For two weeks in a row I have been taking you to eat at places that I would consider very local where the food for me personally is very good but not necessarily that clean. I am going to keep on writing about these places in my column and I hope that you will be able to make your own judgement whether you would like to try these places. I do realize that not everyone who reads my column has as strong a stomach as I do. With that thought in mind, from now on I will be rating each restaurant that I write about according to five criteria’s.

            Each criterion would be given a score from one to five stars. These five categories are hygiene, quality of raw materials, price, service and lastly taste which will totally of my own taste preference. I am starting the rating system at this point in time because in the near future I will be launching my eating guide called, McDang Guide in English on my website, at www.mcdang.com.

            At present, my website is in Thai and already has the eating guide in it. I am in the process of turning my website into English. A few weeks ago, I returned to Hua Him to shoot my television show. I visited a Batik making house and went to taste food that was to me very good and very reasonable. My first stop was the batik house. We had to drive south, pass the town of Hua Hin about 10 kilometers from the south end of the city to the intersection of Kao Tao which means turtle hill. We turned left toward the sea. There, three hundred meters down the road on your right sits an open-air shack.

            You can see materials stretched on wooden racks ready to be turned into pieces of art. Everyone knows about batik but I think what is more interesting and the appeal of it is in the process of making it. I wanted to know and learn how to do it. I had tried it in my youth when we used real wax to draw the designs and soak the material in successive dyes to create different colors. Now a day it is more refined.

            Paraffin is used and junting tools are still needed to draw with the paraffin wax but the applications of the colors are done with brushes. I tried my hand at making this and it was fun. The enjoyment I received from doing it made me appreciate the art much more and consequently I bought some materials and T- shirts. If you went to Hua Him and see all these batik on sale, I suggest you go to this place where it is made. You will enjoy seeing how it is done and maybe try your hand at doing your own design.

            After the batik class I was quite hungry and returned into the town of Hua Hin to a small one-shop house food stall. At first sight, there is nothing in front of the shop house that would tell you that the food is good. There is a sign, which says fish head soup in a steamboat sticking out across the sidewalk. There are four or five tables in front of the shop, which doubled as a convenient store. This small restaurant is on the main road in town. On the same side if the street as His Majesty’s Palace; about 200 to 300 meters down the road from Golden place. Most locals know this restaurant my the name of Bung Hua Pla Mor Fai which means Bung’s fish head soup in steam boat. There is a very limited menu and what Bung cooks is very good. The fish head soup is not expensive, consisting of fresh fish heads cooked in a broth and seasoned with lime juice and fish sauce topped with the usual herbs. It is very much like a Tom Yum and it tastes wonderful.

            Spicy and quite tart, with not a trace of fishiness in the broth. Bung says that he only put things on the menu that he thinks he does well. He is man of few words and if you should order other items that is not on the menu and Bung thinks that he does not do it well he won’t do it for you.

            His stir-fry fish with chili and garlic and herbs, which in Thai is commonly known as Pad Char, is very good. It has a very good combination of flavors and very pronounced taste. This I mean that Bung cooks like a drinker like to eat. He make the normal everyday dish unusual, like his sauteed beef drunken style which is usually has some liquid to mix with the rice in the bottom of the dish but his is rather dry but the flavor of the beef and texture is still flavorful not dry and tough. He makes pickled crab very well.

            This dish is a specialty of places by the sea, because you have to use fresh crab and pour this very spicy sauce over it. It is a favorite dish for drinkers and definitely not a dish for those with a delicate stomach. May favorite dish that I like very much and must give my thumbs up to his imagination and creativity is a batter- fried fish fillet topped with sauted bitter melon sauce.

            The combination of crunchiness and softness of the fish mixed well with the salty slightly bitter taste of the bitter melon sauce. The bitterness brings enhance the sweetness of the meat of the fish. I loved it and Bung told me that it is his best dish. As you sit infront of his shop. You can see Bung cook up a storm right in front of you in an open air, curbside kitchen. Bung will be receiving my McDang Guide sign for his shop in the near future and he definitely deserves it. Ratings in McDang Guide

            Address:11/20 Petchkasame Road, Hua Hin Telephone: 032 511 489 Opens: 18.00 to 23.00 hours daily