The 140-Year Old Thai Restaurant, and the Dishes They Served a King
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- Опубліковано 15 чер 2024
- Of all the historic restaurants in Bangkok, one must be the oldest. We set out to try to establish which place in the city has the longest history, and to our surprise, it's somewhere that we've been on the channel before; a restaurant along a canal near the Talad Phlu market that we visited while filming our second video ever.
So we went back to the restaurant to tell their story and record the history of the oldest restaurant in Bangkok, and to try the five dishes they've served continuously since the days before the roads were built and the city began to modernize. This is Tek Heng Jeen Lee, the home of crispy fried noodles (Mee Krob) favored by the legendary King Rama V, and a place with a wild history befitting the oldest restaurant in Bangkok.
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0:00 - Introduction
1:39 - The Oldest Restaurant
5:13 - Thonburi and Talad Phlu
7:51 - The Food
11:08 - Rama V's Favorite
13:04 - The Origins of Modern Thai Food
16:04 - Michelin
18:24 - The Next 140 Years
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Thank you so much for your support! We'll be uploading the full recipe of Tek Heng's Mee Krob for our Patreon backers.
Patreon: / otrontheroad
Please subscribe to the channel, and check out our website for upcoming videos and our behind-the-scenes blog at www.OTRontheroad.com !
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Video Credits:
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Here's the pin:
goo.gl/maps/X3aPJWce9rWrW6RXA
Khlong Bang Luang (Khlong Bangkok Yai) canal used to be the original route of Chao Phraya river, but it was curved and bended too much that Ayutthaya King decreed a straight canal dug at the beginning of Khlong Bangkok Noi to the beginning of Khlong Bang Luang to shorten the distance. However, over the years due to strong current widening the new canal to become the present Chao Phraya river route instead while the old river section became narrower/shallower and transformed into 2 canals, Khlong Bangkok Noi and Khlong Bang Luang. I was born in a wooden house near this Khlong Bang Luang 71 years ago and learned to swim in this canal without any instruction, just paddling around with fellow children and one day just learned to float and swim naturally.
What an amazing story. If you feel like it, please send me an e-mail at otrbkk@gmail.com and let's chat there. I'm sure you can show us some amazing places we've never known about.
ขอบคุณมากค่ะ สำหรับเรื่องราวของความเป็นมาของคลอง😊🙏🇹🇭💖🇹🇭
wow I thought this video came from a huge channel, the production is phenomenal.
Thank you! Nope, just two of us, trying to do this every week!
@@OTRontheroadI've been following you since day 1. Keep up the good work 😀
He's good
As a Thai I really love your video. It's well research and fun to watch. Some of the historical info even a Thai person didn't know that before.(It would be great if you could do an episode on Phuket Island there's a lots of traditional cuisine here!)
Most likely coming in June to film! Any suggestions? I have two shows planned already.
@OTR Food & History Most dishes in Phuket areas are hokkien chinese food Ex.Hokkien noodles, "O-Tao" Phuketian fried oyster, "O-aew" shaved iced dessert. There are many more, but these are my favorites and probably the more well-known ones.
Sir! you're killing it!! as a 3rd culture child from Thailand living in scandinavia, i've missed out on a lot of thai history/culture. I've learned so much about my own country by watching your vids.
Pretty sad!!!
Sorry, but, what is a third culture child? What’s a second culture child? By the way I’m Thai, brought up in West Africa in the 1970’s.
hi im glad you asked, because not many are aware. On wiki it says:
Third culture kids (TCK) or third culture individuals (TCI) are people who were raised in a culture other than their parents' or the culture of their country of nationality, and also live in a different environment during a significant part of their child development years. There is also podcast about this, let me know if you want to listen and i will try to find it for you. I've never heard of second culture child :)@@tommypaget2294
why is that sad?@@DT-gs3wi
One of the best videos I've ever seen these days. Story based on true history of this family. I deeply appreciate with the family for what they have been doing for years. Thanks so much for this awesome episode. Great job and keep doing.
Thank you!
Haven’t been to this place even I am living in Bangkok for 7 years! Bangkok never fails to excite me! I’ll visit this restaurant for sure!
Nice. Would suggest going for dinner so you can hang out at the night market right outside after- gets rolling after 5 or so, one of my favorite parts of Bangkok.
Good to see food channels that introduce cultural, historical knowledge than just eating only.
Cool must Visit next time . Live in Sweden the king visit in 1897 in the Norden part 2h From me in 1999 was a tempel Ready on this place in memory of king visit . Is a very nice place to Visit. Like be in Thailand whid munks. Food Beer .
This says it all. Food is life, food is love. It's all about the love, the heart, that goes into every dish. Your inclusion of the history, while simplified, really added to the story, and I shared it along with one about a similar restaurant on the Lower East Side of Manhattan where the menu is simple, the prices are still reasonable, and the food is the same as it was decades ago before all the current changes. I'm almost finished with that history I mentioned to you of Southeast Asia, and there are so many things to unpack that I read it in small doses, but the food aspect of it parallels your comments here.
As always, thanks for putting thought into your comment and always great to hear from you.
Excellent, we live in Thailland 🇹🇭 and will definitely visit this restaurant when we are next in Bangkok. Thanks for the great video. 😂❤😂.
So happy that they receive Michellin Guide 2022 and 2023. Food and history - I love this stuff!
Again, classic Thai cuisine, presented in a beautiful way. Really appreciate that you'r diving deeper into history and backgrounds.
Thank you! Glad you found us.
I heard this type of story from my grandmother back when I was in high school that the reason that my grandfather got a scholarship to study here in the U.S. because of the great king Rama the fifth was traveling past my great grandfather house along the side of the river and the king felt in love with our main buddha statue so my great grandfather gave the statue to the king so the king granted free education for all his children.
Wow!
That's why we love our kings.
How fascinating. Brilliant. Well done, and well done to these wonderful Thai's who appear to get so much joy "staying with tradition" and serving the original recipes....with (loads of) heart! Love it. ❤🙏
Thank you so much. Appreciate the comment!
Yihaa! Finally a dish (Mee Krob) & restaurant i beat you guys to. 😉
And I agree with King Rama V the dish was “Sawei Sawan”
Ha! Well done.
Yes! The Blessed King Rama V. A great & benevolent King, respected & much loved by the people till this day.🙏🙏🙏
Loved this VDO❤..Thanks
Your videos are so well researched, you deserve a million subscribers at least
Extremely well produced VDO, thank you.
Excellent video to include history and timeline!
Besides entertaining the audience,Full of acknowledgement,thank you so much
Thank you for the fabulous content ❤ love the history telling. Appreciate the family still run the restaurant and keep their recipe until now. Its in my list now.
Great research. Thank you.
My new favorite channel along side with Mark Wiens. Love how you integrate history into the content 🙂
Kind of you to say. Really appreciate it!
Gosh, together with Bangkok Pats channel, discovering your channel has served as a breath of fresh air as you actually seems to care about knowledge, history and information as your foundation for your videoes. Thanks and thanks again. Much appreciated.
This channel deserves more views, production is high quality and very informative content.
I admire your informative post, well done! Just subscribed
Such a great video with full of knowledge. Many thank.
Thank you!
This food just makes me so excited :)
Thanks for the great channel. Your food videos are very informative.
thank you!
I love the scrolling list of reasons why your past restaurants failed... it made me laugh even though at the time I am sure it was not funny but you are in a better place now ☺
i love hearing about these sorts of things!
This was such a great video. Happy new subscriber!
Thank you!
ประเทศไทยมีประวัติศาสตร์มีเรื่องราวเล่าต่อมาประเทศเคลมมีไหมแบบนี้นะ..ภูมิใจที่เกิดเป็นคนไทยรักป.ทไทย❤
Wow you really made assignment research, highly appreciate your efforts.
Thank you very much. It helps tourist to explore more and more.
Excellent Deep History! Thanx to OTR and Bangkok Pat I've learned so much about my own culture and history! Cheers!
Love your videos ❤
This was a great video i´ll subscribe and look around.
This type of content warms my heart.
Thank you!
Your channel is awesome! Just subscribed.
Thank you!
Wow Amazing ❤️
My home is near to TALAD PLU, i come here every week
Nice! One of the first videos we ever filmed was a tour of Talad Phlu. Love the area.
Thank you for sharing your experiences reports of the 140 years old of the original restaurant in Bangkok, the food looks amazing if the king loves it much to be good .
Thank you for sharing your amazing food with us.
So informative👍
Another enjoyable with depth episode. Meegrob to me is usually a snacks in a cheap plastic box you buy at a roadside souvenier store in countryside (or pop up store in shopping mall or foodcourt). It considers a traditional snacks to younger generation. I never know you can order it as a dish in restuarant till today. What have I've been missing!
Looks like a fantastic place for lunch. Will visit next week while in Bangkok.
Beautiful story ❤
The place look clean and the food look so yummy.
First video on this channel but the video nice so subscribed.
I got to try this when I go to Bangkok this year..
This history made me cry. Thank you. I was born in Thailand 😢
Great video. I just subscribed!
Thank you!
New subscriber here 😊 Great content and impressive production style . 👍 👍 👍
Looking forward to future videos . 😊 Thanks 🙏
Thanks so much!
อร่อยมากมากค่ะ❤
I Subscribed to your UA-cam channel my friend. Food brings people together. Wishing you all the very best and keep in touch. Sending you greetings from Toronto 🇨🇦❤️❤️❤️👍👍
นอกจากให้ความสนุกสนานในการดู ยังได้ความรู้ด้วย ขอบคุณครับ
Your channel is awesome!!! Just subscribed. Please share a link with the location of this Thai restaurant
Thank you! Here you go:
Tek Heng
+66 89 488 1538
goo.gl/maps/Lm6SqRS4VUqBQk1T8
Wow
I liked the restaurant, the people there, and the quiet little niche beside the canal, where a group of teenagers were swimming. But I found the meekrob nothing to write home about, despite its history. Maybe their mee nam signature soup would have been more awesome. I did love wandering around the streets of Talad Phlu and its busy market though.
I’ve been there but had no idea that this place have a history! It’s delicious tho😊
Every legend restaurant has own history, you too.
This video made me subscribe, and I am currently watching all your videos! What restaurant is shown at 15:40? It looks interesting as well!
Nice catch. It's a place called Hia Tai Kee (that footage is from our American Fried Rice video)....awesome place for a cheap coffee and scrambled eggs in a great atmosphere...but if you want that kind of place, I'd actually recommend On Luk Yun- since 1932, pretty epic spot in the old city for Canto-Western food (both of those places are great but in terms of the food, I prefer the second one)
14:40 Is that Steph and Chris from Chinese Cooking Demystified? Love their videos too!
Good catch. Yes- in fact if you dig into our videos, you'll find her and Chris quite a bit. Would recommend the Hwai Kwang video on the "other" Chinatown (did that one with both of them) and the Sriracha one which Steph was a big part of...You can also find me guest-cooking on Chinese Cooking Demystified, but you've gotta look deep into the archives!
Very close friends for many, many years. Chris's encouragement while they were staying at my house last summer was a big reason I started this channel.
@@OTRontheroad ☺
This video quality production can easily rival a big budget production.
Agong means grandfather in Chinese
I know (I speak Chinese) but we went back to confirm details and there was an extra generation.
🇹🇭👍👍😋 thank you
I really like their Mee Krob, it is very unique from other restaurant. If you find meekrob in other place in Thailand, it’s always sold as a snack or souvenir products, but the taste and ingredients are very different from Tekheng’s. Tekheng’s is more savory, cooking with fresh shrimp and chili, serve with fresh lime. Other Meekrob will come as a dry food in the souvenir box, noodle is always pink or orange colors, using all dry ingredients for long preservation eg. dried shrimps, and the taste is quite sweet.
Correct, which is much more similar to how it’s found in Chaozhou.
@@OTRontheroad sold as snack ? really ? because even my neighbor "Radnhaa" shop offer them as one of the "sen" choice ?
@@sleekslack not all deep fried noodles are the same. I’m not sure what wasn’t clear from the message above? Will stand by all of it
Good video, time to sub
Apologies but will you make an episode about Mookata or you’ve done it already? Btw love your content
Thanks! And yeah absolutely. It’s wild how popular it is. It can be a monsoon and the massive spot near me will still have a line
I didn't know this restaurant when I go to Bangkok several times
Yes. The food is good.
Actually there are plenty of eateries in Talad Plu area. Don't forget to walk around and taste them (but you might need to week to visit them all).
We did a whole video on Talad Phlu! Agreed, one of my favorite areas in all of Thailand.
14:40 Nice to see you sharing a meal with 'Chinese Cooking Demystified'. Once I heard you explain the history of this restaurant, I immediately thought of their channel. I better subscribe.
Great catch! They've been in several of our videos (and I've been in a couple of theirs, but you have to dig pretty deep in the catalog to find them). Big ones I'd suggest would be the one in Hwai Kwang (Bangkok's Other Chinatown) which is largely done along with both of them, and the Sriracha video which Steph is a primary guest.
@@OTRontheroad Well, this is the first of your videos I've watched. But now I'm a subscriber.
As soon as you said you were from Charlottesville, i know you would produce quality videos. And I was right.
Hah- did/do you live there as well?
@@OTRontheroad I live in Fairfax but I went to Charlottesville a few times. It is a beautiful town.
dammmmmmmmm love your vid im thai and i dont even know about this lol
Thanks!
I’m hungry now
Like I said, the algo is starting to pick you up now. Won't take long.
Would love to see you cover the soul food Restaurants in Pattaya
Soul food like...American soul food??? In Pattaya? I’m from Virginia, that would be life changing. Let me know any tips or suggestions.
@OTRontheroad Yes in pattaya You have Kickin Chicken. They have buffalo wings, fried wings, BBQ and lemon pepper. They also have southern favorites like baked Mac and cheese, collard greens, fried cat fish. I think if you Google kickin chicken pattaya it pops up.
Come....set up in Singapore
You should include more footage of the reaction and comment when you eat.
Fair, usually we do, but in this case, we actually ate the Mee Krob in a different video (the one on Talad Phlu from right when we started taping) and talked about it at length, so we wanted to focus on a totally different angle here
Agong is a Chinese word which means “grand father” it’s not a person’s name. According to the aunty, King Rama V’s officers called him “แป๊ะหลี” (Pae Lee). Pae is the word for an old Chinese man. Lee is probably the chef’s surname or name.
Yes, that’s correct. Just as “Jeen Lee”, the name of the restaurant, most likely just means Chinese Lee and is not his actual name. Sometimes (as with Pae) our on-screen translation is a simplification to make it understandable without context. We know it’s not 100% aligned, but as with any translation, if we did it literally, it might not make any sense. So as long as the meaning doesn’t change, we will try to make it readable in another language.
@OTRontheroad you sir are a pro! You thought it thru, that means your understanding of thai melting pot culture is bake right into your dna! I wish you guys much luck and perhaps you will end up making contents for the big media channel.
Great story telling, as usual. However, Agong is not his name. It just means grandpa. At a point, you will hear the lady owner mentioned A-lao-gong which means great grandpa.
A little fun tidbit: “Agong” or “อากง” means “grandpa”, and is used by people of Teochew descent
💖
Love everything about the channel. Your ability to tell stories is unequaled; I am becoming addicted to it; better than anything else about Thailand, without exception. The only thing that could improve it is if we could see more Daria; listen to you but watch her listening to you and eating and whatever; she is a total delight in all ways. More Daria....please!
6:17 I know that “Bai Sha Plu” looks similar to “Bai Plu”. It’s quite hard to tell. But in this picture is “Bai Sha Plu” (used for wrapping “Miang Kham”), not “Bai Plu”(eaten with Hmak(areca nut) or used in some Thai traditional medicines). They are different types of trees.
That’s correct, and that was intentional.
This restaurant is a great example that Google ratings should never be blindly trusted. Right now, the restaurant has a rating of 4,1 stars on Google. That's not absolutely bad but still shows that many people are overly picky. I read reviews that complained that there were no parking spots nearby or that the person that took the order was not the same person that brought the food... There are even reviews that complain that the noodles are crunchy (I mean, that's kind of the point of the dish...). Google reviews are crazy. Most reviews are very good but because of a few bad reviews the average is significantly dragged down.
Was Agong the OG Chef's real name or do his descendants just call him 啊公 which literally means grandfather lol
That’s just what they call him of course- his real name was Li (although I have a suspicion that Jeen Li- the name of the restaurant- is ALSO his nickname and not his real name)
1st time watching this channel , great quality of filming lwith different presentations than others…..
Thanks and glad you found us!
Thats is the Cantonese Style Ching Sang Mien...you can find this in Hong Kong & Malaysia
totally different dish- different noodles, different flavor profile. But in Thai it's also called "mee krob". Interesting how language paints with a wide brush. That dish is also far more common in Bangkok.
Don't open a second. Stay focused!
Have you been to burma
Nice but impossible to read subtitles !!
Sorry to hear you struggled with it. We did have a hard time getting these to "pop" against a light colored background when the food was on screen. My apologies! Hope you enjoyed the video though.
🙏🇹🇭💖
😋👍🇹🇭🙏
Pretty uncanny that Bangkok food has so much Chinese (specifically Teochew) influence.🙏
Centuries of migration and trade will do that.
These kinds of kingly foods are now everywhere in Thailand and some restaurants or even street stalls offer better ones.
Tourists will be surprised that there are many restaurants in Bangkok that have been open for more than 100 years.
Where in Thailand is this restaurant? Whats the restaurant name pls
I pinned a comment at the top here that has the google map link! Place is called Tek Heng Jeen Lee
what place is it min 7:22 ? thanks in advance
and 14:57 ? nice place
7:22- Hia Tai Kee goo.gl/maps/4fmbBmijN2BqRFe46
and 14:57: I can't tell what you're looking for, that's right at the end of one place (Sanguan Sri) and right before the next place (Ruen Mallika). Hope that helps!
Subtitles is not really correct and don't capture all the words said though
Yeah we do have to take a bit of creative license with the Thai subtitles in some videos to make the meaning equivalent to English instead of direct word-to-word translation. There is nuance and context in the original language that is hard to express without altering the quote a bit.
mee krob is basically fried mee hoon , a simple dish commonly found anywhere in chinese communities. only difference is that is deep fried and cut up into small chunks..
correct, and that is definitely the closest analogue, although that's eaten as a sweet snack, not a savory meal. This is a dish that absolutely was created in Thailand, but the main components (including the noodles, and noodle preparation method) came from Chaoshan.