It’s said that the massive gold Buddha statue at Bangkok temple Wat Traimit was once hidden away – its value concealed from an approaching army under a thick layer of plaster. It was only when workers were relocating it in the 1950s that the statue fell and the plaster exterior cracked, revealing a core of solid gold.
If Wat Traimit has another hidden treasure, we’d argue that it’s Khun-Yah Cuisine.
Enter one of Bangkok’s most visited temples and wind through tour buses and rows of tourists, guides, and Buddhist monks to the eastern edge of the compound; keep your eyes peeled, and you’ll see an almost garage-like space and a sign. This is Khun-Yah Cuisine.
Bangkok used to be home to perhaps hundreds of raan khaao kaeng, as curry stalls are known in Thai. At this genre of restaurant, curries – as well as stir-fries, deep-fried dishes, soups, dips and more – are made in advance and displayed in stainless steel bowls and trays. There’s no menu at a traditional central Thai curry stall; simply point to whatever looks tasty, and it’ll be plated up or ladled over your plate of rice. Yet in the Bangkok of today, the curry stall – arguably the city’s most iconic type of eatery – is something of a dying breed, and Khun-Yah is one of a dwindling handful left.
“Our recipes are central Thai; my mother was from this region,” says Kobkan Thanapacharaphan, who goes by Ya Mom. She’s the second-generation owner of Khun-Yah Cuisine. She tells us that her parents were originally from Nakhon Chaisri, around 40km west of Bangkok. Her father was a construction worker and came to Bangkok to help build Wat Traimit. Her mother was a cook and prepared food – as well as betel nut – for the monks in the temple. This ultimately expanded into a restaurant, which Ya Mom estimates has been in business for 40 years now. Ya Mom was born and grew up in the house that today straddles both the restaurant and the hectic parking lot of Wat Traimit.
Khun-Yah Cuisine takes the form of a semi-open air area with a few tables and plastic stools, and a stainless steel display case holding trays of various dishes as its centerpiece. We ask Ya Mom what she considers the restaurant’s signature dish and she tells us, “One thing that’s been here since the beginning is the beef curry.”
Yet in the Bangkok of today, the curry stall – arguably the city’s most iconic type of eatery – is something of a dying breed, and Khun-Yah is one of a dwindling handful left.
Green curry is an iconic central Thai dish, and the beef version served at Khun-Yah is one of the best in Bangkok. It’s more souplike and less thick and creamy than its counterparts, with thin strips of fatty beef, tender Thai eggplant, and a subtle hit of fresh Thai and holy basil, making it herbaceous rather than spicy.
“We use fresh coconut milk, not the stuff in a box,” Ya Mom tells us. “Some people drink the curry! They can do this because it’s not too rich.”
Another longstanding dish is the fried pork, Ya Mom adds. She’s referring to muu thawt, minced pork seasoned and shaped into small patties before being deep-fried until golden – a central Thai dish that’s increasingly rare these days. They’re crispy, salty, and fatty – absolutely delicious when topped with a splash of phrik naam plaa, the mix of sliced fresh chilies and garlic in fish sauce that serves as the salt shaker in central Thailand.
A peek in the stainless steel case at Khun-Yah Cuisine might reveal a red curry with pork and bamboo, Chinese kale stir-fried with salted kingfish, a Thai-style dip that blends coconut milk and crab, chunks of gourd scrambled with eggs, pork and hard-boiled eggs braised in five spice powder, long eggplants stir-fried with minced pork and fermented soy beans, or a Thai-style salad revolving around Chinese sausage – Ya Mom tells us they make around 20 different dishes every day. They also serve a couple Thai-style sweets on a daily basis.
Yet you’re only likely to witness this spread if you arrive early; Khun-Yah Cuisine is exceedingly popular, and most of the dishes sell out by 11am – sometimes as early as 10 or 10:30. Consider it a relatively full-flavored breakfast – or brunch – destination.
Another quirk of Khun-Yah Cuisine is that, although it is at its core a curry stall, they also serve a different one-plate noodle or rice dish on a daily basis. On a recent Monday, we stop by when the dish of the day is phat Thai.
The rice noodles, stained pink from the use of tamarind and dried chili, are fried with duck egg, dried shrimp and firm tofu, and come served with a topping of crispy pork rind and sides of astringent Chinese chives and banana blossom. It’s old school and utterly delicious, one of the tastiest versions in town – leagues ahead of the plates served at restaurants that specialize in the dish.
“We’re trying to preserve traditional Thai recipes,” Ya Mom tells us. “Nowadays, there are so many people cooking Thai food, but the tastes are all different.”
Ya Mom is in her 70s, and in recent years has pulled away from the cooking role at Khun-Yah Cuisine. “I’m letting go of the business now. I’ll hand it over to my son,” she tells us. “This” – gesturing around her – “is our wonderful legacy.”
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Published on April 09, 2025
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