Feast Thailand: A food lover’s guide to Hua Hin

With convenient access to Bangkok, a good selection of beaches and a wide choice of accommodation options, Hua Hin is one of Thailand’s best-loved seaside resorts. While it may lack the glamour of Phuket and Ko Samui, the Hua Hin area retains plenty of old-fashioned charm. It’s also home to a surprisingly diverse food scene.

The Hua Hin food scene inspired Leigh Higgins to establish Feast Thailand. Leigh and her husband had been regular visitors to Hua Hin before moving to the seaside resort permanently in 2016. Feast Thailand was Leigh’s way of sharing with other visitors her love for Hua Hin. Their food tours introduce overseas travellers to the diversity of food on offer in the Hua Hin area. 

Feast Thailand employs two full-time, English-speaking Thai tour guides, Belle and Cream. Both women have been with the company since the start and, like Leigh, are genuine foodies. We chatted with Leigh about her love for Hua Hin and her passion for Thai food.

What inspired you to set up Feast Thailand?

After travelling to Thailand for many years, we fell in love with both the food and the culture. We travelled extensively around the country but always ended up in Hua Hin as our final stop by the seaside before heading back to Australia.

Exploring the local food scene was always one of the highlights, and we really couldn’t understand why more travellers didn’t know about Hua Hin. We felt we could offer travellers to Thailand a food experience like no other, focussing on dishes that Thai people love to eat, rather than the Thai dishes travellers already know from their home country. It is all about showcasing the diversity of Thai food, as it gives travellers another reason for where they should holiday. We are very proud to say that the eateries on our food tours are where we eat regularly.  It’s about what we love as well as supporting local eateries.

From a food perspective, what makes Hua Hin so special?

Hua Hin has a unique food culture due to its location in Thailand. Firstly, it is a highly sought-after destination for Thai travellers wanting to escape from Bangkok. They want to taste local food and have an enjoyable dining experience, whether that be international or Thai food.

Secondly, you can dine at great eateries that showcase the four culinary regions of Thailand: Central, Southern, North and Northeast. This, in our opinion, is quite unique to Hua Hin. These regions all have different flavour profiles, and we recommend that you try restaurants which specialise in a specific region to get the true flavour profiles.

Hua Hin is not a large city, and everything is quite accessible. Travellers who want to seek out different food styles can easily do so, compared to other tourist destinations like Bangkok, Phuket, Pattaya and Chiang Mai, which are more heavily populated.

Not being an ancient city compared to some places in Thailand, Hua Hin has drawn on neighbouring areas for its own unique flavour profile.  Phetchaburi, north of Hua Hin, is known for its amazing palm sugar and salt production, whereas Pak Nam Pran (just 30 minutes south) has wonderful seafood and pineapples. Therefore, cooks in Hua Hin have embraced these ingredients and flavours to serve up dishes unique to this area.

What dishes do you recommend trying in Hua Hin?

Gaeng moo sapparot: Yellow curry with coconut milk, pineapple (both the juice and pieces), along with pork belly.

Hoi siap malakor: A street food favourite of a variety of dried seafood on sticks, but only in Hua Hin is it served with a dipping sauce of green papaya and palm sugar.

Tod mun bplaa insee: Fried fish cakes utilising the local mackerel called ‘bplaa insee’.

Dtun nam dtaan bpeuk bplaa meuk: Squid braised in palm sugar and often served with chillies, coriander, lime and onions that you mix together.

How about recommended places to eat?

These eateries are not found on the tourist maps, so the menu may need to be translated. However, they will give you a glimpse of the food we love and the venues we eat at.

Raan A-haan Lao Dtai Hua Hin (ร้านอาหารลาวใต้หัวหิน) 
A family-owned restaurant specialising in Northeastern food.
Location 

Khao Soi Wanphen (ข้าวซอยขนมจีนน้ำเงี้ยวหน้าวัง)
Open only during the daytime, this restaurant sells Northern Thai food favourites like khao soi and khanom jeen nam ngiao.
Location

Raan Dtai Baan Chaan (ร้านใต้บ้านฉ้าน)
This simple restaurant in front of a house specialises in Southern Thai food.
Location

Krua Bpaa Jeaw (Aunt Jaew’s Kitchen) Soi 102 (ครัวป้าแจ๊ว – เจ้าเก่าเขาตะเกียบ หัวหิน ซ. 102) 
Although this venue focuses on traditional Central Thai dishes, it is special because they give classic dishes a tasty twist by using unusual ingredients.
Location

Ratama (ระตะมา ก๋วยเตี๋ยวเป็ดพะโล้)
Specialising in duck noodles and other dishes with duck (daytime only).
Location

Sook Sook Pochana (ร้านอาหารสุกสุข โภชนา หัวหิน)
Delicious seafood in a modern eatery
Location

What advice would you give to first-time visitors who are nervous about eating street food?

Eating street food in Asia is a wonderful experience, and Thailand’s street food scene is super exciting due to the choice of food at any time of the day. Firstly, no vendor is focused on making people sick, as repeat business is their livelihood.

One of the best things about street food versus a restaurant kitchen behind closed doors is seeing the preparation, cooking and serving standards of the vendors.  Look and watch how the vendor operates. Check out how the proteins are kept: chilled, covered or on ice before cooking. Many travellers are told to look for the most popular vendor as they “must be a favourite of the local residents” or the “food is fresher” as it’s not sitting around waiting to be prepared.  While this can be good advice, if the vendor’s standards are poor, you may still run the risk of inferior food.

Don’t be afraid to simply point to something that you want to order, even if you don’t know what it is. Your eyes won’t deceive you, and if it looks good, chances are it will taste good as well. Every vendor will usually have a sign, so use your best translator to see what it says. Street food is generally not expensive, and it’s a great way to taste something new.

Lastly, if you are eating with your hands, don’t forget to sanitize them before eating.  Maybe it’s not the food that has made your tummy rumble.

What makes Hua Hin such a good travel destination?

Hua Hin is still relatively undiscovered, especially for first-time travellers to Thailand who generally head to the islands, Bangkok, or Chiang Mai. Because Hua Hin doesn’t have the same volume of tourists, it retains its own style. You can find accommodation that ranges from simple, local-style places to international five-star resorts and everything in between. As the home of the late king’s summer palace, Hua Hin is steeped in royal tradition, still retaining much of that charm and is not overrun by restaurants and shops designed only for international tourists.

While Hua Hin may not have the picture-postcard beaches of the south, it does make up for it by having very low rainfall, making it a desirable place to holiday.  For a seaside location, it has everything within reach, from national parks and waterfalls to local villages steeped in history, temples, activities for the family, or even a visit to a vineyard to taste locally produced wine.

Discover Hua Hin with Feast Thailand

A big thank you to Leigh for her time and for sharing her insider knowledge of Hua Hin.

Feast Thailand is a wonderful example of a responsible tour company that supports local businesses. Booking a food tour directly with Feast Thailand means you can enjoy a fabulous eating experience while supporting the local community. It will also allow you to discover venues and dishes that are hard to find unless you have an expert local guide to help you. 

To learn more about the food scene in Hua Hin and their range of tours, visit the Feast Thailand website and social media channels for more mouth-watering inspiration.

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Photos © Feast Thailand

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