9 Things Chef Kfris Yenbamroong Can't Live Without

4. Thai 101: Basil Chicken

Chicken krapow is the quintessential one-plate meal in Thailand, the equivalent to going for a taco or a hamburger and usually the first thing young people learn to cook. You put a cup of vegetable oil into a wok over high heat until it’s smoking, then you add an egg— it will become almost deep-fried. When the bottom of the egg is very crispy, scoop it out and set it aside. Add chopped garlic and a couple of minced Thai chilies to the oil, and get them fragrant. Then add chopped chicken thighs, a pinch of sugar, and a tablespoon each of soy sauce and oyster sauce, and cook that together until the meat is done. Krapow is the Thai word for holy basil, which is how you finish this dish off the heat, but Italian basil is totally good, too. Serve it with rice and that fried egg on the side.

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5. Hot Plate: Wok

I like tools that serve many purposes, like a wok. You can stir-fry anything in it. It’s deep enough to use as a deep fryer. You can use it to toast dry ingredients, like chilies and spices, and as a pot because its sides are high. I use fancy Le Creuset woks and hammered-steel ones, but my main recommendation is to get one with a rounded bottom so you can move ingredients around really fluidly.

6. Sweet Stuff: Coconut sugar

In Thailand, this brown sugar is made from the crystallized sap of palm trees. You’ll find it at almost any Asian market, but you can also use the coconut/palm sugar sold at most natural food stores—they’re essentially the same thing. I prefer coconut sugar when I want a subtler molasses-y sweetness, like in sauces and curries. On the other hand, I like my pad thai sauce to be direct and sharp, which is why I use regular white sugar instead.

7. Bring the Heat: Bird Chilies

When we first opened Night+Market, bros would come in saying, “I want you to burn my face off.” But that’s not how Thai cooking works. Heat is something that is built, not just an extra flavor you add at the end, and every chili is going to give you a different flavor. Thai bird chilies are traditional, but I’m really down with being flexible and using substitutions, like habaneros.

8. French Gamay: Le Telquel

I’m really into natural wines, predominately French. Gamay is the ultimate pre-party red. Try it slightly chilled, which is the way we pour it at the restaurants and the way it’s generally consumed in France. Le Telquel, made by Pierre-Olivier Bonhomme, is a gamay blended with côt, the French name for malbec. It’s so energizing and light on its feet but also has a little bit of heft.

9. Breakfast Order: Rae's

There’s an old diner, Rae’s, on the west side of L.A., not far from the beach. It’s been around since the ’50s or ’60s and hasn’t changed much since then. Going there is a ritual for me. With so much “new brunch,” avocado-toast stuff in L.A., it’s super-refreshing to go to Rae’s and get a completely delicious, utilitarian, no-bullshit kind of breakfast: two over-easy eggs, little sausage links, and, instead of toast, biscuits and gravy.

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