Background to Thai Food in Bangkok
Krua Apsorn in Bangkok typifies everything we enjoy about the Thai Food experience.
We have visited Bangkok many times over the past two decades and always enjoyed the Thai food on offer whether it be at small, humble food stalls on the street, in tiny restaurants or in lavish hotel restaurants such as David Thompson‘s Nahm at the Metropolitan Hotel or the calm, enveloping Celadon at the Sukhothai Hotel.
But we have always enjoyed the food on the streets and in small local restaurants much more, for reasons that are hard to explain, but it usually gets back to a chef doing a small number of dishes or even just one dish very well.
The Thai food at Krua Apsorn
Krua Apsorn is one of our favourite restaurants in Bangkok, turning out stunningly good, authentic Thai food to the locals who flock here to appreciate food that has not been influenced by modern trends but rather pays homage to tradition. We love the fish ball curry and the delightful crab omelette.
Finding the place can be a bit tricky. You could get your hotel to write down the address and instruct the taxi driver where to go or you can find it under your own steam by taking the river ferry to Tha Thewet.
You then walk along the road next to the canal until you reach Samsen Road (it is the first major road you come to). Turn left, walk along past the National Library until you come to a smaller canal and just past here you will see a short row of shops and it is here that you will find Krua Apsorn.
It is relatively easy to order here as there is a ‘picture’ menu with English descriptions. We love the bowl of fish ball curry which is quite a soupy curry with shreds of green leaves and slightly springy flavoursome fish balls. We also like the almost spherical fried crab omelette (called on the menu Omelette Fried Egg with Crab) that is crunchy on the outside and with meltingly tender crab on the inside.
Another dish that should not be missed is the sour yellow curry of lotus shoots and shrimps (called Sour and Spicy Yellow Curry on the menu). These tender shoots soak up the flavour of the curry and provide a perfect vehicle for the spices within. We also enjoyed a dish of fried vegetables with pork. We didn’t recognise the vegetable but it has been suggested that it might be dok kajorn a vegetable that thrives in the rainy season in Thailand.
The restaurant is quite unpretentious with staff supervising their children’s homework at the tables and watching local programs on a prominent TV set. No-one in the restaurant spoke English the day we were there but it did not seem to matter. The service was efficient and very polite and they seemed genuinely pleased when we indicated how much we had enjoyed the food and the experience.
There is another branch (which we haven’t visited) at Thanon Dinsor which is open till later in the evening.
There is a good review where you can read about more of the dishes served here than we have been able to eat. Just click on the link below.
