Issue 17

While San Francisco’s Koh Samui and the Monkey has been open since 2003 in the city’s SoMa (South of Market) neighbourhood, it’s not Aom Phantong’s first restaurant in the city. Far from it.

Aom Phantong’s upscale ThaiSELECT restaurant serves three types of food – Thai street food, traditional Thai fare and modern dishes the Bangkok native created. “It’s a journey – all over Thailand,” she says.

Mieng Kum, a leaf-wrapped self-made street snack from southern Thailand, is made here with spinach leaves topped with a mound of peanuts, coconut, chopped Thai chilli onion and ginger, fresh lime, and a sweet plum sauce to douse the tasty bundle. Classic stir-fries – including another southern dish, Kur Kling (ground roasted chicken with young peppercorns stalks, bell peppers and Thai herbs), a choice of nine curries, soups such as Tom Kha Gai (chicken in coconut milk with kaffir lime leaves, lemongrass and galangal) and noodle dishes like Pad Thai sit on the menu next to more innovative dishes: salmon chardonnay (grilled and tossed with lime juice, chilli flakes and mint) and Samui ravioli (topped with peanuts, tomatoes, avocado, green beans, garlic and a spicy/sour sauce).

The restaurant name reflects Phantong’s own personal journey: Koh Samui is the island in southern Thailand where Phantong met her husband, American real estate developer Chris Foley. The couple moved to the US in 1996 after living in London for seven years. She was born in the Year of the Monkey, and so Monkey became the name of her small shop next door, which sold Thai antiques and collectibles. Today, it’s her ice cream shop, offering mango sorbet and other tropical flavours.

Phantong designed most of the restaurant herself, choosing elephant-themed celadon plates and serving dishes and Thai ceremonial masks behind the curved cherry wood bar, with chairs custom-made in Thailand from sugar palm wood and stainless steel.

It’s a total contrast to the first eatery she opened in 1998, Thai Speed, a take-out spot in San Francisco’s financial district. But Phantong yearned to own a full-service restaurant. So, she opened Koh Samui in 2003, Citizen Thai and the Monkey, a 250-seat restaurant in the North Beach neighbourhood, which she operated from 2005-2007 and Another Monkey, in the trendy Mission District, which closed in 2013.

“It got too big – at one time I had 300 to 400 employees. I began to lose who I am, and wanted to focus on my daughter,” says Phantong, now content with just one restaurant. She prefers to travel for three or four months to Europe and Asia on school breaks with her young child. “She’s been to 20 countries, and she’s only seven.”

The restaurant has a loyal custom from the nearby Tech employees. “Some come two or three times a week for lunch; many are young people, and many are Indian, who ask that we do food extra-spicy for them,” says Phantong. “Some people dated here, got married and now bring their kids.”

Koh Samui and the Monkey
415 Brannan Street, San Francisco, CA 94107
+1 415 369 0007
http://www.kohsamuiandthemonkey.com

Words by Sharon McDonnell

Food tips: Climbing Wattle
Native to Southeast Asia, it is a shurb or small tropical tree, which grows up to five metres in height. It can be used as an ingredient in soups, curries, stir-fries or omelettes.

Thai Select

Koh Samui and the Monkey is endorsed by the DITP under its Thai Select scheme. The Thai SELECT programme was launched to certify and promote authentic Thai cuisine around the world. It is a seal of approval granted to Thai restaurants – both overseas and local Thai eateries that serve authentic food – and processed Thai food products. The objective is to increase the recognition of quality Thai restaurants and processed Thai food products as well as to encourage Thai restaurateurs and food producers to raise quality while maintaining authenticity. For more details of the scheme visit: http://www.thaiselect.com