Thai Style Doughnuts (Pa Thong Koh)

These deep-fried dough sticks are popular at breakfast time and are particularly good taken with coffee. For foreign visitors who can’t get used to the idea of eating soup or noodles for breakfast, look out for the pa thong koh stalls which often set up in the morning. Pa thong koh consist of two dough sticks which are joined together, often in an x-shape. Because of the appearance of the snack, Thai people sometimes refer to two people deeply in love and inseparable as ‘pa thong koh‘.

These dough sticks are sometimes sold with sweet salapao buns or plain round buns with sesame seeds on top. Pa thong koh can be eaten cold but are best eaten warm and fresh just after they’ve been fried.

Although they can be eaten plain, many Thai people like to eat them with a sweet cream or milk accompaniment which you will normally see in small ready-made plastic bags on the vendor’s stall. The sweet cream has a custard-like texture and is normally light-green as it is made from pandanus leaves or mung beans. If you see a bag with a white liquid at the pa thong koh stall, this will invariably be bean curd milk (nam tao hoo) which is aroy mak ma (very tasty) when taken hot with your Thai-style doughnuts. Pa thong koh will typically sell for 2 or 3 Baht each, with the milk or cream an additional 10 Baht.