Guay Teow Kua Gai wasn’t always my favourite Thai noodle. In fact, I didn’t even know what they were until I came to Bangkok. I, like most people, only knew about pad Thai and pad see-ew. Both of those dishes are mainstays on any Western Thai restaurants menu, and neither of which would be something I would go out of my way to order.

It wasn’t until moved to Bangkok that I discovered Guay teow Kua Gai, and now that I have, I literally can’t get enough of these simple, yet incredibly satisfying fried noodles.

There’s only one place I had to to get my fix, and that is Luang road in Bangkok’s Chinatown. There is a small alleyway dedicated to these fantastic noodles with a number of different stalls all selling their own versions. There are some amazing outdoor spots like Nai Hong, but for today I’ll be focusing on Ann Guay Tiew Kua Gai.

‘Guay Teow Alley’

The high heat cooking is what gives guay teow Kua Gai it’s flavour, this is a street food dish after all, who wants to be burning charcoal inside their kitchen all night? ‘Ann’ Is unique in this respect as it’s actually a small air-conditioned restaurant on the main road that back’s onto the alleyway. Here they cook the noodles street style and serve it to their customers in an icy cold air con setting, giving you the best of both worlds. If you’ve read my blog for any length of time, you’ll know that I hate paying for substandard food just so I can enjoy air conditioning but when I’m offered street food prices, and I don’t have to sweat, I’ll take that all day long!

Inside the restaurant.

So What is Guay Teow Kua Gai?

Guay Teow means noodles in Thai, Kua is to fry in a wok until dry and Gai is chicken so the name literally translates to dry fried chicken noodles and that pretty much sums them up. Unlike their more famous cousins, pad Thai and pad see-ew, there is no sauce used in guay teow Kua Gai. All their flavour comes from being cooked over coals at an insanely high heat in pork fat with a little soy sauce and finished with spring onions and egg. The flat. Wide rice noodles char and blister and you end up with something resembling a noodle omelette.

The Guay Teow Kua Gai.

At Ann Guay Tiew Kua Gai you have a few options to choose from:

Chicken, which is the most common, chicken and ham, seafood or a mix of everything. Next, you pick your egg; You can have the egg cooked omelette style, or just cracked on top fresh, which kind of cooks itself from the heat of the noodles.

I usually just order the chicken as I’m not a huge fan of the preserved squid they use in the seafood bowl. I love the fact that they use chicken thigh here which is much less likely to dry out when frying as breast does. The chicken pieces come simply marinated in soy and pepper and fried until charred and crispy. The noodles are soft and chewy and blistered to perfection, and my personal preference is the cooked egg, although I do sometimes roll the dice and order the ‘raw’ egg! The only other things in the bowl are spring onion and lettuce; Guay teow Kua Gai is always served with lettuce.

Condiments wise, you have the usual suspects; chilli vinegar, dried chilli flakes, white pepper and sugar. You also get some soy sauce at ‘Ann’ in case you like it a little saltier. I never touch the sugar, but a big drizzle of sour vinegar is a must to cut through the richness of the fatty noodles. My bowl is complete when I’ve covered my noodles with red-hot chilli flakes ( I put chilli on everything) and some white pepper!

There is an argument to be made that Nai Hong’s noodles are actually tastier and if you love the whole street vibe, then this might be a better bet. If you’re bringing guests and they don’t like sitting outside in the Bangkok heat (like my wife Helen), then Ann Guay Teow Kua Gai is the perfect spot to get them acquainted with their new favoured Thai noodles.

The menu here is in English and Thai so ordering couldn’t be easier. A bowl of Chicken Guay Teow will set you back 50 THB (£1.10 / $1.50), while the mixed bowl with set you back 80 THB (£1.80 / $2.40) like I said street food prices!

Why don’t you take a trip down to Luang alley, try all the noodles and make your own mind up as to which are best? I’d love to hear your thoughts!

Feel free to check out my youtube channel for a full video review:

How do I get there?

Luang road is situated a 5-10 minute walk from Bangkok’s main parts of Chinatown, Yaowarat and Charoen Krung Road.

The old Rot Dee Det shop was a no-frills, classic, old-school Thai eatery, the kind of place I eat in on a daily basis. With Jeib Rot Dee Det, they have gone with a more modern, industrial space, with everything kitted out in black.

The new sign.

There is still no aircon downstairs, but the shop is very open, and there are lots of fans, so I’ve never felt unusually hot in there.

The new interior

Jeib Rod Dee Det is the place for you in Siam if, like me, eating in overpriced shopping mall food courts fill you with dread!

I’ve been to Rod Dee Det five times now and have found the food there to be very consistent. On this particular day, I took friend of the blog, Mick from BKK JUNK so we could sample a few different dishes.

We ordered four dishes:

Guay Teow Neua – Beef noodle soup – 50 baht.

The beef noodles are why I come to this place. We ordered two bowls, one with wide rice noodles (sen yai), and one with rice vermicelli (sen mee.) Personally, I prefer the wide rice noodles, they just have an amazingly soft, chewy texture and are my noodle of choice in and beef noodle soup in Thailand. The soup here is very salty but does have an intense, beefy flavour. Like with all noodle soups in Thailand, you have to tweak it with the condiments on the table to get the right balance of tastes for your palate. I find that a big dollop of the homemade chilli vinegar (prik nam som) and a spoon full of chilli flakes (prik bon) gives the noodles the right salty, sour, spicy combination. Mick added a little sugar to his soup to find the right mix, so just play around until you determine what’s right for you.

Meatwise, the soup comes with tender stewed beef, blanched fresh slices of beef and a beef meatball, the latter I can personally do without. The winner is undoubtedly the stewed, Chinese spiced beef (nuea pueay), it literally disintegrates your mouth. I could eat a whole bowl of the beef by itself!

Khao Na Gai – Chinese style chicken stew on rice – 50 baht.

The Chinese chicken stew here is very interesting to me as it reminds me of an Asian version of a stew we would get in the UK. It consists of tender pieces of chicken in a thickened soy sauce based sauce. The stew comes with fresh slices of green chilli on the side to give a little heat and freshness to the dish. I could imagine eating this while wrapped up in a duvet on a cold winter’s day in London!

Khao Stew Neua – Chinese style beef stew on rice – 50 baht.

The beef stew is darker than the chicken stew but has the same salty soy-based sauce. The difference is that it also has a lovely hint of Chinese five spice which complements the tender beef perfectly. I’d say that I prefer the chicken but at 50 baht a plate you can order both and make up your own minds!

Khao Moo Waan – Sweet pork on rice – 50 baht.

The khao moo waan was my least favourite dish out of the four dishes we ordered, it was far too sweet for my taste, but that’s because I don’t have a very sweet tooth. It’s not terrible by any means, it carries ample flavour with plenty of garlic, soy sauce, tender pork strips and it has a sweet and salty thing going on that some may find perfect for their Palate. But like I say, just a little on the sugary side for my taste.

If you have time, you can check out my video of Jeib Rod Dee Det Here:

All in all, Jeib Rod Dee Det is a solid choice for authentic Thai food around Siam, which can be a little hard to come by in the world of shiny malls and dessert cafes that line the streets here. It’s not my absolute favourite beef noodle shop in Bangkok, that would have to go to Talat Phlu Ocha on Lat Ya, but It’s definitely making my top five!

Directions to the restaurant below:

This week I took my friend and fellow Bangkok blogger, Paul Moore to my favourite roasted duck restaurant in the city, Prachak Roasted duck in Bang Rak. You can read Paul’s review of Prachak below, and if you have time, I also shot a video of what we ate there that I’ll post at the bottom of the page.

If you like what you read, which I’m sure you will remember to sign up to the Chow Traveller blog and follow him on Facebook

so you don’t miss out on any of Bangkok’s hidden gems.

Here’s the video from our feast at Prachak:

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If you ask where to go for khao mun gai in the Pratunam area, people will automatically point you in the direction of one of two places; either they will tell you that you have to go to the ‘pink shirts’ – Pratunam Chicken Rice or they will send you to the ‘green shirts’ – Kueng Heng.

This is because these two chicken rice shops have been churning out khao mun gai for years and packed with tourists every day. Does that make them the best? I’m not convinced. I’ve personally never really understood the hype around either. Sure, the chicken rice is decent enough in both, but it’s no better than any of the five khao mun gai shops I have within walking distance of my apartment. I do however make sure I grab some of Kueng Heng’s excellent satay from time to time when I’m in the area, but that’s for another post.

So why are they both so popular? Well, I read a comment on the ever popular Facebook group Bangkok Foodies that the reason these two particular restaurants are so famous is that they have always been open late, whereas khao mun gai is traditionally a breakfast/lunch dish. It all makes perfect sense to me now!

So what if I told you there was another place to get your khao mun gai fix, just around the corner and you don’t have to queue up with tour groups for an hour to get a seat?

Enter Pondtip – Pratunam, an ever popular shop-house restaurant that serves solid chicken rice and even better stewed duck.

Pondtip – Pratunam’s shopfront.

To be honest, the khao mun gai at Pondtip isn’t the star of the show, the stewed duck is. That’s not to say it’s in any way terrible it’s just the duck is very good. You can choose from duck leg on rice, duck noodle soup, or only a big plate of stewed duck by itself among other dishes and as you can see from the menu below, the prices are incredibly reasonable.

The menu.

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Here are three dishes that won’t disappoint you:

Soya Duck Rice.

My go to dish is the khao na bped or soya duck rice as it’s shown on the menu. It’s the sauce that makes the duck rice stand out here; it’s salty and rich with an almost curry like cinnamon flavour to it. Just enough sauce is poured over moist slices of moist, pot stewed duck breast on rice. You also get another sauce on the side which they also serve with the chicken rice. It’s not your typical khao mun gai sauce, though. It’s a sharp, sweet vinegar based chilli sauce with ginger and really compliments the rich, salty flavour of the duck.

The khao na bped – duck on rice is a must.

Khao mun gai. 

As I said before the khao mun gai here is solid without being spectacular. I love khao mun gai, it’s one of my favourite Thai dishes but I think it’s hard to distinguish one from another unless you get an exceptional one or a terrible one, and this is neither of the two. Like I said the sauce it’s different from most that come with Thai chicken rice, which I love, by the way, so that makes an exciting change. The chicken is sweet and juicy, and the rice is well cooked; as I said, solid.

The khao mun gai – chicken rice.

Bped Palo – Stewed Duck.

If you’re hungry, or you’re sharing you can just go for a big plate of the stewed duck and grab some rice on the side. You get a decent amount of the lovely stewed duck, plenty of sauce and some cucumber to freshen things up, all for 100 baht a plate.

The stewed duck.

Pondtip does get very busy around lunchtime but nowhere near anything you have to deal with at the pink and green shops. Next time you’re in the area, I’d definitely recommend taking a look.

Here are directions to the restaurant:

Bangkok’s Chinatown is bursting with street food day and night, so if you don’t have an idea of where you’re going to eat, it can all get a bit overwhelming. Luckily while you’re trying to figure it all out, you don’t have to go hungry. If you’re heading to Chinatown on the Chaopraya Express Boat, which is a very common way of travelling there, there’s a perfect spot to get your first snack right by Ratchawong Pier.

Come out of the exit and walk straight and about 50 meters up on your right hand side, next to the 7-11,  you’ll find Kahnom Chip A Liang, a street food stall selling khanom jeeb or sui mai as they are more commonly known worldwide. For anyone not familiar with sui mai they are steamed, open topped dumplings stuffed with pork or prawns or both.

under the street sign by the 7-11 is where you’ll find it.

 

You can’t miss the big red sign and the happy owner. The writing is in Thai, but it’s not too hard to work out; 3 baht each for pork and 5 baht each for prawn. The khanom jeeb are sold in multiples of 10, so it would be 30 baht for ten pork, 60 baht for 20 and so on.

 

look out for the red sign and the friendly owner!

 


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Now all you’ve got to do is pick from pork or prawn, well actually you don’t have to choose, you could have the best of both worlds a get a mixture! The pork are the ones in the yellow wrappers, and the prawn ones are orange. If your Thai isn’t up to scratch, you can just point to the colour you want and hold up ten fingers!

 

The steamers are always full to the brim.

 

Khanom Jeeb can be found all over the streets of Bangkok, so why do I like these dumplings so much? It’s because nearly all the khanom jeeb in Thailand has the same generic taste as if they have been mass produced and cooked from frozen. These are homemade, and it shows. I prefer the pork dumplings; they’re packed with meat and chives and are really juicy. The prawn dumplings are still good, but for my money, I think the pork ones are just a little better. If I have one complaint, it’s that the filling itself is perhaps lacking a little seasoning. This isn’t really a problem as you have soy sauce, sweet chilli sauce and crispy garlic on top of the khanom jeeb but if you don’t like any these, you could find them a little bland.

 

 

Served on a banana leaf with all the trimmings!

All in all, you if you’re a dumpling lover like myself, you could do a lot worse than a trip to this little street stall.

 

Khanom Chip A Liang’s hours on Google say they are open every day from 2-11 pm, but I have seen them open as early as 11 am some days.

 

Below are directions on how to get there.

 

My wife, Helen, keeps telling me that I don’t post enough sweet things on my blog and social media. Since I now live by the motto ‘happy wife, happy life’ I thought I’d better listen.

The reason I don’t write about many desserts is that I don’t have a sweet tooth. Therefore I don’t eat a lot of desserts. One dessert I do treat myself to once in a while, though, is mango sticky rice, or Khao niew mamuang as it’s known in Thailand. You can find mango sticky rice everywhere in Bangkok, in fact, you can find it everywhere in Thailand! So, with it being so widely available, is there really a ‘best’ in Bangkok? Maybe not but I’m going to point you to a shop selling the best I’ve had in all my Thai travels – Mae Varee Mango Sticky Rice, Thong Lor.

Mae Varee Mango Sticky Rice in Thong Lor has been churning out Mango sticky rice for two decades now, and the locals can’t get enough of their version of Thailand’s most famous dessert.

One reason I like Mae Varee is that they sell mangoes, not just mango sticky rice. That means you’re more likely to get a lovely, sweet mango than if you went to a stall that gets their mangoes from the market.

The Mango sticky rice here isn’t the cheapest in town at 130 baht, but you do get a massive portion, I shared with Helen, and it was more than enough. You also get a something little different for your money here in that the rice comes in different colours. You can have the regular white sticky rice sold everywhere, but they also have green rice (made with pandan) and black rice (whole grain sticky rice)!

we got white, black and green.

 


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With the multi coloured rice comes a whole, huge, perfectly ripe, mango, toasted mung beans and of course, the salty coconut sauce.

Salted coconut sauce and toasted mung beans.

The only negative thing I have to say is that I didn’t massively like the black rice. I’m not a big fan of whole grain rice at the best of times, so I’m not sure I why I was expecting to like this! The green rice, however, was fantastic. You can really taste of the pandan coming through, which adds a nice little twist. The white rice was also excellent. Both were nice and sweet without being overly so, the mango was perfectly ripe, and the salty coconut sauce gave a nice salted caramel vibe to proceedings. Having the crunch from the mung beans is a must for me when I have mango sticky rice, so Mae Varee gets a thumbs up for that.

Just have to put it all together and you’re ready to go!

Mae Varee is located on Sukhumvit 55, Thong Lor and is one of the first few shops as you come around the corner from Thong Lo BTS station.

If you want to have a go at making your own mango sticky rice, you can click here for a great recipe.

Seemingly unbeknown to anyone living from On Nut to Siam, there is a lot more to Bangkok than the good old Sukhumvit road.

In fact, if you want to sample some traditional Thai food in a local area, while watching locals go about their daily business, then I suggest you forget the shiny malls of Phrom Phong and Asok and head across the river to one of my favourite streets for food in the entire city (and not just because I live around the corner), Charoen Nakhon.

Charoen Nakhon runs parallel to the Chaopraya river on the opposite side to Charoen Krung. It’s jam packed with options for traditional restaurants to try, but today I’ll be focusing on one of my personal favourites – a generations old Chinese-Thai shophouse called Nai Soon.

 

Look for the big pink sign!

 

Nai soon specialises in stewed duck (bped palo), and goose (han palo) served with rice or in noodle soup. On this particular day, I went with both with rice.

 

The bped palo and a side of rice.

 


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The stewed duck came first with a side of rice and a little bowl of homemade chilli and garlic vinegar (prik nam som).

It comes covered in a thin, light soy based sauce which is rich and salty. In fact, when I tried the sauce by itself, I thought it was too heavy, but once it’s mixed in with the rice and you add the sour, spicy chilli vinegar, it all comes together nicely. The duck is very moist and tender with excellent flavour, and at 60 baht a plate you really can’t go wrong.

 

the house made chilli vinegar.

 

The chilli and garlic vinegar is a must, but there’s a hell of a lot of garlic in it so maybe swerve this place if you’re going on a first date!

Seriously, though, It was nice and sharp with just a little sugar which is perfect for me, as I don’t like my sauces too sweet. And, as I said before, it rounded off the salty flavour from the soy based sauce.

 

The goose at Nai Soon.

 

Next up was the equally tasty goose. Again, the meat was very tender, perhaps a little fattier than the duck but not a huge difference in taste. The goose is served with the same sauce as the duck, so If I were going to get just one, I’d probably go with the duck as the goose is 90 baht, whereas it’s only 60 baht for the duck. Then again, that’s a 70 pence difference in the real world, so why not have both and decide for yourself!

 

To get to Nai Soon, you can get a boat across from just outside Saphan Taksin BTS Station. It’s the same place where the private boat tours go from. Just tell the Khlong San, and they should show you where to go. The ferry is 5 baht to the other side, and it’s a 5 minute walk from there.

 

Nai Soon is pen every day from 10 A.M – 5 P.M.

 

 

Over the Songkran holiday, we were lucky enough to try some fantastic home style cooking at a new riverside restaurant in Bangkok Noi. The restaurant’s name is Imm, which of course, translates to ‘full’ in Thai and that is precisely how we ended up leaving – absolutely stuffed!

Imm is part of a beautiful new boutique hotel called Chann which nestled on the banks of the Bangkok Noi canal, just off the mouth of the Chaopraya.

It’s a charming space, with all the communal areas and rooms made from teak – some of the rooms are partially renovated old houses and are impeccably clean and modern while retaining a traditional Thai feel.

Fantastic rooms with a perfect view of the river.

The lobby area, just outside the restaurant.

 

 

We sat down and were greeted by our super friendly and passionate host Apple. He explained the restaurant’s philosophy of wanting everyone who dines there to have a relaxed, traditional family style dinner and that everything is served ‘Samrup style.’  Sanrup means that all the food comes out together, which is the traditional Thai way of eating. He also told us that anything they don’t make in-house is sourced locally to help out the community.

 

 

Apple’s on hand to answer any questions.

 


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We ordered a few dishes on Apple’s recommendations then had a little wander around the outside terrace on the waterfront while we waited for them to arrive.

 

 

The outside walkway right on the river.

 

 

The food all came at pretty much the same time. We had five dishes in total, the first of which I tried was a Thai sausage that I’m told is native to Chanthaburi. It looked like sai ua – the famous northern Thai sausage from Chiang Mai but tasted completely different. This sausage is made from juicy, fatty pork mixed with toasted rice powder and seasoned with whole green peppercorns, which added a nice touch of heat. We were off to a good start!

 

 

The Chanthaburi sausage.

 

 

Next up came the grilled pork neck salad, or ‘yum moo yang,’ one of my go to salads when I’m eating Thai food; it would be coming under serious scrutiny here, and it passed with flying colours. It had the right balance of sweet, sour and spicy. Nicely marinated, grilled pork, crisp onions, and plenty of celery leaves and juicy fresh tomatoes – a solid choice.

 

 

Yum moo yang is a solid choice here.

 

 

We then moved onto The yellow curry with pork tendons, served with roti and ajad (cucumber and chilli salad). The curry sauce was thick and creamy with plenty of character, and the roti was perfect for dipping. If you’re not a fan of ligaments like me, though, I would recommend asking for this one with chicken.

 

 

The sauce and roti were on point!

 

 

The stir fried salted pork with coconut rice and som tum was up next and was maybe my favourite. The rice was reminiscent of the sticky rice you get with mango sticky rice, except it’s made with jasmine rice and had no added sugar. There was a natural sweetness to the rice from the coconut milk which went very well with the crispy, floss like pork. The som tum on the side added a nice bit of sharpness too; another dish well executed.

 

 

The coconut rice was a winner.

 

 

The last dish before dessert was the spicy chicken and pomelo salad. It was my favourite out of everything I tried. Spicy, stir fried chicken, sweet chunks of pomelo, a nice crunch from the fried shallots and freshness from the herbs. This salad is highly recommended!

 

 

A great twist on a classic salad.

 

 

To finish, we had my favourite Thai dessert of all time – Coconut ice cream. I know it’s not the most glamorous of sweets but what can I say? It was a little icy as if it hadn’t been churned. Although that sounds bad, it kind of added to the homemade feel, so you know it’s not processed, and it turned it into a sort of coconut sorbet. All in all, not bad. And, I loved the little coconut jelly and peanut topping.

 

 

A sort of ice cream/sorbet hybrid.

The five dishes came to just over 1100 baht with two sodas.

 

The only downside to coming to Chann is that it’s a little hard to find. On the plus side, you get to see a slice of local Thai life on the walk around from the temple. You can get a taxi to Wat Dusidaram Worawihan then follow the signs, but I would maybe recommend calling the hotel for directions once you get there. We are told that there is a boat planned from pier four on the Chaopraya River, so that will make travelling to Chann a little easier when it’s finalised.

 

Here are the directions to Chann:

I stumbled across this little dim sum restaurant while I was wandering up the Sathorn end of Charoen Krung Road, which of course is the same road that runs through Bangkok’s Chinatown some 6km back in the opposite direction. I love strolling through this side of town, there’s still a massive Chinese influence here, which means you can get incedibly good food without having to deal with the massive crowds that frequent the other end of Charoen Krung and Yaoworat road that makes up the bulk of the city’s official Chinatown.

It was just after 9 A.M on Saturday morning when I noticed the steam pouring out of dozens of traditional bamboo baskets in front of a traditional little shophouse restaurant.

I had to find out what was in the baskets!

The Thai name for the restaurant is Tuang Dim Sum. There’s no sign in English, but you can’t miss it with everything that’s going on outside. Come on the weekend, and they’ll be a queue of people waiting outside for their takeaways. After being seated, I found out that the owner, head chef and general big boss man, Mr. Yip, used to work for some of the five star hotels in Bangkok including the Shangri-La. Thankfully, he decided to pack that in and open an altogether more wallet-friendly place where everyone can enjoy his incredible dim sum; five star quality for one star prices!

There was already a queue of people waiting when I arrived at 9AM.

To order your dim sum, you have to mark down what you want on paper menus that have English, Thai and Chinese translations. If you’re not sure what the dishes are, you can consult the pictures outside!

The front of the restaurant has pictures with English descriptions.

I pondered what I was going to have while I was waiting outside to be seated. I decided to go for the pork and mushroom sui mai (steamed dumplings), prawn har gow (steamed crystal skin dumplings), chee cheong fun with bbq pork (rice noodle rolls) and steamed pork spare ribs.

I got seated within five minutes, and the food came almost instantly.

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The Sha Long Bao here is a must!

One thing you cannot come to Tuang Dim Sum and not order is the Sha Long Bao (Xiaolongbao), which are pork and soup-filled dumplings, made famous worldwide at Din Tai Fung in Taipei. The Sha Long Bao here is as good as anything I had in Taiwan and are easily half the price of the Din Tai Fung branch in Bangkok’s Central World. As soon as you bite into it, the dumpling explodes, and your mouth fills up with the soup that coats the gingery pork inside. I’d say this is the best dish at Tuang.

The sui mai was bursting at the seams!

 

The sui mai were massive with the pork spilling out of the sides of the wrappers. They are nothing like the generic ones you find scattered all over town here, they’re packed with succulent, fatty pork and have a nice earthy flavour from the dried shiitake mushroom pieces mixed in.

 

The har gow were a must!

 

Har gow is always a must for me when I have dim sum, and it didn’t disappoint here. Razor thin skins packed with fresh juicy prawns – definitely the best I’ve had in Bangkok. It went perfectly with the house-made chilli oil.

 

The Roasted chilli and garlic is a standout part of the meal here.

 

The prik pao, or roasted chilli oil, was one my favourite thing about the meal (I’m a chilli addict!). Pounded dried chillis with chunks of fried, sticky garlic in oil – what could be better? It was great mixed with a little of the soy and vinegar at the table for dipping all the little steamed goodies.

 

Next up was the chee cheong fun.

 

Probably my favourite thing I tried here.

 

The bbq pork rice noodle rolls were the highlight for me. They are stuffed with tasty red pork that isn’t overly sweet and served in a thin soy and oyster based sauce. This is the traditional style in which they are served Hong Kong, unlike in Malaysia where they often come with a thicker, sweet sauce that I’m not too fond of; these are a must here!

 

Steamed spare ribs with chilli.

 

The spare ribs were my least favourite dish I had. They weren’t bad; they just weren’t great. It’s not something I’d usually order as there’s never enough meat on them for me so I won’t judge them here too harshly. One thing I will say is they weren’t tough like a lot of spare ribs I’ve tried. In fact, they were very tender easy to eat, they just didn’t have much meat on them and lacked a bit of flavour for me. I’ll let you make up your own minds on them!

 

All this set me back a whopping 200 baht – yes that’s a whole £4.40 at today’s exchange rate; I’m not even sure I could get a bottle water in back in London for that these days!

If you’re looking for authentic Chinese food and you don’t fancy sifting through the crowds of Chinatown, then Tuang Dim Sum should be top of your list.

 

Open every day except Tuesdays from 7 am – 5 pm.

 

 

Is there anything better than crispy, deep fried pork belly? I’m not so sure! Moo krob as it’s known in Thailand is sold all across Bangkok, but I keep hearing about the so called ‘crispiest pork in Bangkok, ‘ and I thought it was about time I went and checked it out for myself.

Mr. Joe Crispy Pork is located on Chan Road, just off Charoen Krung Road in Sathorn. I walked from Saphan Taksin BTS Station. It’s a solid 20 minute stroll to the restaurant which I don’t mind as I like the area; it reminds me of a quieter China Town. There are a couple of lovely temples to check out on the way if you want to break up the journey. In particular, Wat Yannawa rivals any temple in town, without having to put up with the crowds.

It was already pretty busy by the time I got there at 10 A.M, and the staff were working away with some serious teamwork to get the orders done. There were clearly a lot of takeaway requests to get through as more bags were being prepared than there were people in the restaurant.

That’s some serious teamwork!

One of the friendly waitresses seated me and handed me a menu with English translations. The first thing that I noticed was the other dish Mr. Joe is famous for – Guay Jub. It’s a peppery, dark noodle soup of Chinese origins with pork entrails, offal, and crispy pork. Now, I’m not a massive fan of offal and entrails; I’ll eat them, but I’d rather have chunks of stewed meat if I can. I was pleased to see that they had this option on the menu already, with the English translation next to it. Maybe I could even get my Fiancé to try a bowl!

Even if you’re squeamish and you don’t speak Thai, you can have a bowl!

So on to the soup itself – I’d read on Mark Wiens excellent blog that the soup broth wasn’t all that peppery. It was perfect for me, though; not overly salty from the soy sauce, a gentle heat from the pepper (obviously I added my own dried chilly) and loads of stewed and crispy pork. The rice noodles are rolled into thin cylinder shape reminiscent of pasta al ceppo but made with rice flour, and the soup comes packed with them!

 


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A big bowl of peppery goodness!

The stewed pork was tender and flavoursome, but the star of the show was the crispy pork. Even after sitting in the soup broth it was still crispy! I finished the bowl satisfied, but I couldn’t resist ordering a portion of the crispy pork belly with sweet soy sauce.

It definitely lived up to it’s ‘crispiest pork in Bangkok’ tag!

The moo krob was even better eaten by itself – Crunchy, crispy, fatty skin giving way to soft, melt in the mouth pork meat. This pork is going to take some beating! I thought the pork was seasoned well enough that it didn’t need the dark soy sauce for dipping. I’ll let you make up your own minds.

Each dish cost 60 baht a piece, yes that is £1.50 each!

You can also get dim sum at Mr. Joe but to be honest, it looked pretty standard, so if you want my advice you should head round the corner to Tuang Dim Sum on Charoen Krung for your dim sum fix as it’s my personal favourite in town.

 

Mr. Joe is open every day from 8 AM to 4 PM and gets extremely busy on weekends.

 

Here are the directions for Mr. Joe Crispy Pork: