Krua Aroy-Aroy

The noodles, not shown here to best advantage, are the foundation for a wide range of Thai sauces.

Khanom jeen are a spaghetti-like fresh pasta prepared from fermented rice, so why they should be given a name that literally means "Chinese sweet" is beyond me. The noodles themselves are very moist and flavorful, and at Krua Aroy-Aroy you have the option of ordering them unadorned, but more often they're smothered under something such as naam yar kati (40 baht), a minced fish curry (minced fishcake included) with a slightly spicy coconut milk base. An accompanying plate held basil, bean sprouts, lettuce, and some pickled vegetable, perhaps mustard greens.

Also: a very sugary rendition of mee grob, more sticky than crispy, despite the menu's protestations that it's prepared "a la minute"; and a glass of roselle, a sweet-sour drink prepared from a type of hibiscus.

Krua Aroy-Aroy (well-hidden at bottom, with the blue awning)
Th. Pan (opposite the Maha Uma Devi temple), Silom, Bangkok
0-81-695-3339

Comments

[peter]

the curious "khanom chin" is thought to be a thai transliteration of the dish's original name in the mon language, meaning "twice cooked", which happens to be a homophone to the term for chinese sweets