Master of ‘Moo Dang Moo Grob’ hidden in Hua Lamphong

COCONUTS HOT SPOT — Kao Moo Dang Moo Grob, barbecue and crispy pork with rice, is seen as a basic Bangkok dish because it seems to the fastest to prepare and always has the shortest lines at any food court. All the chefs do is slice the pork, put it on top of steamed rice, and pour the sauce.

But as one vintage food stall hidden near Hua Lamphong proves, the dish is more complex than just slice, top and pour.

Ask your granddad and he might remember “Si Morakot,” a hawker-turned-food stall serving Kao Moo Dang Moo Grob for over 70 years, back when you could get a full plate of pork for THB2. Now up their price to THB40 to 100, Si Morakot opened their official restaurant in 1977 in Soi Sukon 1. It is now operated by at the family’s second generation and still serves their signature dish from the old recipe.

“The key is to maintain your standards. Make sure the pork tastes the same every day. That’s the hardest part,” he said before leaving us to savor our own Kao Moo Dang Moo Grob.

A traditional  Kao Moo Dang Moo Grob comes with two types of pork (barbecue and crispy) on top of steamed rice with a medium boiled egg, and gun chiang (Chinese sausage) on the side.

“We roast our pork on a charcoal stove, which makes it tastier. This is my father’s original recipe, and I do exactly what he did.” Wallop Kaewsimorakot recalled.

For the barbeque pork, Wallop said it takes three to four hours to marinate and two more hours to roast. To prepare the crispy pork, the meat must be boiled first to soften the skin before it can be roasted. Kao Moo Dang Moo Grob suddenly seems not that easy after all.

For the sweet sauce to top it all off, Wallop sets pork broth on the stove and stir it up with peanuts, sesame and garlic.

If the sauce and sweet meat are all too much, the restaurant also serves three kinds of soup to help clear your palette for THB30 each: duck and lime, bitter gourd and pork, and hog maw soup.

FIND IT:
Si Morakot
80-82 Soi Sukorn, Thai-Chinese alliance road
11am – 7pm, daily

Photos: Jinyan Chen