A few weeks ago, we got an unexpected letter sent to Phuket. There was a small piece of paper with the following note:
“Sorry, but you need to change the name of your restaurant. I know that in your country it is pronounced “Poo Ket”, but here it is pronounced “F_ck it” which a gross obscenity. You are not in Thailand any more. When you are a guest in another country, you must follow its customs.”
We posted it on our Facebook page on last Sunday and we got almost 40 comments. You can read them here. We read all the comments and we feel glad that we don’t need to change our name! 
This is not the first time that we got this kind of letter. Every month, someone calls us and asks us how to say our restaurant name. We’re always happy to tell them how to say it correctly. We realize that it can be pronounced differently. But in Thai, it is the name of a resort island.
People always ask us why we name our restaurant “Phuket”. We are never tired to tell them that we name the restaurant after the Phuket island in Thailand. When we first opened the restaurant, it was right after Tsunami hit Southeast Asia. Phuket was one of the spots in Asia that got hit pretty hard. We thought that it will remind them of Thailand when they see “Phuket”. Well, apparently not. They think about something else!!
I remember that when I renewed my car tag at the DMV a few years ago , I tried to get my vanity car tag with the word “Phuket” on it. A lady at the counter looked at me and looked at what I wrote. She went to talk to her supervisor, came back and said “No, you can’t have it. It’s offensive” I tried to explain to her that it was my restaurant name. She refused to give me the Phuket car tag, no matter how hard I tried. So I ended up putting a big sticker at the back of my car with “Phuket” on it (to get even!)
Well, actually, Phuket is a very appropriate name for us. Phuket island was our honeymoon place that my wife and I went eleven years ago.
We name our restaurant “Phuket” so that we can live our honeymoon life everyday!
Deliciously Yours,
Mr.Phuket
