Tom yum goong (ต้มยำกุ้ง)
Let’s begin with the tom yum goong (ต้มยำกุ้ง), which is the dish I was most looking forward to eating at Mit Ko Yuan (ร้านมิตรโกหย่วน) – not only because it’s one of my favorite Thai dishes, but also because it’s one of the signature specialities at the restaurant.
It didn’t come in a fire flaming pot and wasn’t fancy, but the tom yum goong (ต้มยำกุ้ง) was just served in a bowl and from the color and the look of the ingredients, I could already tell it was going to be good.
The tom yum goong (ต้มยำกุ้ง) was a beautiful orange creamy color.
And one of the easiest things to recognize is that they didn’t add evaporated milk to make the tom yum goong (ต้มยำกุ้ง) creamy like at most Thai street food stalls, but instead all that creaminess and oil came from the head oil liver of the freshwater prawns.
Within the tom yum goong (ต้มยำกุ้ง) there were mostly mushrooms, and then a few handfuls of barely cooked herbs that included mostly culantro and cilantro.
What really stood out to me though was how perfectly cooked the shrimp were.
While in many bowls of tom yum goong (ต้มยำกุ้ง) the shrimp can get rubbery and overcooked, the shrimp in this bowl remained extraordinarily juicy and tender.
The tom yum goong (ต้มยำกุ้ง) broth was incredibly creamy and rich, sour, and balanced with a bit of sweetness.
This was one of the best tom yum goong in Bangkok I’ve ever had. Maybe the only better bowl of tom yum goong I’ve had in Thailand was in Ayutthaya.
I’m not saying it’s the best in Bangkok, but certainly one of the best I’ve had in Bangkok.