Katie RobbinsLove fish custard, but wish it didn't keep you saddled to the table? Silom Supermarket, the grocery store in Hollywood's Thailand Plaza, may have the answer you've been looking for: ho mok.
This popular Northern Thai street food, which slightly resembles a cupcake, combines bite-size morsels of white fish with coconut cream, eggs, red curry, and kaffir limes leaves. The mixture is then placed into individual banana leaf baskets and steamed, creating a kind of sublimely rich, spicy fish pâté. Proving the beauty and necessity of such mobile coconut-based seafood curries, similar dishes can be found throughout South East Asia, like the Peranakan otak-otak or the Cambodian fish mousse amok.
Have ho mok; will travel.; Credit: K. Robbins
The version sold at Silom, which is made off-site and brought in each day, also includes a bottom layer of crunchy, slightly pickled cabbage, which adds a textural foil to the velvety custard. Topped with an extra dollop of coconut cream and several slivers of vermilion pepper, the ho mok is as pretty as a perky ice cream sundae, packed into a singularly portable tidy green leaf parcel.
Amidst the galangal powder, fish sauce, and palm sugar, tracking down the ho mok at Silom takes some perseverance. But there, just past the cash registers, across from the refrigerated cases of Thai sausage and fish balls, is a stack of Styrofoam containers, each housing two sizeable portions, for a mere $7.50. Take one and go for a stroll along Hollywood. It's the perfect edible accessory for fall.
Advertising disclosure: We may receive compensation for some of the links in our stories. Thank you for supporting LA Weekly and our advertisers.