Wasn’t the eclipse amazing!? The media had made it out to be this epic traffic disaster, which it ended up being not so bad, not any worse than our usual PDX traffic! Work was crazy this weekend, however, I think the solar eclipse made everyone crave our food! Lines started outside before we even opened and didn’t stop! Aside from my usual cooking tasks, I also help bottle our signature sauce. We have to wait till we close one night a week to prepare and hand pour over 300 bottles!
The bottled sauce makes it easy to prepare Khao man gai at home if you aren’t local, but I have found that it is amazingly versatile for other applications as well. I recently used it in perhaps, the best cold noodle dish ever! The sauce already has the perfect balance of acid, heat, sweetness, and salt, so it can serve as a short cut to making amazing dressings or even to use as a marinade.
From peeling the ginger to putting on caps there is no part of our sauce process that doesn’t have the human touch, it isn’t an easy process, but the final result makes it well worth the effort and is a labor of love from start to finish, there aren’t too many products available that can really give you a similar experience to what you would have physically in the restaurant, and I am very proud to be a part of it.
Nong has been bottling her famous sauce for three years and bottles are available in many stores in several states and online through the website. As you can tell from the photo above there is a very good chance that Nong herself helped to bottle the sauce you buy! Large batches of carefully prepared, temped, and authentic sauce are cooked in a large free standing stock pot, we have to maintain a certain temperature to ensure the best product arrives ready for you to eat.
To make your own “Nong’s Noodz” you will need:
8 oz of noodles, I used dried wheat ramen noodles but you can choose your own adventure (rice noodles, zucchini noodles, even dried spaghetti would be great). Just make sure to cook them al dente and cool them.
1/4 cup Nong’s Khao Man Gai Sauce
1.5 Tbsp Tahini
1 Tbsp water
1 cup veggies of choice, I used pea pods and shredded carrots but I bet jicama would be great as well!
I also added Japanese “Schichimi togarashi” pepper sprinkled on top and bit of fried garlic, both are great but optional.
Blend the tahini, Nong’s sauce, and water together until emulsified. Pour emulsion over cold noodles and top with veggies of choice, garnish with herbs or anything you like!
Dead simple. Noodz to build a dream on and did I mention they are vegan?! A little bit of love from the Nong’s crew in Portland, Oregon! Happy Cooking!
