The range of Thai food Phuket offers is very wide and, while the cuisine is most famous for its spicy flavours and generous use of chillies, not every dish is going to melt your fillings. For younger mouths or just those who don’t particularly like spicy dishes, here are five tasty Thai dishes which are comparatively mild.
Pad Thai
Probably the most famous in the country, on the menu of every Phuket Thai restaurant, Pad Thai is as popular with locals as it is with visitors. The basic ingredients are all pretty tame, including noodles, tofu, eggs, garlic, spring onions, chopped roasted peanuts and some kind of meat – usually prawns in Phuket. From here, the dish is highly customisable. It is generally served with a range of condiments, including palm sugar, lime wedges, fish sauce and chilli flakes. While locals will often pile on the chilli to give the dish a hefty kick, this is entirely optional and it is very tasty without it.
Khao Pad
This is undoubtedly the simplest Thai food Phuket has to offer, but is one of the most popular. It is exactly what the name suggests – fried rice, with some meat (again, usually prawn), and a few veggies. One of the more popular variations is called “American Fried Rice”, which includes a fried egg on top. This is very tasty when minced up and mixed in with the rice. As with Pad Thai, the level of spiciness is entirely up to the individual diner.
Chicken Satay
Satay is a very popular snack food right across Southeast Asia, but is perhaps best known as a Thai food. Phuket night markets are a great place to enjoy them, but even high-end restaurants serve them as an appetiser. The chicken is skewered and marinated in a tasty and extremely mild curry sauce. They are always served with a peanut sauce, which really livens up the flavour without adding any further spiciness.
Kway Teow
If you want to try something local but not too spicy, noodle soup is the dish for you. Heavily inspired by the Hokkien Chinese immigrant population, which arrived in Phuket in the late-18th century, it features round yellow noodles in a thin soup, with vegetables and seafood. It is not that widely available in hotel restaurants in Phuket, so you might have to go looking around Phuket Town to find a good place for it.
Massaman Curry
Yes, it is a curry, but it’s not as bad as you might think – it’s actually pretty mild, and not just by the standards of Thai food. Phuket chefs got the inspiration for this dish from Persian traders, so the heat doesn’t come from chillies, but from cinnamon, tamarind and star anise. Usually made with beef, it is quite a hearty dish, and a very popular one right across Thailand.
