Baan Hat Rawai Seafood Restaurant

A nice place for lunch on Rawai Beach is Baan Hat Rawai Restaurant. We call it the 'Blue' restaurant because everything is blue. From the colour of the buildings, to the table cloths to the uniforms of the staff.
















The restaurant is next to the beach (only separated by a small lane) and it is an open-air restaurant. It has a lot of very tall trees hovering over the restaurant, so it protects from the sunlight and keeps it cool.
















The first dish was seafood glass noodles salad (op woon sen talay). The seafood was very fresh and plump. The dish had a nice sour, sweet, salty & spicy flavours.


The second dish was crab omellete (khai jiaw pu). I really like Thai omelettes. They are very different than western omelettes. Thai omelettes are deep fried until a golden brown. They are deadly for your cholesterol level and waist line, but I still like them. They are like a comfort food, a very satisfying dish. Since we are in Phuket, we have it with crab. The omelette was good but they were very stingy on the crab. I have had omelettes at other seafood restaurants in Phuket where the omelette was stuffed with enormous chunks of fresh crab.


The third dish was amazing; clams in lemon grass soup. The soup pot arrived and was placed on the table. In the middle of the pot was a heating/cooking candle to keep the soup hot. The hot smoke escaped from the chimney. The clams had the best flavour from the lemon grass and the broth was wonderful as well. This is a very unique dish and I think this is the only restaurant that serves in around the area. Which is good, so we will have to return to the restaurant for this dish.


We only ordered three dishes because it was very late in the afternoon (15:00). We had a dinner date that evening, so we did not want to spoil our appetite for dinner. However, the small lunch was very tasteful and satisfying. Next time, we definately will order more food to try and so that I can post more about the restaurant.

Lim's Restaurant & Bar

Patong is not a favourite place of mine. I will not go into details, but lets say I am not impressed with the food offerings at the most famous & infamous beach on Phuket. But, there is one restaurant I think that is fantastic. It is not on Patong beach but in a modern house, high on the hills over looking Patong beach. You enter the bar & lounge area. You can have drinks and listen to the house mixed music. You can have some great appetizers in the lounge area before heading to the main dining room or the outdoor dining area.

















The name of the restaurant is Lim's Restaurant & Bar. The owner/ chef is called Kop. He is one of the most talented persons you can meet on Phuket. He is a famous artist. His art hangs around the restaurant (he has had art shows locally, around Thailand and internationally). He is an interior designer and furniture designer (he designed the restaurant, decorated & furnished the restaurant himself). And, he is the chef of the delicious food.


We decided to sit outside since it was not too hot. It is a loungy area with cushions and pillows to make it very comfortable. Fans blow to keep us cool and the house music mix plays softly in the background. The outdoor area has lots of tropical plants & trees making the dinning experience very exotic.

















The first dish we had was spicy eggplant salad (tam ma-khue yao). A favourite of mine (when it is done well). This dish was done well. The eggplant was lightly grilled and then tossed with mint, onion, shallots, coriander, lime, chilies, fish sauce and shrimp. A refreshing and tangy dish to start the dinner.


The second dish was Lim's version of fresh Vietnamese spring rolls (goi-cuon). Another refreshing and tasty dish to start with. Lim's goi-cuon was stuffed with an abundance of fresh goodies; carrots, lettuce, mint, radish, peanuts and shrimp. All wrapped in moist rice paper. Very nice. I could have eaten another dish, but had to restraint myself.


The third dish was chicken tom yam soup (tom-yam gai). This was a very nice soup; it had the perfect blend of sour, sweet, salty and spicy flavours.


The fourth dish was steamed fish with chili & lime on a bed of cabbage. The fish was incredibly fresh; the fish meat was tender and flaky. I really love the simplicity of this dish and chili and lime added great acidity, sourness & spiciness to the dish.


The fifth dish was dried red pork curry (phanaeng moo). The red curry was spicy, rich & intense. The pork was tender and the curry clinged to the pork like a magnet. This dish went well with steam rice.


The wine we drank with the dinner was a 2005 Infinitus, cabernet sauvignon, Tempranillo. A tasty Spanish red wine. The wine had a nose of berries, spice and leather. The wine had flavours of red berries, plums and spices and the Infinitus has a nice finish on the palette.



























Lim's does not make desserts but they offer fresh & in season fruit as dessert. The dessert was rambutan and water melon. I actually like rambutan, but I don't like the pit in the middle. But, other wise a nice ending to our very good meal.





















Lim's Restaurant & Bar, 66 (76) 344 834
www.limsphuket.com

Sunny Phuket

We were in Phuket and the weather was absolutely wonderful. But, nobody from Bangkok believed us when we told them. The reason is; it is suppose to be the rainy season in Phuket. It is suppose to be very grey and very wet. But, we were so lucky with the weather. Here is the proof....


This is Nai-harn Beach. I consider this the best beach on Phuket. We are very lucky because the house is right next to Nai-harn beach. There are only two hotels next to Nai-harn beach, so even during high season, the beach is still accessible and is not over crowded like Kata or Patong beach. It is now low season because the Europeans & Americans think it is monsoon season in Phuket. Well, I hope they keep thinking this and as you can see, it is not.


I am not at all sad that there are no tourist on the beach. We have the beach all to ourselves. We have our favourite beach boy who rents beach beds. We support him every time we to the beach. This day, we arrived around 12:30 and left the beach at 17:30. The beach bed is only 100 baht for the whole day. Can you believe it? So cheap! We can order cold drinks from him (beer, coke, fanta, etc.) and my favourite, a fresh cold coconut. The fresh coconuts sit in a large cooler with ice. When they are ordered, they are cracked opened at the top and brought over to the bed. The juice is so refreshing when it is hot & sunny on the beach.


I layed out in the sun the whole day. People were telling me that I was looking pale & tired, so I decided that I was going to get a good tan to change everyone's perception. I pretty much baked myself for five hours. Now, I have a very white bum to also prove that it was very sunny in Phuket.


The only bad thing about low season on Nai-harn beach is that my favourite muslim chicken woman was not making her fantastic fried chicken. I was so looking forward to her fried chicken for lunch. You have to eat the fried chicken with sticky rice. It taste so good and is so cheap. OK, this might sound weird, but can you imagine eating fantastic fried chicken sitting on a golden sand beach and staring at crystal blue water and sky. Paradise! I promise to post about the fried chicken next time.

Kan-aeng II Seafood Restaurant (Phuket)

It was a long weekend in Thailand. It was the birthday of Queen Sirikit (known as the mother of Thailand); therefore, it was also known as 'mother's day'. So; we headed to Phuket for the long weekend. We always have to eat once at one of the best seafood restaurants in Phuket.
















The restaurant is called Kan-aeng II (the first Kan-aeng is on another beach). This Kan-aeng is enourmous. I have never counted how many tables they have but it must reach to the hundreds. It is an open-air restaurant. If it does rain, there are roofed areas and huts (photo above). All the tables are situated on the edge, next to the beach. The restaurant is very basic, plastic chairs and tables. But the service is excellent, the atmosphere is very tropical and the prices are absolutely amazing. For the amount of food we always eat, we always shake our heads in amazement when the bill arrives. Soooo cheap! But the seafood is the star of the restaurant. Always fresh and cooked perfectly.
















The first dish was sea snails (hoi chak teen luak). These snails are very precious. A friend of mine stopped going to a seafood restaurant in Phuket just because they stopped serving these snails. The snails were grilled and arrived hot. You took a toothpick and fished out the snail and dipped it into a very spicy green sauce (but the sauce is so good). The snails are a very nice start before dinner.


The next dish was deep fried morning glory (ber thawte). One of my favourite Kan-aeng specialties. It is deadly for your cholesterol but I don' care. It is so good. ber thawte is deep fried morning glory with shrimp. It is a great starter that went well with the white wine we were drinking. It arrived on the table hot, crunchy & crispy. It came with a red sweetish sauce. I can eat several plates of this stuff.


The next dish was green vegetable with dried shrimp (phak meang phad kung saeb). I have no idea what the name of the vegetable was, but it was very nice. The oyster sauce was light so that it did not over whelm the taste of the vegetable. The dried shrimp added more flavour and texture.


The next dish was seafood mousse (haw mok Phuket). This has got to be one of the best dishes in the world. It is a coconut cream seafood mousse, wrapped in a banana leaf and steamed. Describing the haw mok makes me always hungry. You order the haw mok by piece and when we order, we always restraint ourselves from ordering 20 of them because they are so good. Kan-eang makes the best haw mok in the world. They are creamy, tasty and spicy. Haw mok is always best eaten with steam rice. The rice helps lessen the intensity of the spiciness.


The next dish was a sea water fish and I have no idea how to translate this fish into English (pla mong). This is the best fish grilled. It is always cooked perfectly at Kan-aeng. The meat was tender and juicy. The sauce that came with it was a mixture of the sweet, sour and spicy. But I preferred the green spicy sauce to go with the fish.


The next dish was red cockles in curry (kaeng hoi khrang bai cha phlu). A unique dish and you rarely can find this in a restaurant. The fresh cockles added nice texture and taste to the dish. The curry was rich and flavourful and it was not too spicy. The curry was also best eaten with steam rice because the rice soaked up the curry and tasted so good.


The next dish was shrimp baked with clear noodles (kung op woon sen). The clear noodles are baked in an aluminum pot over the shrimp, ginger and lemon grass. When the pot arrived on the table, the waiter took off the lid, the steam flowed out and when the steam disappeared, there was sitting a pot with glistening noodles. I dug deep into the pot and brought the steamed shrimp to the top. The mix of flavours and textures of this dish makes it a favourite with us.


I prefer my seafood grilled, especially at Kan-aeng because they grill the seafood with coconut as the natural burning fuel. The coconut gives the seafood a nice & unique taste and smell.


Kan-eang II is a great place to go in Phuket. It is a place where you can be sitting under the stars & moon, sitting next to the beach, having the freshest & tastiest seafood and all that will cost you nothing. It truly is a special place.

Street Food (Fried Tofu & Taro)

I have a weakness for deep fried foods. I know, I know, its horrible for my health. But, did I mention I was weak??? I had a boat noodle soup lunch on soi Thonglor and when I walked out of the restaurant, there was a deep fried tofu and taro street vendor. I really like deep fried tofu; so of course, I had to stop and have some.


The fried tofu & taro were made from a very nice couple. They prepare, cut and deep fry the tofu & taro on the sidewalk. The couple had a very large and modern frying contraption. The frying oil is placed in the middle, heated at a high temperature, and the tofu & taro are placed in the middle. Once the tofu & taro are done, they are scooped up and placed on the drying rack for the excess oil to drip off.


I prefer the taste and texture of deep fried tofu over taro. The tofu was crispy outside and soft inside. There is a sweet & spicy sauce with peanuts that accompanies the tofu & taro. But I prefer the tofu plain. The taro is much richer, fattier, crunchier and denser but I am not too fond of the taro flavour.


I will never be hungry when Bangkok has such great snacks on the street, oh and cheap as well.

Boat Noodle Thonglor

My team and I finished a big meeting and decided before going back to the office to have lunch at a very famous boat noodle shop on soi Thonglor (opposite the Thonglor police station). My colleague has been going to this boat noodle shop for the last ten years.















Its in a simple shop house with no special decor, simple plastic chairs and aluminum tables. I always like these simple type of restaurants. The focus is on the food and not the decor. As well, the prices of the food is so cheap.















The first dish was a dry (without soup) boat noodle with thick rice noodles and beef balls. A very nice beginning of my lunch. The noodles were soft but firm, the beef balls had good texture and the sauce beef sauce was tasty.


The second dish was chicken rice (khao man kai). The chicken was a bit dry, the rice was cooked very nicely and had a nice taste to it. But it was the sauce, full of ginger & chili, that was the star of this dish.


The third dish was a boat noodle soup with thin rice noodles, beef balls and slices of beef. The soup made this dish great. So much flavour and I have no idea what ingredients they use to give it so much taste. I could have eaten several bowls of this soup. But I did not want my colleagues to think I had a garbage disposal for a stomach. OK, maybe they already knew that, but I did not want to high light the fact.


One side of the shop house is the woman making the khao man kai. As you can see, very simple but so good.















On the other side of the shop house is the beef soup woman. Making some of the best soup dishes on soi Thonglor. My colleague told me that this boat noodle shop was open all week and weekend. Good news for everyone who lives or works near the area. I for sure will be returning.

Pullman Wine Pub II

I posted about the Pullman's Wine Pub before but it was just an introduction and it did not have any delicious food shots. So, we went back to eat at the Pullman Wine Pub and this time, I did get lots of tantalizing food shots for your enjoyment. The Pullman is Accor Group's high end hotel. They opened the world's first Pullman in Bangkok (lucky us). It has a stunning lobby and the lobby bar is very cool. But, the Pullman's Wine Pub is a star in its own right. Like everything at the Pullman, the Wine Pub is enourmous. It has an enourmous bar in the center of the room and booths and tables surrounding the bar.


The Wine Pub is Bangkok's truly first wine bar/ pub. There are many wine bars in Bangkok, but for some reason they did not do them correctly. The Wine Pub was the very first to have net prices. Non of that + + hotel non-sense. Not only that, the Wine Pub was the very first to have very reasonable prices for a glass of wine, food & tapas. Because of the atmosphere and prices, the Wine Pub was a hit with Bangkokians from the beginning.


Since the Pullman is from the Accor group, you can see that the cheese selection is wonderful. How on earth can you pass this selection and not want to have a couple slices of each cheese.


The Wine Pub's selection of sausages, salamis and hams is nothing to laugh at either. An incredible choice and its difficult to choose. However, we do have some favourites so its easy for us when its time to choose.


As you can see, it was not difficult to choose. You will not believe the price for this huge portion of selected hams and salamis. This was our first appetizer for the evening. And it tasted as good as it looked.


Only the French can have a selection of pates like this. I was drooling when I saw how many types of pates we could choose from. It was like being in Paris again. What is also wonderful is that all the pate is made in house. I prefer this than to have pate flown in from France. It is good to teach the Thais how to make this wonderful food.


We had to be careful because everything looked so good. We had to calm ourselves because we still had our main courses coming. So, we chose only the country pate. It had a great country pate texture and the flavours of the meat and spices was very good.


The bread that accompanied the appetizers was surprisingly good as well. We should have not been surprised. I am sure they brought their expertise & tradition of making bread from France. The bread was crusty & crunchy on the outside and soft & chewy on the inside. It also arrived on the table hot. That is how bread should be served.















The wine we drank with the appetizers was the 2004 Macon Burgy 'En Chatelaine' from Verget. We are never disappointed from any of the wines from Verget. They make fantastic and drinkable whites. Its a 100% chardonnay, with hints of pineapple, butter & vanilla, it was lush & had a very long finish.



The main courses arrived; the first one was the lamp chops. Grilled to perfection, very tender and full of flavour from the meat and spices.


The next main course was a tenderloin. Again grilled perfectly, cut like butter and the taste was very good. You did not even need the red wine sauce that accompanied the meat.


You were given a choice of side orders with the main course; gratin, baked potato or french fries. We chose the french fries (you can order & eat as much as you wanted). The french fries were perfect, deep fried a golden brown, crispy outside and soft inside. It came with a glass of mayonnaise (which I despise), its a Belgian thing that I cannot get used to. I actually prefer mustard.















The red wine we drank with the main courses was Alamos (cabernet sauvignon) from Argentina. It had good character and quality, concentrated nose of plums and black fruit on the palate.


The Pullman Wine Bar is a great place to go after work because of the atmosphere and prices. You get fantastic quality, quantity and value for money. In this time of economic uncertainty, you need a place that makes you happy and makes your wallet happy as well.