Trang’s (delicious) specialties
Let’s get to know Trang a bit each day from the province’s motto – “The city of Phaya Ratsada, broad-minded people, scrumptious roast pork, the origin of rubber trees, elegant Sritrang flowers, underwater sea coral, charming beaches, and magnificent waterfalls.”
First let’s get to know “scrumptious pork” as this food specialty is unique to Trang. In fact, the province just celebrated the Roast Pork Festival on the second day of September and I’d like to share with you a few photographs from the festivities.
This method of preparing roast pork started as the result of an accident which occurred during the Thang Dynasty. The royal chef happened to drop a strip of pork into a charcoal stove. He found the meat was cooked and the skin was crispy and when he took a taste he felt the piece had a very good smell and a more delicious, crispy taste than the original. So he got the idea of moo yang (Trang-style), a process that has been passed on (from generation to generation).
Preparing roast pork in Trang is much different from other places. Here the cooks select a rather small whole pig and marinate it with Chinese traditional spices for many hours. The prepared pig is roasted in an earthen oven fuelled by wood. Before going into the oven, the skin is pricked thoroughly and sprayed with honey allowing heat to pass through making the skin crispy and golden brown.
To serve, the whole pig is cut up and chopped to bite-size pieces. The most delicious part is the bacon cut (beginning from the spine) where the meat is tastiest and the skin is crispiest. (Just ignore the fear of getting fat, okay…..?)