What to eat in Thailand: top chefs share their must-try dishes

Alongside golden beaches and iconic cultural sights, Thailand is home to restaurants serving foods you won’t find anywhere else. Choosing what to order can be hard; familiar options such as pad thai, tom yum or green curry are safe, but the executive chefs and chefs de cuisine at Hilton hotels point to lesser-known local dishes that reward the adventurous diner.

Jeiw Hathairat highlights nuea khem tom kati, a salty, slow-cooked beef that softens and blends with coconut cream, and a yellow curry of prawns with young lotus roots that offers a crisp texture and a balanced broth. Ryan Dadufalza champions sustainable twists, from a watermelon som tum that uses inner watermelon rind in place of papaya to met tang mor, toasted watermelon seeds scented with kaffir lime leaves.

Chris Patzold’s laab tuna reimagines the minced traditional laab with sashimi-grade raw tuna, spice, fresh mint and crunchy rice powder, and he points diners to Baan Suan Lung Khai for locally sourced fare in a garden setting.

Thailand

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