While I love all Thai food, I'm always thrilled when I'm traveling in the south. Some southern Thai food is a little too spicy for me, but Thai-Muslim food is always a win, and I'm always up for some good seafood! Oh, and you just can't beat southern-Thai fried chicken! Even though we were just in Hat Yai and Songkhla for two days, we certainly ate well.
After all, isn't trying good food the best part of traveling?
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| yellow biriyani rice |
The yellow rice is richly flavored with curry spices (cinnamon, cardamom, cloves, saffron, and turmeric), and it is served with super crispy fried chicken hot out of the oil.
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| southern Thai fried chicken |
I don't know how they make southern-Thai fried chicken, but it's the best in the world! I've heard that they marinade it in fish sauce and other spices overnight before frying, but however they do it, it just can't be beat! The chicken and rice are topped with crispy fried onion and eaten by hand.
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| southern-style fried chicken with biriyani rice |
On our first evening, we had dinner at a local rice porridge shop. Here, we were served a bowl of rice porridge and several side dishes to accompany it.
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| dinner at the porridge stall |
First we had a shrimp omelette, fried in oil to be crispy in the Thai-style, and stuffed with fresh Thai herbs like lemongrass, kaffir lime, and holy basil.
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| Thai basil omelette |
Next, we had a spicy mixed salad with slices of sweet Chinese pork sausage. I love anything with Chinese sausage! It adds a richness and a sweetness to the otherwise spicy and sour salad!
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| spicy salad with sweet Chinese sausage |
Our final dish of the evening was a dish made of squid stir-fried in salted egg yolk! It was so rich and filling. The egg yolk made a creamy sort of sauce, and it was all topped in green onion and crispy fried garlic. Delicious, but tons of cholesterol!
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| squid and salted egg yolk |
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| fresh steamed crab |
We also got a dish made from some very strong-smelling steamed vegetable that's apparently really popular in southern cuisine. It was scrambled up with eggs and fresh seafood. I really liked it!
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| steamed vegetables with egg and seafood |
Gaeng Som, or orange curry, is one of the most famous southern Thai dishes. This one was made with huge fish eggs and slices of young coconut for richness and flavor.
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| southern-style gaeng som (orange curry) with coconut and fish eggs |
I'm happy to go along to get seafood when we travel as long as I can get softshell crab! It's probably the number one dish that makes me the happiest. I can't get enough of it, and I always get it whenever possible. This dish was fried up with garlic and served with a chili dipping sauce.
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| deep-fried softshell crab with garlic |
I think that Pinky's eyes are much bigger than her stomach when it comes to seafood! I was a little shocked as the dishes kept coming to our table! Next up was a big plate of steamed mussels, also served with spicy Thai seafood sauce.
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| steamed mussels |
And finally, we had a big plate of crab fried rice on the side! I'm happy to announce that we were able to finish our whole meal, but we didn't need to eat anything else for the rest of the day!
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| crab fried rice |
If you enjoyed this post, check out some of the other's that I've written in my Eating Well series!
And as always, don't forget to stop by my other blog, The World of Street Food!
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