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By Kit C. Cauw
Plenty of restaurant menus pair wines with their dishes, but Sheraton
Grande Laguna Phuket's "new baby," The Tea House, gives
this convention a twist.
Instead of Cabernets and Merlots, fruit and vegetable shakes are
on offer, special concocotions to aid less in flavor enhancement
than in digestion and overall health and well-being.
Certain mixtures, such as the coconut carrot juice, are meant to
accompany the appetizer; others, due to properties of their ingredients,
are designed to compliment the main course. The juices are prepared
without added sugar and even seem to be relatively low in carbohydrates
for those on Atkins-type diets. Some of the drinks, like the Honey
Jasmine Smoothie, containing yogurt, jasmine tea, honey and secret
spices, "fight fevers, insomnia and upset stomachs." Others,
like the exotic herbal drink Jamu Wanita, are "believed to
clean the blood, improve vitality and act as an aphrodisiac."
The one that caught my eye, the Coconilla, advertised a cleaner
complexion and the easing of aching joints, neither of which treatments
I really needed. I ordered it anyway on the grounds that the combination
of coconut water, milk (from a cow, not coconut) and vanilla could
not go wrong.
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The Tea House celebrated its grand opening just recently, on October
28th, with both the vice governor of Phuket and celebrated chef
of British television Daniel Green in attendance. Marketing services
manager Khun Isara Pangchun, our hostess, informed me that the physically
fit Chef Green, formerly the very fat Mr. Green, launched the restaurant's
first special menu and stayed on through Halloween as guest chef,
sharing his story and imparting his stamp of good health upon the
new outlet. Tired of being overweight, he explored the field of
nutrition, taught himself to cook and eat for fitness, then became
a model, not just of success in the field but on actual fashion
runways. His philosophy and an underlying goal of the Tea House
is to inspire people to have good health and to be good looking.
Khun Itsara wanted to stress, however, that the menu here is not
too healthy. The food is not bland and boring. One can still order
meat, though many vegetarian dishes are available. The menu is divided
into five parts: appetizers, soups, salads, noodles and rice and
mains. With selections such as "Abalone medallion, baby bitter
melon and gingko nuts on black bean sauce" and "Wok seared
squab with sea scallops and orange sauce," one might expect
the Tea House to be located along a hipster avenue in San Francisco
or Miami. Indeed, the cool trance tunes and light green, dare I
suggest green tea?, coloured walls and the funky chairs with stylish
and swanky silk cushions together with the purple silk place mats,
all contribute to the sense that the restaurant is positioned to
become a trendy culinary destination on the island.
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After our introduction, Khun Isara left us to the menu and our
waiter, who pointed out the specialties. We followed his advice
to the letter, going for "Warm Peking Duck Salad With Dragon
Fruit On Ginger Jus" and "Double Boiled Bamboo Fungi Soup
With Oolong Tea Marinated Water Chestnut Wontons" to start,
followed by "Steamed Rice Paper Roll With Garoupa and Root
Vegetables on Black Bean Sauce with Tomatoes" and "Roasted
Lamb Chops and Crispy Vegetables on BBQ Sauce With Baby Spinach
and Pickled Ginger Salad." Courses arrived in timely though
unhurried fashion and the fruit juice blends provided a pleasant,
zesty accompaniment. The Coconilla drink was particularly delicious
and refreshing; it would be the perfect mid-afternoon beach beverage.
All the courses were both excellent and light, including the lamb,
a meat that oftentimes leaves me feeling sluggish and overfed. Our
dishes had very little starch and were perfect for low-carb diets
except for some of the sweeter sauces like the bbq. Vegetables were
cooked al dente, presumably to preserve their nutritional benefits
but with the added bonus of providing nice, crisp consistency.
The Tea House is a pretty restaurant in one of Phuket's finest resorts.
The Sheraton Grande Laguna is a member of The Luxury Collection
of Starwood Hotels and Resorts and the Tea House fits nicely within
this tradition of excellence. Set beside the resort's outdoor Marketplace,
where the flavours and handicrafts of Thai markets are on display
on certain evenings, the first floor houses two private dining rooms
and would make the perfect venue for either individual parties or
a larger reception utilizing both the rooms and the foyer in between.
The stairs leading up are built in magnificent black Chinese style
and lanterns of the same tradition hang from the rafters. The tables
are adorned with miniature zen gardens set with votive candles.
Dinnerware is ceramic with the trendy "cracked glass"
glaze.
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The design highlight of the Tea House is the wall decoration, the
large portraits of Chinese women captured in haunting photographic
detail, staged in settings as varied as bedrooms or in front of
the imposing Guilan Mountains. At the host station, chopsticks,
candles, various teas and herbal infusions are for sale including
safflower, chrysanthemum, ginger, bael fruit and roselle. Another
door leads in from the resort's second-storey hallway, across from
the Angsana Spa. Khun Isara mentioned that the Spa and Tea House
plan to work very closely together. After all, who wants a big,
heavy meal following a health treatment? The Tea House is the perfect
venue for those who want to retain the joys of flavourful dining
without having to take on all that bulk. Although the idea may run
contrary to some people's notions of a holiday; imagine spending
a week in paradise and not gaining any weight! At the Tea House,
you do not have to abandon your dietary programmes yet you can still
feel exceedingly pampered. As the restaurant's motto reads, a quote
from Hippocrates, "Your food should be your medicine and your
medicine should be your food."
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