A rarity on Rama IX

PUNTIPA CHAI-ORAWAN certainly had excellent grounding to open a Thai-food restaurant. Her mother is a menu-creating consultant for a famous chain of Thai restaurants and Puntipa worked there too for 10 years in research and development. 

So when you walk in the doors of Siam Proud, which last month commandeered an old house on Rama IX Soi 41, you’re entering a sanctuary for Thai-food lovers. 

The 140-square-metre restaurant feels homey but uncluttered by interior details. The floor is bare cement. About 70 diners can be accommodated indoors and, when weather permits, outside too.

Puntipa’s husband Tanan adds his expertise. He’s the business-development manager for a communications conglomerate, and meanwhile his own family runs the TJ duck-noodle shop on Hua Mark Soi 26. He also happens to be a whiz at brewing coffee. 

“It’s not easy finding a restaurant in Bangkok that serves authentic Thai food, but meanwhile lots of European restaurants are opening,” says Puntipa. “Here I’m using high-quality ingredients to make dishes – cooked to ensure the right balance of flavours and mostly from the Central and Southern regions that aren’t easy to find – that people who can afford it are willing to pay for. 

“I haven’t seen any other places like this around Rama IX, but I think it’s a good place to do business.”

Puntipa’s Yam Pla Foo (Bt145) is pla salid (snakeskin gourami) and pla chon (snakehead) steamed, pounded and deep-fried to golden, crispy puffiness. The dish is dressed with finely sliced shallots, cashew nuts and green vegetables. Instead of the usual fish-mango sauce, she serves a homemade roasted-chilli paste blended with fish sauce and lemon juice. It’s a lovely balance of spicy, tangy and salty. 

Most people are familiar with Tao Jiaw Lone (soybeans with minced pork dipped in coconut milk), but Siam Proud’s Lone Pla Salid (Bt155) uses more of that tasty snakeskin gourami. The coconut-milk dip is somewhere between a thick soup and a stew, a bit salty and best enjoyed with 

 steamed rice and a mix of cucumber, winged beans, long beans, white turmeric, carrots and Thai eggplant.

Kaeng Kua Poo Bai Chapoo (Bt325) is another must-try – a yellow curry with crabmeat and wild betel leaf. Puntipa grows her own betel and uses the fresh coconut milk. The curry paste is mixed with its Southern-style variant, known for its strong, aromatic taste, to add a delightful spiciness. 

The older guests among Puntipa’s customers love her Pad Makua Yao Kub Horapa – stir-fried green eggplant with sweet basil (Bt125), cooked with minced-pork soy sauce to make it a bit more salty.

Another tempting dish is Goong Tod Makham, which is fried shrimp with tamarind sauce (Bt215). The shrimps are battered and lightly fried and topped with fried ginger, lemongrass and dried chilli. The sauce is tamarind juice, fish and soy sauce, simmered to blend and then sauteed.

Well worth trying is Pla Tod Nam Pla (Bt435), the fried flesh of a whole sea bass weighing 500 or 600 grams rendered easy to eat and served with a fish-mango sauce to provide balance. 

Most dishes are perfect with riceberry rice (Bt55). The rice is steamed for an hour inside a young coconut, the natural milk giving it a lovely fragrance and full flavour. Keep in mind that only eight servings of this are available each day.

For a light dessert, have the homemade, milk-free Coconut Ice Cream (Bt65) garnished with a mix of luuk chid (palmyra palm fruit), sugar syrup, corn, jackfruit, roasted peanuts, coconut flesh and – to give it a purple hue – some butterfly-pea juice. 

For a caffeine kick, Tanan will brew you a cup of hot-drip coffee (Bt40-Bt50) made from beans grown at Thai High in Chiang Rai (there’s a sweet berry aftertaste) or imported from Kenya or El Salvador (these are fuller bodied). The refreshing cold drinks include sugar-cane juice mixed with lemon soda and a blend of butterfly pea and lemon juices (both Bt55).

 

 

HUNGRY FOR HERITAGE

>>Siam Proud on Soi 41 off Rama IX Road is open daily from 11 to 9. 

>>Call (02) 118 6227 or visit the “siamproudbkk” page on Facebook.