A feast in Phuket
When people ask what I think of Phuket, I tell them the food is simply fantastic. It’s an answer that weirds out many because I know that the question is just another way of asking whether I agree with the raving reviews of Phuket’s beaches. They are what Phuket is famous for, after all, so why would I talk about the food instead?
Beach bum that I am, and I’ve been a beach bum since childhood, I wasn’t impressed with what I saw of Phuket’s beaches. Not because the sand wasn’t as fine and pearly white as Boracay’s. A beach can have black or gray or beige or even pink sand and be great. But when you’re standing only knee deep in water and you can’t see your toes underneath, the water can’t be that great. So, I talk about the food instead. Because food in Phuket is, for me, something to rightly rave about. And I’m not even talking of posh restaurants. I’m talking about hawker food and market fare.
We arrived in Phuket on a warm and humid day (is there a non-warm and non-humid day in Phuket, anyway?). My friends wanted a massage right there on the beach; I wanted to take photos and swim. I took photos. I swam. But, like I said, the water was not too clear. I went back to shore and laid back on the beach chair that cost me a hundred ringgit (as the beach attendant said, “Nothing’s free in Phuket”).
After their (unsatisfactory) massage, my friends joined me. We bought fresh coconuts from a nearby stall…
Sipping fresh coconut on Patong Beach, Phuket
… and fried vegetable spring rolls and grilled chicken from a passing hawker.
Hawker selling fried spring rolls in Patong Beach, Phuket
Grilled chicken clipped in split bamboo
And they were just marvelous. The coconut water was cold and its meat succulent, the spring rolls were still hot and crisp, and the chicken, clipped in split bamboo, tasted and smelled of herbs and spices that seemed to spell T-H-A-I C-U-I-S-I-N-E.
But the snack by the beach was only the prelude. Our real target was a restaurant that reputedly served very good Pad Thai Noodles and Yum Pla Dook Foo (Crispy Catfish and Green Mango Salad). We failed to locate the restaurant, entered a flea market instead and that was where we found the most glorious food that made up for all my disappointment about the beach.
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OMG!That looks so good. I have my eyes set on the pineapple fried rice and the pad thai…kakagutom!
Hi Connie, I’m attending a Thai cooking class and we made pineapple fried rice last week. The addition of cashew nuts and turmeric is interesting. I must try this version!
Next week I’ll cook son-in-law eggs. I’ve read your post about the dish so I’m excited about it
Alisa, those are the two that I want to cook hehehe Already have the whole pineapple in the kitchen.
Dolly, the cashew nuts do add a very interesting texture to the dish.
Tita Connie that is faboulous! hahahaha! (I somehow feel akin to you since I’ve been following this site from 2003) Me and the wife are contemplating going to Thailand, Vietnam and Cambodia by next year, any suggestions where to stay there? That is really fantastic food.
Oh, I can’t help you in the accommodation department. I was on a cruise and didn’t stay in hotels except for one night in Singapore.
Connie,
I can’t wait with your Thai Cuisine experiments (for lack of a better term).
That steamed fish dish looks appealing to me. I’m imaginging in my head the appropriate fish for that dish, maybe a Pampano or Tilapia.
-Julius S
if you were in phuket it is 100 baht and not 100 ringgit. 100 ringgit is too expensive for a beach chair.
Right. It’s baht. Got confused. I was also in Malaysia for 2 days and 3 days in Singapore and my purse was a hodge podge of bills, including Philippine pesos.
Please don’t forget new recipes.
yeah ms.connie i am excited for your pineapple rice .. hehehe
Bukas. Dinner.
Sarap naman Ms. Connie, kakagutom….parang bitin pa nga ako sa post mo e.. waiting for the next issue on your travel
The ones that aren’t purely food-related are in the other blog. Click here.