Grilled pork and chicken on sticks are among the most popular street foods in Phuket

Food Tours Phuket

Phuket is probably the best place in Thailand to take a food tour. Its capital city Phuket Town was declared a “City of Gastronomy” by UNESCO in 2017.

Great variety of food

Phuket is a great place to try many different kinds of foods from different cuisines and a chance to try food that is very hard to find elsewhere in Thailand, like Peranakan food.

The historic center of Phuket Town houses dozens of restaurants where you can sample a great variety of foods like Malay, Chinese, Southern Thai, Burmese and Peranakan.

Central and Northern Thai food as well as Western is available all over the island.

Whole fish with sweet chili sauce

The Peranakan

Drawn by the tin mining in Phuket in the 19^th century, many Hokkien Chinese migrated to Phuket and married local women. They were known as the Peranakan or Baba.

Today their heritage can be seen in the old town. The area along Thalang, Krabi and Phang Nga road is lined with Sino Portuguese shop houses and large colonial style villas. Many of them have been turned into restaurants.

Peranakan cuisine

Peranakan or Baba cuisine is a fusion of different cuisines and contains elements of Royal Thai cuisine, Hokkien Chinese food and Malay cuisine. A few well known Peranakan dishes are:

Moo Hong (stewed pork belly)
Mee Hokkien (stir fried Hokkien noodles)
Yum Som O (Thai pomelo salad with marinated shrimp and roasted coconut flakes)
Gaeng Pu Bai Cha Plu (crab curry with cha plu leaves)
Peranakan dumplings and noodles with crab curry

O-aew is a delicious Peranakan dessert of shaved ice, o-aew jelly, kidney beans and red syrup.

Grilled chicken satay with peanut sauce

Old Phuket Town food tours

A food tour will take you to the historic center of Phuket town. Sample a good variety of sweet and savory dishes at street vendors, fresh markets, food stalls, dessert restaurants and small local restaurants where the menu comes in Thai language only.

Duration varies from two to six hours. You can take a daytime, evening or even breakfast tour.

10 To 20 tastings

The number of tastings varies by food tour. Usually there will be ten to twenty tastings of starters, main dishes, desserts and drinks.

Try foods like Burmese curries with wood fired naan, grilled pork with peanut satay, sweet pandan coconut candy, Burmese tea and condensed milk, Chinese deep fried donut and local style coconut crepes.

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