Kreung Gaeng Thai Restaurant

Sizzing hot, tasty and crunchy on the outside, soft and fluffy flesh. Crunchy bony bits, not to mention the salty complexity of the fish sauce. Mmm. There wasn't much left by the time we finished with it! This simple Thai dish is none other than seabass marinated in fish sauce, then deep fried until perfection.  Simple but very nicely done (and not oily at all) by Kreung Gaeng Thai Restaurant. I'm still dreaming about it now! My advice is to eat slowly to enjoy the flavours. 

I drive past Kreung Gaeng Thai Restaurant everyday on the way to work. I've always meant to drop by this bright yellow and cherry looking family runned restaurant / cafe one day but never gotten around to it till now. It's simple, clean and air-conditioned. The menu is extensive. 

Other dishes we tried:

Nam Prik Rong Reur. "Nam Priks" are Thai chilli dips, served with fresh or steamed vegetables. This particular chilli dip is simply fabulous at Him Baan Suan. Kreung Gaeng Restaurant does a different variation - more liquidy, but still pretty good. This chilli dip at Kreung Gaeng is quite salty and is made even saltier when eaten with salted eggs, although this saltiness is toned down with rice and the super fresh vegies. Warning -  The dip does have the shrimp paste and dried shrimps in it, so not everyone will like it.

Gaeng Som - spicy sour soup. This particular one is Gaeng Som Dok Kae Goong Sod. "Dok Kae" is an edible flower, slightly bitter in taste, and "goong sod" is fresh prawn. Generally, gaeng soms are very tangy in taste (from tamarinds), and sugar is used to enhance the flavour as well. I find Kreung Gaeng's spicy sour soup too sweet (or perhaps not sour enough?) - which is a bit of a shame. However, the staff at the restaurant is so nice, I'm sure it's not a big problem to ask them to make it less sweet. The prawns are big, but a bit tasteless (which, unfortunately, is a common thing in Chiang Mai).

Despite the disappointing gaeng som, I think the fantastic deep fried fish more than made up for it. The menu is so large that I'd definitely go back to try other dishes. The price is also quite reasonable - the bill came to about 500 baht for 3 people. I'm having high hopes for this place!

Kreung Gaeng Thai Restaurant
Middle Ring Road (near Samyak Market)
Opens daily 10:00am-10:00pm
Tel: 053 014144



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