In Bangkok, an impromptu street-side meal can easily turn into a never-ending, and perhaps tummy-exploding, culinary expedition.
The city is so blessed with myriad delicious local food that several neighbourhoods are named after the type of cuisine they offer. This week, we continue our monthly exploration of street grub and will introduce you to Trok Khua Gai (Alley Of Wok-Tossed Chicken), in Pom Prap Sattru Phai district. The area is also known as Suan Mali.
It's a pedestrian sub-soi that links Luang Road with Yukol 2 Road, not far from Wat Thepsirin and Klang Hospital in the old part of town. The soi is nationally known as a home of the original masters of guay tiew khua gai, or wok-tossed noodles with chicken.
The pioneers of the gourmet legacy (almost every vendor in the area claims to have been the first) are said to have started their businesses here more than six decades ago. Today, some are still present while some have relocated. Yet this narrow back alley is still regarded as the city's headquarters for the much-loved chicken noodle dish.
Guay tiew khua gai, a mixture of flat rice noodles, marinated chicken meat and beaten egg, is traditionally prepared over a wood charcoal flame, which lends to the dish its quintessential wok-burnt aroma. It is served on a bed of fresh lettuce and always accompanied by sweet chilli sauce on the side.
Each master's recipes barely differ from those of the others. Keen gluttons may tell them apart by texture, fragrance and mouthfeel, rather than flavour.
Brown-hued, ash-cured cuttlefish is a common element for adding chew to the dishes. Interestingly, you will never find your noodles here, unlike the renditions offered elsewhere, to come with crispy mini pa-thong-ko (Chinese deep-fried dough).
When it comes to the pursuit of Bangkok street food, a smart recommendation on where to find good recipes isn't the only factor for dining success. For people who drive, a bigger concern is where to find decent parking.
Normally, if you arrive in the area after 8pm, you can park along Luang Road or Phlap Phla Chai Road. But before that, I recommend you park at Wat Thepsirin's car park, where a fee may be applied.
While you are in the area, you might as well want to check out Soi Yotse, a nearby neighbourhood also famous for night-time gastronomy.
Following is Life's selection of seven eateries, all within an 800m radius of one another, and no more than a 10-minute walk away from one another, that are well worth checking out.
Ann Guy Tiew Khua Gai
Open daily 4.30pm to midnight
Call 02-621-5199
The 2018 Michelin Guide Bangkok lists this three-decade-old eatery, alongside two other khua gai specialists in the city, under its recommendations for street food.
Up until 10 years ago, Ann -- or Nong Ann, as many regulars call the eatery -- was among the joints confined to the Khua Gai alley.
Today, the space where its dining tables used to be set has been turned into a bustling row of wood-flame cooking stations. And diners are now treated to the restaurant's new glass-fronted, air-conditioned room, which can be conveniently entered from Luang Road.
Ann is treasured by locals for a number of reasons. First, there's a large variety of protein options here. You can have noodles with chicken, squid, prawn and even ham. While the noodles can be cooked to various preferences, whether in conventional wok-burnt style or gooey underneath a lava-like egg. Prices range from 40 baht for chicken noodles to 100 baht for a baked noodles with mixed seafood.
Guay tiew khua goong, or wok-tossed noodles with prawn (80 baht), is my all-time favourite here. The noodles come with the very pleasant wok-burnt fragrance and charred crust, and are topped with whole prawns that are always grilled perfectly.
Making the meal even more indulgent is a complimentary bowl of ambrosial chicken consommé infused with pickled lime. You may want to try the noodle soup in the slightly sour pickled-lime broth (50 baht), which is also popular.
To go with the air-conditioned luxury is a decent list of beverages -- from herbal juices to fruit smoothies.
Due to popular demand, a long wait for seating and slow service are to be expected.
Guay Tiew Khua Gai Nai Hong
Open daily 4-10pm
Call 02-222-4047
With its dining tables set on an airy roofless space in the middle corner of the alley, Guay Tiew Khua Gai Nai Hong offers a very breezy and casual dining vibe, especially if you come before peak hours.
The brand, named after its founder, started here 60 years ago and has been cherished for the authentic recipes it offers. Its kitchen today is single-handedly run by a veteran lady cook who fluently works her culinary magic over the flame.
Nai Hong uses only high-quality chicken and egg, and cooks its dishes one by one. Patience is thus required here.
Of the limited menu that centres on nothing but chicken and noodles, I recommend that you try the "baked" chicken noodles (50 baht). It's the wok-tossed chicken noodles luxuriating in a semi-cooked egg topping.
Or stick to the best-selling wok-tossed chicken noodles with squid (50 baht), which proved scrumptious both dining in and as take-home.
An order of super-thin and crispy deep-fried chicken skin (40 baht), enhanced with chilli sauce, is a great snacking choice.
Khua Gai-Ped
Open noon to 9pm
(Sat-Thur)
Call 086-500-6678
Located at the mouth of the alley on Yukol 2 Road, this shabby-looking shophouse is actually nameless.
But because its menu also includes an option of duck meat, the joint, much-liked by locals, is thus called Khua Gai-Ped, ped being duck.
Price for the wok-tossed noodles with either chicken or duck (both come in small cubes) is 40-50 baht per dish. Fried noodles with meat combo and semi-cooked egg topping costs 60 baht, while a bowl of braised duck meat in consommé seethed with pickled lime is 40 baht.
Khua Gai Suan Mali
Opens 9am- 9pm (Mon-Sat)
Call 02-223-7505
Our last destination for the city's best wok-tossed chicken noodles is located slightly off the pack, approximately 200m from the alley down Yukol 2 Road.
Guay Tiew Khua Gai Suan Mali, as it's officially named, occupies a nondescript one-unit corner shophouse, unmistakable by a cooking station at its front. It is also recommended by the 2018 Michelin Guide Bangkok.
Almost like that of its fellows, the menu revolves around noodles and chicken -- wok-fried, braised or in clear broth. Other protein options such as prawn and pork are also on offer.
An order of wok-tossed noodles with chicken and cuttlefish costs 45 baht; rice noodles with chicken in clear soup, 40 baht; and egg noodles topped with braised chicken and brown gravy, 40 baht.
Nam Tao Hu Ha Yaek
Open 2-6pm (Mon-Sat)
Call 095-514-6993
At the Phlap Phla Chai five-way intersection, on the corner of Luang and Phlap Phla Chai roads, some of Bangkok's best-loved soy milk is offered from a hole in the wall.
The tatty vendor, flocked by local crowds, has been selling the ivory-coloured nam tao hu, or juice of soybean curd, for almost a century.
The soy milk here is offered hot or chilled, plain or with condiments such as black sesame, sago, barley, oatmeal, sliced candied gourd, seeds of hairy basil and tofu skin. Prices start from 7 baht for a cup of plain soy milk.
Elvis Suki
Open daily 4pm-midnight
Call 02-223-4979
On Phlap Phla Chai Road near Bamrung Muang junction, there's Soi Yotse, another gastronomically famous neighbourhood overloaded with sidewalk food joints.
Among its most-loved culinary attractions is Elvis Suki, also recommended by the Bangkok Michelin Guide.
As its name suggests, the shop, at which diners can sit inside the air-conditioned room or at tables set along the pedestrian street, specialises in sukiyaki, a dish typically featuring a jumble of glass noodles, assorted vegetables and choices of meat or seafood in piping hot broth.
However, the all-time most popular item here is suki haeng -- a dry version of sukiyaki -- with beef (70 baht).
The dish is prepared Thai-Chinese style with all the ingredients sautéed together in a wok over high flame and seasoned with a sweet-salty and fiery, house-concocted sauce made with fermented soybean.
Grilled shellfish and seafood are also worth ordering here. Try grilled scallops with minced pork (200 baht), flash-boiled blood cockles with a spicy dipping sauce (150 baht) and grilled cuttlefish (market price).
I-Tim More Fire Yotse
Open daily 6-11pm
Call 02-224-4328
A visit to Soi Yotse wouldn't be complete without partaking in some of the artisanal ice cream served in a smoking "icepot".
The delicacy is offered from a nondescript shophouse called I-tim More Fire Yotse, where tables are set mainly at the front of the shop.
With flavours ranging from the very classic -- such as chocolate brownie, rum raisin, blueberry milkshake and mint chip -- to exotic -- beer, mango, Red Bull vodka, caramel macchiato, uji matcha, royal milk tea, passion fruit cream cheese and banana cheese -- customers can order ice cream by the scoop (30-40 baht, depending on flavour).
Or have the ice cream in the pot, smoked with dry ice, which requires a minimum of seven scoops per serving.
Ek Chicken Rice
Open daily 8am-8.30pm
Call 02-003-2096
This 30-seat eatery, which opened in a shophouse on Bamrung Muang Road opposite Hua Chiew Hospital, takes its culinary cue from Michelin-listed, 55-year-old Go-Ang Chicken Rice restaurant in the Pratu Nam area.
Owned and run by Go Ang's sidekick-nephew, Ek offers the classic fare prepared to the much-loved family recipe.
An order of Hainanese-style chicken rice here (40-50 baht) boasts plump and juicy slices of chicken meat on top of fragrant rice perfectly cooked in chicken stock. Complementing the poultry are a pungent dipping sauce, consisting of soy bean paste, mature ginger and garlic, and a bowl of boiling-hot chicken consommé fragrant with fresh coriander.
