The Best Food in Surat Thani- My Picks!

The south of Thailand is renowned for it's delicious and spicy cuisine.  Surat Thani, where I've called home for the past two years, is no exception.  The following is a quick video I put together of what I think are the best dishes from some of my favorite local restaurants in Surat.

The total video is about 8 minutes in length so if you want to skip around, the featured foods and restaurants are below.  *In Surat Thani, many of these restaurant names are written in Thai.  Since most of my friends and I cannot read Thai, we've made up these nicknames for the restaurants based on their location or what is served there (i.e. "Corner Guy" is a small hole-in-the-wall eatery run by one guy on the corner of an intersection).  Enjoy.

pic from wiki

Place: “Corner Guy”

Dishes:

1. pad see euw- stir fried noodles with vegetables, chicken, and brown sauce
2. yam yawd ma praew- fried coconut tips with a spicy salad (more like a dip) of lime, seafood, and vegetables

Place: “Earth Zone”      

Dishes:

1. 

   pic from joyfulabode

   kao rad pad ka praew gung- Fried Thai basil and spices with spicy shrimp over rice with fish sauce, chili, and garlic. I add a kai dao (fried egg) on top.
2. kaew muu sap- Chinese style, crispy fried dumpling stuff with minced pork and spices.

Place: “Rice Soup Place”    

Dishes:

1. 

   pic from oomame

   kao tam- breakfast soup of boiled rice and spices (I add egg and pork and lots of crushed chili)
2. batong go- fresh donuts served with condensed milk

Place: “Kampan”

Dishes:

1. massaman curry- Muslim curry dish ranked # 1 by CNNgo's 50 Most Delicious Foods in 2011. It's delicious flavor comes from coconut milk, brown sugar, peanuts, potatoes, cinnamon, fish sauce, palm sugar, and Thai chili, cooked with giant chunks of chicken breast.

2. 

   pic from wiki

   kao saway- white rice (served aside the massaman)

Place: “Good Health”   

Dishes:

1. 

   pic from satay

   geng keaw won gai- Thai green curry with chicken. This spicy curry is blend of onions, chili, cumin, lemongrass, minced garlic, brown sugar, cilantro, basil, and lime juice, with plenty of vegetables and chicken tossed in the mix. Served with white kao saway (white rice).
2. red curry with tofu- I don't support tofu nor this dish so I don't know what's in it.

pic from flickr

Place: “Shack By The River”     

Dish:

1. pad ka praew (gai, sai kai dao)- Thai fried basil and spices with minced chicken over white rice. I add a fried egg on top. Chicken broth soup comes on the side.

*Not mentioned:  "Rice Lady",  "Muslim Fried Chicken Stand",  "Chain-link Fence Place"

Food at the Surat Night Market

"Sooo, what do you eat over there?" is a question a get a lot from friends and family.  After two years, I'm finally leaving my Thai town, Surat Thani, to try my luck in the north of Thailand.  The food in the north is very different from the southern Thai cuisine I've grown to love so much.  In an effort to help capture some memories of the south's amazing tastes and smells before I leave, I decided to put together a blog dedicated to my favorite Thai eats in Surat.  This way, everyone back home can get an idea of what kind of food I've been eating and I can have an excuse for visiting all of my favorite restaurants one more time.  Instead, of taking pictures of food and scribbling a few boring sentences about what it's ingredients are and what it tastes like, I figured I'd give video blogging a shot (now all my friends that can't read can follow along too!).

photo credit to chungkingdiary

In the first installment of my food-based mini-series, I take you to one of my favorite places to eat... (talad senjao) The Night Market.  Just like every other Thai town, Surat Thani has an evening market where hundreds or even thousands of residents flock to buy and sell.  Whatever you're looking for the night market has: clothes, jewelry, puppies, DVD's, but most of all... delicious FOOD.

Thai people love food and the night market is recognized as a prominent aspect of Thai culture.  In Surat, we have four main markets: (1) the day market- where you can find all your raw meat and sea food for sale early in the day; (2) the Saturday night market-- only open on Saturday nights, mostly consisting of clothing, knockoff goods, and handicraft vendors; (3) the Sunday night market-- only opens Sunday nights on the far end of the pier and is mostly food vendors; and finally, (4) talad senjao, which is the common night market, located near the Tapee River.  It's smaller than the other markets, but open every night of the week to sell a variety of merchandise and food.  Take a look at the quick video I shot at talad senjao to see some of my favorite night market grub.  I tried to keep it short and sweet  spicy!  Enjoy!

*Featured: Pad Thai (Thailand's most famous stir-fried noodle dish) and som tam (shredded green papaya salad, muddled with lime, seafood, Thai chili, palm sugar, and other veggies)... Check it out!

In my next post, I'll take you around town to some of my favorite restaurants in Surat!