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Bizarre Foods in Phuket
By Andrew Zimmern on September 16, 2008 11:03 AM | Permalink | 33 Comments
I have always wanted to visit Phuket, Thailand's largest island and one of the most popular vacation destinations in Southeast Asia. Phuket made headlines when it suffered extensive damage from the Tsunami in 2004, but the island quickly rebuilt and Phuket's stunning combination of golden beaches, turquoise seas, green hills, mangroves and rainforest are a powerful intoxicant, but I came for the local cuisine. Southern Thai food is spicy and colorful, frontloaded with influences from the Malay peninsula, the local Islamic community and is based primarily on seafood and vegetables. That's the academic experience... but let me assure you that our trip to Phuket was anything but...
First off, I arrived into Bangkok and then flew down to Phuket, checked into a beach front hotel and took a long swim in the most perfect green-blue water I had seen in years. After an hour of body surfing and people watching, we headed into town to Wat Chalong Temple. Nothing like some street snacks after a long swim. Thais are great snackers. They don't believe in the western concept of three square meals a day. One of the best events of the year for inveterate travelers is the annual fair held at the Wat Chalong temple in Phuket. One of the most revered temples in southern Thailand, Wat Chalong has been holding the fair since 1954 and the event offers 10 days of live entertainment and features hundreds of stalls selling food and wares. From seafood pancakes to soup bowls, noodle platters with wickedly fiery hot chiles to sugar cane and crushed lime drinks, there is no better place to eat than the annual Wat Chalong fest.
We left there and headed over to Phuket's most popular night market. Every night vendors set up their mobile cooking units, tables and chairs, and display their fresh ingredients for the passing customers to view. This colorful market offers a wealth of Muslim, Thai and Chinese cooked meals and sweets. I wasn't as impressed here as I was at the temple, but we found a handful of funky seafood eateries cracking fresh oysters open and I was a happy camper.
The variety of cuisine and dining experiences is one of the major attractions of Phuket Island. Phuket restaurants cater to a wide variety of tastes and budgets, from simple street side noodle carts and grill stalls to five star restaurants with spectacular ocean views. While there are many restaurants that cater to fat tourists looking for deals, and trust me when I tell you that Phuket can be a hell on earth if you stand still long enough to let the tourist bus run you over. Stay away from the tourism kiosk recommendations and head inland to Mor Mudong. This restaurant sits deep in the mangroves and has several open-sided huts for dining al fresco. There are over 100 items on the menu at Mor Mudong, but don't miss the chili crab, the local greens such as Lin Han which grow along the beach and are cooked in coconut milk, the stingray, the stuffed fish and the grilled prawns are second to none.
The next day we checked out one of Phuket's more successful local industries, the production and preparation of cashew nuts. The local cashew factories can show you why the task of processing cashew nuts is no simple task. And the working conditions, and the labor force used to harvest this prized nut reminds me of an Upton Sinclair novel. Formed inside a kidney shaped casing, the cashew nut is suspended in poisonous oil, which can burn human skin. These toxins are initially reduced by boiling the intact shells, but the manual labor of cracking open the shells must be done by hand, with care. Day laborers paid by the pound of nuts cracked, wrap plastic around their fingertips to prevent the black oil from burning their skin. It's sad, on several levels, but it's also the way things work over in that part of the world.
About a half an hour away from Phang-Nga is the Baan Bang Pat Water Village, a Muslim fishing village built on stilts. When the tide is out you can see the mud and the ocean floor, but when the tide comes in the water rises 15 feet, about a foot below the floor boards on the houses. The dwellings are made out of sticks and pieces of wood, and some are completely exposed on 3 sides. The village supplies fresh and dried seafood to the mainland that they collect each day by net and spear. I ate a meal with a local family, with the mom doing all the cooking. She prepared Thai-Muslim food that utilizes more dried spices than conventional Thai cuisine. Like other Muslim cuisines around the world, theirs is largely meat-based, and dishes must be halal, meaning that cooks must follow certain religious precepts regarding the slaughter of animals, and the avoidance of pork and alcohol. Seafood is eaten with every meal for obvious reasons and Mom made a killer khao mok plaa, a fish curry cooked in rice with turmeric and renowned for its bright yellow color. We ate one of the most unusual sea snails I have ever tasted, and rode back to Phuket after a long day of shooting.
The next day we headed north to Phang-Nga province to a town called Bang Sak. We were visiting a family from North Eastern Thailand who came to Bang Sak after the 2004 Tsunami hit. The family of 4 helped with bookkeeping and built houses for Tsunami victims. Three years later they are still in Bang Sak, living in a community development center built to help Tsunami victims. They helped us find a teeny stall making one of Thailand's main ingredients, Pung Pla or Tai Pla, the old fashioned way…by hand. Thai Pla is the stomach of fish that are salted and fermented for about 3 months. It is then boiled with herbs such as lemongrass and galanga to kill the fishy odor. It's filtered and used to season many classic soups and stews. The hit of the trip was the dried sweet and salty fish that were wok fried at her cousin's stall next door. Superb. At the community center they were getting ready to make lunch. On the menu that day was anything they can find in the garden. We went to an abandoned ruin of a 3 star resort, overtaken by the jungle and never restored. We were looking for weaver ant larvae, garden fence lizards, cicadae, and any other surprises we could unearth.
The community center has a main kitchen where the family has cooked for dozens of volunteers during the Tsunami clean-up, and still frequently cooks for all the neighbors. Andrew joins the family in the kitchen and helps prepare the meal. We ate a larvae salad, some grilled lizards with lemon grass and a family friend made a special dish, pig intestines with half-digested food still left inside it. Yum.
We rode back to our hotel, and after 7 days, we ended right back where we started, diving into the ocean, floating on the waves, riding them into shore as the sun set, being sure to dodge the naked German vacationers as headed into dinner.
33 Comments
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- nathalie : Your show ROCKS!! i watch reruns over and over and it still amazes me every time :) More power...
- Alma : Andrew I am a huge fan of Bizzare Foods and Bizzare World. I watch your show every chance I...
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- Charlie: Chalk me up as one of those who was instantly made ill by watching this episode. The...
Im kind of curious as to how the Thai Pla taste but it sure did look grose. Now that dried fish that you went and had fried up looked real good. Oh by the way you became a pretty good lizard catcher!
As my wife and I watched you eat wasp larva and stingray while you where in Phuket, a question popped into my mind. What do you eat when you're at home? Do you ever just go to McDonald's?
One of my favorite episodes so far...they keep getting better. The funniest part is that I've actually caught an animal similar to the small crabs they were eating at the beachside restaurant, but we called them sand fleas and used them for bait surf fishing in Florida.
You realy get into every part of eating bizzare foods, I think its wonderful. You taste the food at the samme time you taste the country you in also. WOW!
Great show...FINALLY some one has taken on the "jungle food" of Thailand. Thanks for working with the local Thai food vendors, and showing how kind and wonderful the Thai people are. I have worked in Thailand for 30 years, you did the best job yet... Next time maybe Bourdain can do the traditional Thai food review...
You the best!!!
Your intro music sucks! You should probably get that changed. bbbbbiiizzzarrrrre shhhuuutttup
your show is my favorite on tv
I've seen a lot of gross things on this show, but by far the grossest was seeing you in a loincloth getting rubbed down with oil!
like the people who asked what you eat at home, i was also curious. What are the normal eating habits of Andrew Zimmern? we need the guy who follows the Geco Gecco to do a naturalist style show on you nodnod.
Seriously tho, my Fiance and I love your show, as we are foodies that will try anything once. Alot of the time we snack on chips and wish we were you lol.
The epsiode where you visited Phuket was the first time I had ever seen your Show, I happened to be channel surfing while Condo-Sitting for my sister for a few weeks taking care of her pets and watching over the place in general.
I was immediately hooked on your Show!! :)
Not only do you eat some of THE most unique and ethnic foods (well "ethnic" to a lot of people here in the US that is, HA!), but I really enjoy listening to you commentaries, your thoughts on all the various places yu visit and the people you meet and who are kind and gracisou enough to entertain you in their homes...I have to say THIS (and I know or it seems like you are best friends with Anthony Bourdain) I eagerly await new episodes of your terrific show and I would much rather watch your show than "No Reservations With Anthony Bourdain"
Keep up the really EXCELLENT work MR. Zimmern! You really have a show that you can be proud of and is much appreciated by Foodie fans all over the place!!
I don't see a blog for your Halloween Special. But I was watching it with my son and he said he would love to do something like that. He is only 10 but he likes to try weird foods, I myself wouldn't dare to attempt to eat some of the things you and your guests ate on the show. Will you be having any more special episodes were guests will be invited to try Bizarre foods? I would like to volunteer my son if you would like to include a young Bizarre food eater.
Love your show. Was wondering were you were based on Phuket Island. Was it Phuket City, Patong Beach or somewhere else. I love Phuket Island. Have vacationed there twice. Truly paradise. Also the Thai people are wonderful.
I love your show it's my favorite. I wished that you would have a contest on giving us(your fans) a chance to travel with you and get to taste bizarre foods. It would be an awesome experience for me and i am sure for your other fans too.Love your show so much!
I visted phuket, Thailand back in August while on vacation. I had a great time being able to meet some very kind and wonderful people. I was unable to see the Vegetarin festival they have every year. I would of liked it if you would have did a commentary on that.
whats up o bizarre one, i need to know where i can obtain some of those sesame cashew nuts. give a fellow chef the hook up. thanks andrew.
Outstanding show! Mr. Zimmerman, I love how you integrate with the people and thier culture. Anytime you need a partner to help, my bags are packed. Keep up the great work.
My husband and I were watching the episode on Phuket (Thailand)and there was a brief glimpse of a pot boiling with something referred to possibly as sweetened eggs...it certainly had eggs in it and a stringy mass was being swirled. I have tried to locate a recipe with no luck so far do any viewers have this recipe or know what I am referring to?
Thanks for all everyone contributes to this program.
Warm Regards,
Kimberly
Hey lookee here, maybe those quaint cooking fires ain't so "green" after all:
Cooking and Burning
A huge plume of air pollution, called the Asian Atmospheric Brown Cloud (ABC), emanates from Southern Asia and persists over much of the Indian continent and the Indian Ocean during the winter. It is so large and dense that its cooling effect may balance, or even surpass, the warming effect of greenhouse gases in the region. In order to know how to mitigate this scourge, its origin must be known. There are two major sources that contribute to the ABC--biomass burning and fossil fuel combustion--whose relative importance is unclear. Gustafsson et al. (p. 495; see the Perspective by Szidat) measured radiocarbon in particles from the cloud, and between one-half and two-thirds of the carbonaceous aerosols were from biomass burning. Thus, controlling biomass combustion, particularly residential cooking and agricultural burning, will be important to mitigate climate effects and to improve air quality in the region."
OMG! Andrew Zimern is making me feel soo hungry!!! Those coconut sweets, fish beef jerky and some of the crabs cookin.
There are truly some edible delights in Phuket. I can't wait to be there in a few weeks and partake of some of the wonders you ate.
I remember growing up in Congo and watching a friend processing cashews into nuts. Indeed it is a rather difficult thing to do. I remember eating the rather pungent cashew fruit from a tree we had close to our house.
why vacation, when you can migration...
I am watching you in phuket thaiand right now. You just went to a cashew farm. You had the cashew with sesame seed coating, which looked pretty good. Did that place have a shipping service? Because I would like to order some
That's really cool that you like Thailand so much. I'm half Thai and I go back to Thailand every 2 or 3 years to visit my relatives there. They live in northern Thailand, near Chiang Rai which is some 260km away from Chiang Mai. You should really try the food up north because it is really different from Isaan, Bangkok, and southern Thailand. There are these dishes which I particularly love, called gaeng (āšā¸ā¸) and they are a kind of soup/stew usually made with a really musty shrimp paste called "kra pi." I think you'd really like it, or at least find it interesting. Something that makes these dishes exciting, at least for non-locals, is the epic diarrhea you might have after eating this dish...
I think I've actually had Fish oil before. My grandmother uses it in Fried Rice and it really does smell sweet, and it adds that kind of flavor into her cooking. It's not as bad as it looks.
Andrew let's start a culinary travel agency that follows your shows path.
Excellent show. I went to Phuket a few years ago and i was awed by the freshness and the great tasting food.
I grew up in Thailand in the 60s and 70s and still travel back with my wife and son about every 4-5 years. Phuket was just a tiny fishing village back then, and was not a place we always traveled to Pattaya for our weekend getaways. But during our most recent trip in 2005, we stopped in and feasted. I loved Andrew's take on the blending of flavors in Thai cuisine. He hits it right on the head.
Perhaps one of the most wonderful things about Thai food is the variety based on what part of the country you are in. The food in the south is different than that in the north and northeast. Just watching Andrew's show makes me hungry and anxious for my next trip back to the "Land of Smiles".
i love your show because i am also a chef but i do have a suggestion or a destination for you. i am from guatemala and i know that our food is bizzare in some way at the same time is a country with a lot history and culture. i hope in the near future you consider to travel to guatemala whitch is also the country of the eternal spring. in spanish would be El pais de la eterna primavera.
Hmmm, you know it's odd to hear about eating stingray or "pig intestines with half-digested food still left inside it". I have been in Phuket for 9 years, we eat at all kinds of local restaurants. Things like those mentioned above are not normal food here. You want good local food, try Yam Gung Seab, a smoked prawn salad; or simple Kao Man Gai (rice with chicken) or Phad Thai or a bowl of Yen Ta Fo. Of course in Phuket you can also get McD's or KFC (though I should point out that KFC in Thailand does a spicy chicken and rice plate that you can't get anywhere else...). Even in the main beach areas, just get onto the back roads and you have normal food. If you have a chance, do check my Phuket Blog, the restaurant tips...
http://jamie-monk.blogspot.com/2006/06/restaurants-food-and-drink.html
Cheers
Jamie
Phuket
i am your biggest fan. i eat everything you eat.i ate a bug out of my backyard. it was good.i am only 10 years old.i want to be on your show.e-mail me so i know where and when.
You should consider doing a show in Des Moines Iowa if you like SE Asian cuisine. We have a large Thaidam-Lao-Vietnamese population here and things like fried grasshoppers, duck heads, chicken feet, raw beef laap seasoned with mint and beef stomach bile, baby duck eggs and an incendiary papaya salad are just common cookout fare here. My girlfriend makes a wonderful catfish mok pla that is to die for.
saw the episode where you ate the sand crabs...Want to freak the family out at the next beach camping trip...just corn meal and garlic then fry?
My wife and I went camping on Assatuegue Island last week and tried cooking "sand fleas", I always called the sand crabs, They are freaking awsome. First dredged in flower, fried in a little crisco the sprinkled with old bay. We could only eat 12 each, they are very rich. Crab like in flavor super crunchy they would be good for watching TV. NOTE: If you leave the legs on them don't let your wife see you cook them they flail around so much it is kinda creepy. do try.