The lake next to Peang Prai, with the jungle rising behind it.

While the west coast seethes with great restaurants, from Thai to Russian, French to Burmese, the east coast is rather less well equipped – unless you are an aficionado of dirt-floor noodle soup joints where the toilet is a tin shed out the back with no soap, no paper, no towels.

But there are some gems hidden away, one of which is Peang Prai. The eight-sided, two-floor buildings sits next to a lake surrounded by trees and leaping with fish. Beyond the lake, the land rises steeply, covered with enormous trees. This is one of the few parts of Phuket still with virgin tropical forest.

The owners, a local family, also own the fruit orchard that surrounds the restaurant, and plainly enjoy gardening too – carefully manicured tropical plants constantly catch the eye.

The restaurant itself is upstairs, roofed over but otherwise open to the air. This extra height keeps the place cool with breezes off nearby Khao Phra Taeo mountain, the site of a national park that is a favourite with locals for its waterfall, Nam Tok Bang Pae, and a regular stop for tourists visiting the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project.

The restaurant is surrounded by tropical plants.

Like most better Thai restaurants, Peang Prai has an extensive menu, featuring all the usual favourites including Phad Thai, prawns done in a variety of ways (try them with tamarind sauce), pork and chicken dishes, curries ranging from mild to fiery, and very fresh fish.

To accompany the food, there’s a wide range of fruit juices, the usual beers, nine different types of iced coffee, three different types of iced tea,  and six different smoothies.

This is not a place to hurry through lunch. It’s a place to go with friends for a couple of hours, enjoying the food, the efficient, unobtrusive service and the green view.

Expect a plate of fresh fruit from the orchard, on the house, once you’ve polished all the serving plates. Which fruit is served will depend on the time of year. Oh yes – and the loos and spotlessly clean and fresh.

To get to Peang Prai, drive east from the Heroines Monument about nine kilometres and keep an eye out for the sign to the Gibbon Rehabilitation Project (on the left). Turn in there and go another kilometre or so until you reach the barrier beyond which is the national park. The restaurant is set back from the road, on the left immediately before the barrier. Tel: 085-832-7439 or 088-890-2753.

The family have also built a couple of small bungalows close by, which rent at B800 a night. Expect to be woken in the morning by the gibbons calling.  And finally, a tip: If you want to take a wander in the jungle without paying the outrageous park fees, linger over lunch until about 3pm when the park staff pack up for the day. After that, entrance is free.

Laid-back lakeside dining with a jungle view is an article from: Phuket Observer - Phuket lifestyle magazine.

Making karfay boran - ground beans in the net, add hot water and away you go. - Photo by Heinrich Damm.

Think coffee. If you’re American, that’s probably Starbucks (they’re here on Phuket). If you’re European, then you’ll probably be looking for the Illy logo.  What you may not realise is that Thailand has been growing coffee for ages. In Southeast Asia, only Vietnam and Indonesia produce more.

For the baristas among you, Arabica beans are grown in the highlands of northern Thailand while farmers in the hotter lowlands of the coastal provinces along the western edge of the Gulf of Siam produce Robusta beans.

Companies such as Boncafé, a Thai-Swiss joint venture, export large amounts of both in a variety of blends, which you can also buy in supermarkets on the island, either as whole beans or ready-ground. If you want to buy it without the supermarket mark-up, there’s a Boncafé shop not far from Tesco-Lotus in Phuket Town.

But when in Rome… The coffee to drink in Thailand is karfay boran (traditional coffee). This is served in a glass with condensed milk in the bottom of it. It looks like an upside-down Guinness. Yecch.

Actually, not yecch – the coffee is so strong that you’ll hardly notice the sweetness, and if it’s the morning after a tough night out, this is what you need to set you up for the day: a karfay boran and some patango – light sticks of dough that are flash-fried for a crunchy and revivifying mouthful or two. Patango are also great for dunking in your coffee. You’ll find this combo in most markets around the island, but get there early; they usually run out around 7:30 am.

Coffee to go: the sign on the roof of the bike says "Karfay Boran". - Photo by Marshall Astor.

In Muslim communities around the island (even more so if you take a trip to the deep south of Thailand) bars selling alcohol are a bit thin on the ground, but people make up for this with coffee shops. The premises are mostly fairly basic, but the coffee is usually excellent.

Thais also make great iced coffee. If you like it with milk, then ask for karfay yen. For black, ask for o-liang. Both are delivered in a glass with a straw and plenty of ice. Thais understand that coffee has to have TASTE, and that ice dilutes it as it melts, so they make it good and strong.

For a hyper-caffeine jolt, you’ll need a bottle of Krating Daeng. It means “Red Bull”. No, Krating Daeng is not a copy of the Red Bull you find in European discos. It’s the other way round. It’s a Thai invention that was copied and taken to Europe. The only difference is that the original Thai version is a bit sweeter.

Finally, for solid coffee (handy when driving, for example), check out Kopico. This is a cappucino-flavoured hard candy that you’ll find in just about any shop that sells food or drink anywhere in Thailand.  One baht a pop.

Think you can stay awake now?

Coffee – Feeling Full of Beans on Phuket is an article from: Phuket Observer - Phuket lifestyle magazine.