Seafood in the rain in Phuket

Pooja and I finally managed to take a short break and spent a week celebrating her cousin Anjali and Vipul’s 20th wedding anniversary in Phuket end of May. 

On their previous trip Vipul had unearthed this smallish eatery, located just off Sarasin Bridge. Very understated place but boy is it a great place to spend a lazy afternoon! Given that we had gone at the start of the monsoon, their outside tables were put away so we settled on a table with the best view of the sea inside one of the salas. And the rain did come down really hard for about 20 minutes. Fantastic spectacle to watch with the open sea at short distance.

One of Vipul’s childhood buddy’s, who’s been in Bangkok for almost 25 years now, was visiting us for the day and helped us with the language since their manager (who spoke English fluently) was on holiday. The staff was attentive without being intrusive and the service was fast and always with a smile.

Now these guys are obviously sticking to their name when it comes to menu composition. Other than a few beef, pork and chicken dishes, it’s pretty much a seafoodie’s paradise. They have it all except that on the day we visited, they didn’t have oysters. They made up for that in spades with the rest of it!

We started with some Morning Glory, Raw Papaya Salad with Prawns and Tom Yum Goong clear soup. For those who know me, eating green leafy stuff means the planet’s run out of non-vegetarian options. Completely. I was wolfing this salad down like there was no tomorrow. In a word – Brilliant!

Tom Yum Goong…. yummmmmmmmmm! Piping hot, served in this volcano shaped dish with a little fire inside to keep it warm. Just tangy enough for the bong in my wife, just spicy enough for her 9 year old niece Anaya, loaded with shrimp and some squid and cuttlefish thrown in for good measure. There’s something really nice about sipping on a hot and delicious seafood broth while its pouring cats and dogs outside.

The Raw Papaya Salad was so fresh and crunchy, it totally hit the spot. There was just a hint of some finely chopped birds eye chili in there and it totally elevated the dish.

And so more of the same was ordered!

We then moved on to the main course. Oh yeah we were being gluttons for sure.

Anaya had had enough seafood and was craving her favorite chicken so we got some chicken and rice for her. For us we got the Phad Thai, Steamed Asian Sea Bass, and Honey Tamarind Chili Prawns.

The Pad Thai was okay but the prawns and the fish – oh my god they were good!

The fish was moist and perfectly cooked. Loads of garlic and lime with the birds eye giving it enough heat without being spicy. The fish was not overpowered by the condiments and its flavours came shining through. We did order a second one just to stay with the gluttony theme.

What can I say of the prawns? Large, succulent, juicy, crunchy – in a word – delicious!

Tamarind is not on my favourites list of flavours. But these guys have got it just right with the honey and chili pairing. Thick sauce coated the prawns and we just dove right in with our hands. It really was a standout dish.

The rains and seafood really did it for me that day. Very enjoyable afternoon. What was weird though was that none of us wanted any beer to wash it down with. I tell you, good food makes you do silly things sometimes. It really was a great afternoon.