Phu Talay

  We stayed at a lovely place called Baan Rim Nam (House on the water), an old fisherman's house on stilts, right on the "klong" or estuary near Klong Prao beach.  Baan Rim Nam is run by Ian, an Englishman with an encyclopaedic knowledge of the island and author of the best Koh Chang website:
iamkohchang.com

We spent our first night on the island in one of Porn's Bungalows (Porn is a common Thai nickname, apparently) a tiny wooden beach hut, with what felt like a multitude of unidentifiable wildlife clamouring to get in .  After this rustic experience Baan Rim Nam felt like proper luxury, at about £20 a night.  We had a large, tastefully decorated (in a rustic Thai style), air conditioned room and en-suite bathroom, with double doors opening out onto a huge deck on stilts over the Klong.  The deck was a wonderfully serene place to be at night, (or anytime) with all the comforts you could require; super comfy hammock, fridge full of cold beer running on an honesty box policy etc.  There is no restaurant here but for a nominal charge Ian will do you toast and and a pot of proper English tea for brekkie, the best (and only) tea I had on the island.  The lack of a restuarant isn't a problem when, just across the Klong, there are several top notch seafood restaurants.  Delighfully, a boatman will come over and pick you up and take you to your restaurant of choice.  On our first night we picked Phu Talay seafood restaurant.

What followed was a smorgasbord of seafood...steamed mussels with holy basil, chilli and lemongrass...

Peppered soft shell crab...

And a delicious soft shell crab stew, not pictured!  We thoroughly relaxed sitting on a deck right by the water, with a warm breeze and no sound but wind charms, lapping waves and softly spoken Russian from the table next to us (we encountered a  lot of Eastern Europeans on Koh Chang and this restaurant boasted a Russian menu; slightly confusing when I got an English menu and the boy got a Russian one, both with different dishes on, but we muddled through).  It was a lovely, romantic setting and the food was fantastic, super fresh seafood flavoured with aromatic herbs and spices, and some strange vegetables I hadn't encountered before (I later found out that these were baby aubergines).

If you are ever on Koh Chang I would whole heartedly recommend stayng at Baan Rim Nam for a few nights if you can, and being ferried across the water to Phu Talay or one of the other seafood places here, a really great experience!

Thai Feast...

 I can't really do our Thailand trip justice in one blog, so I'll do it bit by bit, highlight by highlight.  We ate loads of really good food, some in fairly upmarket restaurants, some from street stalls and a range in between.  I love the spicy salads and ate loads of these, som tum, laab etc.  I also had a devious method of fulfilling my inner Western stodge craving; club sandwiches.  Available on every menu, small or large, these were my fallback safety food, and always delicious.  We even had one Mexican meal, after the restaurant was recommended to us and we were not disappointed.  We only had one stumble, when the boy, craving beef towards the end of the holiday, ordered a fillet mignon from the resort restaurant; bad choice!  He was presented with a solid, grey, fibrous lump which looked liked it had been thawed and refrozen numerous times.   I did miss a nice glass of wine, I had one glass the whole time I was there and that was a thimble full.  Made up for it on the Chang beer though... 

Anyway, Ill let the pictures do most of the talking.

Our first proper Thai meal, at Ka Ti restaurant, Koh Chang, also turned out to be waaaaaaaaaaaaaay the hottest meal we had! 

 The tastiest ever seafood tempura with sweet chilli sauce to start with...

 Followed by what I think is the hottest chicken laab I've ever had!  Ate it all though.

 The boy opted for a dish called "Angry Snapper".  Think the clue was in the name really...

 Despite choking on his first mouthful of chilli and being openly laughed at (very good naturedly) by our Thai waiter, the boy did an admirable job of demolishing this, declaring it delicious.

Jack Rabbits

IMAG0532, a photo by Gingerferret2008 on Flickr.

This is probably the best Ploughman's I have ever eaten, at Jack Rabbits cafe in Derby. Isn't it beautiful?

I mentioned their superb sandwiches and take away ready meals in an earlier blog, they have now branched out into cafe territory. About time!

The owner is a very friendly and smiley lady who obviously cares about the food she is serving and makes a point of asking how it was.

The staff are pleasant and unflappable despite the fact that there seems to be a queue out of the door most of the time.

The cafe is housed in a light and airy glass fronted room opposite the cathedral. This used the be the Glasshouse, a bar where I misspent much of my Derby youth. Nice to see it being put to such civil and bustling use, it feels right to be back somehow!

Since this visit I've already returned for a wonderful and substantial brunch, and I plan to become a regular here. Well done Derby.

A Can of Canard.

IMAG0589, a photo by Gingerferret2008 on Flickr.

Not when this is the end result! The tin contained 5 cooked duck legs immersed in velvety fat. You wipe most, but not all the fat off the legs, then roast them at around gas mark 6 for 15 minutes.
We served with potatoes, sliced into rounds about the thickness of a pound coin, and baked in a deep dish with garlic, thyme and of course, some of the surplus duck fat, for about an hour.
Serve with a crisp green salad with a mustardy dressing to cut through all that rich duck lard. Beautiful.
We did intend to have guests for this meal but they were a no show, which means we are having oriental style duck pancakes for dinner with the leftovers...result!
If you go to France I urge you to bring one of these back with you, as they cost a fortune here. Get one for yourself as well...

A Can of Canard.

IMAG0586, a photo by Gingerferret2008 on Flickr.

Some people might think that duck legs preserved in duck fat and sealed into a massive tin sounds gross, but not me!
We've had this delight stashed away for over a year, just waiting for the right moment....

Spanish Fry...

I managed to get hold of some  pimientos de Padrón last week from an exclusive deli in Nottingham...okay from Lidl on Hucknall road.  Lidl seems to have them every September, when these delicious small green Galician peppers are coming to the end of their season.  I've never seen them in any other supermarket or grocery.  I decided to take it to the next level and rather than just having them as a bar snack I incorporated them in a recipe I'd had my eye on for a while...

Huevos Fritos con Ajo y pimientos de Padrón:  

Fried eggs with garlic and Padron peppers.  It sounds so much better in Spanish!
You need (for 4)
Olive oil
4 large garlic cloves
12 small green Padron peppers
Sea salt and cracked black pepper
4 eggs (duck eggs if you can get them, we couldn't)

Stir fry chopped garlic and whole peppers in olive oil.   (I used the same pan I'd used to cook some chorizo which we added to some diced potatoes and roasted in the oven, to have with the eggs and peppers.)

Remove with a slotted spoon when the peppers start to brown and blister; this won't take long.
Crack the eggs into the pan and as the whites start to solidify, add the peppers and garlic back into the pan.

Cook eggs as you like them.

Serve with crusty bread, or with the chorizo potatoes that we had.  The chorizo oil really added another dimension to the eggs / peppers / garlic combo.  Happy days.

I'm going to be craving a Spanish fry up instead of a full English for the forseeably future!

PS I didn't have this for breakfast, just in case you were wondering...

Thai Tea

Thai Tea, a set on Flickr.

 A visit to Chung Wah in search of green papaya resulted in me taking a trip down memory lane.  I remember eating these fish balls whilst living in Brunei aged about 7 or 8.  Every time I've been in Chung Wah I've wanted to buy some and this time I did!  With a big bottle of sweet chilli dipping sauce to go with them...msg-tastic.
The fish balls possess a rather unique texture, kind of like surimi (fish sticks) but not quite,  Biting into them is not unlike biting into a frankfurter sausage, the same "skin pop" sensation, with a dense and smooth inside.  I'm selling it to you, non?
I was delighted to find I had remembered texture and flavour (spicy and fishy) accurately, and thoroughly enjoyed eating them.  The boy wasn't so sure about them, he claimed, although he still scoffed the lot.
The green papaya?  Yippee!  We found one.  I wanted one to make Som Tum, my new favourite Thai salad, recipe to follow.  I got a bit of a shock when I got to the cash register though, the lovely lady who owns Chung Wah put this bad boy on the scales and it clocked in at over £6!  Could I have used a marrow instead?  No, not really...

To me, Som Tum is the epitome of Thai food.  The sweet, sour, salty, fishy, spicy balance is close to perfection.  A wonderful mix of textures too.  You need (per person):
1 small green papaya
1 tsp palm sugar
a pinch of chopped garlic
a pinch of chopped red bird's eye chilli
5 french beans halved lenghthways
a few roasted peanute, coarsley chopped
a pinch of chopped, dried shrimp
1 tbsp of fish sauce
1 tbsp of tamarind water
4 cherry plum tomatoes, halved
juice of 1 lime.
I got everything in Chung Wah.  You can make tamarind water by soaking a lump of tamarind pulp the size of a tangerine in 150ml warmish water, then agitating the pulp with your fingers until the seeds are released.  Drain it through a sieve and the resulting liquid is tamarind water. 
Peel the papaya and shred it using a mandolin, or large sharp knife.  We bought a mandolin especially for this purpose (£12, Lakeland) and I shredded my thumb too!
Discard the core and seeds of the fruit.  Put the shredded papaya in a bowl.
Put the garlic, chilli and green beans in a mortar and bruise lightly with a pestle.
Add the sugar (moistened with a little water), peanuts, shrimp, fish sauce, tamarind water and lime juice and bruise everything again.  Think muddling a mojito.
Pour this mixture over your shredded papaya, mix well and serve at once! 

Thanks to Rick Stein for the recipe.
I'm making this again tomorrow.  Trancendental.
We also made Cambodian marinated beef with a lime and black pepper dipping sauce, but that's another story...