Food Hero: Ratama
Our focus around Hua Hin this month shifts just around the corner from Soi 51 to Naebkhehardt Road. There is a very real ‘food focus’ along this very hip local strip. We look at Ratama and see why they are so popular.

Bpet Peloe
Bpet Peloe
Ratama is an extremely popular Thai restaurant on Naebkhehard Road in Hua Hin. Their food is unashamedly Chinese-influenced, like many Thai restaurants.

Opening in 2010, Ratama has gone from strength to strength on the Hua Hin food scene and has been included by Feast Thailand on 2 of our food tours; 4 Corners of Thailand and ‘Jing Jing’

Khun Bank
Khun Bank

Feast Thailand caught up with chef Pakin “Bank” Phuchongprawet and asked him about Ratama, cooking and life.

Where are you originally from, Chef Bank?

My mother, sister and I moved to Hua Hin from Bangkok.

How did you learn to cook such delicious food?

I learned from my grandfather from the age of 13. He was Chinese and a very good cook. He was also a huge inspiration to me.

I notice that often in the early morning, there are large bus loads of Chinese tourists pulling up to Ratama. What do they come for?

We are not normally open at that time of the morning. When we have a request for a large group, we open specially for them. They are coming for only one thing – Khao Tom Pla (ข้าวต้มปลา) – Boiled Rice Soup With Fish. It is an extremely popular breakfast dish, especially amongst our Chinese guests. The bus loads simply cannot get enough of it, making it worth our while to open at such an early hour.

What are your most popular dishes?
Super Teen Gai
Supa Teen Gai

Probably our most popular dish would be Bpet Peloe (เป็ดพะโล้). We sell a lot of this beautifully fragrant duck. We also sell a lot of Tom Saep Supa Teen Gai (ต้มแซ่บซุปเปอร์ต้มแซ่บตีนไก่), a very spicy and fragrant soup of chicken feet. As well as those dishes are also Pad Pet Sator (ผัดเผ็ดสะตอ) and Sator Pad Kapi (สะตอผัดกะปิ), both dishes using Sator(สะตอ) – stink beans as an ingredient.

We leave Ratama after our chat with Khun Bank knowing that it is a ‘top flight‘ establishment doing extremely high quality Thai food with a Chinese lean to it.

At Feast Thailand, we cannot recommend them highly enough.

Ratama
12/10 Naebkhehard Road
Hua Hin 77110
Open 8:30am to 9pm every day
Tel: 064 169 5490