Cooking in
Fort St. John
Thai · Bangkok
Guay Jab — Rolled Rice Noodle Pork Offal Soup / ก๋วยจั๊บ
Guay jab is a Teochew Chinese-Thai noodle soup — the noodles are wide rice sheets that have been cut and rolled into tubes (jab = rolled) and cooked in a rich pork broth seasoned with five-spice, dark soy, and cinnamon. The distinctive element is the offal: guay jab is always accompanied by crispy pork belly, braised pork intestine, and sometimes pork liver, heart, and lung. The broth is dark, spiced, and deeply savoury from the long pork bone simmer with five-spice and dark soy. It is one of the most distinctly Chinese-Thai dishes in the canon — eaten primarily at dawn and dusk, associated with the Chinatown food culture of Bangkok and Thailand's provincial capitals.
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- 10 · cinnamon stick, five-spice powder, dark soy sauce, pork intestines, pork liver, pork heart, dark soy sauce, five-spice powder, rolled rice sheet noodles (guay jab), fresh coriander
I
The Market List
The benchmark for each ingredient, and who stocks it near you. Tap a stockist to go straight to the product.
For the pork bone broth
1.5 kg
pork bones
rinsed
Your own market
3 litres
water
Your own market
3
star anise
whole
Your own market
1
cinnamon stick
whole
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1 tsp
five-spice powder
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60 ml
dark soy sauce
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For the palo (master stock braising)
500 g
pork intestines
cleaned thoroughly — see method
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200 g
pork liver
trimmed, sliced to service thickness before braising
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200 g
pork heart
halved, trimmed
Origin · PeruNot yet within reach of Fort St. John · each reach is counted
30 ml
dark soy sauce
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1 tsp
five-spice powder
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500 ml
water
Your own market
For the crispy pork belly
400 g
pork belly
skin on
Your own market
For the intestine cleaning
3 tbsp
coarse salt
Your own market
60 ml
white vinegar
Your own market
1
lime
halved
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To serve
400 g
rolled rice sheet noodles (guay jab)
dry; do not pre-soak
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4
garlic cloves
fried until golden, for garnish
Your own market
4 tbsp
fish sauce
for table seasoning
Your own market
2 tsp
white pepper
ground, for table seasoning
Your own market
4
spring onions
finely sliced
Your own market
1 small bunch
fresh coriander
roughly picked
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The larder of Fort St. John →II
The Method
1
Clean the intestines with rigour, working in stages so that each agent strips away what the last left behind. Turn them inside out and scrub thoroughly with coarse salt, which pulls the slick inner lining and its odour from the surface rather than merely rinsing over it. Follow with white vinegar rubbed along the full length, then the cut lime squeezed and worked across every surface; finish with a final rinse under cold running water, and judge the intestines ready only when they carry no residual odour beyond clean pork.
2
Place the pork bones in cold water, bring to the boil and blanch for 5 minutes — starting in cold water so the impurities are drawn out gradually as the temperature rises rather than sealed in by sudden heat. Drain, rinse the bones under cold water, and discard the blanching liquid. Return the bones to a clean pot with 3 litres of fresh water, add the star anise and cinnamon stick, bring to a steady simmer and maintain it uncovered for a minimum of 2 hours; the broth is ready when it is opaque, full-bodied, and carries a clear pork depth on the nose.
3
Stir the five-spice powder and dark soy sauce into the simmering broth, adding them at this stage rather than at the start so the spice remains bright and the soy does not turn acrid from prolonged boiling. Continue at a low simmer for a further 30 minutes. The finished broth must read deep mahogany — not black — when held up to light in a ladle; adjust with additional dark soy if the colour is too pale, but proceed with restraint.
4
Prepare the palo by combining the 500 ml water, dark soy sauce, and five-spice in a separate pot and bringing it to a simmer. Add the cleaned intestines, heart, and liver, keeping the heat at a gentle simmer throughout so the offal cooks through without toughening on the outside before the centre is done — as liver overcooked by even a few minutes turns grainy and bitter beyond rescue. Remove each piece as it reaches tenderness — approximately 45 minutes for the intestines, less for the liver and heart — and slice the intestines into 3 cm rounds for service.
5
Render the pork belly in a dry pan or roast it until the skin is blistered and the fat beneath is visibly crisp, giving the belly a second texture that cuts through the softness of the offal in the bowl. Rest briefly, then slice into 1 cm pieces. The skin must shatter cleanly under the knife — if it bends, return it to the heat.
6
Bring a separate pot of unsalted water to a rolling boil — salted water would begin softening the noodles unevenly before they are fully submerged — then add the rolled rice sheet noodles and cook for 2–3 minutes only, until they have softened and unrolled slightly while still holding their tubular shape. Do not allow them to sit in hot liquid beyond this point or they will collapse and lose the texture that distinguishes guay jab from any other noodle soup. Drain immediately and divide among four deep bowls.
7
Ladle the hot spiced pork broth over the noodles in each bowl so the heat carries the fragrance of the five-spice and soy up through the offal and pork belly arranged on top. Finish with fried garlic, sliced spring onion, and coriander. Serve at once with fish sauce and white pepper at the table.
From the canon — Fish sauce — nam pla — is the universal salt of the Thai kitchen. Fish Sauce (Nam Pla): Selection and Use →
III
Quality Hierarchy
01
Reserve — Palo maintained as a continuously replenished master stock over many sessions, as practised by the long-standing vendors of Yaowarat and Wongwian Yai; rolled rice sheet noodles sourced fresh from a Teochew-style noodle house.
02
Estate — Broth built from a previous batch's strained liquid, carried forward and freshened with new bones and whole spices; intestines sourced from a trusted butcher and cleaned to order.
03
Market — Single-session broth simmered for the full duration with quality pork bones; dry rolled rice sheet noodles from an Asian grocer; intestines pre-cleaned at point of purchase and re-cleaned at home.
04
House — Broth from pork bones with commercial five-spice and dark soy; dry rolled rice sheet noodles; offal limited to pork belly only if intestines are unavailable.
IV
Sensory Tests
◇Smell. Cleaned intestines carry no residual off-odour — only neutral, clean pork.
◇Smell. The long-simmered broth carries deep pork body and warm spice on the nose before the soy is added.
◇Sight. The finished broth is deep mahogany when held in a ladle against light — dark but not opaque black.
◇Touch. Braised intestines yield to gentle finger pressure with no rubbery resistance.
◇Sight. Cooked rolled rice noodles have softened and partially opened but retain their tubular form.
◇Sound. Crispy pork belly skin shatters audibly under the knife.
◇Where it lives or dies. The intestines must be cleaned through multiple passes of salt, vinegar, and lime until they carry no residual odour — any failure at this step makes the soup inedible.
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VI
What to Pour
Cold jasmine tea or a dry, lightly chilled Thai lager — the spiced, dark-soy broth demands a neutral, cleansing accompaniment; a tannin-heavy wine would fight the five-spice.
The whole pairingPillar VII
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Where the dish comes from and how it came to be — on every recipe.
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The working kitchen