Friday, January 11, 2008

Finding Locals In Patong Food Park

Fresh raw vegetables tableside

Touristy Patong Beach isn't exactly a place for finding particularly unique food. Most of the establishments are filled with so many tourists that one might have thought that he were somewhere in Europe. And while the tourist vultures out at the Patong Food Park near Aroonsom were just as aggressive as they are at Boat Quay in Singapore, one stall in particular there loaded its tables up with a huge amount of raw veggies and seemed to cater to locals. Our choice of where to eat became a no brainer.

It was a good sign when we sat down, as the lady spoke no English nor had any menus. All she did was point to these big pots in front and asked us to pick from one of them. I selected some green curry, and figured that they would probably just dump some onto a plate of rice and let it be.

Kanohm JinSo it was to my surprise when they brought over plates of spaghetti-like rice noodles topped with the curry instead. Hey! That's that elusive kanohm jin! So that explains why there were so many types of veggies on the table. The noodles and curry were still just as disturbingly lukewarm as on my previous experience with this stuff, but I still piled on the condiments and slurped it all down.

That means that when we got the tip to come to this area for kanohm jin a couple of years ago, it was actually a valid referral; we just got duped by one of the many tourist vultures instead. Now we know. If you need help finding this lady amidst the rest of the tourist messes, look for the Kodak Photo Express and My Thai Guesthouse. The tables loaded with veggies should be right in front.

1 comment:

Anonymous said...

Found this dish in Golden Mile in a side alley off the main corridor. The chicken curry was pretty standard and creamy, the "fish" (didn't see the fish guts) one was mindblowingly hot (it gets there after awhile). There wasn't any green curry though.

They actually have dill(amazing !), basil and pickles beside the usual vegetable toppings.