Thai Muslim foods versus others

I went to Satun which is in South Thailand twice in a month and notice the uniqueness of Thai Muslim foods compared to the normal Thai foods sold in Hatyai.

On this trip, I went to Koh Lipe and explore their local foods instead of the cafe foods or the regular BBQ seafoods. One of the most common Thai Muslim food is the yellow sticky rice, very much like our nasi briyani. The packet of rice is accompanied with one piece of chicken. Taste wise, it has a very mild spicy taste.

Meanwhile, we tried another unnamed food foreign to us. It is like kerabu with white fungus, chicken feet, green mango, instant noodle, peanuts and other interesting stuffs in it. I was already too tired to bother taking a close up shot of the little bowl of kerabu thingie. But it is really fun eating the crunchy white fungus with chicken feet.

This couple here speaks Hokkien like Penangites. So I am not sure if they are Muslims. Some of the stalls have a sign that says their foods are Muslim foods but I doubt our more conservative Muslims from Malaysia dare to try them because their ‘standard’ of halal is definitely not like our Malaysian ones. They even serve halal and non-halal foods from the same plate and where their chicken comes from is another big question..

But, the BBQ chicken which costs B10 is very nice. It is nothing like our satay, yet rather interesting. The other thing that we ate a lot was the fried chicken with the Thai chillies sauce and skewered of funny looking balls and sausages.

We are glad that all of us have very ‘strong’ stomachs and no one get any tummy aches from eating at those tiny, roadside stalls. There are some decent restaurants and cafes on the Koh Lipe island as well. We had some pretty good meals at the hotel we stayed, Varin Beach Resort. We also tried out an Italian restaurant mentioned in many foreigner blogs.

The above bowl of tomyam goong is smashing good. It is only B300 (abt RM30) and is loaded with very fresh prawns, squids and fishes. It is enough for three of us, eaten with white rice.

The Italian restaurant (well, it is more an open air cafe) also serves good handmade pizza which costs B300. (non halal)

The beer on Koh Lipe is cheap as well so it was Chang Beer or Fanta for us at every meal.

We love Thailand because their foods are always so unique to us. They have a lot of pancake shops but unfortunately I was either too tired or too rushed to sample it. However, my children did enjoy the various types of pancakes they have which are usually served with lots of condensed milk.

Oh did I mentioned that many of the Thai Muslims on the island and also at Satun speaks Bahasa Melayu? We feel so at home with BM and Hokkien speaking Thais.