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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Scoot 'n' slice sushi

So where were we? Ahh yes sitting at the pad Thai street stand eyeing off the meals on wheels that had pulled up to the curb. Now there's a million of these mobile mini restaurants across south east Asia but we had never seen one plying sushi.



Of course we were very sceptical at first, I mean how good could sushi off the back of a bike be? We wandered over for a look see, the layout was super organised and very cleverly thought out, when the chef stopped, a bench folded over from the cart onto his seat doubling his bench space and giving him a place to put his cutting board and assemble the sushi, that's right assemble. The sushi was not pre-made but made to order to your specifications.



On the side of the cart a menu with photos of all he could do and it was not a small amount, maki, nigiri, handrolls, sashimi you just tell him what you want and it is done. The several Thais were immediately at the side of the cart ordering so we got to watch a few things being made before we made a decision whether or not to order ourselves. Rice appeared from little Tupperware in the front tray but where was the fish we were wondering. Ahhh of course, under the cart was a tray holding a Styrofoam box with all the fish on ice, sweet. Each order the box was opened fish removed sliced then replaced.



After watching for five minutes or so we decided we could not pass up the opportunity to order sushi off a scooter. We ordered lightly keeping in mind this would our third meal/snack tonight; one California roll some salmon nigiri and a couple of wakame gunkan-maki (battleships). First the chef knocked out the gunkan and nigiri before proceeding to whip up an inside out California just like that (I think he'd had a bit of practice) all packed into takeaways with soy and wasabi for the grand total of 180 baht, bargain.



We took the sushi home to give the noodles time to settle, sitting at home with the sushi between us we each tentatively took a first bite, not so hot quality fish is not a thing I enjoy, but much to our surprise and delight it was good, at least as good as many a sushi train sushi we have had.





Now I know sushi train is not the highest rating of sushi but it can be good and we were ordering off the back of a bike people. It was good enough if we felt like sushi and the sushi scooter was in the neighborhood we'd go again. From the amount of locals lining up sushi dude is cleaning up, good on him

Oodles of Noodles ..

Wandering down the main street looking for something to eat we spot the little noodle cart. The little noodle cart we had tried to go to a few days prior early afternoon but he'd just arrived, and very kindly told us that it would take nearly 1 hour for his enormous pot of soup to boil before we could enjoy any noodles. It's now early evening, his soup must be hot.



We order 2 ba me muu daeng - yellow noodles with red pork. The noodle were coated with the oil from fried garlic, there was a generous amount of greens and then the paper thin slices of delicious red pork. There's a bowl of soup served to the side with corriander and daikon floating around a nice kick of white pepper.



Our tummies are happy but not quite fulfilled. Across the road we'd witnessed streams of locals pulling up on their scooters beside another cart, picking up bags of take-away. We go to investigate. It's one lady on the woks pumping out oodles of pad Thai.



There's a few little stools along the footpath and we're lucky enough to score ourselves a seat.



The noodles arrive, a mountain of this rice noodles wok fried to a deep golden caramel with loads of tamarind, chilli, peanuts, tofu, egg, garlic chives, dried shrimp and plump fresh ones. A little plate sits to the side with bean sprouts, lime and more garlic chives.



As we're sitting enjoying our noodles another scooter pulls up selling something that will be a first for us ... (Post to follow)


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Last one.

I know we have done a few from the same little muslim place now but this is the last one (for this year anyway). I just wanted to show off one of the best dtom khaa's we have ever had. Not only was it expertly seasoned but with the addition of young coconut shreds it was amazing.





We teamed the soup up with an omlette stuffed with minced prawn (Kai jiaw goong sup). Topped off with a little nahm pla prik (or prik nahm pla whatever you say you'll be told it's the other :p ) to bring out the richness and add a little chilli kick.



Finishing off we pulled grandma out of the kitchen for our last Phuket roti, this time egg topped with a little condensed milk. Man I'm going to miss this.




Sell a few roti's?


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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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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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