Stop no. 2 in Thailand: Chumphon
This is basically a relatively less touristy town (as compared to all the other places that I visited) and we didn't really spend a lot of time here. Most of the meals were grab-and-gos or eaten while we were traveling.
Just a side note: if you are looking for good grab-and-gos to fill your tummy, go into 7-11 and ask for "foot long cheese". It's hotdog with cheese that ooze into your mouth with every bite, that's like 25 baht only. If that is not filling enough for you, go grab a bottle of meiji milk at 27 baht or even a magnum ice-cream that costs a fraction of what Singapore charges.
Back to the few Thai food that we had in Chumporn...
.Khaaw khaa muu. Pork trotters rice. 30 Baht.
From this dish, you can basically tell how much of an influence Chinese have on Thais :) In fact, quite a fraction of the Thai people have Chinese ancestries and some of them can even speak Teochew up till today, just look out for those shops with Chinese words or Chinese looking faces. Anyway, this is kinda like our braised pork trotters, just that the sauce that they use is slightly different and lighter than what I usually have at home. Usually they will give you a generous portion of FATS and you gotta tell them to give you lean meat and not give you the fats if you don't like it.
.A typical shop selling food in Chumporn.
.Phat sii yuu. 30 Baht.
Like what I mentioned in the previous post in Phuket, this is like the Thai version of stir-fried horfun. They will ask you what meat to put it, usually I like it with beef or pork :)
.Khaay ciaw muu saap. 35 Baht.
Omelette with minced meat. There is something very special about the khaaw ciaws in Thailand, once you tried it, you'll yearn for it every time you go to Thailand. You can attempt to cook it in Singapore, but no matter what you do, there will always be something lacking and it won't taste like the one you had in Thailand. It's not the fish sauce, it's not the fire. Perhaps it's the quality of the egg, or maybe, it's simply the atmosphere of enjoying this uber fragrant egg in Thailand. When you are having a meal in Thailand, just remember these four words "khaay ciaw muu saap" when ordering, you definitely won't go wrong.
.Khaaw krapaw muu. Pork with basil leaves rice. 30 Baht.
One of the most popular dish that you will see repeating in this series of posts on Thai food. An awesome dish. Though I can't really take spicy food, when I smell this dish, I can't help but take a few small spoonfuls of this dish, painfully remove the chilli, gather a pile of rice and enjoy the unique fragrance of basil, chilli and pork combined (only to drink a whole cup of water after eating this dish). The spiciness of this dish differs from stall to stall. For this particular stall, the spiciness was phenomenal, you can even smell the chilli distinctively. But for those hard-core chilli lovers, I think you will love this dish, just like my crazy chilli-fanatic friend.
Our trip in Chumporn ended with a magnificent view of a full semi-circle of rainbow on our way to the train station! Bye bye Chumporn and hello Hua Hin!
