Deputy Government Spokesperson announced that “Bii Tai Bug,” a traditional dessert from Phuket Province, won the Thailand Regional Cuisine Championship 2026.
On 15 August 2026, Ms. Ploytale Laksameesangchan, Deputy Spokesperson of the Office of the Prime Minister, revealed that the government, through the Department of Cultural Promotion (DCP), Ministry of Culture, in collaboration with cultural offices of 76 provinces and Bangkok, organized the "One Province, One Dish" event honoring regional dishes called “The Lost Taste” 2026. This project promotes and elevates local dishes towards becoming cultural heritage and a symbol of Thai identity, aiming to collect fading local recipes, improve and innovate them into well-known provincial dishes, and preserve and disseminate culinary knowledge and cultural wisdom of the nation.
Ms. Ploytale stated that the result of the nationwide public vote for the top regional dish was “Bii Tai Bug” from Phuket. This traditional dessert resembles lod chong and is made by kneading rice flour with warm water, dividing it into white and red portions, pressing the dough through a mold into boiling water until cooked and floating, then soaking in cold water to achieve uniformly soft, chewy strands. It is served with pandan leaf syrup and shaved ice, delivering a sweet, refreshing, and invigorating taste.
Ms. Ploytale added that besides Phuket’s “Bii Tai Bug,” several southern regional dishes also received popular votes, including crab shell rice from Krabi, banana flower fish cakes with crab meat from Chumphon, spicy curry from Trang, preserved chili paste from Nakhon Si Thammarat, spicy mixed rice salad from Narathiwat, crab stew from Pattani, spicy seafood soup from Phang Nga, sweetened fruit sauce from Phatthalung, Yala's traditional sweet dessert, preserved fruit from Ranong, red sticky rice from Songkhla, pineapple curry from Satun, and spicy fish curry with kaffir lime leaves from Surat Thani.
“Phuket, the Andaman Pearl and southern paradise, was honored as a UNESCO Creative City of Gastronomy in 2015, placing it alongside world-renowned food cities such as Parma and Alba in Italy, Chengdu and Macau in China, Panama City in Panama, Hyderabad in India, and San Antonio in the United States. The government and the people of Phuket invite everyone to experience and savor Phuket’s unique local cuisine, which blends Hokkien Chinese and southern Thai cultures, combining the spicy southern flavors with Chinese spices and cooking methods to create a distinctive culinary identity,” Ms. Ploytale said.
