Hainanese Chicken Rice Go Ang Phochana Suansone📍Bang Pho Bangkok โกอ่างโภชนา สวนสน ☎ +66 2 587 5344

We drove two hours from Khao Yai into Bangkok in the morning to catch our flight back to Singapore. Pui, our gracious Bangkok kaki had us stop over for lunch at her home 🙏

Pui bought a lot of food for us from her favourite Bangkok eateries.

Knowing that I am interested in chicken rice from around the world, Pui specially made sure to include chicken rice from โกอ่างโภชนา สวนสน (Go Ang Phochana Suansone), her favourite in Bangkok 🙏

Chicken rice in Bangkok and Singapore are both originally from Hainan. However, the Bangkok version is closer to what I experienced in Hainan. The Singapore variety has some Cantonese influence and is uniquely Singapore now.

The Thai version is like chicken rice at the defunct Yet Con Chicken Rice at Purvis Street.

The bird is cooked through. Chopped into chunks, air cooled and served without any dressing sauce. The meat is tender, moist but not soft, juicy. The skin is tender but not velvetly soft and silky smooth. There is no jelly fat under the skin as the poached bird did not undergo any cold bath treatment.

Though unsauced, Thai chicken meat is not short on flavour - indeed, its natural chicken sweetness is quite pronounced.

I love it 😋

In Singapore typically, chicken sweetness is subtle (if any) and the dish often relied heavily on dressing and sauce (dip) for flavour.

Indeed, we sometimes hear people in Singapore say "chicken rice is all about the sauce". To me personally, chicken rice is chicken first, rice then dip (sauce), in that order. But taste is, of course, subjective and to each his own.

On the topic of sauce, Go Ang Phochana Suansone's rendition is a blend of dark soy sauce, garlic, chili pepper and fermented soy bean.

Thai chicken rice sauce normally features fermented soy bean reflecting Teochew preference and influence. Thailand has an almost 15% ethnic Chinese minority (about 10 million), and slightly more than 50% of whom are Teochew.

At the risk of putting it in over simple terms, Singapore chicken rice is Hainan-Cantonese, which Thai chicken rice is Hainan-Teochew.

Go Ang Phochana Suansone's rice is amazingly delicious. It shouldn't surprise anyone, as this is Thailand, the land of Hom Mali หอมมะลิ or Jasmine rice.

Go Ang Phochana Suansone's rice has a nice greasy sheen. The fragrant grains bind together but separate easily (not starchy) and tastes nicely savoury sweet.

I like Go Ang Phochana Suansone's chicken rice so much that after lunch we dropped by the restaurant to say hello to the boss. The restaurant was closing for the day. I could speak no Thai so couldn't learn more about his chicken rice but am glad to thank the boss in person.

Go Ang Phochana Suansone restaurant which is 65 years old this year, serves other Hainanese rice and noodle dishes besides chicken rice. They are famous also for their Hainanese beef noodles which I hope to try next time. They even have stewed goat meat!

Getting to Go Ang Phochana Suansone is easy. It is 5 minutes walk from Bang Pho station on the MRT Blue Line. Bang Pho is just 3 MRT stops from Chatuchak Market at Kamphaeng Phet station.