Sawadee Kha!

Spoiler alert! This post will be all about the food we have encountered here on Samui. And there is much to tell.

 

FIRST OFFICIAL DINNER ON SAMUI

We arrived from Bangkok, oh so ready for a beach getaway. We had reservations at our resort in the once renouned The Heights restaurant. The dining room is perched on one of the highest points of the island's south eastern tip, facing directly onto the Gulf of Thailand. It certainly does have a beautiful panoramic view, but at night, it's all black so it's not like it made a difference for our dinner.

We started off with cocktails, then moved on to a nice bottle of pinot noir to accompany our appetizer and mains. First came the prawns wrapped in egg noodle with a sweet chili dipping sauce:

I've had this dish before in a slightly different variation in that the prawns were wrapped in fried glass noodle, which is very fragile, light but offered little more than a crisp exterior to each bite. But here with the egg noodles, the crispiness was much more robust and lended a nice starchy base to the dish. Along with the sweet chili sauce, it was a very satisfying first bite into our dinner.

For our mains, Helen ordered sweet & sour fish with rice. Sorry no picture or big description of that since any and all of us have had a version of this at a food court Manchu Wok or The Lingnan... maybe even both.

I went with the fish of the day, which turned out to be barracuda. Our server explained that it is a local fish that is common in these waters. I jumped at the chance to try something new. I ordered it char broiled served with a beurre blanc sauce.

I had a hunch that the fish would be quite lean as barracudas are predatory fish. With all that swimming, chasing, and trashing prey, I couldn't imagine there to be much fat in barracuda meat. The fish came out smelling and looking nicely charred, with visible grill marks uniformly distributed on the surface of the filet. And, I was right, the meat was very lean, dangerously close to being on the dry side, but the beurre blanc and smokiness from the grill helped make it quite appetizing. The most interesting part of this presentation is the fact that it was garnished with several pieces of solid honeycomb, topped with a corn salsa. I've never had honey comb in this manner before so I had no idea how this would pair with the fish. In short, it really didn't. The honeycomb, even in moderation is concentrated sweetness that overpowered the corn, and definitely the delicate fish. To me it was an unnecessary addition, but I can appreciate what the chef was trying to do in balancing contrasting flavours.

 

ISLAND EATS

Throughout our week here on the island, Helen and I looked for things to try that caught our eye. Like Bangkok, the streets on Samui are filled with food carts. Vendors sell everything from soup noodles, to fresh fruit, to deep fried goodies, to grilled meats of all sorts... and when I say all sorts, I do mean everything... inside and out. One of our favourite finds was a makeshift hawker market on the opposite side of the island.

We looked around and I stepped up to a lady who was frying chicken in a wok over an oil drum. Fresh frying was important to us because we noticed that any food what was cooked and left out on display, soon had a swarm of flies swarming around it. So, we thought the best strategy to avoid the ring of fire, is to eat street food that is cooked as fresh as possible. So Helen points to piece of chicken that came straight out of the fryer... it was a hunk of deep fried-ness that was largely unrecognizable. We paid 20 bhat for it, which is about $0.70. We also got a delicious looking, if abnormally shaped drum stick to go with the mystery piece. We sit down and tear into our newly fried, heavenly smelling chicken. The original hunk of fried meat that Helen picked out turned out to be chicken liver, kidney, and chunks of gizzards. Excitedly, I bite into the liver with crunch and was rewarded with the irony, and pate-like richness that makes chicken liver so good. The gizzards were also very good... but what isn't when deep fried?

We move onto the drumstick. We didn't see this particular piece come out of the fryer so we didn't know how long it had been sitting out. But it was still warm so we felt it was safe to tuck in. We take our first bites and were incredibly surprised at how crispy the skin was. It was audible. Adding to the texture of the crispy skin and moist dark meat, the seasoning was spot on with a fine balance of salt, pepper, a slight kick of heat right at the end to warm our throats. It was, dare I say it, better than most of the fried chicken I have had here at home. This is saying a lot as those who know me, know that I'm a ardent fan of Church's chicken. This street side chicken was that good.

We explored the local market and streets around Lamai beach. We noticed another hawker grilling skewers of yet more chicken. Helen does her best to identify what parts are actually on the sticks by asking the lady, "Chicken? Chicken?" Her philosophy is to keep it simple when trying to communicate to locals. The lady nods and responds, "Chicken, yes." Helen points to a darkly marinated collection of meat and says, "Chicken... inside? Inside?" circling then pointing to the centre of her own torso. The lady responds, "Yes, inside. Chicken." Helen then points to another set of meat that looks more recognizable as perhaps skewered breast meat and asks, "Chicken, outside?" this time pointing to her arm, flapping it a little. The lady once again agrees, "Yes, chicken outside." Great! We get one skewer of each.

One of the things that deterred us from trying many of the street grills earlier on our trip was that the skewers seemed to have been pregrilled and set out to sit. But we soon realize that the pieces you choose to purchase make their way back onto the hot charcoal grill for a reheating and to take on a little more smokiness! After about 5 mins on the well-used wire grill, we get our goods. As expected the meat was nicely charred, cooked through and extremely reminiscent of backyard barbeques. Unexpectedly, the "chicken inside" that I chose was actually not chicken innards at all. It was randomly hacked up thigh meat... so despite Helen's strong efforts, some things remain lost in translation.

TESCO LOTUS

To refill on bottled water and for a quick look at a local super market, we spent some time at one of the largest chains, Tesco Lotus. It's like a small WalMart where you can get books, electronics, groceries, etc. They had an aisle they called "Food of the World":

Here you can find such worldly classics like Mac 'n Cheese in a can! Just add SPAM!

And look! A section of SPAM to choose from!

Over a few aisles and you'll find local delicacies... in spades! How about an entire section of shrimp chips?

Or hotdog flavoured chips? I'm not sure what the hotdogs are saying in on the package but I bet it's something tasty!

An entire section of dried cuttle fish and squid!

Or how about this local specialty?

It just so happens that our resort shuttle bus drops off and picks up at a McDonald's. This is one of my favourite pictures from our village visit:

Even Ronald demonstrates the warm and ever-welcoming Thai hospitality.

This was supposed to be the last post of our trip, but I think I'll need to start a new one to cover of our last (and best meals) of our Samui trip. Stay tuned!