Thai Food and
Phuket eating out guide
Food
Thai food is a true international cuisine and enjoyed
by multitude of millions around the world.
Thai food in Phuket, and throughout southern Thailand,
is heavily influenced by the bountiful harvest of fresh seafood from the
Andaman Sea. Seafood served southern style is unique, likely to be barbecued,
and employs numerous herbs and spices, garlic, lemon grass, chilies, mint,
cumin, basil, coriander, and shrimp paste.
 Phuket
has an abundance of great places to eat. To write about or try to critique
every one of them would make this book the size of a large city telephone
directory. Included are a few, but not all, of the good places in Phuket
to eat. We will start with a few general observations about Thai Food
and introduce you to some of the more unusual dishes of Thai food to be
found in Phuket. We apologize in advance to the hundreds of good places
to eat that for the sake of brevity have not been included, and we invite
them to contact us for inclusion in future editions.
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Thais love
to eat, and you will rarely be more than five minutes from a place
serving food. The most common Thai eating place is a roadside hawker
food stall. A local Thai will have a favorite hawker food stall
for just about every different type of Thai food. Some may look
a little shabby by western standards, but a visitor with a little
sense of adventure will discover some of the tastiest and most inexpensive
food ever eaten. To locate a good hawker stall watch where the Thais
eat and join them.
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It is a quirk of nature; but the most consistent
method of ensuring that a restaurant, particularly a small restaurant,
will either go out of business or serve the next customer a mediocre
meal is to recommend it to a friend.
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During your stay in Thailand it is recommended that
you eat Thai food a s
often as possible. Thais are justifiably proud of their food. It is
always made from fresh ingredients, usually purchased from the market
that day and is sure be well prepared. Most Thais rarely eat or have
an interest in Western food (except fast food like McDonalds or Kentucky
Fried Chicken). This lack of experience is apparent in some of the
Western food you will be served. Outside of major hotels and restaurants
you may encounter some rather bizarre and expensive attempts at Western
food.
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Most Thai food is not spicy or hot. The condiments
and sauces served with your meal (mostly for dipping food into) can
be very hot and spicy. Simply control the use of these and you will
generally be able to enjoy a wide array of Thai food and not have
an unpleasant experience.
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Phuket Town is a gourmet food lovers delight. Food
is generally both considerably better and cheaper in Phuket Town than
in the tourist areas. Going into Phuket Town for a few meals during
your stay will be well worth the taxi fare (150 baht each way), and
the time and effort.
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 The
following list is of Thai dishes that are worth going out of your way
to experience during your stay. For the most part you will not find them
served in Thai restaurants overseas.
Khanom Cheen Is arguably Phuket’s most famous
dish. This popular Chinese breakfast is a plate of rice noodles covered
with a spicy fish flake curry and served with plate of fresh vegetables,
herbs, and fruit.
Som Tam (papaya salad) A northeastern Thailand
specialty that many consider the national dish of Thailand. Thin slivers
of green papaya combined with peanuts, dried seafood, and vegetables all
mixed into one spicy salad that is eaten with sticky rice and fresh grilled
chicken. It’s very tasty but can be very spicy. Ask the cook to make
it my pet, (not hot) if you are concerned about the chili content.
Khao Mok Khai fragrant yellow rice served with
chicken. It is a Muslim specialty usually served for lunch, consisting
of roasted chicken on a bed of saffron rice, mixed with ginger which has
been fried lightly to make it crispy. Khao Mok Khai is not spicy unless
you dip the chicken into the sweet hot sauce provided.
Nam Prik Kung Siap. Dried prawn on a stick. It
is grilled and served with chilies, kapi (a pounded shrimp paste) and
lime. This is a very popular dish and must be tried to be appreciated.
The Tung-Ka Café in Phuket and the Kang Eng Restaurant both serve excellent
examples of this specialty.
 Khao
Yam Rice with kapi (shrimp paste) is another example of a dish you
just have to try to appreciate. The Kaw Tyam Restaurant in Phuket town
specializes in this dish.
Hokkien Mee Yellow
noodle soup served with shrimps, a Chinese specialty. Can be served as
a dry noodle dish or as a soup. Also served as Hokkien Mee Phat
or fried noodles.
Bo Pia Sot (Spring roll) A regional variation
found only in Phuket Town. Can be found in several of the small Chinese
restaurants you will encounter if you take the Phuket Town walk-about,
and also at the Night Market.
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Tap water is not safe for drinking. Drink only bottled
water or from a flask supplied by the hotel. Water provided in restaurants
is safe for drinking, but avoid all shaved or crushed ice particularly
from roadside fruit venders.
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