Article Category - Dining Out in Phuket

THE Yorkshire Inn is half way up Soi Sansabai, opposite Soi Bangla, but once you step inside the front door, you could be anywhere but in the heart of Patong. The stylish exterior hints at the elegance within and the sophistication continues throughout this recently refurbished hotel. Every consideration has been given to customer comfort, from the open kitchen, to the modern fitness centre and the uncluttered pool area.

THE Friendship Beach Resort, on Viset Road on the way to Rawai is a great place to eat. Quiet and secluded with its own personal waterfront, the resort is self contained and doesn’t need to cater to outsiders, so it’s a pretty well-kept secret amongst expats ‘in the know’. At night, the resort’s activities are replaced by charm, tranquillity, and fine dining, to match the spectacular view over the picturesque Chalong Bay.

IF you are looking for a restaurant which serves good food at a reasonable price, in relaxed surroundings with a pleasant view, efficient, helpful staff, and maybe a genial owner who cares about his customers, then Mando’s steakhouse on Rawai Beach Road is just the place. And if you have a Thai partner you want to impress, then it is definitely the place to go. The restaurant comfortably seats forty people so a level of intimacy is always assured.

THE Green Man pub is all about character, in every way. The purpose built Tudor-style English pub on the outskirts of Chalong is definitely incompatible with its environment. You can pile bricks on top of each other to build a pub, but you can’t build atmosphere, and The Green Man has atmosphere pouring out of the woodwork. It is spacious, authentic and homely. A roaring log fire would not be out of place. The Carte Blanche restaurant on the first floor is listed as one of Keith Floyd’s top five restaurants of the world. In February 2002, the pub was rated by the Phuket Island Guide as ‘a must see, the only real pub in Phuket’.

A lot of people have asked me when the price of Australian wine in Thailand will come down, now that the Thailand-Australia Free Trade Agreement (TAFTA) has come into effect. Unfortunately, the reality of the situation is that Australian wine prices, like all imported wine prices, will probably never come down. I don’t know of any importers who use TAFTA to clear their Australian wine through customs. Most prefer to clear their product under World Trade Organization protocols, of which Thailand is a signatory, because the system is better understood by officials in Bangkok. Like Monty Hall of the legendary game show Let’s Make a Deal, wine importers struggle, bargain and banter to get wine through customs at prices consumers can afford. In so doing, some are even reputed to push the envelope, if you get my meaning.

The Playhouse, on Rat-u-Thit Road, is just distant enough from the gaudy, pulsing nightlife of Patong. A little like Hollywood, the Playhouse is an eclectic mix of entertainment attractions in a gracefully modern restaurant. The fare features excellent food, a relaxing beer and cocktails garden, and a high-kicking, glitzy cabaret show in a comfortable and cozy theatre.

Confrères had synchronized watches, many of them within an hour of others. Muted cries of “Remember the Fat Duck”, “The Spirit of El Bulli” and “Nose to Tail like St. John” whispered through the sultry evening as the Heavy Brigade of La Chaîne des Rôtisseurs moved to condition red, members lumbering purposefully towards Floyd’s Brasserie in Patong. The substantial confrères grouped outside the Brasserie for their first sortie. The opening barrage was instant; miniature versions of many of Floyd’s classic dishes served as canapés supported by classic martinis and Burasari sunsets. No quarter was offered or sought. Martinis came at an startling rate, neutralised as quickly by the advance party. As reinforcements started to arrive, it was clear that Floyd’s was not going to outgun La Chaîne. They retreated to the Brasserie itself, and the confrères inched after them and dug in for the evening.

In my last column, I noted that there’s no inherent taste in wine. Taste really is just a name we give to our memories, and wine is just water, alcohol, tannin, acid, and its other chemical constituents. When we examine wine seeking its taste, no matter how hard we look we cannot find anything there in the wine we can call taste independent of the taster. I explained that taste is not the same as flavour and that our catalogue of tastes is built up over a lifetime of experiences. Our parents, our peers, our culture and our life experience teach us what flavours we like or dislike, and so the taste of anything, as it turns out, is unique to each individual taster.

Located 1km north of the turn off from Chaofa East Road to Phuket Zoo, the Fashion Cafe is set back a little on the right hand side with only the distinctive large orange “Cafe” sign to tell you where it is. Behind the cafe is Perfections Spa, which was the original business concern at the location. This was, and still is, the place for ladies to gather and be indulged. While the ladies were pampered Dennis Cogan, the owner, would serve them fabulous Lavazza coffee with nibbles. Cogan is a stickler for good coffee and even installed a reverse osmosis filter to make sure that the water he uses for the coffee is absolutely pure. There is no doubt that this is the best coffee anywhere on Phuket. This coffee and cake progressed into small snacks, and now the Fashion Cafe stands out as a premier eating house on the island, with an extensive menu with something for every palate, from Thai to Texan. Carefully sourced food and detailed preparation make every dish a delight.

It has been said that one does not drink wine so much as experience it but not everyone experiences wine, and fewer still really taste wine because taste resides within the mind of the taster, not in the wine. Taste really is just a name we give to our memories. Wine is just water, alcohol, tannin, acid, and other chemical constituents. When we examine wine seeking its taste, no matter how hard we look, we cannot find anything in the wine we can call taste independent of the taster. Cause and condition, duality, no self. It’s all very Buddhist, actually. Nor is taste the same thing as flavour. Flavours are names we invent to describe our response to chemical properties of certain molecules that we can discern. We call them salty, sweet, sour, bitter and savory. When the nerve endings in the papillary of the tongue and olfactory bulb of the nose contact flavour constituents in wine, they trigger an impulse in the brain we describe as taste. Like taste, the flavours we perceive have no inherent existence of their own independent of the taster.

It’s a fair bet isn’t it that people who live on Phuket are here because they like having the sea somewhere close at hand. It’s like a comfort blanket. Anytime the stress levels mount up, off we go to the beach and let the rolling waves soften our edges. The same goes for eating. How many of us comfort eat? We have the luxury of being able to go to a good restaurant for a reasonable price and eat delicious food. So to combine being on the sea and eating good food would seem to be a winner. Wouldn’t it? Bleu Blanc Grill has just done that. The handsome Captain Julien invites you to shed your shoes and your worries, climb aboard a well equipped boat and completely relax. The Sunset Cruise pushes off from its mooring at Chalong Harbour at 5pm every Wednesday. Depending on the sea conditions and weather, it heads off for an ideal spot to watch the sun go down.

The Boathouse on Kata Beach is renowned for three things: the view, its cuisine and superb wine. Recently it won the Wine Spectator “Best of Award of Excellence 2008”, the only establishment in Thailand to achieve this for three consecutive years. Quite an accomplishment when you realize the Boathouse is a small hotel of 38 rooms, and only about 800 restaurants worldwide have attained this level of quality. Mom Tri’s Villa Royale also has an award- winning cellar of its own, this year earning a Wine Spectator “Award of Excellence” for the fourth time. Georges Ciret has been the wine director for Mom Tri’s restaurants since 2004. Born in Paris, he grew up helping out in the family’s wine business, where his passion and life-long relationship with wine developed. In 1965 his father predicted: “Wine has a promising future ahead of it.” That year, Ciret started his training as a sommelier at the three-star Michelin Le Grand Vefour in Paris, owned by Accor.

Not a day goes by that I don’t get at least one solicitation from a wine or spirits producer about selling products in Thailand. Usually, the product is some atrocious wine from a far away place like Moldova that no one in their right mind would drink. These emails normally are filled with the most unbelievable and far-fetched boasts you could imagine about the product’s quality, history and pedigree. Today I received a solicitation from a winery in China that wins the wine Olympics gold medal for absurd claims, ridiculous grammar and cultural slip-ups. I have to share it with you. This winery goes by the implausible name Hebei Hengshui Laobaigan and claims to be established in 1946 before the nationwide “liberation” (guess that depends on how you look at it). The winery is now listed on the stock exchange, employing more than 4,000 people and operating with 1.3 million square metres of production facility.

They call economics the dismal science, and they are right. Nothing could be more removed from the enjoyment of wine. Nonetheless, given the huge amounts of money changing hands over wine, one cannot escape economics when studying or trying to understand wine. The intersection of economics and wine occurs when investors buy wine for future resale. The principal objective being to make a profit when the wine has increased in value as it matures. The assumption underlying this kind of speculation is that future demand for a given wine will exceed its future supply. Thus, an investor is really making a bet on three things: the wine will remain fashionable in the future, demand for the wine will not shift to other classes of wine, and the winery will not increase production of the wine.

Built into a converted residence astride the beach on the way out of Patong, The White Box restaurant hints at a warm and colourful dining experience with strategically placed blue and purple lighting around the interior. Seating is available in three sections: the road-level centre, the main dining area with an al fresco terrace, the downstairs, an intimate space with a balcony, and the bar up on the roof, which has an uninterrupted view overlooking Patong Bay — as well as and a sound system capable of delivering a significant number of decibels. The Café Del Mar-type background music has been carefully selected not to interfere with the enjoyment of the delicious cuisine. While perusing the Mediterranean and Thai menus, I had The White Box cocktail, light rum with Bailey’s Irish Cream, which really teased my palette into action. Another favourite is illusion, made from lychees, rum and grenadine, and the drink menu contains a full complement of whiskeys, spirits and wines.

As I noted in the last issue, the out-of-doors is central to the Phuket lifestyle. That presents some interesting challenges for wine lovers. Here’s part two of my guide to wines for Phuket living.

Golf course

I’m up at Santiburi in Chiang Rai the other day, and I can’t help but notice the colours. How did it it come to be that golf requires people to dress as if they are vaudevillians from the 19th century? From a distance, they look like giant pieces of Neapolitan ice cream that can walk.

Marriott has long been a top name among the local hospitality industry. The company recently made a big move in Phuket by introducing a family-oriented concept with its Courtyard-brand resorts. The first of three planned for Phuket opened its doors in May, featuring the MoMo Café, a new dining concept developed locally. Making that concept work is the job of Executive Chef Kitipong Jaramornburapong. One of the key draws that brought Khun Kitipong to the Surin Beach resort was a chance to add some of his unique experience in the kitchen to the menu. The MoMo concept will rely on 70 percent commonality among the five locations planned for Thailand, leaving 30 percent up to the discretion of the executive chef. For Kitipong, that means creative freedom and an outlet to introduce his own unique style to guests.

Perhaps it is the higher cost of codfish from the North Sea and North Atlantic Ocean that has contributed to the popularity of Indian restaurants in the UK and on the Continent. Over-fishing has depleted fish stocks, and curries have replaced the traditional fish and chips as the number one choice at all levels of society. On the other hand, perhaps it is the growing appreciation of a variety of cuisines from the sub-continent that has been responsible for the rise in popularity. Whatever the reason, Indian restaurants are hugely popular all over the world. Phuket is no different, and a recent addition to the choice of epicurean venues is the Tantra-London Pub on Beach Road in Patong. The restaurant opened in September 2007, and since then it has earned a deserved reputation as one of the most rewarding venues for those who enjoy Indian food. The extensive menu is predominately North Indian in style, but there is also a range of Indo-Chinese fusion dishes from which to choose.

Continuing our mission to promote fine dining, the Phuket chapter of La Chaine des Rôtisseurs recently met at The Twin Palms resort located at Surin Beach. I didn’t really know the Twin Palms, but I was in for a pleasant surprise . Twin Palms is actually a boutique hotel and stylishly designed in a contemporary way. Arriving at reception, you’re greeted by friendly, professional and attractive staff. Nevertheless, it’s impossible to also resist admiring the reception’s high vaulted ceiling, architecturally clean lines, and overall airy feel. Another fine haven for Phuket. I knew they would put on a culinary treat. With anticipation and expectation rising, I met our fellow Chainers by the pool for an amuse-gueule of smoked salmon with an artichoke and goat/cream cheese filling. This was well matched with a 2004 Kilikanoon’s Rum Sauvignon Blanc Semillon, although I initially thought this a slightly unusual combination. More about the Kilikanoon in a minute. The evening was off to a fine start as the salmon and cheese blended so well with the Sauv, and the overall mood became increasingly relaxed.

Blossoming Bakery

Just two or three minutes from the Central Festival Phuket intersection south along Chaofa Road, a new French bakery and pastry called Au Des Lys sits pretty on the right hand side, right next to House & Home. Parking is around the back, and after a walk through the garden to the front, the inside of the bright orange house has a cozy, airy atmosphere. The decoration is classic European with touches of Chinese: a perfect place for an early morning stopover for coffee or tea and a pastry. Owner Khun Garcia recommended we try the tropezienne (75 baht), a famous French pastry and a favourite at the shop. The crisp concoction is rich and creamy, not overly sweet but a little tart from fresh pieces of strawberry. We also tried the raspberry mousse (75 baht), also made with an easy hand on the sugar to bring out the tart fruit flavour. It was also smooth and melt-in-your-mouth like yoghurt. The mousse disappeared from our plates very quickly!