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Trang, Thailand – Snacks!

Muu Yang

Trang, Thailand – I was told to check out Trang’s muu yang, a special roast pork, which wasn’t that hard since it was pretty ubiquitous throughout town. Charred and crispy, I found it in noodle soups, wok fried with sweet onions and exposed in long strips in the morning market.   Also in the morning market, I saw more pigs heads than I probably will for the rest of my time on earth and from the looks of it these pigs seemed to have enjoyed their time on earth.  Just look at those delicious grins.

Trang, Thailand – Nearly every time I sat down in southern Thailand, I was served a plate of nahm phrik alongside my meal (kind of like chips and salsa at a Mexican American restaurant).  You can find nahm phrik, a spicy dipping sauce, all over Thailand, though outside the south I usually have to order it.  Pounded in a mortar and pestle, the simplest nahm phriks are just a few ingredients.  Garlic, chilies, lime juice, fish sauce and shrimp paste (gapi) are common.  Some of the more complex ones require a little time in the wok, like my favorite the northern pork and tomato relish (nahm phrik ong), and others highlight ingredients like fish, tamarind and prawns among long, complex ingredient lists.

Just as you probably wouldn’t eat salsa alone (though I like to on occasion standing in front of the refrigerator spoon in hand), nahm phrik is always served as an accompaniment, typically to raw or blanched vegetables, and often in tandem with other dishes.  The first time I had nahm phrik, at a restaurant in Chiang Mai, I found it overwhelmingly fishy, presumably from the shrimp paste, and the appeal of raw vegetables with a bowl of the stuff perplexing.  Since then though, I’ve found nahm phriks that I really love and have even come to crave that spicy, sour and pungent sauce with some fresh vegetables.  So to those who say I’ll try everything once, I say if at first you don’t like it, try, try again.

Trang, Thailand – Arriving in Trang, the first thing I did was grab a plate of muu paa (spicy curry with pork) at a little mom and pop shop on Rama 6 near the clock tower.  Literally I got off the bus, walked about a block to an open-front restaurant serving about six different curries, in addition to some steamed buns (salapao) and snacks, ordered and sat down.  Like many of my meals in the south, it was served with a plate of raw vegetables and bowl of nahm phrik (chili sauce) on the side.  The curry was thick and spicy with a black pepper punch and bitter pea eggplant.  Bite after bite of curry and then chile sauce, I ended up downing my cola in full and my mouth was still burning when I requested the check.  Time to find a hotel.

Trang, Thailand – After leaving Had Yai, I found myself in Trang on the kind recommendation of Austin Bush.  Now there’s not a whole lot to do in Trang proper, but there are a lot of coffee shops, which I found myself sitting in quite often.  Trang coffee, or kopii, is thick and viscous, often ordered with a layer of condensed milk on the bottom and sometimes served with a pot of tea on the side.  Most, but not all, of the coffeeshops serve snacks as well and my favorite was the Chinese steamed bun (salapao) filled with a luscious, lightly sweetened eggy custard.

Khao Mok Gai (Curried Chicken and Rice)

Had Yai, Thailand – Curried rice and chicken, streets, night market and more.  A few last images from Had Yai.

Had Yai

Condiments

Fried Birdies

Curry and Khanom Jean (Fermented Rice Noodles)

A Woman Eating Khanom Jean and a Wine Glass of Iced Tea at the Dinner Market

Had Yai, Thailand – Another goodie at the Had Yai morning market.  A Thai sweet, dough rolled up, palm sugar pressed into its center, blanched in water, then rolled in shredded coconut.  When you bite into the sweet, the palm sugar melts in your mouth.

Curries

Had Yai, Thailand – There aren’t many sights of note in Had Yai – a ho-hum reclining buddha (wat hat hai yai), a park and little else.  More fun is the town’s lively morning market.  Unlike many markets that are cramped and covered, this one was lining the streets out in the sun.  Easy to browse without getting run over by a handtruck and pleasantly breezy, I loved walking through this market.

Ba Tong Ko Vendor

Grilled Rice in Banana Leaves

Dried Shrimp

Khanom

Chilies

Fried Rice

Leaves Twisted into Flowers

Dim Sum

Had Yai, Thailand – While perusing Had Yai’s sunny morning market, I got a call from June and my new friends.  They wanted to know if I’d like to join them for dim sum; I rushed over.  We ended up at Chokdee Dim Sum, 45/17 Lamaisongkraw (near soi 2), a bustling, open-air spot up the street from the Neo Hotel.

Now instead of ordering from menus or dim sum-loaded carts wheeled past your table, as I was accustomed to in NYC, you go up to a case of uncooked dishes, choose what you want and leave a piece of paper with your table number.  I got a little nervous when June started ordering plates of uncooked pork semi-traumatized by the time I ate raw pork of my own accord, but everything arrived in freshly cooked in steamer baskets.

And when I say fresh, I really mean fresh. This dim sum wasn’t greasy, laced with copious amounts of msg or overladen with salt.  We had cabbage-wrapped steamed pork, chewy brown rice with crispy pork, steamed buns, pork-stuffed bitter melon and tender, saucy spare ribs.  Alongside it all, was an invigorating light, soy-based soup made with enoki mushrooms and dark greens, which my friends told me was good for the health (something about Chinese medicinal herbs or something).  The flavors of this meal were clean and full, unencumbered by too much seasoning, and unlike my other bouts with the Chinese feast I didn’t walk away feeling hazy and overstuffed, ready for an aspirin, a bottle of water and a nap.  In fact, I was ready to take on the day.

Soup with Mushrooms and Medicinal Herbs

Southern-Style Thai Tea, Iced and Hot (Cha-Yen and Cha-Ron)

Had Yai, Thailand – Within a few hours of arriving in Had Yai, I was taken under the wing of a group of single Thai women in their 30s, led by June, a confident professional who carried three phones with her.  We started talking in a coffee shop and pretty soon they were driving me around town, helping me find a hotel and scheduling dinner.

In Bangkok at Chatuchak market and downstairs in Siam Paragon, I’d seen the theatrical process of making Southern-style Thai tea (I’m told it’s also made this way in Malaysia).  The tea man mixes the tea from two cups at arms length from one another in long arching streams of the milky orange liquid above his head and around his back.  Mixing it in this way aerates the tea so that it has a layer of bubbles when served.  The girls decided to bring me to their local spot.  In Bangkok, people gather round to gawk, but here groups of Thais gathered around wood tables in the garden, chatting, drinking and eating, while the tea man did his dance unnoticed.

Roti

Making Southern-Style Thai Tea