Melting pot

The frying pan in this homely little restaurant sits in the small cluttered kitchen next to all the other cooking equipment - microwave oven, refrigerator, cutting board, pots and piles of clean plates and bowls. Except that the pan rarely sits still, in fact it's continuously sizzling with activity.

Kin Tim is a cosy family restaurant that has been serving Thai-style steaks to nearby office people for almost a decade. Every dish here is prepared by Mayuree "Phi Paew" Suwannaboon, who resigned from her office job to take a place in the kitchen about 8 years ago.

 "At first, we only sold Italian ice creams, hence the name of this restaurant," explains Phi Paew about the word kin tim short for kin ai-tim (which translates to eat ice cream). "But then the cost of the ice cream we ordered was too high for us to maintain, so we decided to add a small number of home-cooked dished which we could cook ourselves to offset the expenses."

Now, Kin Tim is the place for local people looking for a quick, hearty lunch - whether that lunch happens to be steak, pasta or a simple rice dish.

Phi Paew learnt to cook from a friend and her smooth mashed potato topped with chicken and pork broth and sliced bacon has made quite a name for itself among her restaurant's customers, followed by the variety of steaks - ranging from salmon, seabass, pork loin, pork chop, chicken, beef, lamb and T-bone - which also receive high praise. All of the steaks are served with Phi Paew's thick gravy, boiled vegetables and two slices of bread.

The steaks here are Bt55 for pork and chicken, Bt100-120 for the fish and Bt150-170 for the lamb and pork chops. We tried the salmon steak, well marinated with black pepper. The steak was a little on the dry side, with the fish just a touch overcooked, but all in all, a healthy and hearty lunch.

The restaurant's real speciality comes every month when Phi Paew and her husband, Tepanom, or Phi Tik, take their beloved dog, Milo, to enjoy a breezy beach trip in Prachuap Khiri Khan province, and the couple buy fresh crab meat and seafood from the coast. The result is pad pasta sendam khi mao - a steaming black pasta dish, stir-fried with crab meat and New Zealand mussels (Bt50) that offers a spicy kick.

"We also have a tomato sauce for the pasta," says Phi Paew. "But it seems that the spicy Thai-style sauce goes better with seafood. But you can also order the shrimp, pork or chicken for your pasta."

The clear spicy spaghetti soup with pork rib was another revelation. The dish goes under the name tom yam but there is none of the traditional lemongrass or kaffir lime leaf flavouring in the bowl. When asked, Phi Paew explains that this is her special brand of tom yam, spiced with crushed dried and fresh chillies and a good squeeze of fresh lime. And at Bt30 a bowl, the soup is perfect for those who simply fancy a light slurp for their lunch. The aromatic pork broth Phi Paew carefully makes each day especially for the dish also gives it a delicious edge.

Kin Tim also has a small array of rice dishes, such as steamed rice with braised chicken, pork, and pork ribs or stir-fried spicy rice with crabmeat and shrimp. The prices for these dishes range from Bt38 to Bt50.

Those who can't live without a daily dose of salad can order a bowl of green salad for Bt25, or greens with braised chicken, pork, crabmeat and tuna for Bt45.

And you can finish it off with a scoop or two of gelato (Bt25 per scoop) or sundae (Bt35 to Bt55) with choices of homemade toppings such as strawberry jelly and whipped cream.

"The technique we use to keep our steaks good, is to marinate everything overnight," says Phi Paew after the last lunch customer leaves for the day. "And our low prices keep people coming back. Everything is more expensive at the moment, but I guess our restaurant can maintain its prices because we do everything ourselves, without anything that incurs unnecessary expenses." A hands-on approach that should keep that pan sizzling for some time yet.

Sirin P Wongpanit 

The writer can be reached at saleewong@gmail.com

Kin Tim

Padipat Soi 6, Padipat Road

11am-4pm Monday-Friday

(closed weekends and national holidays)

(02) 618 4045