Ama’s Technicolour “Lost Noodles” Are Available for Just Three Days

For Broadsheet ’s debut Dine Out festival, the Chansiri sisters Kate and Rowena – behind Surry Hills Thai Chinese favourite Ama – are doing something very special: honouring the “lost dishes” of Thailand. From Friday August 15 to Sunday August 17, you’ll find the savoury kanom jeen sao nam noodle dish and sarim, the sweet dessert noodles.

Handmaking the noodles is the only way for both of these dishes. “I think that’s why no one’s serving it here,” Rowena tells Broadsheet. “Even in Thailand, you can’t really find it at many places anymore. It’s quite simple in recipe, but it’s quite labour intensive in making it.”

In Thailand, the refreshing savoury noodle salad is usually served as a snack or appetiser. Fermented rice noodles – made of jasmine rice and activated yeast – are made in-house. Chopped pineapple is gently fermented in salt and sugar, providing the zing. Then there’s a kick from chilli, garlic and finely sliced ginger. This all tops the cold noodles along with chillies, ground prawns, coriander and a squeeze-ready disc of lime. Plus, a salted coconut cream sauce.

“It is quite special, even Thai people have heard of and seen the dish but never tasted it. It’s savoury, complex, but also fresh and bright at the same time. This dish in particular is super lost in the history. Like, in Ama we have 13 staff but only two have tasted it in Thailand. It’s quite rare to find. But if you look around the east, central area you’ll find it in a local eating spot.”

Sarim, the dessert, is a tangle of pastel jelly noodles. “We use mung bean flour and cook it with pandan, and the pink noodles are coloured with ‘ red syrup ’. We just call it red water, red soda – it’s like a Thai red flavour.”

It arrives in a salty sweet coconut milk soup with palm sugar, pandan and salt, and is topped with strips of young coconut.

The dishes are available as a set, $35 for the pair, from Friday August 15 to Sunday August 17. “It’s perfect for two people: the kanom jeen sao nam as an entree, then the sarim for dessert.” Ideally surrounding one of Ama’s bowls as a main.

Broadsheet’s Dine Out festival debuts in Sydney, from August 11 to 17, 2025, after its run in Melbourne from August 4 to 10, 2025. There are 80 events across the two cities.

dineout.broadsheet.com.au