Actually Peking or northern Chinese cuisine has been in Thailand and Bangkok for quite a while. It actually is my fault for not going out in search for Northern Chinese cuisine in Thailand and Bangkok. No sooner had I written a my column I was invited by my cousin, Bhilaibhan Sampatisiri former President of Siam Society to join her in taking a small (only 30!) group of the Society members out on a gourmet tour of Bangkok. I readily agreed knowing that some of the restaurants that they were going to, I had already reviewed them. But much to my surprise and delight, the first restaurant on the tour was wonderful and I had no idea that it had been there for over 7 years and serving Northern Chinese Cuisine!

       Raan Nam Tao Hu Yong Herh is a small, air-conditioned shop house restaurant. It is open 24 hours a day and is usually packed at every main meals and late night. The owner is Thai Yai. When she first opened this restaurant none of her helpers could speak Thai and they all spoke Mandarin Chinese. My cousin, Peg (her nick name) has been coming to eat here for many years when she first opened and could not speak a work of Thai. The owner, she is very hardworking and eventually she was able to speak some Thai enough to take orders in Thai from her ever increasing Thai customers. I have been back there twice and needless to say the food is really wonderful.

        Don’t look for rice in Northern Chinese cuisine. You will be disappointed if you expect the same style of cuisine in Cantonese Chinese restaurants. The main staple of starch in Northern Chinese cuisine is flour so you have many kinds of dough and dumplings. For breakfast you drink soy milk hot or cold with fried dough which in Thai is called Pa Tong Goh and in Chinese it is called Yohtieu.

       Thais eat fried dough with condensed milk but the Chinese eat it with soy sauce and chili oil. The soy milk at this restaurant is wonderful both hot and cold and they have two kinds of soy milk, your regular soy milk and black sesame soy milk which is even better than the regular one. I am definitely not partial to soy milk because I have always found them smelling too strong of uncooked beans but at Yong Herh I actually liked it because it is not too sweet and has a very pleasant aroma.

       We were served appetizers, consisting of many small plates of sliced pressed tofu, pickled cucumbers, seaweed salad and an amazing bowl of white bean curd with thousand year old egg topped with oyster sauce. It was quite difficult to eat with chop sticks but the bean curd was so smooth and clean tasting and the thousand year old egg was very creamy and gelatinous at the same time. There was an explosion of texture and taste in your mouth when you eat both things together.

        Then came the many kinds of dumplings filled with vegetables, chives and ground pork. The staff at the restaurant were making these dumplings fresh at the counter tucked away in the corner of the restaurant. The dough is also made fresh to order. There Sieu Long Bao, or Steamed pork and shrimp filled dumpling with very thin skin, is superb.

         I already wrote in my last column how to eat these tasting hot dumplings so I won’t bore you with it again except to say that you need to try them here and eat them while they are hot. There are four or five dishes which you must try and they are; first the beef roll in Chinese Pancake. If you are not hungry and just wanted one plate of something to eat with your soy milk try this beef roll.

       The beef in rolled in the same kind if dough as is there also delicious scallion pancake. It had hoisin sauce added to the dough and at the center if the roll, there are vegetables and tofu to make the whole roll complete. I already mentioned the second item, scallion pancake but I did not tell you what you need to eat this with. You need to order the third item to eat with it and that is braised pork belly in soy. From the look of it you might think it is very fattening but you should try at least one piece because the pork will melt in your mouth and the pancake will soak up all the flavors that you missed while biting into the delicate piece of pork.

       Last but not least you should go there on a cool evening, when you are not that hungry but you want an Chinese alternative to you Mom’s chicken soup and order a bowl of freshly made ramen noodles with goat stew broth. It gave me the same feeling of warmth and comfort as Mom’s chicken soup. It really is comfort food but the best thing about this soup is the noodle itself. They make the noodles to order and it is cooked perfectly, still al dente when out first bite into it.

This restaurant is small, noisy and when it is full the air-conditioner does not work too well, but the food is not expensive and is truly delicious.  You will need to find time to sneak into the restaurant when it is not too busy and quickly order and enjoy the food while the service personnel still have time to talk to you.  It is quite popular with mainland Chinese, hip young Thai music artists and expatriates.  I had a feeling that I was in Hong Kong when I go eat there the last time because there were so many languages spoken in the tiny restaurant.

“Nam Tao Hu Yong Herh” or Soy Milk Yong Herh Restaurant.
2/5 Silom Soi 19, Bangkok. Telephone # 0 2236 7237