Brother Thai, Cardiff: 'Easily one of my favourite dinners of 2024'
Chasing waterfalls and core memories comes good in Cardiff - and soon Bristol
Hello Saucers. This week I have broken new ground and launched a Substack ‘chat’. Facebook groups and Twitter are all but dead, so where better to take the conversation than here?
Subscribed Saucers who have the Substack app (which is free) can join our chat on all things Bristol food, and can ask me and other Saucers for recommendations. It has proven to be very popular so far, despite having only launched 24 hours ago! Come and join the conversation, we’d love to hear from you. ~ Meg
Lathering thick Lancashire butter across a still-oven-hot bread roll in the back room of a dark, quiet pub in the North with my grandpa during the last few years of his life. Wincing through the spiciest Thai curry I’d ever eaten at the tender age of 12, alternating each bite with a swig of milk - one of the few times Mum admitted defeat and declared something she’d made inedible. The golden moment of alone time with Dad, sitting at a counter top in a busy bistro when I was six or seven and being allowed to order whatever I wanted. A giant bowl of curly fries and nothing else.
It shouldn’t come as surprise that so many of my core memories revolve around food. When diving back through a rich archive, it’s these such experiences that jump to the front. Partly because of the people I was with and the connection of a certain food with a moment in time or a relationship. Partly because these were moments that furthered food for me - taught me what it could be.
A more recent such memory takes me back this time around five years ago, when the leaves were thick on the ground and the sun felt defiant in the face of the impending winter. A group of us stumbled out of the office for our weekly Thursday lunchtime trip to the harbourside market. Our attention was caught by a man in a suit was stuffing a beef-loaded roti into his face with complete abandon and an urgency characterised by the fact he hadn’t even bothered to find somewhere to sit. Brother Thai was the vendor responsible.
Normally I would advocate for trying new things whenever possible and embracing variety, but after that Thursday and that roti I made the short pilgrimage to Brother Thai’s stall every week. I didn’t realise they were making a pilgrimage of their own from Cardiff - to me they existed there at that market every Thursday and in my heart and at the forefront of my mind whenever I couldn’t get my hands on one.
Then Covid happened, and Brother Thai stopped coming to Bristol. I have been craving that roti, that core memory, ever since.
There is no excuse for how long it has taken me to seek them out in their home town. The missed opportunities will forever haunt me, but the experience I had last week has cemented the fact that I shall now make it my life’s work to make up for lost time.
A very wet afternoon stomping around the Brecon Beacons chasing waterfalls a la TLC had resulted in an order-the-entire-menu style appetite. The first dish to arrive was the spicy waterfall salad (honestly sometimes these things write themselves) (£6.50) which was a hell of a lot more vibrant and warm than the preceding four we’d found in the hills.
No scrubs here; this is the kind of salad I would quite happily have on the side of every meal ever. Lime, coriander, mint, punchy fish sauce, crunchy swede and red onions, topped with Thai toasted rice powder or khao kua. If anyone knows where I can get a bucket of khao kua please get in touch. I have a feeling it would be excellent on pretty much everything.
For what it lacked in crunch, the Thai fried chicken (£8.50) made up for in flavour. I hold a slight preference for the smaller, crunchier chunks of the stuff we’d repeat ordered at Sky Kong Kong’s pop-up at The Gallimaufry a few days prior, but both have their merit.
The only flaw I can find with the ‘crispy mushroom laab’ (£8.50) is that as a self-professed word nerd I subscribe to the school of thought that crispy is an entirely unnecessary word and a conflation of the words crisp and crunchy. The rubble of crisp fried mushrooms provided a texture not common in a laab, but the combination of batter and fresh herbs and more of that khao kua was exemplary. It’s innovative, new and incredibly well executed.
The two rotis, one stuffed with beef (£9.50) and another with red curry chicken (£9.50) were just as I remember. I would emphatically encourage you to go chasing waterfalls if it leads you to these rotis, regardless of what TLC say. It’s texture - flaky roti, sticky beef, crisp cucumber and red onion - in a beautiful symphony with sweet, sour and umami harmonies. It’s one of the best dishes I’ve eaten all year.
The pad krapao nuea (£13) comes in a close second though. Finely minced and sweetly caramelised beef laced with delicate Thai basil and green beans topped with one of the best fried eggs I’ve ever seen. I wish I knew how to make this. It’s almost painful to look at now, to feel its absence from the table in front of me. Last year I had a guinea fowl dish so good at Little French (hello another core memory) that I made it my phone’s screensaver. As of last week, every time I get a text it’s pad krapao looking up at me.
Ice cream for dessert is a little unimaginative, so we didn’t bother, opting instead to take our box loaded with leftovers and head back across the bridge. The whole thing cost less than £70 and is easily one of my favourite dinners of 2024.
The cherry on the top came during the drive home. A friend had seen our Instagram post and reminded us that Brother Thai are planning to open a second branch in Bristol. They’re on the hunt for a site as we speak. A final waterfall of happy tears sprung forth.
All words and photos by Meg Houghton-Gilmour
Brother Thai, 35 Whitchurch Rd, Cardiff, CF14 3JN
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