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Tom yam and other adventures on Kamala beach
Summary
To eat Thai food is one of the hedonistic pleasures in Phuket. To duplicate it at home is possible—with a little adjustment
To search for the best tom yam soup or curry in the sylvan, usually sunny, island of Phuket was difficult, simply because the Thais rarely got it or any of their traditional food wrong, even when they tweaked it for tourist tastes.
“You wan’ mild, medium or Thai spicy?" We often faced that question during our first visit to Phuket. Erring on the side of caution, we settled for medium, before realising that was pretty much our home-spice level.
Since we were on a quick, five-day couple vacation, with no desire for a massage—happy ending or otherwise—to visit a discotheque or partake of other riotous charms so beloved of tourists, we were unsure what to expect. As we soon found out, Phuket is what you make of it. It presents options, you choose. So, we found ourselves on the laid-back, sparsely populated beach of Kamala, with a little promenade and just enough food options. Kamala is separated from the far more popular Patong beach by a hill, and offers—thankfully—few of its heaving, hedonistic attractions.
We found a better hedonism, Phuket’s food. We ate at tourist traps, street vendors and at our posh hotel. The food quality was excellent everywhere, with even hotel-restaurant prices almost the same as the modest restaurants outside. The best food was at little carts, food courts and vendors at local markets, and our best evening was spent with a rum in hand and our feet in the sand of the Andaman Sea, ending with dinner at our pick of best restaurant: Little Lillo.
Also read: Exploring Phuket and Krabi's ultimate beach getaways
It was the monsoon, but we were lucky with mostly sunny days, and some downpours. Our hotel, with four playground-sized pools, cost us ₹4,000 per night, with an expansive buffet breakfast thrown in. It even offered a little Indian corner of black dal and paratha, which we studiously avoided, and no one visited. We were the only Indians around. Kamala beach was probably just too quiet, and offered no comfort in desi numbers, although Ganesha and Hanuman were popular deities. Most clients at our hotel appeared to be Russian or Slavic of some persuasion, with a smattering of Brits and Germans.
It is hard not to compare Phuket to Goa. Yet, the differences, for tourists, are stark. Phuket is cheaper, better organised, friendlier—a swadikhaaa with a namaste goes a long way—and better value for money. Goa’s beaches are larger with great expanses of sand, but many struggle with dismal governance and garbage. Goa is about five times the size of Phuket, which gets more than a million tourists. Goa gets a few thousand fewer, the great majority domestic, but Phuket feels less crowded and has vastly superior infrastructure.
Thailand is a second- not third-world country. There were no power cuts while we were there, no garbage, and the roads were smooth and free of potholes. One coast of Phuket is on the Andaman Sea and gets the same monsoon used as an excuse for crumbling roads in India: Port Blair (renamed Sri Vijaya Puram as we left India) is closer to Phuket than Delhi is to Bhopal. In the old town of Phuket, traditional buildings were expertly preserved, and shopping was free of panhandlers, blocked pavements and other obstacles. Thailand is, quite obviously, a far more prosperous country than India.
One of the big charms of Phuket is its people. We did not hear a single honk during our stay, even though traffic was heavy in the towns. I spotted only one motorcycle jump a red light. App taxis are plentiful and reliable (Tip: use the far cheaper Bolt instead of the better-known Grab).
The town of Kamala had glittering mosques and a substantial Muslim population, so the food was more diverse than the rest of Phuket. There was no Islamophobia in daily life and on social media, and the existence of pork and alcohol with Islamic life was remarkable. Weed is legal, available at stores with droll names, such as Weed Vibes, High Cannabis, Stoner Hub, Tiger Roller, and Siam Health Herb. Smiling, hijabi woman offered, apart from chicken, squid, fish and meat on skewers, a variety of roomali-like fried rotis, stuffed with not just tuna and corn but mango and Nutella.
The famed papaya salad came not just in the vegetarian version familiar to Indians but with crab, anchovy and salted egg. The Thai curries were fresher, more fragrant and bursting with flavour and freshness. I do not usually buy local spices and pastes, but it was impossible to resist Phuket’s local brands.
Although traditional tom yam implies boiling water with mixed ingredients—usually galangal, shallots, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves—my version was a modification that made it quicker and easier to make with a 100g packet that I bought in Phuket. I did not have lemongrass and shallot, so I substituted and kept the chilli quotient low for my sensitive spice-sensitive teen. It turned out full-bodied, fragrant, and smooth as Thai silk.
TOM YAM-STYLE FISH CURRY
Serves 6
Ingredients
1kg Kingfish fillets
2-inch piece galangal, scrapped and sliced thin
4 kaffir lime leaves
7 shallots or half onion sliced
One handful, coriander leaves, roughly chopped
Tom yam with roasted chilli paste, 75-100g
2 tsp vegetable oil
1 can coconut milk, about 400gm
1 cup water
Salt to taste
Method
In a pan, heat the oil gently. Fry the onion until translucent. Add as much tom yam paste as you need and fry well. Add coconut milk, salt, water, galangal and boil. Slide in the fish and cook. When almost ready, add the kaffir lime leaves and coriander. Shake the pan around so everything blends well. Cover and cook until done. Serve with white or jasmine rice.
Our Daily Bread is a column on easy, inventive cooking. Samar Halarnkar is the author of The Married Man’s Guide To Creative Cooking—And Other Dubious Adventures. He posts @samar11 on Twitter.
