A Chef’s Tour - Phuket Old Town
Phuket Old Town is a wonderful blend of cuisines from all over southern Thailand, China, Malaysia, Myanmar and the Indian subcontinent. Taking a food tour is always a great idea and we may have found our favourite! Follow us on a day of foodie adventures with A Chef’s Tour eating our way around Phuket Old Town.
Disclosure: This article may contain affiliate links. We will earn a small commission from any purchases made through these links.
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.
If this article has whetted your appetite and you now want to book your own foodie experience click the button below.
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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Crossing the Border Between Malaysia and Thailand - The Road to Songkhla
After 6 weeks backpacking in Malaysia it was finally time for us to move on. Follow us as we travel from George Town in Malaysia to the historic old town of Songkhla in Southern Thailand. Read our blog for information on how we got to southern Thailand and the easy border crossing at the Sadao Malaysia Thailand border.
Disclosure: This article may contain affiliate links. We will earn a small commission from any purchases made through these links.
Our time in Malaysia was finally at an end. We had arrived in Kuala Lumpur in the middle of October and had spent 6 weeks exploring the country. Our final destination of George Town had been fantastic, a fiesta of food, street art and late night drinks. On the horizon now though was our return to one of our favourite countries on the face of Planet Earth - Thailand!
We had booked a bus through the Easybook app which would pick us up in George Town, cross the border and drop us off in the centre of Hat Yai, the biggest city in Southern Thailand. From there we would immediately attempt to make our own way north east to the historic coastal town of Songkhla.
The bus tickets cost us 100 RM for the two of us (£18.80 or $22.90). When we booked the tickets on Easybook, there were options to catch the bus from the Greenlane McDonald’s (in town) or from the main bus terminal slightly south of George Town. We opted for the slightly cheaper tickets, with the pick up point from the Greenlane McDonald’s, which was only a short 15 minute Grab taxi ride away from our hostel in central George Town. Tickets booked we received both email and WhatsApp confirmation, along with detailed instructions and photographs of where we needed to wait for our 8.15am pickup.
The day didn’t start fantastically. We had originally planned to get some breakfast Dim Sum before making our way over to the pickup point, but the only restaurant that looked open and serving was still setting up and couldn’t give us a takeaway. A McDonalds breakfast it would have to be (sacrilege but John was secretly looking forward to a hash brown).
A quick Grab and a cheap forgettable breakfast later, John’s phone rang. It was still twenty minutes before the pickup time and we were waiting in the car park as per our received instructions. The phone call from the bus driver asking where we were, therefore took us by complete surprise. The bus driver seemed to be saying we needed to immediately make our way to a different pickup point somewhere else in George Town entirely. With us speaking no more than extremely basic Malaysian (terima kasih, sedap and nasi lemak ayam were about our limit) and the bus driver equally not fluent in English, we eventually gave up on trying to understand where he wanted us to be and forwarded the WhatsApp conversation between us and the ticket office showing where we had been told to be and where we were now standing.
The bus driver to his credit immediately apologised for the mix up and told us to wait exactly where we were. 5 minutes later the mini bus arrived and we clambered in and set off for the border. The first hour or so, we appeared to be just circling around Penang picking up other travellers. Eventually, we crossed the water back onto mainland Malaysia and headed north to the Sadao border crossing.
We stopped about twenty minutes before the border in a (very nice) service station for the driver to arrange our TM6 immigration forms. A fee of 10 RM each (£1.87 or $2.29) was asked for by the bus driver and when asked, he said that this was for the Thai government insurance. We’re not sure whether this was to get the immigration forms completed by the service station, or if it is the new tourist tax, but either way we were at a service station in the middle of nowhere and did want to cross the border that day, so we paid. Our driver took the money and our passports and returned with completed TM6 immigrations forms, all we needed to do was to sign them (or so we thought).
A short drive later and we arrived at the Malaysian side of the Sadao border crossing. We decamped from the minibus and picked up our luggage as we needed to scan it through the Malaysian border. Bags scanned and our passports stamped to exit Malaysia, we got back onto the mini bus and crossed no man's land to the Thai immigration border. At time of writing, Thailand was being very generous to UK citizens and had temporarily (from October 2022 to March 2023) allowed a 45 day visa on arrival. All we needed to provide at immigration was the full address of our Songkhla hostel (the TM6 immigration form printed at the service station just said Hat Yai) and specify the number of days we wanted to be in Thailand. The Thai immigration was friendly and efficient, and very soon our passports were stamped with our 45 day visas. We headed out back into the blazing sun, and for the first time in five very long years we were back on Thai soil. We were ecstatic!
Back on the bus we were joined by a friendly energetic Thai lady who quickly asked everyone on the mini bus where they needed to be dropped off in the large city of Hat Yai. As we weren’t quite sure of how we were going to make our way to Songkhla we asked to be dropped at the main bus station.
At the main bus station we were passed from helpful person to helpful person like a baton in a relay race all the way down the line of buses to a half-full minivan to Songkhla. The tickets for the 29 km journey would cost us 34 Thai baht each (£0.80 or $0.98). We may be looking at this whole episode through rose tinted specs, but the instant jovial friendliness of the Thai’s was immediately apparent and very welcoming. Our little minivan quickly filled up and started the drive to Songkhla. Partway through the journey a plastic basket was passed through the bus for everyone to place their fare in and sort out their own change. Again this was a little reminder that we were very far away from South London as we can’t imagine what would happen if you tried this on the 159 bus to Marble Arch!
As we approached Songkhla the driver would stop wherever he was asked to, dropping passengers off on the side of the road. We stayed on until the end where we pulled up in a petrol station near the clock tower in central Songkhla. Hoisting our packs onto our back, we started the short walk to our hostel in the heart of the old town. As so frequently happens to us, we were waylaid by our stomachs and the call of curry. We stopped at a small joint serving rice and a selection of curries and tucked into our first Thai meal.
Sitting on plastic chairs and eating deliciously spicy curries, we knew we had arrived. We were finally back!
Thanks for reading,
John & Ellie x
#adventuresofjellie
Booking bus and train tickets between Malaysia and Thailand
When we made this journey, as we mentioned above, we booked our tickets through Easybook. However since writing this article, we have made this journey again, and this time we booked our tickets through 12Go.
12Go is a great option if you want to book your tickets ahead of time, with plenty of departure times and locations. For those who would like a private transfer, you can even book your own taxi!
Book your tickets here.
You can also cross the Thailand / Malaysia border via train. To do this you will need to book a train ticket to Padang Besar. Once you’ve arrived at the station you will need to get stamped out / stamped into whichever country you’re heading to and then board a train to your next destination. There is currently one train a day running between Padang Besar to Bangkok and five trains a day running from Padang Besar to Kuala Lumpur. If you’re heading to Singapore you will need to change trains in Kuala Lumpur. Again you can book train tickets in advance via 12Go.
Useful information for crossing the border between Malaysia and Thailand
By road you will need to cross the border at the Sadao border point.
Time difference between Malaysia and Thailand
Thailand and Malaysia are in different time zones with Malaysia being GMT +8 and Thailand being GMT +7. Be aware of this time difference if you’re booking onward travel / when approaching the border checkpoint.
Malaysia - Sadao Border Opening Times
On the Malaysian side, the Sadao border checkpoint is open from 6am to 12am.
Thailand - Sadao Border Opening Times
If you’re leaving from Thailand and entering into Malaysia the border is open from 5am to 11pm.
How to cross the border
Crossing the border on either side is a very similar process. On either side of the border checkpoint, you will need to make sure you have received your exit and entry stamp from both countries in your passport.
You will also need to have your luggage scanned through so will need to decamp from your bus and cross the border on foot with your luggage. Your driver will be waiting the other side for you to cross.
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The southern Thai city of Hat Yai is full of night markets. Following inspiration from YouTube we set ourselves the food challenge - The £5 market munching feast! What Thai foods can we get for £5? Can two people really get dinner for £5 in Thailand? How much chilli can one Som Tam contain? Is Hat Yai Fried Chicken really worth the hype? Read on to find out!