anne Fishbein
• Van Nuys
• Thai Food and Cooking
• Main Dish Recipes

Like many of the things In-Chan does well, the deeper you dig, the richer the flavors become.

IN-CHAN | 15333 Sherman Way, Ste. B, Van Nuys | (818) 781-1234 | inchanthaicuisine.com | Tues.-Sun., 11 a.m.-9 p.m. | Entrees, $5.99- $12.99 | No alcohol | Lot parking

See more pictures from Anne Fishbein of In-Chan.