Food Diary - DeDos Restaurant, Phuket
On our 3rd day and final night in Phuket (30 Jan), dinner was at DeDos Restaurant, a French-Asian fusion restaurant run by Swiss-Bolivian chef Pablo Blattman.
DeDos is housed in a double-storey shophouse located at Tinlay Place, near the Laguna Phuket Resort. As mentioned, in terms of atmosphere, Tinlay Place is kind of like Dempsey Hill at home, just more rustic. (Or like Duxton Hill or Ann Siang Hill.) Inside, DeDos has a relaxed atmosphere with tables dressed in red, and a long bar counter.
The restaurant name, DeDos, means "fingers" in Spanish, and apparently pays homage to Chef Blattman's partner. Further, Chef Pablo Blattman apparently gave up a legal career to train in the culinary arts at the Institut Paul Bocuse in France! Brave man. I wish I dare do the same.
Chef Blattman blends French techniques with Mediterranean and Asian influences. Looking at the menu (which is short but focused), the main Asian influences in his cooking are Japanese and Thai. DeDos has quite an extensive wine menu - around 70 wines from the Old and New Worlds, with 11 of them available by glass or half-litre carafe.
Upon making our orders, we were presented with an amuse bouche - a carrot ginger cappuccino, served in a shot glass. Nothing fancy, but heartwarming and tasty (a mix of savoury and sweet with mild heat). I suppose it underscored the simple, relaxed but tasteful ambience that the chef sought to create at DeDos. Then the bread, fresh with sundried tomato butter.
I was actually having difficulty deciding my starter, to be honest.... Should I go for the foie gras poele with fig chutney, balsamic reduction and brioche? Or the foie gras ravioli with porcini mushroom sauce and truffle oil? Or the lobster bisque flambéed with Pastis and prawn ravioli? Or perhaps the seared Alaska scallops with saffron-curry sauce? In the end, I chose to have the lobster bisque. Only to realise that Hubby had also picked it! Missed a chance to opt for one of the foie gras starters.
As for FL and ML, they shared the escargots Bourguignonnes, a half dozen gratinated French vineyard snails cooked in garlic-parsley butter. (ML simply loves escargot.) The escargots turned out to be quite traditionally French, and ML was very pleased. She was actually chowing down on them in delight, with no comments, which is a sign that they're delicious. In the end, FL only managed to get one snail.
The lobster bisque was delicious. Two generous prawn ravioli, thin but soft ravioli skins gently encasing large chunks of juicy and succulent prawns. The bisque was robust and complex, with the savoury-sweet crustacean flavour and the anise and licorice flavours of Pastis. Pastis is an anise-based French spirit/aperitif made with star anise, liquorice root, and various other herbs. The spirit was commercialised in 1920s/1930s by Paul Ricard and is often associated with its infamous predecessor absinthe.
For the main course, I had the duck breast "Pomelo" - a roast duck breast with tamarind sauce, sweet potato mash and spicy Thai pomelo salad. I enjoyed the duck, although the skin was not completely rendered down and was a little too salty for my preference. The duck breast was a perfect pink, still juicy and tender, and the sweet-sour tamarind sauce, scattered with fried shallots, went very well with the duck. The sweet potato mash was smooth and added a sweet accent to the dish, complementing the tamarind sauce.
The spicy Thai pomelo salad, called yam som o (ยำส้มโอ) in Thailand, was a great accompaniment, the sourness and slight spiciness helped to bring balance the other flavours in the dish, and helped to refresh the palate. Yam som o is a traditional Thai pomelo salad usually comprising of fresh shrimp, pomelo, roasted coconut flakes and crispy shallots.
Hubby had a hard time choosing his main dish. He had also been trying to decide between the pasta with smoked salmon and vodka-dill cream sauce; the lamb tenderloin with pommery grain mustard sauce; or the Tournedos "Rossini".
In the end, he chose the rack of lamb with fresh thyme and garlic, braised shallots in red wine sauce and gratin Dauphinois.
I was a little surprised because at first he was quite fixed on having the Tournedos "Rossini" (120-day grain-fed Angus beef tenderloin topped with pan-seared foie gras, truffle-port wine sauce, veggies and tagliatelle).
Hubby was pretty happy with the lamb rack. He said the lamb was tender and moist and the red wine sauce was a little thin but full of flavour.
Both FL and ML didn't seem to have much trouble deciding their mains. FL had the grain-fed Australian beef tenderloin with tagliatelle and porcini-cognac sauce. And ML went with the DeDos Tuna, one of their signature dishes, a pan-seared yellowfin tuna fillet coated in crushed cashew nut and black pepper, with tabbouleh and wasabi-creme fraiche.
So, as mentioned, while we were dining, we witnessed what appeared to be a dine-and-dash incident. The incident involved 3 Caucasian adults - 1 male, 2 females, one of whom had a toddler with her. They were seated 2 tables away from ours. I noticed that they had been chatting amicably in French with the maître d' (a pretty lady with light blue eyes like forget-me-nots). Some time later, while the male diner was savouring the wine in his glass, the 2 female diners left the restaurant with the baby. When the maître d' returned and approached his table, he struck up a conversation in French again. And at some point, at what seemed like mid-conversation, he abruptly got up and walked out of the restaurant, leaving the maître d' looking rather perplexed. Shortly, one of the waiters ran to her with the bill in hand, and a scramble ensued. But they did not manage to catch up with the diners.
So, the dine-and-dash is a form of theft by fraud, and it is a criminal offence in many countries, including Thailand. I'm not sure how often it happens in Phuket, but there was a case of 2 New Zelanders who did it and were arrested when they re-entered Phuket 2 years later. As to whether these 3 will get caught, I do not know, but I hope they do!
 |
| Amuse bouche: carrot ginger cappuccino |
The restaurant name, DeDos, means "fingers" in Spanish, and apparently pays homage to Chef Blattman's partner. Further, Chef Pablo Blattman apparently gave up a legal career to train in the culinary arts at the Institut Paul Bocuse in France! Brave man. I wish I dare do the same.
Chef Blattman blends French techniques with Mediterranean and Asian influences. Looking at the menu (which is short but focused), the main Asian influences in his cooking are Japanese and Thai. DeDos has quite an extensive wine menu - around 70 wines from the Old and New Worlds, with 11 of them available by glass or half-litre carafe.
Upon making our orders, we were presented with an amuse bouche - a carrot ginger cappuccino, served in a shot glass. Nothing fancy, but heartwarming and tasty (a mix of savoury and sweet with mild heat). I suppose it underscored the simple, relaxed but tasteful ambience that the chef sought to create at DeDos. Then the bread, fresh with sundried tomato butter.
I was actually having difficulty deciding my starter, to be honest.... Should I go for the foie gras poele with fig chutney, balsamic reduction and brioche? Or the foie gras ravioli with porcini mushroom sauce and truffle oil? Or the lobster bisque flambéed with Pastis and prawn ravioli? Or perhaps the seared Alaska scallops with saffron-curry sauce? In the end, I chose to have the lobster bisque. Only to realise that Hubby had also picked it! Missed a chance to opt for one of the foie gras starters.
As for FL and ML, they shared the escargots Bourguignonnes, a half dozen gratinated French vineyard snails cooked in garlic-parsley butter. (ML simply loves escargot.) The escargots turned out to be quite traditionally French, and ML was very pleased. She was actually chowing down on them in delight, with no comments, which is a sign that they're delicious. In the end, FL only managed to get one snail.
 |
| Lobster bisque flambéed with Pastis and prawn ravioli |
The lobster bisque was delicious. Two generous prawn ravioli, thin but soft ravioli skins gently encasing large chunks of juicy and succulent prawns. The bisque was robust and complex, with the savoury-sweet crustacean flavour and the anise and licorice flavours of Pastis. Pastis is an anise-based French spirit/aperitif made with star anise, liquorice root, and various other herbs. The spirit was commercialised in 1920s/1930s by Paul Ricard and is often associated with its infamous predecessor absinthe.
 |
| Duck breast "Pomelo" |
For the main course, I had the duck breast "Pomelo" - a roast duck breast with tamarind sauce, sweet potato mash and spicy Thai pomelo salad. I enjoyed the duck, although the skin was not completely rendered down and was a little too salty for my preference. The duck breast was a perfect pink, still juicy and tender, and the sweet-sour tamarind sauce, scattered with fried shallots, went very well with the duck. The sweet potato mash was smooth and added a sweet accent to the dish, complementing the tamarind sauce.
The spicy Thai pomelo salad, called yam som o (ยำส้มโอ) in Thailand, was a great accompaniment, the sourness and slight spiciness helped to bring balance the other flavours in the dish, and helped to refresh the palate. Yam som o is a traditional Thai pomelo salad usually comprising of fresh shrimp, pomelo, roasted coconut flakes and crispy shallots.
 |
| Rack of lamb |
Hubby had a hard time choosing his main dish. He had also been trying to decide between the pasta with smoked salmon and vodka-dill cream sauce; the lamb tenderloin with pommery grain mustard sauce; or the Tournedos "Rossini".
In the end, he chose the rack of lamb with fresh thyme and garlic, braised shallots in red wine sauce and gratin Dauphinois.
I was a little surprised because at first he was quite fixed on having the Tournedos "Rossini" (120-day grain-fed Angus beef tenderloin topped with pan-seared foie gras, truffle-port wine sauce, veggies and tagliatelle).
Hubby was pretty happy with the lamb rack. He said the lamb was tender and moist and the red wine sauce was a little thin but full of flavour.
Both FL and ML didn't seem to have much trouble deciding their mains. FL had the grain-fed Australian beef tenderloin with tagliatelle and porcini-cognac sauce. And ML went with the DeDos Tuna, one of their signature dishes, a pan-seared yellowfin tuna fillet coated in crushed cashew nut and black pepper, with tabbouleh and wasabi-creme fraiche.
So, as mentioned, while we were dining, we witnessed what appeared to be a dine-and-dash incident. The incident involved 3 Caucasian adults - 1 male, 2 females, one of whom had a toddler with her. They were seated 2 tables away from ours. I noticed that they had been chatting amicably in French with the maître d' (a pretty lady with light blue eyes like forget-me-nots). Some time later, while the male diner was savouring the wine in his glass, the 2 female diners left the restaurant with the baby. When the maître d' returned and approached his table, he struck up a conversation in French again. And at some point, at what seemed like mid-conversation, he abruptly got up and walked out of the restaurant, leaving the maître d' looking rather perplexed. Shortly, one of the waiters ran to her with the bill in hand, and a scramble ensued. But they did not manage to catch up with the diners.
So, the dine-and-dash is a form of theft by fraud, and it is a criminal offence in many countries, including Thailand. I'm not sure how often it happens in Phuket, but there was a case of 2 New Zelanders who did it and were arrested when they re-entered Phuket 2 years later. As to whether these 3 will get caught, I do not know, but I hope they do!
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