Another day at the office ..

.. and here we are trying to find the ultimate chipping spud. Of course, it has to be a local variety so on we march we the daunting task of chopping, blanching, frying and ultimately trying various types of potatoes ....

In an equal 2nd place, we had the King Danshakyu and new season Toya's. Only to find out the King Danshakyu are only available 2 months of the year .... #fail



The clear winner was the Kita-akari potato; cut, boiled, then oil blanched at 150C and then fried at 180C. The fries on the left were only blanced then fried at 180C, but the extra effort to double fry them really shows.



Okay, it's back to work for us ... who know's what next on the cards.

Night markets, Thongsala

We had borrowed a jeep from Suti, one of the always accommodating hosts of Tommy's, for the day as we had heard the night markets in Thongsala were quite good. After a hair raising drive around the cliff side road of Phangan we arrived. There's not really much at Thongsala though this means that the likelyhood of great local eats is increased due to the lack of tourists. We had arrived a little to early so spent a little time stocking up on some more gaijin size clothing for our return to Japan. Got some great shirts @ Phanganer. Anyways we headed back to the gathering point for the night markets just in time to see all the carts being wheeled in and stalls set up.



Giving the market the once over we start of with a plate of school prawns marinated in a thin curry and tossed with rice flour before being deep fried into a super crunchy disk of prawny goodness.









It was one of those moments where we were seriously torn between trying more things and satisfying our hunger with more of the deliciousness in our hands right now. As the markets weren't quite set up yet we headed off so Kat could do a quick nail colour change pit stop from the newly aquired rainbow and Kim could have a wee nap. Stopping for a few cute little banana leaf wrapped coconut custards on the way.



On our return we started up with some great pork on a stick and nam so good we went back for more.









After a little more circling we finally shared a plate of beef mussaman and nice and spicy stir fried beef.



On the way out we couldn't help but stop for a rocket fuel filled cup of red sala.



All in all the Thongsala night market is definitely one of the foodie highlights on Phangan and worth tearing yourself away from the beaches at least once for.

... the sand between your toes

There's something quite special about being able to sit at a table in a restaurant where the sand is between your toes.  It's even more special when the food they're serving is delicious!

We're in Samui and stop by one of the little beach side restaurants just before Lamai. A winding path leads down to a few tables along the beach. The ocean is beautiful and clear and there's a few token palm trees.



Sapparot pun's (pineapple slushy drink's) are the perfect thirst quencher in the midday sun.



Something else that Mike, Kim and myself all seemed to notice immediately on the menu was pork fried with garlic, chilli and kaffir lime. It's like a plate of gems. Each little gem glistening away, there were rubie's (fried chilli's) emeralds (fried kaffir lime leaf) amber gems (fried garlic slices) but the diamonds were laying on the bottom, plump delicious, marinated pork coated in a rice flour and sesame coating. When a single mouthful contained one of each gem it was like you'd struck gold (or diamonds), my whole mouth exploding with excitement.



A plate of spicy beef salad was dressed in a tangy lime and chilli dressing, with sliced onion, tomato and celery leaf.



The cat fish salad has fried floss-like chunks of catfish, put back together with the head and tail. Loads of shredded green mango, roast peanuts and shallot with the dressing sitting in a bowl to the side.



A delicious lunch with an amazing setting ...

Kluay tod - deep fried banana's

On the walk back from the little Muslim stand after a big lunch, we often did not have room for banana's ... but that didn't mean we wouldn't buy them.  



She was there everyday, but the times would vary. Hand's of banana's piled up behind her, at all different stages of ripeness. She selects how many she's going to prepare that day (maybe based on how much batter she has in the giant bowl) and just fries away 'til there's nothing left.



We'd always see people waiting, as it takes a good 10 minutes to fry the banana's over medium heat. But when the locals are waiting for these 'nana's, we know we're onto a good thing.

She peels and slices banana's straight into the bowl of batter. The batter is made with coconut cream and is oh-so-very crispy and there's a few sesame seeds scattered through it. They bubble away in the giant wok until there is no more bubbles, a little drain and they're good to go. They are crispy, golden and aroy maak!



Somedays's we have the full intention of taking them home and enjoying them later, when we're not quite so full.



But they never seem to make it the whole way ....


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