Yummy Halal Cuisines - Southern Thailand

One of the reasons why I enjoy visiting the Andaman archipelagos is the Thai food, specifically the hot spicy, lime enriched Thai food. I am no where close to Anthony Bourdain, the famous No-Reservation chef-author-traveler. Am not that adventurous like Andrew Zieman, but I still do very much appreciate the Thai food. Halal one, of course.

As we travelled up north to Trang, passing by Satun, Langu, and countless other small towns (which names I can hardly remember nor pronounce), there are numbers of stalls. Tried some cuisines and am loving it! (more than Loving McD!)

So, where shall I start? Which food?

Rice & Dishes and Desserts @ Suhana Restaurant, Satun

Satun is predominantly populated by Muslims. Thus finding halal food is never a problem. But asking for specific food in Malay language is a problem as not many of them converse in Malay.

Suhana Restaurant serves rice with a variety of dishes -beef curry with bamboo shoots, stir fried vege, fried fish & chicken, beef soup and at least 4 to 5 other local dishes. My all time favorite at Suhana is Tom Yam Kung (spicy shrimp soup). The soup is slightly different from the Tom Yam Kung serves in most Thai-food restaurants in Penang. Ohh, yeah, for those who have sweet-tooth, you'd definitely enjoy the desserts. Choose the classic mango sticky rice, or banana in sweet coconut milk, or black sticky rice served with sweet coconut milk...they are just so wonderfully sweet and tasty.

Grilled Squid with Bird's Eye Chilly, Satun Night Market

There's a night market at Satun main street every Sunday night. It's a typical night-market like the one we have in Malaysia. A weekly event that begins around 6 in the evening till about 10pm or so, where one can find local delicacies, clothing, etc.

One particular local delicacies that I just could not get enough of is the grilled squid with special dipping sauce. Imagine the nice aromatic grilled squid dipped in a hot tangy sweet sour sauce. Am not particularly sure how the sauce is made, but I could surely taste the tongue-burning birds' eye chillies, the aromatic finely-chopped coriander leaves along with the tangy lime taste. Gosh! My mouth is watery (just by thinking about it)!!

Look out for the shrimp with glass noodle salad too. Oh yeah, you guessed it right.. it's sweet, tangy with lime juice, hot with bird's eye chillies and yummy!

Tender Beef Soup (Thai Style of course), Pak Bara

Anthony Bourdain (or for that matter any food channel commentators) would describe Kobe Beef as so-tender-that-it-melts-in-your-mouth. I have never tried Kobe Beef; thus I'd reserve myself from saying this particular beef has a melt-in-the-mouth taste. Nonetheless it is tender! And one thing for sure it's scrumptiously good (and cheap!).
The clear beef soup is typically garnished with bird's eye chillies (of course) and chopped coriander leaves along with cucumber, (sometimes) long beans and sambal (hot chilli paste) and soft-sweet-fragrance rice.
Look for a Halal-sign restaurant on the left side of the road (if you are facing pier). Dang! Wish I had the restaurant name... (note: Halal restaurant is marked with a Crescent with a little star inside it)

Tom Yam Kung, about few kilometers south of Sungei Upeh
Tom Yam is another Thai delicacies that I could (and would) never get tired off. This particular store is located in the same area of gas station (err.. it's not Shell, Esso-Mobil. Truth is I don't know what gas station it is).
I bet this place sells more than just Tom Yam Kung; but due to my limited Thai vocabulary the only thing I know how to order is (you bet!) Tom Yam Kung.

There you go .. a simple list of halal-food eating places between the towns of Satun to Trang..