Hua Hin Thailand Dining and Food

[Chris Amirault]

This is the first of a few posts on our days in Hua Hin in early June. I didn't devote a great deal of time to photographing every food cart in the city, partly because there are other resources out there that document the hawkers very well and partly because I had capacity for only 500-odd photographs, which would have gotten me through only the first 36 hours. On our first morning, having walked the 5 km into town on the beach, we grabbed a streetside breakfast on Th Naresdamri, our first of many such rice/egg/curry dishes, this one with pork, chiles, and long beans:

I also snapped a quick shot of these crepes with yellow beans and coconut that morning, but they were better looking than tasting. As with a few different curdy, custardy, crepe-y items, they lose a lot as they cool:

On our first night in Hua Hin, we ate at Let's Sea, a beautiful if stupidly named restaurant just off the beach (and a short walk from our room at Tadkham Village). Everything we had was just fine, if overpriced: an excellent grilled squid salad, some good if slightly dry sai oa (northern Thai pork sausage), a miang khum with kale leaves as untraditional wrappers, and som tam with crab that lacked any spunk. One advantage to being in town during the rainy season is that resorts like Let's Sea are basically empty, allowing us to saunter through the meal and a couple of Singhas with patience. However, our desire for more oomph and less ahhh lead us downtown for the next night's meal.

The Hua Hin night market is, predictably, a sprawling affair whose spine runs along Th Dechanuchit with many additional tendrils extending north and south. There are dozens of food stalls, of course, but there are also a string of seafood restaurants with hosts thrusting menus in your face as you amble around. After perusing all of them, we settled on Lung Ia Seafood Restaurant:

The restaurant extends from a small storefront out to the main walkway of the market, probably about ten meters or so, and it's hard to describe the profound commitment to economy of space. Here's a shot of the chef working at some of the wok:

Her pace, intensity, and care were what drew us into the restaurant itself. (That and the large number of locals, who seemed to be avoiding nearly every other restaurant on the market strip.) Over her left shoulder you can see the several dozen bowls in which the mise en place sat, available to her, to the chefs behind her running the salad and soup stations, and to the waitstaff, who garnished as items came out of the woks, off the grill, and so on. Directly in front of her is a rack of bottled sauces (two or three kinds of fish sauces and soy sauces, kecap manis, oyster sauce, what looked like black vinegar, and some unlabeled items), and in front of that sits a charcoal grill, on which a few pounds of shrimp, fish, mussels, and the like were grilling at any given moment.

The place ran like a well-oiled machine all night long -- and then, when the last customer was scraping up the last bit of fish, they broke the entire kitchen down, packed it up, and took it away. Everything: the grill, the wok stations, the stainless steel prep tables, the front iced display, the plumbing. Everything. It was astonishing to watch.

We ate there twice while in Hua Hin, and found it excellent both times. Of course, it was also dirt cheap, with most dishes running about US$1-3. (Thai food, that is: some of the other farangs there seemed hellbent to get a steak and chips to go with their several Heinekens, but not us.)

Fried rice with pineapple and shrimp:

Grilled prawns, a smaller version than the massive beasts available for bigger bucks:

Green curry with squid -- and please note the carrots, which we found, along with other New World items like potatoes and tomatoes, in many different places on the trip. No one seemed particularly vexed at these supposed violations of authenticity:

This shrimp and squid salad contained some fried, tubular shrimp crackers that suffered mightily from the humidity (true everywhere we tried them):

Fried rice with shrimp paste:

Coconut milk soup, with the ubiquitous and happymaking crock of palm vinegar and sliced bird chiles:

Finally, given snowangel's prompting, I felt it my duty to try a glass of Mee Khong Thai whiskey:

I've heard this described in a lot of different ways that didn't make much sense, but to me this tasted exactly like a golden rum mixed 1:1 with shaoxing wine. Since I like both of those beverages just fine, I enjoyed the glasses I had, and the head waiter at Lung Ia seemed so tickled at the farang tippling Mee Khong neat that I got a second glass for free. We never did try the Mee Khong & Coke on the rocks, but I can see how that might work just fine.

Next up: Chatchai Market.

[OnigiriFB]

Oh wow this thread will bring back some good memories. Is Hua Hin still the upper classes beach or is turning into a more touristy area? I believe the King famously has a palace there so all of hi-so followed and then the upper middle class followed them.

My first time in Hua Hin I fell down a very steep staircase in a Thai style house on the beach that belonged to some uncle's uncle's aunt or something. The last time I was there I fell off a retired racehorse I foolishy took for a ride on the beach when he just wanted his nice oats at home. I remember him galloping toward home with the groom on his horse yelling behind me while I tried to grab the reins closed to his mouth to stop him. Next think I remember is starting to slip off and waking up on the nice soft beach with a Thai lady speaking really good english bending over me. Thank god for soft white sand and kind hearted english Thai ladies. That was the only time I think I forgot to speak Thai in Thailand. I think the groom got yelled at for letting that happen and I felt bad cause it was mostly my fault. Walked away with just a bruised elbow and even more bruised ego since I was so sure I'd be able to ride the horse. You'd think riding lessons would have taught me how to fall of the dang things. I did get back on though so that soothed my poor ego since my riding instructor always told me if I fell off and didn't get back on I'd never ride again. I loved horses so that was NOT an option!

Other than that Hua Hin was LOTS of fun! I loved stopping at some stall on the way back for this special pudding? I don't remember the name but it comes in a square tin and it's rich. Did you try that? It's supposed to be the best in that province or something. Big white building with a ton of different old style Thai desserts and a lot of BMWs and Mercedes Benzes parked outside on the weekends usually.

I remember a lot of crab stir-fried in chili garlic paste, steamed or deep fried pomfret (that has to be my favorite fish with just some simple fish sauce/lime dip) and shrimp being grilled on the patio and beach area. I don't remember going to any restaurants or street stalls. We mostly did our own cooking for once (usually the domain of the housekeeper/cook at home in BKK). The only other time I think we didn't cook our own food is when we stayed at some REALLY ritzy resort for my Auntie's 60th bday thank you weekend party. We had thrown a humongous party for her in BKK and all the daughters of the house did a traditional Thai dance. That was a lot of fun too. I remember a huge buffet of amazing food that took up the entire patio area of the resort. Imagine a family of about 40 people taking over a nice resort and you can imagine my family all traveling together. We ate so much I'm sure Aunty got her moneys worth outta that buffet! It was really really good food.

Gosh, talk about bringing back memories! Thanks for starting this thread!

[Chris Amirault]

Hua Hin is in a massive transition in certain ways; we spent most of the time listening to the noises in the construction sites near our hotel, and there have been a slew of new resorts built in the southern half of the beach, stretching down toward Takiab. However, the food scene seems pretty stable throughout the area.

Other than that Hua Hin was LOTS of fun! I loved stopping at some stall on the way back for this special pudding? I don't remember the name but it comes in a square tin and it's rich. Did you try that? It's supposed to be the best in that province or something.

I'm not sure what you mean. Was it a coconut pudding?

[OnigiriFB]

Hua Hin is in a massive transition in certain ways; we spent most of the time listening to the noises in the construction sites near our hotel, and there have been a slew of new resorts built in the southern half of the beach, stretching down toward Takiab. However, the food scene seems pretty stable throughout the area.

Other than that Hua Hin was LOTS of fun! I loved stopping at some stall on the way back for this special pudding? I don't remember the name but it comes in a square tin and it's rich. Did you try that? It's supposed to be the best in that province or something.

I'm not sure what you mean. Was it a coconut pudding?

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Hrm... I have no idea. For some reason I'm drawing a blank on the pudding. I know it's based on some Portugese recipe that got adapted decades ago into a Thai dessert. They sell it all over but the province you go through to get to Hua Hin has a special Thai dessert store that we always stopped at. I just remember it being white and open aired mostly. The pudding... hrm.. let me think a bit more on it. It's in a square alumininum tin and it's the only one that I remember coming in that kind of container. Pretty famous custard. Ah.. ok um.. maybe it's a custard? It's baked I think. Or steamed? Oy! No help this silly brain of mine.

[Chris Amirault]

In the northern part of the city, in an area bounded by Ths Dechanuchit, Phetkasem, Chomsin, and Sasong, is the massive Chatchai market.

There are a number of stalls along small alleys, others in two large buildings, and then more on the streets. As someone who had never been to a Thai outdoor market before, I was overwhelmed by the variety, quality, and sheer size of the market -- in the middle of a city of fewer than 50,000 people.

I'll do my best to describe what I saw there, using my decent (for a farang) understanding of Thai ingredients, but I urge any and all other members to chime in, correct, and answer the inevitable questions.

I got there fairly early (7a I think; thank you, jet lag) and discovered a collection of northern and southern Thai and Chinese items. This is a typical alley view:

There were several items that were, without question, the most amazing specimens I'd ever seen. For example, for okra lovers like Brooks, here's what heaven looks like:

I wasn't sure, of course, but I'd bet that this okra, like lots of the produce and fish, had been picked, harvested, or caught that morning. We saw lots of fishermen (no women) on the beach catching squid, for example, some of which must have wound up in markets like this one.

Here's are three typical stalls, with several kinds of eggplant, water spinach, peppers, various alliums, cabbage, okra, long beans... all of it in remarkable shape. Note as well the tomatoes, which I saw throughout Thailand:

Here's one of my questions. I think that this is very young ginger, but I'd like more opinions:

Chives, bitter gourd, and something I couldn't identify. Again... help?

Different zones of the market are devoted to different items. It seems that the main reason is infrastructure: you want good drainage for meat and fish, for example, which you don't need for produce or dry goods. Here's part of the fish market:

Adjoining the fresh fish stalls are many dried fish and shrimp stalls:

I spent a while watching folks prepare coconut in three forms, all of it as fresh as can be. The coconuts are shelled and peeled, then processed in one of two machines. This one produces shredded coconut meat that hasn't been dessicated, so it's still most, even creamy:

This machine produces two things: coconut milk and the resulting dessicated coconut:

Everything is packed into the ubiquitous clear plastic bags for the trip home or elsewhere. This vendor nearby apparently gets his stash early in the morning for the day's khanom krok or coconut pudding:

These were the items primarily responsible for my weight gain while away. Every chance we got to get some fresh we did so, biting into the not-quite-searing disks to crunch through the thin crust into the creamy pudding. After 15 minutes they're pretty soggy, so it's worth it to wait by the stall to get the disks fresh off the dimpled cast iron pans.