PHUKET: It’s Ko-ko-snuss” remarks Thomas Moog, passing our table in the forecourt of his restaurant as I struggle vocally with the German word for “coconut.”

Wednesday 30 January 2013, 01:44PM

Mr Moog, a Phuket resident for more than 15 years, started Kokosnuss after the 2004 tsunami wiped out his jewellery shop near Kamala Beach.

As the township picked itself up after the disaster, Mr Moog opened a small restaurant in a neighbouring building, which has expanded into a second shop space and a sheltered garden forecourt near the footpath that runs between Kamala’s beachfront road and the town.

Southern German food like Wienerschnitzel (breaded Vienna-style beef) is associated with the tavern culture of Austria and neighbouring Bavaria, where Mr Moog hails from. 

But it’s just one part of the schnitzel spectrum on the menu; from further afield there are smoked pork chops, Kasseler Rippchen, and a selection from the distinguished national catalog of German sausages: spicy Thueringer bratwürste, white Muenchner weisswuerste, smoked Debriziner Hungarian sausage, and herbed Nürnberger bratwürste from Mr Moog’s home region – maybe the most popular German sausage of them all, documented in 1313 and served for centuries with bread, mustard, sauerkraut, and beer. 

The restaurant is family run and family-friendly – with unfussy food (at unfussy prices) that young children will enjoy sharing, including an adventurous range of salads: potato, eggplant, long beans and winged beans, coleslaws, sauerkraut and a lightly-spiced papaya somtam.

Five nights of the week Kokosnuss offers a buffet. On Thursdays when we visited, there was roast pork and roast chicken served with gravy and knödel (bread dumplings) for B190, on Mondays there’s schnitzel, Tuesdays beef roulade, Friday is pizza night and on Sundays there’s a Bavarian brotzeit buffet of cold meats and sausages, cheeses, breads and salads. And for desert there’s Apfelstrudel, the Austro-Hungarian Emperor of apple pies. 

In the mornings Kokosnuss is a popular breakfast spot, bakery and delicatessen, serving cold meats, bacon, hams and sausages – including bludwurst, (black pudding), and cooked meats jellied in aspic – home-made pickles, salads, cheeses, mueslis and fresh fruit smoothies, and a dozen varieties of bread, pretzels, and pastries. 

Kokosnuss is already a fixture with discerning German tourists and expats, and Mr Moog says the delicatessen meats and sausages in particular have become popular with other nationalities on the island.

For more information visit phuketkokosnuss.com or call 081 5385285.