by Miss Terry Diner

Grappa is certainly an Italian after dinner tipple, originally made in the northern Italian town of Bassano del Grappa, and some contend that this is the origin of the name, rather than from the Latin word for grapes, but in Pattaya, it is also the name of the newly opened restaurant (four months) attached to the Woodlands Resort. Woodlands has been established for many years, but to get to Grappa Ristorante and Wine Bar, to give it its full title, turn left into Soi 22, just before Woodlands and go down around 200 meters to the Woodlands Suites and Grappa is in there on the right. Secure parking underneath as well.
The restaurant has two outside dining areas, with one overlooking the glass walled kitchen and the other the swimming pool, while the central area is enclosed and air-conditioned with a central bar. All very modern, with clean lines, and much use of natural wood. The service staff is dressed in black pants with red cummerbund and white shirts with black trim. All very smart.
There are several menus, with drinks, Italian food, Thai food (Thai favorites for Thai partners) and desserts. House wines include a sparkler at B. 220 per glass, or red or white at B. 200 (large carafe B. 690). The drinks menu also has a large choice of cocktails and margaritas.
The main Italian menu is under the control of chef Yannis Amarantinis and shows great restraint with careful selection of fine dishes. Soups are B. 180-200 and pastas (B. 230-320) and offers a choice of spaghetti, Fusili, Penne, Gnocchi, Spinach spaghetti, Tortellini, Linguine, Farfalle and Ravioli.
Snacks and starters are covered with many choices (B. 170-310) also with antipasti dishes (for two at B. 350), various salads and grills such as prawns and confit zucchini skewers with spicy tomato and thyme salsa (B. 300).
Next up are the pizzas and risotto dishes. Pizzas are B. 240-380, but other than the mandatory Margarita, the others show chef Yannis’ inventive nature, with even a Prik-Kheenoo extremely spicy pizza for the Thai palates. Finally there are oven items and fish and meat items.
We pondered over the Italian menu, as the choices were all so delectable, but we both ended up being totally delighted with our choices. The red bell pepper soup with pepperoni julienne (B. 180) arrived hot to the table and had a wonderful tangy taste, aided by the pepperoni. I would have that again, any day. Madame had the lime and coriander pan-fried scallops (B. 310) which were very large and juicy. We both had a great start.
At the recommendation of chef Yannis we selected pizzas. An Eight Cheese (8 Formaggi with mozzarella, gorgonzola, taleggio, parmesan, brie, fontina, feta and fontal) for me (B. 310) and the Royale for Madame (B. 380) with Parma ham, mushroom, pepperoni, grilled eggplant, mozzarella, fontina and olives). A word of warning here. The pizzas are enormous (we estimated about 15 inch) and come on preheated plates. They were wonderful, but we could not do them justice and had to ask for take-home packs, which Grappa happily supplied. It was obvious we were not the first to find the pizzas were larger than our stomachs!
We finished with a Tiramisu for Madame and Limoncellos (home made lemon grappa) as a digestif for us both. A wonderful finale to what had been an epic dinner.
It would be difficult to find fault with this restaurant, but there were two items: the design of the fork allows it to turn upside down in your hand, and the large wooden pepper mill was squeaky. That will give this restaurant a 99 percent report card. Fabulous!
How do you describe a venue which is outstanding, without going over the top with superlatives? Grappa Ristorante and Wine Bar is, without any shadow of a doubt, already a fully fledged member of the better restaurants in Pattaya. Great venue, great food and great Grappa! Highest recommendation possible. Do go.
Grappa Ristorante and Wine Bar, Woodlands Suites, Soi 22 Pattaya Naklua Road, tel 038 052 299, email fo@ woodlandssuites.com. Open seven days 11 a.m. through till last orders in the kitchen 11 p.m. Secure parking underneath Woodlands Suites.

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Korean Cucumber Salad

Korean cuisine does tend to be a little specialized, and the “kim gi” sour pickles in particular. However, this recipe is for a slightly hot cucumber salad. Where you usually associate cucumbers with counteracting spicy food, this salad has both chilli oil and garlic.

Cooking Method:   Rinse the cucumbers under running water, then chop off the ends and grate coarsely into a medium sized bowl. Pour 50 ml of water over the cucumber and sprinkle with the salt. Stir to mix well and set aside, allowing it to stand for 30 minutes. Then strain off the water and chill the cucumber in the refrigerator for another 30 minutes. In another bowl, mix the herb vinegar, sugar, chilli oil, garlic and chopped spring onions. Take the cucumber out from the chiller, drain any excess liquid and then pour the vinegar/sugar/chilli/garlic/spring onions mixture over the top and serve immediately.

BIngredients  Serves 2-4 as appetizer
Cucumbers                             2
Salt                                        2 tspns
Herb vinegar                            2 tbspns
Sugar                                     2 tspns
Red chilli oil                            2 tbspns
Garlic clove (crushed)              1
Spring onions (finely chopped)  2