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Phuket.com Magazine

August 2008 - Gourmand's Island

  Dinner under tropical moon at Amari Coral Beach
 

Welcome to Phuket.com Magazine's August edition. If there's anything that Phuket is renowned for it is its gourmet scene and this is our magazine theme this month. Yes, food glorious food, and it comes as no surprise that we home in on the island's seafood.

Gourmet cuisine on the ninth floor of a high rise? Sure – read our take on the 9th Floor restaurant, as well as a review of nearby scrumptious Da Maurizio, surely the most attractive beachside restaurant on the island.

The Banyan Tree is a member of the Leading Hotel of the World's group and its impeccable grounds, wonderful villas and unusual and romantic evening dinner cruise all feature in our hotel review.

Our Top Ten gourmet resorts list – the result of an exciting online vote – actually was so enthusiastically endorsed that we just had to add a few more, proving that you can never get too much of a good thing. In Ten Good Reasons to Stay we visit Dusit Thani Laguna and Amari Coral Beach hotels.

Check out a Thai cooking class, Phuket's fresh markets, unusual Thai snacks and Thailand's Viagra in these pages, as well as a recipe you can try at home – spicy beef salad. So Bon Appetite! We hope you enjoy reading our gourmet Phuket edition as much as we did collecting and sampling the data!

The Editor
editor@phuket.com
 

10 reasons to stay at:
Amari Coral Beach Resort

There are not many hotels around that are able to offer guests both peace and privacy such a short distance from all the hot attractions that Patong has to offer.
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10 reasons to choose
Dusit Thani Laguna Phuket

The very first impressions of a resort are received through its lobby. Dusit does not disappoint, with its traditional Thai-style design and architecture as well as the beautiful cadences of live Thai music floating on the breeze as you check in.
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Top 10 Gourmet Resorts

No one can deny that fine dining and top-of-the-range surroundings go hand in hand. And where better to enjoy this luxurious combination than in Phuket's fantastic array of plush hotels and resorts.
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Banyan Tree Phuket

Spacious, elegant and impressive, the multi award-winning Banyan Tree Phuket plays to its strengths; excellent and polite service, luscious rolling grounds, full use of an array of Thai textiles and woods throughout and clever use of space in its public areas.

The Banyan Tree Group is a leading manager and developer of premium resorts, hotels and spas in the Asia Pacific, with 23 resorts and hotels, 65 spas, 65 retail galleries, and two golf courses and the Banyan Tree Phuket is the group's flagship resort.

The roomy lobby area is breeze-and-fan cooled, lined with large teak-and-cushioned low sofas. Lotus flowers in gold vases decorate the area while the busy outdoors arrival and departure point is cleverly sectioned off, conserving the peaceful atmosphere at reception.
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Da Maurizio and 9th Floor

For the gourmet edition of Phuket.com magazine we decided to go for the very best and we certainly enjoyed visiting and sampling the excellent fare at Patong's 9th Floor – a plush restaurant with views out over the town and the Andaman Sea along with Da Maurizio, a multiple award winning contemporary Italian restaurant right on the sea front in Kalim. But alas, food will never be the same again after these two wonderful gastronomic experiences but as they say… someone's got to do it.
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Thai Cooking Class

Near the giant Jungceylon shopping complex on Rat-U-Thit Rd, Patong, Pum’s Cooking School is in a bright orange-coloured shop-house, and also operates as a bar and restaurant. It has an open space on one side which is used as a dining area and a small open bar at one end. The kitchen is big and open, and occupies much of the restaurant. This is where students do the actual cooking after learning all the techniques from the teacher. At Pum’s Cooking School there is no hiding in a closed kitchen.
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Phuket Seafood

One reason many tourists choose to return to Phuket again and again is because they love the food available on the island. The variety of dishes is huge but one type of food that plays a big role in Phuket’s Thai-and-international culinary culture is seafood.
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Fresh Market - Talaad Sod

To go to a fresh market in the west is considered a treat; a good day out. For the typical Thai person it's as normal as going to MacDonald's. Nevertheless, for a Westerner, Thai fresh markets are cornucopias of colourful fruit and vegetables, unrecognizable merchandise, copied DVD's and computer games and brightly hued T-shirts and jeans, not to mention secondhand shoes, name-brand copies and much more. Read more...

A snack with legs

Just call it a 'cultural divide' but strange as it may seem, a favourite snack in Thailand, originally from the northeast of the country but now found everywhere, is a yummy plate of fried insects. The theory is that the northeast is the poorest part of Thailand and that for some time now crops have been hard to grow there. Raising cattle was out of the question so some locals had to be creative when it came to food. So, easy-to-catch insects and bugs became one of their favorite snacks and protein supplements.
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Thai Viagra: a Local Aphrodisiac

My full time job is not writing. Yes, I do write a lot, but my full-time job is deleting emails. Everyday I have to get rid of countless junk mails. (Yup, my spam blocker is useless.) Most of them are those all-time classics: the ads for cheap remedies for chaps lacking in confidence, size or strength. You know the kind of thing I mean: “Want to impress the ladies when the pants come down? Viagra 100mg x 30 pills, only $3.33 per pill.” And so on. Mixing Thai whiskey and herbal powders I don’t know why these people bother sending this kind of spam to anyone in Thailand. Thai men don’t need Viagra or other pharmaceutical props for their equipment. They have Yadong. Read more...

Phuket’s own Full Moon Party

Following the success of the internationally renowned Full Moon Parties on Koh Pha-ngan in the Gulf of Thailand, Mali Waterfront Restaurant & Bar on Karon Beach has decided to stage a series of Full Moon Parties on Phuket.
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Phuket Hotel Updates

Laguna Phuket is to add a seventh hotel to its portfolio, the Angsana Phuket. Construction of the hotel is expected to start in late 2008. The Angsana Phuket will have 132 hotel rooms, as well as sky pool villas, meeting rooms and a spa.
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Phuket Events Aug 2008

Don't miss our extensive list of exciting upcoming Events on the island. There's truly something for everyone happening here.
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Thai Spicy Beef Salad with Crispy Egg Plant

When planning dishes for a Thai dinner, a spicy salad is pretty much a must – it’s considered a good healthy starter. This month we went to the Dusit Thani Laguna Resort’s kitchen and learned about Chef Pachon’s Thai spicy beef salad with crispy egg plant. It’s simple to make and delicious to eat.
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