Friday, February 13, 2009

Day 2 in Trang: Isaan 2004

It’s our second day in Trang and we were exhausted and hungry from our day excursion to view some of Trang’s beautiful coral reefs. Craving for some serious food May’s parents took us to try a restaurant that serves up dishes from a region known as Isaan. Located in the North East of Thailand, Isaan’s cuisine is distinct from mainstream Thai cuisine. Dishes from Isaan such as Som Tam (Papaya Salad), Lap (Meat Salad) and Gai Yang (Grilled Chicken) are widely popular throughout Thailand.

Opened by May’s former house keeper Isaan 2004 is an open-air restaurant whose open-concept kitchen is situated right in front of the restaurant. The smell particularly from their barbecue pit was amazing and made us salivate even before we sat down.

As usual we left all the ordering to the expert and just ate what we were given. Knowing that we’re hungry May’s dad ordered two plates of grilled pork and grilled chicken wings. The grilled pork was something I’ve never tried before. It is crunchy, a little chewy and had a strong smoky flavour from the charcoal grill. May’s dad explained the crunchy and chewy texture is unique to Isaan because they dry their pork in the sun before marinating and grilling it. Despite the chewiness I really liked the pork’s crunchy texture and flavour.

The grilled chicken wing was really tasty as well. Basted in a honey and lemongrass marinade the chicken wings were really tender. Wayne liked it so much that he ate most of the second helping of wings.

Moo Lap and Seafood Yam Woon Sen was also ordered. Both dishes tasted similar but were better than the one we had at Central Hawker in Bangkok. We preferred both dishes here because of our personal preference for liking to eat dishes that are sour.

Last but not least we also had pork ribs soup. Like most Thai soups it packs quite a lot of heat and is sour. Again I had trouble drinking the soup because of the heat but definitely loved the tender pork ribs that were in the soup.

At the end of our dinner Wayne and I were completely stuffed. May and her parents are probably sick of the food so they left most of it to us. And because it was good and we were hungry we did cleaned up every dish except for the soup. Like all the restaurants we had in Trang the bill was cheap and came up to THB600. With great food at a cheap price I’m not surprise why this place is packed every night. From being May’s house keeper to a successful restaurateur May told me the owner went from living in a house with a thatched roof to a bungalow after two years of opening this restaurant!



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