A tasting tour of Trang the Thai town obsessed with breakfast nationalgeographic.com

n the southern city of Trang, breakfast is the most important meal of the day, with queues forming from the early hours for dim sum, crispy pork and sweet fritters.

In the southern Thai town of Trang, breakfast has been underway for several hours. And here at Sin Jiew, one of the city’s most popular dim sum joints, school children, newborns, dogs and office workers gather before dispersing to continue their day. It’s still dark outside, where roadside stalls smoke with tiny pancakes and large chunks of dough bob in pots of scalding-hot oil.

Trang is a pilgrimage site for food obsessives — mostly from Bangkok but occasionally also international travellers detouring from the region’s pretty, under-visited beaches. The day starts early — 4am early. And breakfast reigns supreme. I meet Winnie, a friend of a friend of a friend, who’s excited I’m here, and, naturally, wants to meet over a meal. “In other parts of Thailand, funeral celebrations last three days,” Winnie says, signalling for more dim sum. “But here they last 10 days, so there’s more time for food. It’s the Trang culture. And people aren’t going there to pay respect,” she laughs. “They are just going to eat!”