Phuket randoms

Ok, so I wasn't at a remote Thai island...it was Phuket and despite being the off-season, it was still terribly crowded. We stayed at the Chedi at Pansea Beach, which was separated from Surin Beach by a little cliff. Even though the hotel was a little old compared to the other newer ones at Surin like Twin Palms, it was worth it since the Chedi had its own private beach and was much more affordable compared to its more prestigious neighbour the Amanpuri (which we sneaked into as well).

Some gastronomic highlights of the trip:

Fried rice at a random restaurant at Surin Beach

Beef noodles and beer at the same place

Beef noodles at the foodcourt at Junkceylon shopping centre at Patong Beach - these were really good, and cost 50 baht.

Som tum at the same place - another 50 baht

The wide array of jams at the Chedi breakfast buffet...the mango and papaya jam was really good!

Breakfast on day 1: gravalax and caprese salad

Close up of the salmon and cottage cheese on rye bread

We had mozzarella cheese with tomato and basil every morning....ate it happily until it was coming out of my ears

The cheese platter was pretty good...with lots of emmental cheese which went really well with the cold cuts on top of rye bread....

We also found this place at Surin Beach called the Catch Beach Club, which was a really nice place for sundowner drinks. Not cheap though, at 240 baht per pop when all the other places were having their happy hour special at 99 baht.

The view was free

Catch has a BBQ buffet on Tuesdays and Fridays, and it costs 1490 baht per person with a bottle of wine per couple. Since we already had our evening drinks, we took the teetotaller option of paying 1190 baht per person for the buffet only.

Starting up the fires

The view of the beach bar

Men at work

They had lots of fresh seafood - raw oysters, crabs and prawns

Gravadlax again

Sashimi counter. There was also a tempura counter and kebab counter which I didn't manage to photograph.

Cheeses and desserts
White chocolate fountain with strawberries and raspberries for dipping

More desserts, including tiramisu, mango with sticky rice and creme brulee

The bbq spread was pretty good: squid, prawns, crayfish and beef.

Various salads and antipasto. What is it about Phuket and salad caprese?

Close up of the olive, pepperoni and cheese platter. Perfect with a glass of red wine.

More salads

Food on the barbie

Round 1: Lots of oysters! I was a bit concerned about the wisdom of eating raw oysters in Phuket, but decided the risk was worth taking.

Round 2: bbq stuff.

Round 3: Sashimi

Round 4: More oysters and bbq squid

Round 5: More bbq beef and prawns

Rounds 6, 7 and 8 showing kebab and tempura not photographed. Round 9: Creme brulee, torched on the spot!

Mango with sticky rice for dessert

And to cap it off....raspberries and ice cream!

Catch Beach Club

Surin Beach Road, Cherngtalay, Phuket

Tel: 66-76-316567

www.catchbeachclub.com

I just want to be where I am

On a remote Thai island eating, sleeping and sunbathing lots. Back next wk : )

Lontong at Amoy Street Food Centre

I happen to really like the lontong at one Malay stall on the second floor of the food centre at Amoy St. They open early in the morning for breakfast, and close shortly after lunch.

The lontong ($2) comes with one giant tow kua triangle, about 4-5 pieces of ketupat and the cabbage/turnip mixture which is fairly tasty and yet not too salty. My only wish is that they would give more gravy but I guess it's not a bad thing considering the coconut milk in it.

Nasi Padang Sederhana

#02-91 Amoy St Food Centre

Open for breakfast and lunch

More China food

I've been pretty busy lately, and was just in China again last week where I was unable to access blogger. Because of the people I was eating with most of the time, it wasn't totally appropriate to photograph my food. But here's a shot of my 2nd visit to the Beijing chicken wing place 2 weeks later, this time with 3 eating companions so I could order more : )

Finally a picture menu! No need to figure out what the handwritten scribbles mean

We ordered 3 different types: normal spicy (chilli on one side), garlic as well as honey.

Left to right: Garlic, normal spicy and honey. I loved the spicy one the best...just a small amount of sichuan pepper but not overwhelming heat.

Dong Lai Shun

Dong Lai Shun is a Muslim hotpot (or some say steamboat) place in Beijing. I had always thought that they only had one branch at Wangfujing, but was pleasantly surprised to come across it in Xizhimen, where I was staying. The Wangfujing branch has set meals, which give you a bit of everything. At the Xizhimen branch, everything had to be ordered separately which was a bit of a pain since the servings weren't exactly small.

Even the hot pots could be ordered separately! The prettier ones were more expensive.

The ugliest hotpot was the cheapest.
They also serve proper dishes here.

But I was there for the meat...

Eventually settled on one serve of beef, spinach, golden mushroom and bee hoon. And beer is a must-have with hotpot - Yanjing dunsheng beer is really good.

The dipping sauce had to be ordered separately (again, another deviation from the Wangfujing branch). The coriander leaves and spring onions went well with the sesame sauce....

As did the chilli oil.

I also had a serve of lotus root....it was a good meal, but difficult to eat alone. Total price around RMB 130.

Spice Spirit at Sanlitun

Friends living in Beijing brought me to Spice Spirit, which is a Sichuan restaurant at the Village at Sanlitun. The place was packed although it was fairly early in the evening.

They had lots of spicy dishes!

Since the Singaporeans ordered, we had kong bak with mui choy (not very Sichuan, I know)

Since my friends also had 2 kids, not everything could be spicy. This tofu with salted egg yolk was not very visually appealing, but it was WONDERFUL with steamed rice. Until now I still have dreams of the tofu. It's a must try.

Again, another non-spicy dish for the kids. This dish was called wa wa cai (I think wa wa means doll). Decent, standard, unexciting.

The ma po to fu was good! Spicy, but not overly so, and tasty. Very good with steamed rice, but just a tad oily.

The best dish was the chicken wings with dried chilli, which is a variation of La Zi Ji. The chicken wings were chopped up into half and fried with the dried chilli/sichuan peppercorns mixture. It wasn't overly hot, and was really tasty. Again, good with steamed rice.

Including drinks (a jug of sour plum tea), the entire bill came up to about RMB 180 (which is about S$40) - really good value for money, in a nice restaurant and really good food.

Spice Spirit S2-30, The Village at Sanlitun, Sanlitun Lu, Chaoyang district

Tel: 86-10-6413 2903

Open 11am-11pm daily.