Phuket Food Shopping Entertainment
Watermark Bar Restaurant at The Boat Lagoon Marina
by Bruce Stanley
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The Watermark Bar Restaurant offers 5 star food, drinks and service in an upscale yet informal atmosphere. Located at
Phuket's premier yachting basin, the Boat Lagoon Marina, the Watermark sits at the edge of a covered dock in a dramatic
position alongside some of the world's most outstanding yachts.
Stuart Bird manages the Watermark bringing his expertise as a chef and in high end catering in the United Kingdom to
Phuket. The owner Joshua Lee, managing director of the adjacent Lee Marine, Phuket's leading international yacht
brokerage. The chef is Aaron Hooper who trained at the New England Culinary Institue in America and then worked at many
of San Francisco's best restaurants before his curiosity about the foods of Asia brought him to Thailand. These three
young men are well traveled, hip and bring th latest in contemporary ideas in food and drink to Phuket in perhaps the
island's most glamorous setting.
"We had a design team in Hong Kong, Original Vision, create this clean, modern look for the Watermark. We want every
aspect of what we do to reflect the special relationship between an ideal lifestyle and this paradise island," comments
Stuart. "I would call our cuisine modern Australian with a lot of influences from around the world but specifically the
Pacific Rim."
The Watermark is open daily for both lunch and dinner and has the island's most popular happy hour on Friday's when the
remarkable range of cocktails, served in gloriously large glasses, are offered at two-for-the-price-of-one. the cocktail
menu offers the best mixed drinks found anywhere on the island including a Mojito, golden rum, fresh mint leaves, lime
juice and sugar syrup topped with soda in a tall glass, to a refreshing Sea Breeze, a mixture of vodka with cranberry
and grapefruit juice laid long with a squeeze of lime.
Each week, the Watermark offers a special cocktail, usually a blended tropical fruit as a mango mixed with a refreshing
variety of liquors and juices. The cocktails are always delightful for both their size and their taste. The menu also
has a potent long Island Iced Tea, Bloody mary and Moscow Mule and the bar staff can mix anything upon request.
But it is the food that has made the Watermark phuket's most contemporary restaurant. many local residents and
international visitors want a special dinner on a regular occassion as fine contemporary food is another one of the
important pleasure of living on a beautiful island. The Watermark offers a menu, both for lunch and dinner,
that combines refreshing tastes and textures using a lot of quality imported foods mixed with the freshest local
ingredients.
Keeping with the Pacific Rim influnces, the Apetizer manu features such interesting dishes as the blue crab, avocado
and pickled cucumber salad set between crispy wanton skins and given a piquant finish with tom yam mayonnaise and a
splash of chili oil. This cuisine is beautiful to look at with a high verticle presentation and also unique and
remarkable to eat with the combination of flavours. The Vietnamese shrimp noodle rolls are given a Thai influence with
clices of tangy green mango srved with a chili yoghurt dipping sauce. Another popular apetizer is Japanese shashimi
tuna that has been quickly seared and thinly sliced served to be eaten with chopsticks. The dish also includes pumpkin
papaya salad and a small bowl of chilled soba noodles with a round of tast tofu. A soy mirin dressing is offered with
the tuna.
Fresh salads are a feature at the Watermark including Phuket's very best Caesar Salad made with fresh romain lettuce
grown in Northern Thailand and flown to Phuket. there's also a char grilled vegetable salad woth a wide selection of
succulent imported vegetables that have been lightly seared to retain flavour. They are offered with a grainy tabhoueh,
garlic sour cream and a cilantro pesto that are certain to enhance the natural flavour of the variety of
garden vegetables.
"We adjust and improve our menu regularly to present foods that are light and easily digestable in this tropical
climate," says chef Aaron. "We are offering almost a spacuisine with a lot of healthy influences.
Chef Aaron has added a Vietnamese glaze to imported Tasmanian salmon as a main dish that is served with char grilled
fresh asparagus, ginger and chilled green tea soba noodle salad with a crab claw.
Another interesting dinner is a leg of New Zealand Lamb that has been braised in Pinot Grigio, a white wine that keeps
the flavour lighter and sweeter. The result is a moist and succulent lamb that is served on a bed of mint and pine nut
jasmine rice surrounded by shaved gala apple that has also been spiced with lime and mint and thyme jus that
leaves the tatse buds stimulated.
Other popular main meals include fresh local white snapper and the best quality Australian beef fillet served with
sauteed herb potato and mushroon jus.
It's easy to choose a wine at the Watermark. The list has a wide selection of around thirty wines that are grouped
according to taste. Such titles as rich and fruity, big and bold, dry and distinctive, help guide the guest towards
trying a new winewith certainly some very new tastes in cuisine.
Acid jazz plays gently in the background and softly lights the tropical breezes off the nearby lagoon make a meal at the
watermark a memorable experience for both the cuisine and the extraordinary setting.
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