Tuning in to a writer's garden

Forty minutes after setting out from Chiang Mai city centre in the direction of the Mae Rim-Samoeng Road and getting lost once, we finally reach our destination: a hidden gem tucked away behind lush tropical greenery.

Tune In Garden was once the sanctuary of late writer Rong Wong-savun and the place where he chose to live and work before his death in 2009. Rong, named the National Artist in Literature in 1995, was often called the “Eagle of the Literary Garden” for his unique perspective on the world and outstanding use of both Thai and English phrasing.

If Rong was an eagle, his wife Sumalee was surely the wind beneath his wing. While he was alive, she managed everything, just as Rong employed his creativity through the written word, Sumalee charmed with her ladle. 

Last year, Sumalee, who has long been known as Madame Warin Chamrap after the district in Ubon Ratchathani where she was born and raised, has turned Tune In Garden into “The Writer’s Secret Restaurant”, serving authentic Thai foods prepared to old recipes that are rare to find.

Walking in on spec is not acceptable; this homey eatery is reserved only for those with advanced bookings. It’s open for both lunch and dinner and can accommodate about 20 people inside and another 20 outside, the best place to eat if it’s not raining. 

Most of the dishes were once Rong’s favourites and diners – many of them fans of the writer – can visit his den overlooking a pond and a garden. There’s a set fee of Bt400 per person for which you get an appetiser, four main dishes and a dessert. 

The menu changes according to what’s in season with Sumalee normally using the vegetables and glutinous rice she plants in the backyard in her cooking. 

The day I’d visited, I was welcomed with a refreshing passion fruit juice, followed by an amuse bouche called ma hor – literally a galloping horse. This is a very old recipe consisting of fresh pineapple topped with minced pork and peanut sauce mixed with palm sugar. In fact, the sticky mass can be piled on top of any acidic fruit – an orange does just as well. It is light, refreshing and is just the right blend of sweet, sour and salty. 

Few younger generation diners will have tasted tangmo pla haeng yet it is one of the most basic, but sophisticated and enduring of Thai appetisers. The fresh and sweet watermelon with crispy smoked dry fish flake dressing is evidence of Thai cuisine’s loyalty to freshness and wholesomeness. 

The watermelon peel is then used as the main ingredient for the savoury and sour soup with fish– gaeng som pluek tangmo. That’s followed by yum pak good or paco fern salad with shrimp and minced pork. The paco fern is planted around Sumalee’s house and it’s wonderfully fresh and crispy. Then comes si krong moo aob kalumpee or roast pork spare ribs with cabbage, outstanding for its juiciness and tenderness.

For me, the most pleasing dish is pra ram long song -pork and water spinach with curried peanut sauce and chilli paste. The name refers to the Rama, one of the avatars of Vishnu in Hinduism, which, according to Thai belief, has a green complexion. As the spinach is soaked in sauce, the dish is aptly named “swimming Rama”. 

Sumalee’s home-grown glutinous rice is used for a tempting dessert called kao niew piak lumyai - sticky rice pudding with longan topped with coconut cream.

 

TURN OFF FOR TUNE IN

‘Tune In Garden: The Writer’s Secret Restaurant’ is on Mae Rim-Samoeng Road in Chiang Mai. Advance bookings are a must. Call (053) 879 251 or (087) 185 2951 or visit www.TuneInGarden.com.