Kyspeaks.com

After SeeTho brought us to the fantastic duck noodle place for our first meal at Krabi, I thought it’d be pretty difficult to follow up with an equally impressive dinner, but I guessed wrong. We spent some wet time at a hot spring waterfall and walked around Krabi town (more on those in upcoming posts) in the evening, then we were brought to this curious little place that looks more like a garden/forest reserve, which incidentally also serves as the entrance to Ruenmai Thai Restaurant.

beautiful garden setting

The restaurant is also a garden, with huge trees, small streams, little nicely decorated huts, and plenty of plants and flowers everywhere. Hidden among the vegetation were statues and antique objects, very nicely done. We were seated on one of the slightly elevated platforms right in the middle of the garden.

chicken with cashew nuts, ulam, and mango salad

Food was served by the friendly waitresses while we were busy snapping pictures of the beautiful place (and the food too, of course).

Appetizer was the classic mango salad with generous amount of lightly grilled cashew nuts. Then there’s also the Thai style ulam (salad) with cencaluk (preserved shrimp sauce). These two dishes definitely got our saliva flowing.

wild leave vegetable, siakap fish, clear tomyam soup

The main dishes were deep fried siakap fish (baramundi) with sweet and spicy Thai sauce and plenty of cilantro on top. The fish was very fresh and the sauce went well with fragrant steamed rice. There’s also stir fried chicken with onion, spring onion, and cashew nuts.

Of course, there is the rather delicious clear tomyam soup (similar with normal tomyam sans chili oil) laden with all sorts of seafood. However, the one dish that captured my attention was the stir fried “wild leave” that tasted very different from any other vegetable dishes. The leaves were slightly tougher to chew but carries a pretty unique ‘raw’ and authentic taste which I really like. You should try it if you have the chance.

Kim & myself, Nicole, Kel Li, Nigel

It was a really good Thai meal that ended with some mangosteen as dessert. SeeTho had it all planned out nicely, we got there just before sunset but half way during dinner, the sun retired for the day and the whole place was lit up with incandescent bulbs giving it a different and more romantic feel.

A more high end place, definitely costs a bit more than the duck noodle. Then again, it would be probably be half of what you’re expected to spend for an equivalent meal in Malaysia.

GPS: 8.07725, 98.90829
Tel: +6607 563 1797
Tel: 07 563 1797

Well well, finally here’s the first post for the FAM trip to Krabi, and yes, it is going to be a food entry. The trip was sponsored by SeeTho Holidays and organized by Nicole, thanks thanks!

The trip went much much better than I had expected, and the hospitality of Mr. See Tho himself was really overwhelming. Despite having 3 offices in South Thailand to run (Krabi, Phuket, and Hatyai), See Tho actually spent time with us pretty much the entire trip. His funny stories and friendly smiles will be missed. He also made sure we had the best foods during the trip, which is just mighty fine for someone like me. Look no further if you are planning a holiday to South Thailand.

a classic dish, Thai style duck noodle soup

It was just after noon when we touched down at Krabi airport, we were greeted with fresh flowers around our neck. First agenda of the trip was lunch, we were very eager since none of us ordered anything from Air Asia’s in-flight kopitiam service.

We reached this curious little place after some 20-30 minutes drive from the airport. See Tho introduced it as the “raining duck noodle place” as they constantly have water showering from the roof (for cooling purposes). The restaurant is built on stilts over a small lake, very old school.

the restaurant is built on a small lake

We ordered duck noodle soup for each of us, and patiently waits while sipping some bottled green Fanta that I haven’t drank since before puberty. Food did take a while to be served as it was a pretty busy afternoon, but boy it was worth the wait.

two drum sticks with some flat noodle

The duck noodle soup came with two duck drumstick, flat noodle (hor fun), bean sprouts and some spring onion on top. The soup is darkish and reminds me of koay chap I had in Penang, only this one was better. Despite drumstick being dark meat, it was really tender and required almost no effort to peel off from the bone. They must have stewed it with some herbs, the taste was superb especially with a bit of chili powder. I emptied my bowl with great satisfaction.

Mr. See Tho himself, and Kim enjoying the noodle

Since Krabi is still relatively underdeveloped and not overly commercialized as a tourist destination, each bowl only costs around 40 baht (RM 4), a very good deal don’t you think?

If you think this is great, the food only gets better and better along the trip, stay tuned!

GPS: 8.10854, 98.90387