Central Food Hall opens at Central Festival Phuket
Cheese. Lots of it.
When Phuket Observer first arrived on the island, there were really just two places to buy farang food - Sin & Lee on Thalang Rd and Tops in Robinson, both in Phuket Town.
Since then things have moved on a bit. We’ve seen the arrival of Tesco-Lotus (and its expansion into mini-Lotuses outside town), the opening of Big C, the arrival of Tops in Central Festival and Carrefour in Jungceylon in Patong, and more recently, Villa Mart in Chalong. We’ve even seen Super Cheap up its game by stocking foreign stuff.
Fish eggs, naturally.
But now the world-class guys are here. Tomorrow (August 11) sees the official opening of Central Food Hall at Central Festival. Tops is no longer tops at Central. In fact, Tops is no longer even there. It’s been elbowed out by the Food Hall.
This is the fourth Central Food Hall in Thailand. There were two in Bangkok, and will be again when Central World is reopened after being trashed by the Red Shirts (the other’s in Chidlom), and there’s a third in Pattaya. The Phuket branch definitely raises the bar locally.
If you're Brit, this'll stir the juices.
Take a tour with Nick, and he’ll tell you how Central has its own butcher backstage, making sausages onsite (they sell out almost as fast as they make them), how it imports fresh salmon and fillets and smokes them in Bangkok so that that the smoked salmon is fresher and cheaper than the Norwegian import (which they also stock, just in case you’re a suspicious Scandinavian).
Then he’ll point out the genuine British-style bacon from British icon Waitrose,proper cordials and ginger beer, McVitie’s chocolate digestive biscuits, Waitrose ginger nut biscuits, Wilkin & Sons jams, Twinings and PG Tips tea (okay, they have Lipton’s, too) – if you’re Brit, you get the idea.
If you’re French, Italian, German, Australian, Korean (kimchi) or Japanese, you’ll feel right at home, too, Nick reckons. There are American specialties, though he confesses there should be more, an insufficiency which will be remedied as soon as he can figure out which bit of the US is which, and what they like there.
Then there’s Central’s bottled water that Nick swears is better than any other available in Thailand (four filter processes),the huge range of cheeses, 30-year-old vinegar and so many different types of extra virgin olive oil that you have to wonder why anyone uses any other kind. (Sidebar: We’ve always wondered, how do you deflower olive oil? Who does it? And why? And how can you be extra virgin? You either are or you aren’t, aren’t you?) Anyway, goooooood.
Perfect additions to your favourite vodka.
There’s an emphasis on organic and, during our rounds we met a diabetic shopper looking for sugar-free products. The choice was so good he was planning to move in for a couple of weeks. There are no beds, so he’s planning to bring a sleeping bag.
Central has its own pig farms and its own chicken farms, Nick explains – not quite free range, because that might expose the chooks to bird flu, but farms where the chickens at least get to walk around the barn. Meat from these feeds not only into the fresh meat counter but also into the big sandwich bar with eight different breads to choose from, 20 fillings and 10 dressings. And quiche and, and and…
Then, of course, there’s a bakery. Spectacular. Absolutely. Check out the enormous sourdough loaves that take 12 hours to prove and another 12 to bake.
Just writing this, we’re full.
Did we mention that Nick is the same guy who hosts the Cooking for Fun TV show? We didn’t? Well, he does. And you’ll also see his face here and there in the Food Hall on Cooking For Fun products.
Life is good.
