All these years on, we can still get a pad sii eew in the same spot

We'd looked for it on our way to Muslim Food for a few days, as years ago when we first came to Kamala, on the headland end of the beach, parked alongside the road, was another lunch favorite. There was a scooter with a cabinet full of fresh fruit and giant bottles of soft drink, and sitting on the side, a wok and an esky filled with whatever she'd obtained at the markets that morning. We were kind of not expecting to see her, it had been a while, and she was a completely mobile restaurant. But, on our way for lunch one day, shock!, she's set up. In exactly the same spot. (Must have had a few days off for Songkran).



Years ago when we came here, pad sii eew gai was our lunch of choice, and today's no different. She takes some gail lan from the esky and chops it up. This gets fried in the wok with chicken, garlic and sweet soy and then big rice noodles are added. A good raining of dried chilli flakes and we're good to go.



We do notice the absence of egg today, but, they were probably out by the time she got to the market.


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Lotus

Twenty years is a long time to be around in the restaurant game, you have to be doing something right. We've only been going to Lotus for five years, but hopefully we'll be able to continue for another twenty. Tucked away on Bang tao beach the only way in is through the almost gated community of Phuket Laguna.



On arrival as you walk down to the restaurant you walk past tanks and tanks of live seafood; oysters, clams, two types of crabs, lobsters of all sizes, prawns, mantis shrimp, and a variety of fish. If you spot a creature of interest give a little wink and whisper "I'll see you soon".









The restaurant is literally on the beach, when you book one of the options are the tables set right on the sand, it's all very romantic, the moon rising from the horizon the waves lapping a few meters away. Over the years the restaurant has evolved from local seafood hut to something more in line with it's surrounding high end hotels, but this hasn't effected the prices of the food which remain much as they were years ago, in fact I just looked over our old Phuket photos from our very first visit to Lotus and yes the the street sign is fancier and the the food has been refined a bit (not the flavours which still bold and beautiful Thai) and the decor is glammed up, yet the most any of the prices have gone up is 30 baht. That's keeping it real.





Seated and with drink in hand it's time to agonise over the extensive menu, obviously it has to be seafood (though the menu has a selection of non seafood for those who don't know what they're doing here), but what there's just so much.
In the end we settle on a small seafood extravaganza, we're seasoned professionals in the eyes to big for our stomachs game.


Gin fizz and Chang with an ice bucket to keep the rest cool...fancy

Passing on the offer to personally point the death finger at the tanks we just sit back enjoy the view and await what is to come, first up two oysters accompanied with nahm jim, deep fried shallots, fresh garlic, lime and cha om. It's a choose your own adventure oyster, I top with it all, but vary sparingly on the cha om. Cha om is the leaf of the Acacia, to be polite it has a unusual flavor and pungent smell that is quite acquired, still, you should try it some time. The oyster is so good still living when shucked it's so fatty and briny fresh.



From then on the plates really started flowing. Goong sarong - fresh tiger prawns wrapped in a noodle coat and deep fried, with a salted plum sauce. The noodles give a great crunch to the prawn.



Yum som oo - Pomelo salad. this is great salad, chunks of pomelo and fresh tiger prawns tossed in a chilli jam dressing with toasted coconut over the top. It's sweet sour and very moorish.



Mantis Shrimp with fried garlic and chilli. I love the texture of mantis shrimp, not as firm as a regular prawn and a very mild flavor. Deep fried with the garlic and chilli they turned finger licking good we you dove in prying the flesh from the shell.



The grilled tiger prawns with panang curry, simply cut in half and grilled over coconut before being topped with the panang, coconut cream, fresh chilli and kaffir lime leaf. The sweet prawn is really complimented by the mild curry and all licked with the coconut smoke, fantastic.



The fish of the evening was a red snapper steamed with a tamarind sauce and topped with a heap of coriander, deep fried shallot and fried chilli. Moist and not at all mushy, with the tamarind sauce a sweet sour lip licking left wanting more experience.



Our token vegetables for the night a plate of asparagus and fresh straw mushrooms stir fried with oyster sauce (keeping on the seafood theme). Straw mushrooms are one of those ingredients that should never be canned, if you can't have them fresh just don't have them.



I was so surprised we actually managed to finish it all, though it took a couple of hours. When Kat suggested something sweet I had not a lot of interest. On a side note has anyone done a study into how woman can eat until they are "so full I couldn't eat another bite " but then suddenly be fine when dessert is offered? Any how we ended up with a scoop of lychee ice cream, and some red rubies. Tub tim krop are pieces of water chestnut soaked in sala syrup then tossed in tapioca flour and quickly simmered before being cooled in a light sugar syrup. The result is a little red jewel with a soft chewy exterior and a crunchy inside, they are then served with coconut cream and crushed ice. These quickly became Kat new favourite dessert though we'll be hard pressed to find them executed as well as here.





Phuket has a lot of "high end" restaurants constantly telling you they are the best or most romantic or blah blah blah, but we think Lotus really is Phukets best and is for everyone.



Lotus Restaurant
31/13 Moo. 4 Srisuntorn Rd., Cherngtalay, Thalang, Phuket, Thailand 83110
Tel: +66 (0) 76362625-6 (Reservation)
Fax: +66 (0) 76362630


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H2O, Restaurant & Bar ... and falling from the sky, Kamala Beach

H2O is typically the sort of place we wouldn't go to while staying in Kamala. The whole road that runs along side the beach is full of restaurants and bars that mostly offer some atrocious dumbed down version of Thai food at exorbitant prices and hideous interpretations of Western food. This is why you'll usually find us at the night market, or eating grilled pork from some little street side stall back in the town, the food is 100 times better and it's so much cheaper! But on our first night in Kamala, doing a walk of the strip just checking things out, a very friendly lady just said hello and offered us some 2 for 1 drink vouchers for H2O Bar & Restaurant.

Again, not usually one to go to a place just because we have some sort of voucher or incentive, I'd still want to know the food was going to be okay, I kind of had an inkling about this one. A few days later I suggest we go and check it out, (funny enough, we didn't bring the vouchers anyway) just order a little something and see how it goes. We were greeted again by the same friendly face who directs us up the stairs. There's a young boy and a very young girl who follow up the stairs behind us.

There is no part of the restaurant actually on street level, just a little flashing H2O sign and the stairs, which is why Lek spends her time down here just talking to the customers, asking them about their day, how long they're here for, and then showing them the menu and eventually (hopefully) leading them up the stairs.



It has a very welcoming feel, there's big white tables a little bar over in the corner, plants growing everywhere and a nice view back down onto the street.



We're pleasantly surprised that the menu is mostly Thai, with just a few burgers / sandwiches at the back. We visited on 2 occasions and both times were rather impressed with the Thai food and the warm service. Lek and her family, including brothers, sisters, nieces and nephews run the show. There's a very family feel about the place, the kids just playing amongst the tables and occasionally helping clear tables and run drinks.



We start with a plate of E-abb! The menu description tells us it's crispy cracker wrapped minced chicken, prawn, ginger and corriander with home-made sweet chilli sauce. I remember these from Kim's Sailor's Thai days, occasionly bringing home the leftovers and us enjoying little Thai Pizza's, and hadn't seen them anywhere else on our travels. 4 little triangles of spring roll pastry that had the chicken, prawn, ginger and corriander mince sandwiched between two layers and fried to a golden crisp. The home-made sweet chilli sauce the perfect dip.



The next choice, falling under the category of 'Villagers Favorites' was a Gai Zabb - crispy fried chicken breast with mint, shallot and Thai herbs. Again, something we hadn't really seen around much. The chicken was coated in some coarse coating (maybe some roast rice?) and fried to a golden crisp. There was a slightly spicy limey dressing that was coating fresh mint leaves, sliced lemongrass, corriander and shallot. Very nice combination, the dressing soaking through into the chicken just nicely and the fresh herbs and lemongrass giving it a nice zing.



The larb nuer was another zingy salad. Chopped beef tossed with loads of fresh herbs and sliced shallot in a spicy dressing. There's fresh beans, a lime wedge and cucumber to the side, which offer a nice cooling spell after a mouthful of this delicious spicy salad.



Another of my favorites from the Sailor's day's, a rich red curry of duck with cherry tomatoes. This was a very fine example, the curry rich and decadent with a little kick of spice. The chunks of roast duck were present throughout, the plump little cherry tomatoes exploding in the mouth and the addition of sweet pineapple a nice texture and flavour burst.



From our first visit, we didn't hang around for dessert. We told Lek we would be back, which we were, and she wanted to shout us dessert. The banana fritters arrived, 2 whole banana's in a crisp coconut batter were sitting with 2 giant mounds of ice-cream, chocolate and cookies and cream and finished with a drizzle of honey. Not really Tai but delicious all the same.



We were just about through when the heaven's opened up, dropping an incredible amount of water from the sky. Everyone scrambled for the few little seats by the bar, which were mostly protected. It usually passes over pretty fast but this seemed to be hanging around. We perched up at the bar and just started talking with Lek.



She made us 2 iced coffee's, sure to keep us awake for at least one movie tonight, as we just hung out until the H2O subsided ........


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Watching the town wake up, Rockfish, Kamala

We're back for another breakfast set at Rockfish. It's so nice sitting up here early in the morning, looking down the length of Kamala Beach, the locals all going about their business, the men fixing their boats and the kids frolicking in the water.

What was also very nice, was a yoghurt, muesli and fruit combination. Served in a nice big glass there was chunks of papaya, pineapple and mango topped with yoghurt and what appeared to be a home-made crunchy muesli mix loaded with nuts and seeds. A few slices of fresh apple and a touch of mint topped it off just nice.



This was enjoyed with orange juice and English Breakfast tea as we just watched the town waking up ....

Rockfish Restaurant & Bar
33/6 Kamala Beach Rd
Phuket, Thailand, 83120
Tel: 076 279 732
Fax: 076 278 020


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Noodle soup, no noodles.

On our previous visits to our favorite little Muslim Food stall for lunch, we had noticed one of the younger girls manning a giant caldron of bubbling soup.



Today we want to try this bubbling soup. We've ordered one kuay tiaw nam neur, a beef noodle soup that arrives with 3 massive beef balls and some fall-apart tender braised beef all sitting on some thin rice noodles and beansprouts in a rich, dark broth. There's a generous scatter of roasted peanuts and chopped coriander to top it off. The beef balls were delicious, a little squeak as you bit through a delicious, meaty ball. The braised beef, sublime. A little chilli vinegar and dried chilli flakes were added to the broth.



We had noticed these oval shaped bowls going out to every table, and overheard 'Gao Lao'. We weren't really sure what it was, but it looked and smelt great, so this was the next dish of the day. When we ordered it, the young girl smiled, then asked 'gai or nuer'? We choose the gai (chicken). Ah, then we work out, it's the same noodle soup just no noodles. There's some braised little chicken wing drumettes sitting in the same rich, dark broth with some bean sprouts, coriander and a boiled egg. It was very tasty.



We still had a little room though, maybe because we didn't eat those extra noodles. We had spotted the roti pan so decide an roti nam kaeng, roti with beef curry, will do just fine. The soup lady yells something in Thai, and what looks to definitely be the grandmother, emerges from the kitchen and starts up the burner. She takes the little ball of roti dough and rolls it out as if she's done, oh, let's say about 6 million of these in her life. A little oil on the pan and on goes the dough. She cracks an egg into the middle and lets it bubble away for a moment. It's then folded in half, a dollop of butter and it's flipped over. It's cut into little bite sized pieces, and served with a dish of scrumptious beef curry liquid on the side for dipping.



As we're sitting there eating our roti, we're looking around at the staff. This little roadside stall has the young (maybe late 20's) girl on the soup pot, her mum to look after the woks and then grandma does the roti. There's also a very young girl, maybe 10, who appears to be the daughter of the soup girl, and also the one to jump on the scooter and scoot down the street if they need aditional ingredients. Wow, amazing, that means 4 generations working and cooking at this little street side Muslim food shack.


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Friday night lights

Friday night is our favourite time in Kamala, it's when the markets come to town. Set up on the outskirts of town, just out of walking distance you need to scoot there. It's hard to miss, about 5 pm the side of the road opposite Phuket fantasea is lined with scooters, the place is always packed. The make shift roofs just get strung between the coconut trees and any vehicle that's stationary for too long.



There's clothing, toys, house hold stuff and most importantly food. You know the market is still aimed at Thais as not many farang would be able to fit any of the clothing and there is some great food. We like is to get a few things from the stands then take it away and picnic somewhere. Our only problem is we always get too much, the reasoning behind that is well it's only here on Friday and we want to try as much as possible.

Our favourites are the khao klu kapi stand. Shrimp paste fried rice with a multitude of condiments. All the great Thai flavours on one plate, one of my all time favourite Thai dishes. Here the Sweet pork (muu wan) was replaced with sweet chicken as it was a Muslim stand but it's still delicious. You can find a nice recipe here.



Our other favourite was the naam prik stand. Naam prik being the name for relish, of which Thailand has many. Eaten as part of a meal and usually with vegetables fresh and cooked and other accompaniments. This stand had sixteen different types of naam prik and then along the front trays of different prepared vegetables so you could pick what you would like on the side of your relish. We picked up a nice naam prik pao (chilli jam) and a wicked hot naam prik goong (prawn relish).




There's some thing for every one here from kooky sushi to tooth hurtingly sweet Kanom buang, a crispy rice flour pancake with meringue,




Racks of marinated ribs and cockles


Deep fried chicken feet and carcases


Chicken on a stick


Sour and not so sour Sai Krop Issan and various grades of mango's


Icy drinks and salty caramel corn

Our picnic took place on our balcony at the Palms over looking the pool, not the most romantic of places but the weather wasn't so crash hot.





Why only once a week, why??


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