12 dishes to try before you leave Mueang Khon
Ranked by how distinctive they are — the dishes that capture the bold southern flavours and food culture of this temple city.
The most southern dish in Mueang Khon — a deep, intense curry made from tai pla (salted fermented fish innards), simmered with southern curry paste, turmeric and chilli, with vegetables like bamboo shoots, pumpkin, aubergine and long beans. The flavour is salty, hot and full of curry-paste aroma, eaten with hot steamed rice and a plate of fresh raw vegetables (phak naeng) to cut the heat. To be honest, this one is genuinely spicy and intense — a treat if you eat hot food, but start with a small spoonful and follow it with the vegetables if you don't. It's the dish where you'll find the most traditional taste in this part of the south.
The south's healthy signature, done well in Mueang Khon — steamed rice tossed with herbs and several shredded vegetables: lemongrass, kaffir lime leaf, bean sprouts, sour mango, toasted coconut, ground dried shrimp and torch-ginger flower, dressed with budu sauce, a savoury-sweet fermented-fish sauce that is the heart of the dish. Toss it all together and you get sour, salty, sweet and a gentle heat in one bite, very fresh and fragrant. It's a light breakfast or lunch that's not very spicy (you can ask for less chilli powder), and a good first step if you want to try southern food but aren't ready for the fierce, hot dishes.
Kanom jeen is an everyday breakfast and lunch across the south, and Mueang Khon is known for it — fresh rice noodles with a choice of sauces: nam ya pak tai (a fierce turmeric fish curry), nam ya kati (a milder coconut version), gaeng tai pla and chilli relish. What sets southern kanom jeen apart is the big pile of fresh vegetables served free alongside — long beans, bean sprouts, pennywort, stink beans and local greens. Southerners eat their kanom jeen with a lot of vegetables, and it's normal to pile them on. If you don't handle heat well, the coconut nam ya is the gentler one. It's very cheap and filling.
A popular Mueang Khon breakfast is niao gai — hot steamed sticky rice eaten with fried chicken that's been marinated and fried until fragrant, or southern-spiced chicken dry-fried with curry paste and herbs for a deeper, bolder taste. Some stalls do plain fried chicken, others go heavier on the southern spice. With sticky rice it's a filling, cheap morning meal, the kind locals grab before work or before making merit. Beyond chicken, the southern things you'll find alongside sticky rice include fried pork, southern sausage and fried fish. Look for it around the morning markets or at roadside stalls and it's easy to find.
Mueang Khon has old Chinese roots, so dim sum is a Chinese-southern breakfast you can find here much like in other southern cities. Dim sum shops open early and serve dumplings, har gow, buns, chive cakes and other steamed bites in little steamers you pick one at a time, with kopi or hot tea before the day starts. Prices are easy and you order several to share. The dim sum culture here is smaller and less famous than Hat Yai's, but it's an easy light breakfast in the city centre and works well before heading out to the great temple. Come a little early while everything is still out and fresh.
Mueang Khon's Chinese-southern coffee culture starts with kopi — traditional coffee, dark-roasted and brewed through a cloth sock, drunk hot with sweet condensed milk or black with sugar, rich and sweet. It's served in a glass or an old ceramic cup. The old coffee shops sit in the shophouses of the old quarter, where people sip kopi over kaya toast or soft-boiled eggs in the morning alongside dim sum — a scene that captures the city's Chinese way of life. If you prefer specialty coffee, Mueang Khon also has plenty of newer cafés to sit in, many of them in old buildings that are worth a photo.
The city's best-known sweet is khanom la — a local sweet made by drizzling rice-flour batter in fine threads onto a hot pan until it sets into a thin lacy sheet. There's a crisp version (it keeps well and is moreish) and a soft folded version that's sweet and fragrant. It's tied to Sat Duan Sip, the city's important merit festival, when southerners make khanom la as an offering to their ancestors. Around the festival (about September to October) you'll see it on sale all over the city, but the dry kind is sold year-round. It's the signature local gift to take home — try it with a hot kopi, they go well together.
The other side of Mueang Khon's southern flavour is its fierce stir-fries and dry-fried dishes — khua kling, minced beef or pork dry-fried with curry paste and shredded kaffir lime leaf, fragrant and hot; stink beans stir-fried with prawns, pungent and loved by those who like the kick; spicy fried fish or wild boar; and shrimp-paste and southern chilli relishes eaten with fresh vegetables and fried fish. This group is genuinely spicy, to be clear — great if you eat hot food, and you can ask the kitchen to tone it down or pick the non-spicy dishes if you don't. Order several to share with steamed rice and the fresh vegetables, which help cut the heat.
Beyond khanom la, Mueang Khon has a family of southern sweets to try — khanom jak, a sticky-rice-and-coconut sweet wrapped in nipa-palm leaves and grilled until fragrant; khanom ko, soft dough with a palm-sugar filling rolled in coconut; khanom tom, wrapped in fan-palm leaves; and coconut-milk desserts like lot chong, bua loy and banana in coconut milk. Southern sweets tend to be fragrant with coconut and palm sugar. Many are sold at Tha Wang Market and the morning markets for just a few baht each. Buy a few kinds and taste them side by side with a hot coffee — it's a lovely afternoon graze that captures the southern way with sweet things.
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To taste Mueang Khon's local food all in one place, head to Tha Wang Market, an old indoor market in the city centre packed with fresh produce, snacks, southern rice-and-curry, kanom jeen, khao yam and local sweets. You can graze and shop, both savoury and sweet, at local prices, and it's the clearest window onto how people here eat. The morning markets in town are also where locals get their kanom jeen, niao gai and rice-and-curry before the day starts. If you want khanom la and local edible gifts, you'll find it all here too. Bring cash and a cloth bag, and come in the morning when everything is freshest and fully stocked.
Mueang Khon sits on the Gulf coast, and the district of Pak Phanang in particular is an old fishing town, so there's fresh seafood to eat at good prices — prawns, shellfish, crab, fish and squid, cooked either the fierce southern way (spicy stir-fries, choo chee and tom som sour soup) or simply steamed or grilled with a seafood dip. Pak Phanang is also known for bird's nest (from swiftlet houses in town), with tonic shops selling it. If you love seafood, look for seafood restaurants out toward Pak Phanang or the coast; there are also some in the city itself. Order what's fresh and in season for the best value.
After dark, Mueang Khon has night markets and walking-street markets for a street-food graze — rows of stalls doing grilled pork, chicken, meatball skewers, fried snacks, pad thai and oyster omelette, plus sweets like Tokyo pancakes, ice cream and bubble tea. Prices are easy, starting at a few tens of baht per skewer or plate. It suits an evening wander after sightseeing in town, and on some nights there's a walking street that's especially lively, with both local food and general Thai street food. Walk the whole market first, then pick; order one thing at a time to share, and finish with a sweet. Bring cash, as many stalls are cash-only.