Perfect beach lunch

We spent the last four days at Railay in coastal Thailand. After 2 days of patchy rain and one hell of a storm (as we should expect, as it is rainy season in the region) the sun came out and I had the opportunity to tan my Melbourne-winter pale legs.

Altering between the beach, our beautiful pool and the bar we managed to find what I thought was the perfect beach goer lunch.


A spicy som tam salad (green papaya bashed with dried prawns, fish sauce, chilli, lime, garlic, peanuts, snake beans and tomato... no doubt more and more as well), served on the same plate with some marinated and fried chicken thigh and some of my favourite sticky rice. Lengths of more snake beans and cucumber where the textural garnish.

Pretty healthy, really speedy and bloody amazing flavours. No doubt I will be recreating this at home in Melbourne come summer.

Dishes of the Month - June and July, opps!

The end of June got a little crazy and well here I am with Dishes of the Month for both June and July. Funny enough, they are both steeped in French tradition yet could not be a world further away from each other.

I should explain...

A trip to Healseville in the middle of June, was as always an opportunity to eat at the Healseville Hotel were I have a enjoyed many fantastic meals over the years. This time was no different, if anything I think it was the best yet.

The dish was actually dessert and as I have mentioned before I not much of a sweets person yet I'm a sucker for a tarte Tatin. A classic French upside down baked tart of apples, this was a quince version with fruit from the local region.

June Dish of the Month

Quince tarte Tatin with almond milk sorbet -Healseville Hotel

Slow cooked fragrant quince baked with a soft almond frangipane and a crispy puff pastry base served with a scoop of a nutty and light almond milk sorbet

My Dish of the Month from July was from Dalat, Vietnam. Now, I usually strictly eat the local food when on holidays but recommendations lead us to the cutiest little French bistro and the most amazing artichoke of my life.

July Dish of the Month

Poached artichoke (yes, as simple as that) -Le Cafe de la Poste, Dalat Vietnam

I took a bit of a educated gamble ordering this, I knew that lots of artichokes were grown locally, they were everywhere at the market, so hence in season and the Dalatians take artichoke very seriously as they have a local artichoke tea. The artichoke was very traditionally prepared, perfectly poached so the leaves can just wiggle off and served with a side pot of red wine and mustard vinaigrette.
The eloquent way to eat the artichoke is to pull off the leaves one by one with your fingers and dip into the dressing and then scrape the flesh off the leaf with your teeth as you bite in. As you slowly eat, -this can take some time- you will reach the middle and the main fleshly part that should be eaten with a knife and fork. The best artichoke I have ever eaten.