Chon Tong features authentic Thai eats you won't find anywhere else in Philadelphia

ByWendy Daughenbaugh WPVI logo

Thursday, April 13, 2023

Chon Tong has Thai eats you won't find anywhere else in Philly

At Chon Tong Thai Kitchen & Dessert, you can try dishes that owner Thidarat Teekabud says are offered everywhere in Thailand.

PHILADELPHIA (WPVI) -- At Chon Tong Thai Kitchen & Dessert, you can try dishes that owner Thidarat, aka Grace, Teekabud says are offered everywhere in Thailand.

There are desserts like kanom tom- rice flour balls with a sweet coconut filling, Thai banana steamed in coconut milk, and Thong Yip-egg yolks boiled in syrup and then hand shaped into a flower.

The floral eggs are served in individual cups, traditionally at weddings and other celebrations for good luck.

Grace came to Philadelphia in 2019 after graduating from college in Bangkok with a degree in economics. She wanted to learn English but, once here, she says she noticed a distinct void in Philadelphia's dining scene.

There was no place to get the authentic Thai desserts she'd grown up eating.

So she successfully pitched her mother on the idea of staying in the States and opening a restaurant.

Grace's great, great, grandmother had been a chef for the fifth King of Siam in the late 1800s. Chon Tong features her recipes.

There are six desserts on the menu along with some lesser-known Thai entrees, like fried mussel pancake, vegan corn salad with Thai chili, pork hot pot, spicy chicken wings and seafood and rice noodles made pink by fermented red tofu.

Along with opening a business, Grace also met her husband and the two just welcomed a baby.

The name, Chon Tong means golden spoon, which signifies prosperity, specifically inherited wealth, much like the American phrase "born with a silver spoon."