I’ve found that novelty can often blind me to quality. If something is scarce enough, my impulse is to withhold judgment – assuming I know enough to even do any judging in the first place.
This premise holds true for most Thai-Muslim biryani, where mediocrity seems to be the rule. The rice might be hard; the chicken (with which the dish is typically served) might be cold, stringy and bland. And yet, I’ll often revisit these unappetizing locales because I crave yellow-colored rice and know of few modestly priced places serving it.
Enter Naaz. Located down a small sub-street off Charoen Krung 43, this old-school shop house is home to some inspired Thai-Muslim chicken and rice (which you can find for the respectable price of THB70). On my visit, the place was quiet and the service was slow. But any questions my party had about the delay were answered decisively by the food itself.
Each plate came with a moist piece of chicken covered with a generous heaping of biryani, or khao mok as it is known in local parlance. There is a heady mixture of spices at play in the dish – including bay leaves and cardamom – but there’s a measure of restraint, too. (The rice is not excessively oily, as is the case with lesser versions of khao mok.)
There are other things to commend the place as well. My friends and I sampled the chicken biryani (THB60), which was served on a small plate of rich sauce and best eaten with well-fried discs of roti (THB15). (Usually, Naaz provides an opportunity to get the biryani with goat, but one of the cooks was sick during our visit and goat was thenceforth removed from the menu.)
Be sure to ask about availability before you get too excited about something on the wall-mounted menu – not everything on display is actually on offer. According to the vivacious older lady running things, there aren’t enough customers these days to make it worth their while.
More visitors could only be a good thing for Naaz. Perhaps, if it’s busy enough, more of Naaz’s excellent dishes will make an appearance.
FIND IT:
Naaz
Charoen Krung Soi 43
(Take your first right immediately on entering the soi, and walk down fifty meters)
Monday – Saturday: 6am – 6pm
Closed Sundays
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James Yu is a freelance writer and editor. You can follow him on instagram @jamcyu and tumblr.
