What we ate when in Koh Samui

Being typical Penangites foodie, naturally we’d go looking for some good and interesting food when we went to Koh Samui, Thailand for a short trip. So, what did we eat?

First, we stop at the local market…

There they sell quite a variety of local Thai food, most of which are grilled or deep fried.

It may seem a bit weird but it actually tasted quite good. After grilling it till it turned brown, they squash it (but did not really flatten it) and then serve it with thick coconut milk. We bought a couple of sticks to try, the bananas were grilled to perfection. It has a crispy ‘skin’ and sweet, soft, mushy fillings. I didn’t even try it with the coconut milk. It is good as it is! It’s only 10Baht per stick.

Then there is this stall…

I love catfish so naturally I could not resist this stall which sells grilled catfish at only 30Baht each. And yes, the catfish is grilled to perfection…nice crispy skin and soft, almost buttery flesh. Yummmm….Good thing that it was not over-seasoned with salt as we found that Thai food tend to be quite salty at certain places.

Ah…then we come to the Fear Factor type of fare:

Yep…these are real insects..err…real, dead, deepfried, crunchy insects. They also have:

I don’t know what type of worms these are but these are also deepfried to a crispiness. So, did I try some?

Yep, I bought one scoop of crickets and one scoop each of two different types of worms. It’s only 10baht per scoop. And I polished everything. Save for my son, who’s game to try anything as long as his mummy is eating it, nobody else in our group dared try these unusual food. So, were these gross or nasty? Not at all! The crickets were merely crunchy, not much taste to it since it doesn’t have much flesh. As for the fat worms, it has a creamy, nutty flavour with a crunchy skin. Nope, it does not taste like chicken. I’d say it tastes much better. Heck, I would probably have bought more if it weren’t so salty! Yep, other than using basil leaves liberally in frying these critters, salt must have been damn cheap because it is literally covered in salt.

They have those large grasshoppers too but I don’t know why, it just looks a bit scary so I didn’t try those. Perhaps when we go to Bangkok (next year), I’d try it out. Maybe.  Now, on to other foods…

The funny thing is that this restaurant doesn’t really sell only crepes but all sorts of local and international food! So, don’t be deceived by its name. And no, they don’t serve dogmeat, that dog there is the resident professional floor cleaner and food begger. It goes around fixing its imploring, liquid brown eyes on unsuspecting patrons to get some scraps and anything that falls on the ground accidentally or intentionally, it promptly polishes off.

Okay, okay, on to the food here:

These are the best I’ve ever had before. The skin is so crispy and crunchy, you can even hear it crackling as you bite into it and amazingly, it is still moist inside and the flesh is still tender. A must-try! Of course, the dog enjoyed the bones from this dish so it can be said, we polished off everything on this plate with the help of the dog.

We ordered tomyam soup, green curry and two types of stir-fried vegetables (asparagus and kailan). We also ordered the Thai dish, ‘paad thai’ (fried flat rice noodles). And the dishes are all eaten with fragrant steamed Thai white rice.

The green curry is exceedingly good too. It is creamy and with just the right amount of spices, tasted absolutely great. The reason it is green is because of the basil they put in it. As for the tomyam, order it only if you like it sour. Their tomyam is quite sour but it is also good.

Now for the paad thai, I wouldn’t say it is all that good but it is okay. Still edible and once mixed with the chili flakes, ahhh, heavenly. Spicy with the smooth, almost springy texture of the flat rice noodles.

Ninja Crepes is probably the cheapest restaurant along the whole Chaweng stretch where almost all of its restaurants charge sky-high for all types of food. Of course that is because Chaweng is the most lively, crowded and popular spot in whole of Koh Samui. Anyway, at Ninja Crepes, the dishes are priced at 50baht and above. Not bad for a restaurant along Chaweng. Other restaurants, prices start from 100baht per dish or more. Oh, by the way, it is located right opposite the Buri Rasa Resort.

We were not satisfied and wanted very local food, much like the ones in the local market we happened to stumble upon. So, we went to Lamai, the second popular stretch in Koh Samui and found this:

Now, this is what we are talking about! Who goes all the way to Koh Samui, Thailand and eat boring restaurant food when they have stalls like this offering infinitely more interesting, full-of-flavour food? And that’s not all, it is cheap too! Prices are 30Baht per plate onwards! It is located very near the Lamai Night market so it is pretty easy to find.

So, there. That concludes my food tour of Koh Samui. We only went for a very short trip so we did not really have an opportunity to try out more food in different places here.

Tagged: Asian Food, food reviews