Crab curry with rice noodles
Photo: T.Tseng · CC BY 2.0

History

Khanom jeen, soft fermented rice noodles, are eaten across Thailand, but in Phuket they are paired most famously with crab. The southern golden curry is rich with turmeric and chilli and carries large pieces of blue swimmer crab, sometimes with wild betel leaf. One long-running Dibuk Road house, founded in 1994, built its name on it, and it is now the dish that restaurant is best known for.

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Common allergens: Shellfish, Fish

Make it at home

Yield Serves 4Hands-on 30 minTotal 50 minDifficulty Intermediate

Ingredients

  • 300g cooked blue swimmer crab meat
  • 3 tbsp southern yellow curry paste
  • 1 tsp ground turmeric
  • 600ml coconut milk
  • 200ml chicken or fish stock
  • 2 tbsp fish sauce
  • 1 tbsp palm sugar
  • 10 wild betel leaves (cha plu), torn
  • 400g khanom jeen rice noodles or thin rice vermicelli
  • Bean sprouts, cucumber and long beans, to serve

Method

  1. Simmer 200ml of the coconut milk over medium heat until the oil starts to separate.
  2. Fry the curry paste and turmeric in it for 3 minutes until fragrant.
  3. Add the remaining coconut milk and the stock and bring to a gentle simmer.
  4. Season with fish sauce and palm sugar, then add the crab meat and betel leaves and heat through for 3 minutes.
  5. Cook the rice noodles according to the packet, rinse in cold water and twist into small nests.
  6. Ladle the curry over the noodles and serve with the raw vegetables on the side.

Tip from the editors. Add the crab at the end and do not boil it hard, or the meat turns stringy in the curry.

Where to eat crab curry with rice noodles

Crab curry with rice noodles in Phuket

Raya Restaurant ★ 4.1

฿฿ Southern ThaiOld Town

Raya Restaurant, founded in 1994, cooks Phuket crab curry and southern Thai plates in an old Sino-Portuguese mansion on Dibuk Road in Phuket Old Town.

OrderOrder the crab meat yellow curry with rice noodles, the dish Raya is best known for today.

TipFounder Kularb Jesadawal was a bank worker cooking for friends before she opened Raya in 1994; order the crab curry and the moo hong.

Directions

One Chun ★ 4.5

฿฿ Southern ThaiPhuket Town

One Chun is a Michelin Bib Gourmand fixture in a vintage-styled 19th century building in Phuket Town, cooking family recipes passed down the generations.

TryMu hong (braised pork belly) and family Southern Thai dishes

TipTry the spicy shrimp and shrimp-paste salad alongside the mu hong, and bring cash: the Michelin Guide lists One Chun as cash only.

Directions

Blue Elephant ★ 4.3

฿฿฿ Southern ThaiOld TownChef Nooror Somany Steppe

Blue Elephant occupies the restored governor's mansion Phra Pitak Chinpracha, plating chef Nooror's royal southern Thai menu in Old Town Phuket.

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