A Chef’s Tour - Phuket Old Town
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We are what you might call foodies. There are other words for what we are; adventurous eaters, food fanatics, or just plain gluttons. From high end Michelin Star restaurants to the cheapest of street food, we are food obsessed. As culinary travellers, many of our choices of where to go and even what countries to visit have been made due to the food that would be on offer. It should come as no surprise then, that when in the food wonderland of Thailand, we wanted to dig a little deeper and learn a bit more about Thai cuisine than just green curry, mango sticky rice and Pad Thai. We wanted to go on a proper food tour.
Phuket Old Town is legendary for its food scene with Michelin recommended street food, colonial style shop house restaurants and an amazing blend of cuisines. We found ourselves visiting Phuket to meet up with some of our lovely friends from the UK. To get ourselves curated with the best Phuket could offer, we decided to book ourselves on “A Chef’s Tour - Southern Flavours Phuket Old Town” food tour.
We came across A Chef’s Tour as they have consistently been recommended to us from other travellers, Instagram as well as a bunch of YouTubers we follow.
The food tour started outside the entrance to the main market in Phuket’s Old Town. We met with our lovely guide Nam and the rest of our fellow foodie explorers for the day. Introductions completed, we set off down into the bowels of the market.
Our first stop was at a lady’s stall selling all manner of vegetables, aromatics and herbs. Nam explained to us what each herb was used for in Thai cooking, as well as treating us to have a little sniff and taste of everything.
Our taste buds primed, we moved across into a wall of fragrance, where we found ourselves next to a curry paste vendor. Bowls stacked high with pastes in every shade of ochre and saffron. A large vat of red paste was pulled aside and proudly showed off to us as the legendary massaman curry paste, a southern Thai favourite. We were given the run down of the 10 basic ingredients of the massaman, and as soon as we were told what was in it, our noses could instantly start to pick out the individual ingredients. As our food tour started mid morning, the market was winding down, but you could see from the empty bowls, and the tide mark on the vats, that these curry pastes are popular with the locals.
Our appetites suitably wetted, we moved on to the first course of the day.
Kuay Jab - Rolled Rice Noodles and Pork
At the back of the Central Market was a charming little counter with a smiling Auntie behind it. The Auntie was introduced as “mum” as our guide Nam was a childhood friend of the owner and had apparently spent a good portion of her youth sitting at this counter chowing down on steaming bowls of Kuay Jab.
Kuay Jab can look challenging to start with, a dark broth filled with all the bits of the pig that in the West would be at the bottom of the barrel. Ears, snout, heart, intestines, offal and all the rest. These more exotic parts (to the West at least) are slow braised along more regular cuts of pork. In eating, bravery is often rewarded. People don’t eat this because it's disgusting or weird, it's not a novelty, they eat it everyday because it's delicious!
There are two types of Kuay Jab, a light clear broth version called Kuay Jab Nam Sai made with a pork bone stock. The second version is what we ate on this tour, Kuay Jab Nam Son. Our broth was rich and dark in colour, with a distinctive aroma of star anise and cinnamon, mixed in with coriander, spring onions, garlic and three types of soy sauce.
Kuay Jab sets itself apart from other pork soups with its unique noodles. Small squares of rice flour noodles are dropped into boiling water and tapioca starch, where they curl up like little scrolls. These are then added to the soup, along with all the pork meats and give a wonderful texture as well as a perfect surface area for absorbing all of the delicious flavours.
The Kuay Jab was incredible. Unique in flavour and texture, and by the end of the meal there were a lot more converts to pig heart and ear around the table than there had been at the start.
Before we left, Nam challenged the group with a “century egg”. Century eggs, or hundred year eggs are not eggs that have been kept for 100 years! They are simply eggs that have been pickled and cured in brine, and then buried in ash giving them a unique texture and a very challenging look. A century egg is a strange mix of black and translucent, with the yolk clearly defined on the inside. Its taste however, is not so challenging. It just takes like a very eggy egg! Seriously, if you took all the tasty parts and the smell of the egg and just intensified it, you’d have the taste of a century egg. Like lots of the things we have eaten on this trip, the only difficulty is the visuals. Get past this and you’ll be in for a treat.
Rice Salad, Chicken Murtabak, Roti and Teh Tarik - Aroon Po Chana
We left the market, and wound our way through the colourful streets of Phuket Old Town ending up outside Aroon Po Chana restaurant. This southern Thai muslim restaurant gave us a clue before we even stepped in as to what we might be eating. Right at the entrance, on the street side was a large tawa grill. These flat circular grills are a tell-tale sign that roti is to come. The lady in charge of the tawa was skillfully stretching, spinning and draping translucent roti dough onto the sizzling hot surface. We made our way inside.
It turns out we weren’t entirely accurate with our predictions of what we would be eating, as the first thing that came out to us was a Khao Yum southern rice salad. We had never heard of this southern delicacy before, but Nam quickly showed us how to toss the rice, roasted coconut, carrots, cabbage, beansprouts, fried fish together with lime juice. The salad is eaten alongside a potent chilli dip and crunchy fresh green vegetables. This salad was unlike anything we had eaten before. The sweetness of the roasted coconut paired brilliantly with the salty fish, and the rice provided just enough body to make every bite super satisfying.
Next out of the kitchen came the crispy, oily and rich chicken murtabak. In its simplest terms, a murtabak is a stuffed savoury pancake that's then fried and grilled on both sides to crispify the exterior. Our murtabak was filled with a shredded chicken curry, rich with an almost sweet cinnamon flavour. To balance the decadent richness, a strong vinegar pickle of shallots, chilli and cucumber was served alongside. The corner pieces of the murtabak were especially delicious when dipped in this vinegar, as the extra crunch was amplified by the near raw vegetables in the tangy vinegar.
After our two starters, the savoury roti arrived. Roti can be translated literally to bread. However in southern Thailand, roti usually refers to “Thai pancake”. A thin dough, stretched out until it's like a huge translucent pizza which is then folded and cooked on a piping hot tawa. After being cooked on the tawa, the roti is “clapped” to give it extra surface area. By clapped, it is literally placed on a board and roughly smashed between two hands, breaking the uniform disk of the roti into crispy, chewy shards, perfect for absorbing anything they are dipped into. Our roti came with a massaman curry. We had seen the paste in the market earlier, and all the aromats we had smelled in the market were here tenfold. The cooked curry smelt amazing. Dipping the crispy roti in the massaman made it all the better. The curry coated and stuck to the roti beautifully and the whole bite was a symphony of spices.
We thought we had finished our roti experience, but we were very wrong. Out came two new colours of roti, bright green and jet black. This was the pandan roti and the charcoal roti and this was now the sweet course. Drizzled with sweet condensed milk, this was a great example of the versatility of roti. Sweet, crispy and morish, it's no surprise that a version of this, is the namesake of the SE Asian ‘Banana Pancake Backpacker Trail’.
To round off the meal was the famous teh tarik. Tarik is Malaysian for pull, and teh is unsurprisingly Malaysian for tea. So teh tarik is pulled tea and is widely popular in Malaysia and southern Thailand. The tea is poured from increasingly impressive heights from one cup to another, which aerates the tea and gives a smoother texture. Our teas came out towering with foam and tooth achingly sweet from the condensed milk. This black tea and condensed milk combo gave a much needed energy boost after such a heavy meal.
Hokkien Food Court - Spring Rolls and Satay - Lock Tien Food Court
We left the roti shop slightly disbelieving that we were less than halfway through our food tour, and made our way to the Lock Tien food court. This compact little food court had stores all around, many of them specialising in Hokkien cuisine. Hokkien cuisine originates in the Chinese province of Fujian and is spread all over South East Asia.
We went to a stall specialising in hokkien spring rolls where we watched the stall owner expertly roll up our soft shelled spring rolls. The texture of the spring rolls was not at all like the crispy exterior familiar to take away goers in the UK.
These rolls were wrapped in a soft wheat flour pancake. The chewy, slightly spongy exterior gave way to a crunchy filling of salad, beansprouts, yam roots, boiled yam and char siu pork. Served alongside was a fermented soybean sauce mixed with sour tamarind, sugar and chilli. The group were split as to whether these were better than the more familiar fried version, or just not for them. However, these were a unique try and certainly not like any spring rolls we had tried before.
Alongside the spring rolls, another stall had supplied us with satay. Marinated meat, with a sweet savoury peanut dip and a tart pickle, you really can’t go wrong with a good satay!
Ahpom Coconut Pancakes - Pong Mae Sunee - Michelin Recommended Street Food
At the corner of an unassuming street lies possibly the cheapest Michelin recommended food we’ve ever seen. A small cart, topped with six charcoal braziers, was manned by a charming couple churning out delectable crispy coconut pancakes.
A thin batter of rice flour, eggs, coconut milk and sugar was spread evenly across the tiny metal woks set over the coals. A lid went on top, so that the bottom of the batter crisps up against the pan, whilst the top steams into fluffiness. We were reminded of the Sri Lankan hoppers we had eaten during our time in that amazing country and our guide Nam said this may well be because the dish originates on the Indian subcontinent.
Once the pancakes reached the perfect level of crispy goodness, they were removed from the pans with a palette knife and an expert flip, and quickly rolled into loose cylinders. Presented with these fat crunchy cigars, we bit in. The pancakes were incredible, light as a feather yet full of the rich sweet flavour of toasted coconut. The textures were perfect, the cylinder shape meant you had many layers of snappy crunchy batter, but with a softer underside. As we bit into the middle of the pancake, the coconut flavour intensified. Due to the bowl shape of the cooking vessel, the batter is slightly thicker in the centre, lending an almost spongy coconut chew to the middle. They were fantastic!
Everything was included in the price of the food tour, but these were so good we had to buy another portion to takeaway. This did not exactly break the bank as each pancake was 3 baht (£0.07 or $0.09).
Despite their Indian origins, you can’t help but feel that this is the perfect expression of sunny Thai desserts. Light, sweet and full of that quintessential coconut flavour, we’d love them for breakfast with a coffee, although this might not be the healthiest start of the day. Word of warning, the stall sells out extremely quickly, so get there early in the morning!
Ahpom are also popular in Malaysia, but under the name Apom. Definitely seek out the peanut version of this if you’re ever in a Malaysian food court.
Burmese Naan & Curry - Mingalar Coffee Shop
After pancakes, we headed back towards the market and walked around the busy shop lined back streets to “Little Myanmar” - A collection of Burmese shops and restaurants clustered together in Phuket Old Town. We’ve always wanted to visit Myanmar, so we were very excited to have the opportunity to try the food.
The streets around Phuket Old Town market are always bustling!
Standing outside the Mingalar Coffee Shop (mingalar is part of a Burmese greeting) we were blasted by the hot air from the tandoor oven sitting at the entrance to the restaurant. Nam quickly roped us all into an impromptu naan making class (try saying that quickly) with one of our group kneading and forming the Indian bread before it was slapped into the furnace-like opening of the tandoor oven. Whilst the bread cooked we took our seats.
We were quickly presented with an array of colourful Burmese dishes. Along with our naan bread. We had crispy spiced samosas, a chicken curry, chickpea dahl, crispy fried chickpeas and most excitingly to us, a fermented tea leaf salad. We had heard of this dish via one of our many YouTube sessions, and had been eager to try it as it sounded so unique. We were not disappointed.
The fermented tea leaf salad was made up of shredded white cabbage, shallots, garlic, beansprouts, chilli, dried shrimp, peanuts and the fermented tea leaves. The fermented tea leaves were sour and tart, yet complex. The salad had a layered tasty flavour unlike anything we had eaten before. As a contrast to the curries, deep fried samosas and hearty naan bread, this tangy salad was a perfect accompaniment.
The curries we ate here were completely different to the Thai curries we had eaten so far. These curries showcased the Indian influence in Burmese cooking, and unlike their Thai counterparts were not cooked with coconut milk. They were stronger in dry spiced favour, whilst being lighter and less creamy than the coconut based Thai curries.
One dish that split the group was the pickled roselle leaf. This deeply sour pickle had a slight funky taste to it, from the pickling/fermenting process. We enjoyed its salty, sour, umami taste but the others in the group found this a little too much and we can see why.
We were really happy at our opportunity to try some Burmese food, like we say we’ve always wanted to go but circumstances are making that quite difficult and Burmese food doesn’t yet have the international representation of other cuisines.
Hokkien Noodles and Roselle Juice - Ko Yoon Noodles
By now we must have looked like a group of hippopotamuses (we’ve just learnt that a group of hippopotamuses are called a bloat, and we can’t help but feel that this is perfectly apt for this situation)! We were five locations in, and at least ten courses down but there was still more to come.
The penultimate stop was a beautiful Hokkien noodle shop. Walking into this restaurant was like walking into someone's front room. The walls were crowded with nik-naks, family photographs, children's toys and other nostalgia. Nam explained that until recently, the family that ran the restaurant lived in the building and the restaurant dining room would have to transform into their living and sleeping area after service hours. Sat at a cosy nook table, we were presented with a bowl of the famous hokkien mee.
This hearty bowl of noodles was piled high with dumplings, thick noodles, fish balls, prawns, fried garlic and shallot, chilli and crushed peanuts. Using our chopsticks we mixed this all together with the rich, dark sauce from the bottom of the bowl. The taste was deep and savoury, balanced with tart lime and the sweetness of the prawns. We were very full at this stage and shared a bowl, but it was so good we still managed to wolf it down.
You can get hokkien mee two ways, in soup (nam in Thai) or dry with a soup on the side (haeng in Thai). Ours came with soup on the side and the light broth was a perfect palette cleanser in between mouthfuls of the savoury sweet seafoody noodles.
Whilst in the restaurant, we were brought strange fruit that looked like purple flower buds. This was the roselle flower. Eaten raw, they were extremely sour, but in a fun way almost like the sour sweets you ate as a child. Next they brought out the roselle juice. It was totally different whilst at the same time obviously made from the same fruit. Like the flower buds, the juice was a vibrant purple served cold with ice. Sweet, but not cloying, this was a deliciously refreshing drink. Later on in our Thai adventures we would frequently seek out roselle juice when dining at markets. This with the soup and the noodles was a perfect end to the savoury portion of our food tour.
O-Aew - Iced Lychee and Jelly Desert - A Phuket Speciality
The final stop at the food tour was for desert. We walked into a Momentary Coffee, a stunning cafe, art gallery and hostel. We were here for the Phuket specialty desert of O-Aew.
O-Aew is shaved ice in a flavoured syrup with jelly made from the seed of the o-aew plant. The only issue was, we physically couldn’t fit any more food in. We tried a couple of spoonfuls of this desert and it was refreshing and light, yet sweet enough for those looking for a sugary fix. Our o-aew came with a lychee and ginger syrup topped with sprigs of mint. We really enjoyed our taste, and can imagine it would make the perfect desert, or a tasty way to cool down from the Phuket sun.
Final Thoughts
The tour is extremely well organised, and Nam did tell us right at the start that restaurants had been pre-warned so that if we were full or wanted to ration ourselves then it wouldn’t be rude or awkward to leave anything. Members of the group who were more or less adventurous were catered too, with Nam being more than happy to ask for alternatives where needed. All in all, it was exactly how a food tour should work.
“A Chef’s Tour - Phuket Old Town” is our favourite food tour we’ve been on so far. Maybe it's because we went with our friends, maybe it was Nam’s excellent direction, personality and knowledge, or maybe it was Phuket’s diversity of culture and cuisines, we don’t know. We hadn’t realised just how diverse the southern cuisine of Thailand and Phuket was. In a single day, we had eaten from Indian influences with the ahpom and the Burmese cuisine, through to Chinese and Hokkien dishes, all the while, every bite permeated with the unmistakable Thai flavour and charm.
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If you’re in Phuket, do check out taking a food tour. It was definitely one of our favourite days on this touristy island.
Thank you for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
A Chef’s Tour offers amazing, unique food experiences in many countries and cities (we also had an amazing time in Delhi). From Bangkok to Bogota, Chiang Mai to Kolkata they offer amazing food tours across the globe. Check out the link below and look around their website to see where they can take you.
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