Miang in North Melbourne

he says:

I saw some great looking betel leaves in the Footscray market the other day and I realised that I still hadn't made any Miang as I promised myself I'd do when we got back from Thailand.  The sticking point wasn't the betel leaves, it had always been the smoky northern Thai sausage. Whilst I have been able to find naem sausage (at Nathan Thai) I haven't seen anything that I thought was close to the sausage we had with the Miang we ate in Bangkok. I decided to improvise and found a very spicy minced pork mix that looked like it also contained kaffir lime leaves (and lot of other wonderful things too) that I thought would do the trick. Initially the lady told me that it would be too hot for me which I found pretty funny and bought it anyway. I have no idea what it is called but it tasted fantastic and worked perfectly with the Miang. If you can read Thai feel free to enlighten me.

After that I went back and bought the betel leaves ($3 for a huge fresh looking bunch) and also a jar of Pantai Norasing Brand Chilli Paste in Soy Bean Oil. I now understand that in Thai this sauce is referred to as Nam Prik Pao. As I was expecting the Miang to be quite spicy and also because it was a stinking hot day we decided we should get some beer to go with it. So to make us feel like we were back in Bangkok we dropped in to Dan's and grabbed some Singha, this is definitely my preference when it come to Thai beers, I'm not really a Changs man.

Constructing the Miang is pretty simple, just chop up some fresh garlic and ginger into little 3mm ish cubes, split some unsalted peanuts, shave up some palm sugar and put everything into small bowls then put the pork mince mix and Nam Prik Pao into separate bowls and you're ready to go!   I also had a few fresh scud chillies ready in case they were needed, they were not!  To put the Miang together you scoop a small spoonful of the pork mince mix then add a little cube of ginger and garlic and a peanut then sprinkle some palm sugar and finish it with a small dollop of Nam Prik Pao. Have a beer ready as the chilli really kicks!