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Growing up, sisters Rowena and Kate Chansiri used to eat a beef noodle soup made by their mum using their grandmother’s recipe. It’s a traditional street-food dish that’s slurped in Chinatowns all over Thailand, and now, they are serving it at their new unassuming eatery on 47 Cooper Street in Surry Hills. They are honouring their grandmother in another way, too. The name of their diner, “Ama” (pronounced ah–maa), means grandmother in Thai.
Ama’s beef noodle soup arrives in a pretty blue-and-white floral bowl with three types of beef. There are three thick slices of 16-hour braised salt-aged silver side, fall-off-the-bone-soft beef short rib, and round, light-coloured beef balls, as well as verdant Chinese broccoli, spring onions and crisp fried garlic.
You can choose from egg or rice noodles, and today I’ve gone for the former, which are chewy and bouncy. I’m even a fan of the buttery, subtle beef balls (though I find it helps not to think about them too long). But my favourite thing is the dark broth – it has great depth thanks to stock made from the beef bones and caramelised palm sugar, it's fragrant with earthy Chinese five spice, and balanced with vinegar. Growing up, my grandmother used to make me spag bol and pavlova. And while this beef noodle soup has a little more spice, and no tinned peaches, it still tastes like a dish I can recognise – a bowl of comfort and love. And it costs 20 bucks.
There are other things on the menu that you should order, too, like the house-made pork and prawn dumplings encased in slippery wonton sheets. The fillings are juicy, with chunks of prawn meat, and they’re topped with a ginger and soybean dressing and a chilli sauce, which comes with a funky umami kick from dried shrimp. You could also try the traditional salapao – Ama’s buns – which are stuffed with pork or veg and salted egg yolk, or black sesame, and pandan.
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Slow-cooked congee comes topped with minced pork, liver, ginger, spring onions, and crisp rice noodles, and there’s a delicious-looking braised chicken Maryland too. I’m too full, but if I got dessert, I would order the flan made with caramelised molasses and fresh espresso. Drinks-wise, you can opt for a traditional Thai milk tea, coffee by Ickle, iced matcha and Ama’s iced tea.
Inside the sunlit space, lava-red lanterns dangle from the ceiling, and the back wall is coloured by glossy, sea-green tiles. Tables are round and wooden, the handsome sibling to the plastic ones usually dotted around at Thailand’s street stalls, and there are family knick-knacks placed on shelves above. On the back wall, there’s a giant painting by artist Sharna Lea. It shows girls, mothers and grandmothers sitting around a table eating – a universal experience, and I reckon one of the most joyous.
My friend goes for the braised pork belly served with rice and pickled Chinese greens, with a zippy sweet-and-hot dipping sauce on the side. She graciously allows me a few mouthfuls – the meat is tender and imbued with flavour – and then I blink, and it’s gone like the wind. I’ll be back for that – and Ama's cracking beef noodle soup.
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