The Thai Island With a Food Scene That Rivals the Beach

New York Times

20-03-2025

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The Restaurants That Make Phuket, Thailand, a Fine-Dining Destination
Located on the Andaman Sea at the entrance to the Strait of Malacca, the tropical island of Phuket, Thailand, has long been known for its splashy beach resorts. But lately, its food scene has become just as much of a draw. It was named a UNESCO City of Gastronomy in 2015 and has evolved over the past decade with a set of fine-dining destinations. The most recent addition is Terra, a modern Italian restaurant in a renovated 1898 Sino-Portuguese mansion built during the island's tin-mining boom. It opened in January with two tasting menus featuring dishes like langoustine and shellfish emulsion with chestnut quenelles, and sole and sea urchin in an Amalfi lemon beurre blanc. It joins Royd, which in 2022 began welcoming visitors to a 12-seat table in a stylish 1970s shop house, where the Phuket-born chef Suwijak Kunghae riffs on traditional southern Thai cooking with dishes like tofu skin tart with smoked pig's head and tamarind sauce, and squid with Phuket pineapple and southern Thai sour curry. At Pru, founded in 2016, the Dutch chef Jimmy Ophorst cooks dishes like durian and caviar, roasting the notoriously odoriferous Southeast Asian fruit, then turning it into a mousse that he garnishes with local roe. When you've had enough courses, try one of Phuket's many small, inexpensive restaurants specializing in just one or two dishes. Krua Baan Platong uses local ingredients to produce Phuket comfort food like steamed pork belly with a southern Thai budu dipping sauce made with fermented anchovies; and Niyom Salt Grilled Duck is a simple roadside place serving juicy charcoal-roasted duck with a choice of spicy sour or tamarind dipping sauce.
Glasses That Combine California Cool With Japanese Craftsmanship
When it comes to manufacturing quality eyewear, no one does it like the Japanese. But finding and trying on great pairs outside of Asia can be somewhat challenging. As a daily glasses-wearer, I've long relied on Mr. Leight, the limited-edition range of luxurious, Japanese-made pairs designed by Garrett Leight in collaboration with his father, Larry Leight, who's best known for founding the brand Oliver Peoples in 1986. But now there's a new, slightly less rarefied option if you're looking to pick up a springtime pair of optical or sunglasses handcrafted on the archipelago: Garrett Leight Blue, which upgrades two of the company's most popular, California-inspired silhouettes (the Kinney and the Hampton) with premium details like adjustable titanium nose pads, subtly filigreed metal arm-detailing and quality acetate that's less likely to whiten or fade over time. Offered in a few off-kilter colors — think light pink or opal frames, with tinted, UV-protective lenses that have contrasting shades of deep oceanic blue or moss green — they're also just plain fun, down to the cerulean faux snakeskin case that's so bright it ought to prevent you from misplacing them. From $465, garrettleight.com.
A New Hotel in Taiwan's Capital With Sweeping City Views and Personal Plunge Pools
When Dunhua North Road was constructed after World War II, the wide, tree-lined boulevard linked what was then Taipei, Taiwan's main airport with the city center, welcoming international visitors to the growing metropolis. The newly built Capella Taipei sits on the northern end of the avenue that now bisects the city. Designed by the Hong Kong-based André Fu Studio, it has five restaurants, including Rong Ju — or 'banyan house,' the name a nod to the century-old trees growing in front of the hotel — which serves Cantonese cuisine under pitched ceilings resembling the red-tiled roofs that characterize some of Taipei's oldest neighborhoods. Floor-to-ceiling windows in the 86 hotel rooms frame city views that in some cases include the Taipei 101 tower (finished in 2004, it was the world's tallest building until 2010). The pool terrace suites have their own outdoor plunge pools, but guests who really need an escape can retreat to the wellness center, which offers a sensory deprivation flotation tank. Capella also plans to offer excursions for guests to explore Taiwanese culture, such as a visit to a tea farm nestled in the mountains that surround the city. Capella Taipei opens April 1. From about $620 a night, capellahotels.com.
Olive Oils With Deep Roots
While it's tempting to ration a nice olive oil, the liquid in the bottle is extremely perishable. According to the North American Olive Oil Association, a container should generally be drained within three months of opening to avoid oxidation, so you may as well splash it around un-self-consciously, and replenish it frequently. When it comes time to try a new one, go for an oil that can be traced to its origin, a strong signifier of quality. Agricola Maraviglia's oil comes from the Tuscan farm where one of its founders grew up, and where today they prune and pick by hand. After mapping his lineage to Sicily, the owner of a plant nursery in South Carolina returned to his ancestral land to launch Aulive last year, using succulent Nocellara del Belice olives. The founders of Olivaia's OLA spent half a decade rehabilitating an abandoned estate in California's Central Valley, nurturing century-old trees to produce a fruity blend of nine distinct cultivars. Oro di Milas, on the other hand, uses only Memecik olives grown in an ancient Mediterranean province of Turkey, earning the EU's Protected Designation of Origin, which certifies the provenance of both the olive and the finished product. Across the Aegean, Koroneiki olives from farmers in Messenia, Greece, fill Psyche Organic's sleek pouches, which have spigot dispensers that help preserve the oil in an airless chamber. By summer, when the Northern Hemisphere oils harvested the previous fall are passing their prime, Familia Zuccardi in Mendoza, Argentina, is just getting to work milling the Arauco olive, which has a spicy, tomato-like juiciness — ensuring that shoppers always have something freshly pressed to pour.
In Pangrati, Athens, Creative Kitchens and Old-School Ice Cream
Pangrati, the laid-back Athens neighborhood that's just a 20-minute walk from the Temple of Zeus and Syntagma Square, has recently been discovered by the fasaios (to use the Greek term for 'hipsters'). The buzz began about two years ago with the opening of Akra, a light-filled restaurant with a wood-fired oven near lively Proskopon Square. It's open for breakfast, lunch and dinner, serving dishes like moussaka with a mushroom ragout from the chef-owner Giannis Loukakis and baked goods including sourdough bread and a caramelized milk tart from the pastry chef Spiros Pediaditakis. The latest addition to the neighborhood is Aswtos Rogue Taverna, which opened late last fall. The music is loud, the servers tattooed; a DJ plays after hours. The menu features simple dishes like grilled cabbage salad with pickled carrot, cumin and hazelnuts, and the restaurant's take on a gyro. Down the street is the fine-dining restaurant Soil, where the chef Tasos Mantis offers a vegetable-focused tasting menu in a charming townhouse with a patio shaded by citrus trees. Afterward, head to the wine bar Materia Prima for a glass of white made with rare Bostilidi grapes. It's near Mesolongiou Square, which is fragrant with orange blossoms in the spring. During the day, Foyer Espresso Bar is the place to go for a pour-over coffee made with single-origin beans. Then there are the old-school favorites like Lido, a bakery that serves the best tsoureki (brioche-like bread often flavored with mastic or mahlab, a spice that comes from cherry pits) and Toula, an ice cream shop famous for its mustard flavor that's actually made with rose water, caramel and vanilla.
Louis Vuitton Animal Plates Inspired by an Italian Futurist Artist
While working in Rovereto, Italy, at the height of industrialization, the multidisciplinary artist Fortunato Depero helped define the Italian Futurism movement with paintings, advertisements and set designs that projected a Technicolor vision of modernity. He designed a block-lettered fair pavilion for the 1927 Monza Biennale Internazionale delle Arti Decorative, the triangular Campari Soda bottle that's still in use today and cover illustrations for Vanity Fair. While he faded from public view after Futurism fell out of favor owing to its association with Fascism, Depero's work has since been displayed in exhibitions at New York's Guggenheim and Museum of Modern Art. At this year's Milan Design Week, Louis Vuitton will debut a colorful collection of tableware and home textiles inspired by his designs. A six-piece set of plates, for example, playfully depicts Depero's signature style (primary colors, bold lines and geometric shapes) in the form of fantastical beasts. The Louis Vuitton Fortunato Depero Collection will be available to purchase in stores this June. Price on request, louisvuitton.com.