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German folk, whether in Switzerland or in Germany, have always
produced great bread. In Phuket,
two Swiss bakeries have established themselves and now have excellent
reputations.
Flintstones' shop and restaurant
is to be found on Chao-Fa Road. It offers an extensive range of
breads-ryebread, mehrkorn, whole, Flintstone (brown), farmer, Swiss
(soft white), Sun (dark), crusty, Sarakorn. Not only do they make
bread, but they have lots of ready-to-eat take-home goodies, as
well. Try one of their jams produced in local flavours such as mango
or papaya. There is freshly-made liver or duck terrines to indulge
the palate and their heat-it-yourself ravioli, lasagne , canneloni
and roesti are perfect for those days when you do not want to cook
for yourself. Other items include cookies, plain and chocolate croissants,
mini-pizzas and beautiful cream cakes. The restaurant, Flintstone
Garden, opened last year and is situated at the rear of the shop,
surrounded by green grass and coconut trees. The decor is jazzy
yellow. There is a pool table and a large TV screen, "for watching
the World Cup or the Formula One". The menu offers an extensive
range of pasta, schnitzel, burgers and Flintstone pizza - thick-crust,
lots of cheese and thoroughly yummy!
Bruno's Bakery bakes its bread
in Chalong, but displays at their open-air cafe in Rawai. The cafe
is a small wonder. It took 10 only days to build, from start of
construction to opening day. Surrounded by rubber trees, it is a
lovely spot to sit in a comfy chair and watch the world go by, attended
by the friendly staff. They sell a lot of Swiss-German bread, such
as roggen (rye bread), laugen (briny bread) and bruli (special regional
bread). They also do croissants, which, with other breads, a little
old lady on a motorbike sells for them, going around the neighbourhood
at daybreak. You can also sit and have breakfast at the cafe. They
have real coffee - their coffee machine is imported from Spain and
they offer American breakfast, a choice of sandwiches, including
Swiss cervalet (processed pork sausage), bratwurst and meatloaf.
Other specialties are cakes, muffins, fruit tarts and Swiss nusskipfl
(sweet nutty croissant). They also deliver to hotels and dive schools
in Kata
Beach, Karon
Beach and Rawai.
Then there is the French representation called Le
Croissant. Situated halfway to Phuket
Town from Chalong, on Chao-Fa Road, Le Croissant has baguettes and
croissants, of course, but also ciabattas and farmer bread. All
the breads are offered daily fresh and there is a 50% discount on
yesterday's bread. They too sport a small air-conditioned cafe
on the bakery premises. Here, you can sit down to baguette sandwiches,
or a choice of salads. As well as bread, Le Croissant has lots of
"heat and eat"delicacies such as, roast beef, croque monsieur (melted
cheese on ham and a slice of bread, crisped on the outside), quiches
and meat pies. As a finish to your meal, Le Croissant also offer
beautiful gateaux, including tiramisu, and they will make decorated
cakes to order.
The Bakery is the place to eat for those
living or working in the Boat Lagoon vicinity. It has stylish air-conditioned
decor and an innovative choice of delicious sandwiches, such as
brie, grape and walnut. All the sandwiches are on your own choice
of bread - white, whole wheat or baguette. They also have hot Special
of the Day meals, such as chicken breast with red wine and tomato
sauce. To go with your meal, the Fruit Juice Bar has an extensive
selection of mixed juices, with funky names, such as Tropical Tango,
Banango, or Breakfast Blaster. If you cannot make your mind up which
juice to have, there is always the Italian coffee. Then, there is
the dessert selection, beautifully presented and temptingly displayed
-gateaux, muffins, cinnamon rolls, cheesecake, lemon tart, fruit
cake, chocolate pistachio cake and chocolate mousse; not to mention
the ciabatta pizza, nachos and salad bar. Of course, you can buy
your loaf of bread there as well - white, whole wheat or baguette.
Finally, Don's Cafe has its own
bakery out back, as you would expect from this resourceful American
maverick of the restaurant world. As well as white and brown, dinner
rolls and loaves, he also has Russian rye bread, ciabatta, a nice
line in English sausage rolls and larger than life, sticky, gooey
cinnamon rolls with icing on top (What the English would call Chelsea
buns). Watch your waistline!
"Man cannot live on bread alone", saith the Bible, but
with the selection of lovely bread offered by bakeries on Phuket,
that can be a very hard thing to remember!
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