Grab Meal Review Special: Tonk Yum Ban Suan - Miang Addons

Ordered from:
Tonk Yum Ban Suan Branch Sukhumvit 18

Price breakdown (2 items; 4 addons):
Fried Pork Belly with Fish Sauce on Rice 89 Baht
with addon Jasmine Rice 16 Baht
Miang Fried Tilapia 189 Baht
with addon Half-Peeled Mussles 36 Baht (100 g)
addon Cooked White Shrimp 48 Baht (60 grams)
and addon Streaky Pork 48 Baht (80 grams)

This Grab Meal Review entry is a special one, as it is only reviewing the addon items for the tilapia miang, as well as a mention of the extra rice addon for the fried pork belly.

Miang ingredient addons – at least at this restuarant – are provided in containers separated from the meal item (although the addons do share containers with each other), for the purpose of (to my understanding) eating them wrapped in the provided leafy greens. However, as I am not here for authenticity, but instead for easy, afforable, good value meals, so I will instead be reviewing them as side dishes to a main dish (in this case, the tilapia).

Starting on items now:

The streaky pork is extremely fatty, to the point of being unpleasant. It appears streaky means streaked with fat, and with the way that it's cooked (steaming?), most of that fat is preserved. It appears you can see the hair of the pig still on the pork as provided. The pork belly by contrast is a better order, having less fat on the meat (generally), a better taste, no hair, and even rice or a side dish. I'd recommend that instead.

The white shrimp is perfectly normal pacific white shrimp you might see at home, depending on where you live. It tastes plain as cooked, although I found just a little bit of salt recovers it completely. Other forms of seasoning you may buy at a local grocer, such as a light tasting soy sauce, may work out as well. You don't get all that much of it, but as a side it is tempting.

The mussles are good, but taste more metallic (coppery?) then I'm used to. I imagine this is less of a factor of seasoning and more of where it was caught. I'm unsure if I'm comfortable recommending recommending it, as that metallic taste might indicate something unsafe to ingest in large amounts (that sometimes happens with bottomfeeder fish and shellfish, and might be the case here) which might make it dangerous to have this too often. You do get quite a bit, so if you plan on ordering it, I'd say it's best to share it with someone to minimize how much each person has. I wouldn't save these as leftovers unless it's for eating within the same day, as they are a shellfish and thus expire quickly.

The Jasmine rice is simple plain white rice. I'm not sure why I ordered extra of it... I was in a bit of a daze ordering today. I don't think you particularly need basically double the rice like this if you're eating alone, but it's a cheap addon if you feel the need, or for some reason need spare cooked rice that can be contaminated with meat.

I don't exactly highly recommend any of these addons, but besides the streaky pork none of them were offensive, and none of them were crazy expensive. I wouldn't call anything extremely good value, but this restuarant has more priority on quality then value, and I can respect that.

My last comment today is a renewed warning on how boney Tilapia is. I've had it both here and back home, and while it is delicious when cooked well, like at this place, if you haven't had it before it will be the boniest fish you ever did see. Genuinely do be careful eating it.

Restuarant and item names in the title are written as provided by the Grab app with Thai to English translation on in settings.

This work is licensed under Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivatives 4.0 International

Attribute to review author "Nicolete Lovejoy".