December 2015

SAMUI FREE COPY

www.samuiholiday.com

DECEMBER 2015

Seafood Beach BBQ Buffet, Mondays & Thursdays Sareeraya Villas & Suites Call + 66 (0) 77 914 333 www.sareeraya.com

The Season to be Merry From finger food to 5-star, Samui’s got it all when it comes to festive cheer!

A warm and festive welcome to you all! After the last few months of gloom and downpours, the sun is peeping through again and you’ll be able to relax and lie back by the pool. Well, not every day, maybe! But who cares. ’Tis the season to be merry, and if you can’t be cheery outside, then you can no doubt make up for it by enjoying some liquid cheer instead!

You’ve got a whole week to recover between Christmas and New Year’s Eve – the two big highlights of the season. And one of the best places to begin exploring is at our lovely Central Festival Samui shopping centre. But it’s not just for shopping, and you’ll probably find yourself coming back several times to enjoy the entertainment, nibbles, and tipples.

One of the things about our island is that some of the very best treats are not out in plain sight. So don’t be tempted by the bright lights and dancing troupes. Take a scan through our pages and pick from some of the finest selection of dining anywhere in the world. There’s all sorts on Samui, from finger food to 5-star, and cuisines from just about every nation, too, so make the most of it.

Of course, this means you’ll have to travel about a bit. But our island’s only small, and it’s easy enough to do. Try to get up to a viewpoint somewhere like the Santiburi Samui Country Club, featured inside. You’ll love it!

Enjoy!

SAMUI

Graeme Malley Editor

Preeda Tuajob (Puy) Graphic Designer

Akaphon Phongninlaarphon (Don) Photographer

Seksak Kerdkanno (Klauy) Webmaster

Rob De Wet Feature Writer

Dimitri Waring Feature Writer

Natalie Hughes Feature Writer

Peter James Feature Writer

Nipawan Chuaysagul (Ning) Sales & Marketing Director ning@siammap.com Tel: 0 898 783 891

Henrik Bjørk Managing Director

Siam Map Company Ltd. 52/6, Samui Ring Road, Moo 3, Bo Phut, Samui, 84320 Thailand Tel: (66) 0 7742 2201 Fax: (66) 0 7741 3523 email: info@siammap.com www.siammap.com All rights reserved. Reproduction or use of editorial or pictorial content in any manner is prohibited without written permission from Siam Map Company Ltd. Whilst every precaution has been taken in the preparation of this publication, Siam Map Company Ltd. assumes no responsibility for errors or omissions. Neither is any liability assumed for damages resulting from the use of the information contained herein. c Siam Map Company Ltd. 2015

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A drink from Paradise...available on Earth

Located at Tesco Lotus Chaweng, Tesco Lotus Lamai and Central Festival 2

www.siamwininganddining.com

Shore to Delight Waterline gets top marks for both creative fine dining and sheer affordability thanks to expert chef Roberto Bellitti.

There's something quite special about Waterline.

For a start it’s located in a rather wonderful place.

It’s right by the sea, and close to a small promontory where you can see lots of colourful boats – they seem to have stepped out of a bright painting. The sea here is very swimmable, and in addition you'll find a large free-form swimming pool just adjacent to the restaurant. Behind, the land rises up dramatically in a vibrant green mountain, rich with jungle and studded with giant boulders. Waterline is one of the restaurants at popular Manathai Koh Samui, a unique resort that charms with its colonial façade, window shutters and bougainvillea-lined terraces.

However, it turns out to be entirely modern, and was just recently refurbished.

Waterline invites everyone, resort guest or not, to come and partake of its fare. You'll be sure of a friendly welcome and attentive service, no matter if you've stopped off for a quick drink, a snack or a full meal. It’s easy to find: as you drive along the ring-road from Chaweng to Lamai, it’s on your left just after the turning for Tamarind Springs. It’s open daily serving food between 11:00 am and 11:00 pm with last orders at 10:30 pm. In addition, the bar remains open until midnight.

The restaurant is large and open-plan, offering plenty of choice when it comes to seating. You can relax under coconut palm trees, sit by the bar for a snack, or enjoy the shade of the restaurant’s interior. Whatever you choose, the surroundings are both elegant and laid-back, encouraging you to take your time and enjoy yourself.

Waterline is run by Executive Chef, Roberto Bellitti, who is a decidedly creative spirit when it comes to cooking. He offers a meld of both traditional and innovative dishes, which are influenced by his native Italian and Mediterranean cuisine. The food’s top-quality all the way, yet when it comes to sheer value for money, it’s surprisingly affordable to eat here. In Roberto’s own words, “I'm very conscious of pricing here, and it partly comes out of personal experience. I’ve always liked going to restaurants, but for the best ones you need to have a lot of money – it’s certainly not something everyone can afford. People are paying in part for the work done in the kitchen. The food in expensive restaurants can take an inordinate amount of time and effort to prepare. Hence the big price tags. But my take on this is different: I don’t mind the hard work. Going to extra lengths to please my diners is what this job’s all about.”

So prices remain extraordinary reasonable. And they also include some seriously professional touches that restaurants normally charge heavily for. Roberto gives some examples. “We marinate our salmon for ten hours to make it really succulent. By doing so, we aim to bring out the flavour way more than most restaurants would.”

He adds that for the marinade itself, they use lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, fresh coriander leaves, as well as seeds, and apple juice. It’s completed by salt and sugar, which are used to cure the fish. The lengthy marinade time really brings out all the flavour. A lot of work is involved as the quality is crucial, but Roberto and his team are prepared to put the effort in.

Similarly, you may wonder how they cook their meat here. Says Roberto, “I'm very keen on sous-vide cooking. This technique gives great consistency. We place meat in a special plastic bag, along with the marinade, and then suck out

all the air. It’s then cooked at just under 60 degrees. Why? Because at this temperature the enzymes and proteins won’t be destroyed. The meat’s cooked this way for 18 or 19 hours. That mean it’s really going to melt in your mouth.”

Everything that’s on the menu is made from scratch. There's no corner cutting, and this reflects again in the taste of the food. The dishes are very contemporary and include culinary inspiration from pretty much everywhere in the world. You'll find many different flavours are used, and depending on the dish you choose, you may find Italian, French, Chinese, Japanese, and of course, Thai touches. Tastes are delicate and nuanced and have been influenced by a highly unusual factor: the evocative journeys, food, ingredients and cultures of some of the places that Roberto has spent time in during his life. This is therefore cooking that’s done with heart and soul – not a slick list of typical dishes that’s casually been flipped into a fine-sounding menu.

Menu names are all part of Roberto’s approach to food. To give an example, his dish called, ‘The Farm’ is so named as it consists of duck, beef, chicken and crepinette of lamb. A lot of different processes are used to bring the four meats together on a plate, with the name deftly summing it up. Presentation, by the way, is quite amazing and all dishes just seem to be waiting to be included in a swish photo-shoot. A dessert consisting of chocolate, beetroot and goat’s cheese is simply called ‘Yummi’. The word sums up the taste. You may think this particular trio of ingredients could never go together but under Roberto’s guidance they do, admirably so.

Waterline has two menus, depending on what time of day you arrive. The day time menu is generally lighter fare. “You'll find salads, sandwiches and burgers,” says Roberto, “They’re the kind of dishes you can eat around the pool or in a casual setting. In addition, every day we have some kind of special, too, depending on what’s good.” For dinner, the menu is à la carte, with a hard-to-resist array of treats. These include the mouth-watering ‘Air Balloon’ which is a beautiful rendering of top-quality Black Angus beef filet with foie gras, tomatoes and zucchini.

And if you are sitting on the culinary fence when it comes to choosing between meat and seafood, you can have the best of both worlds, by opting for the simply named ‘Burger and Lobster’, which is a truly creative combination. It consists of a 150g Wagyu beef burger that's matched with Canadian lobster, and is accompanied by sweet slow-roasted garlic and onion marmalade, semi-dried tomatoes, crispy lettuce and guacamole and parsley mayonnaise.

Just as the waterline of any beach in the world will yield many a treasure or surprise for those walking by, so the restaurant is filled with extraordinarily good finds. Chef Roberto and the team are ready to welcome you with some great dining options – and always at affordable prices.

Dimitri Waring For reservations or further information telephone 0 7745 8560–4. www.manathai.com

Romantic views, soothing sounds and classic Italian fare with a modern approach combine to please the most discerning diner.

Olivio - a must for visitors and locals alike.

Olivio ~ beachfront at Baan Haad Ngam Boutique Resort Chaweng Beach.

Free round trip transfer from Chaweng, Bophut and Choeng Mon. For reservation please call 0 7723 1500 www.siamwininganddining.com

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Festive Food

Christmas comes but once a year, and Samui goes all out to spoil its guests.

Back in the early 90s, when supplies were hard to come by, and foreign residents were thin on the ground, some ex-pats had a tradition of making Christmas pudding. It went like this: every year, in November, you made one to keep for the following year. Why so far in advance?

Because you were never sure of supplies. And also, as everyone knows, there appears to be no upper shelf life for puddings like this. Newbies had to make two cakes, one for the upcoming Christmas and one for the next. “Ouf! It was hard work,” says former resident Michelle Saunders, “Somehow, though I'm not even a fan of Christmas, I got caught up in making the puddings, steaming them, doing the whole bit.

I’d met people who went to inordinate lengths to get the ingredients that they liked. Some of them had the pudding routine going, and a few would get really smug and competitive about it.

They’d get into tiresome arguments about black treacle, stout and double cream…”

When she last came back to Samui for a visit, Michelle found little trace of her former friends.

Had they died of toxic pudding syndrome, victims of some final Christmas binge? “ No, they simply went back home,” she says, “and the few left gave up long ago on the puddings.

Nowadays they don’t need to make them in advance. Well, they don’t need to make them at all.”

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Over the years, numerous suppliers have filled most culinary gaps in food supply to the island.

It’s actually quite hard not to find what you're looking for, though you may need to really know your suppliers to find the treasured item you're hankering after, unless it’s really, really obscure.

(Rumour has it that bars of chocolate marzipan are still impossible to come by.)

So when it comes to Christmas, Samui seems to be well-prepared and ready to have a good time. Everyone loves a good party and none more so than the people of Thailand, where family gatherings are always a great excuse for copious amounts of delicious food being consumed. So it will come as no surprise that Christmas is likewise celebrated here – and while there may not be snow on the ground or people gathered around an open fire, there will be lots of great food.

During the lead up to Christmas you’ll see the stringing of fairy lights in shops, and Christmas trees going up fully decorated with shiny baubles, glittery tinsel and big white snowflakes, just like in the West. Equally you’ll notice the food in the supermarkets take on a slightly more Western feel, with tins of cookies, shortbread and of course lots of boxes of chocolates. You can even find advent calendars with little chocolates for each of the days during the countdown to Christmas Day.

What’s so great about Christmas in Thailand is the sheer relaxed feel of it: there’s no manic approach, and everything is low-key. You won’t be assaulted by Christmas carols wherever you go, or by constant advertising. No hard-sell on Samui. It’s all as laid-back as a hammock under the palms ... you get the picture.

If you want to eat out on the day then you'll find many restaurants will have prepared the traditional Christmas fare that you’d find at home. Just be aware you may have to book in advance. This is especially true of five-star resort restaurants, where you will be able to eat in truly lavish style. Even simpler restaurants may require you to book, however. Fisherman’s Village, in Bophut, is certainly a good place to enjoy Christmas; its range of pubs and restaurants are well-known for festive food. It’s probably a sensible idea to make your choice a day or two beforehand; simply walk along the street and see what takes your fancy and then check if you need to reserve your place.

Many resorts now automatically include a compulsory Christmas meal if you're staying on the 24th or 25th December, and will usually go to inordinate lengths to make sure you have a wonderful time. It may seem a little odd to be sharing your Christmas meal with strangers, but the atmosphere is convivial and relaxed. And it’s definitely not going to be like any Christmas

you’ve had at home – not with a professional chef on board.

If you're in a villa, then your villa manager may be able to help you put together a Christmas menu that you'll be able to eat around the pool.

Or you can go to an outside caterer, and he or she will come to your aid and prepare turkey for you – or just about anything and everything you care to order, so long as you do it in advance.

Whatever option you choose, if you're from the cold northern climes, you'll be happy to bask in the sun. Rather than dread a Christmas Day walk in the freezing rain, you'll be able to look forward to an ocean dip while the air temperature is just short of 30 ºC. But what if you're not a holiday maker? Foreign residents tend to have convivial get-togethers, and will usually head for a local restaurant where a Christmas meal will be on offer, along, of course, with plenty to drink.

Many have been here so long that they don’t really celebrate Christmas, but they’ll still be keen to have a good time. And for many it’s important that on the day they’ll be with their friends and acquaintances. For some it’s a bit of a polite yet desperate hunt for companionship and a formal setting (“Do you know of a spare seat at a

table?”) though for many it’s just a get-together on a balcony with some wine and snacks. Some residents aim to recreate the feel of Christmases past in the Old Country – whichever one it is.

And there are quite a few Old Countries, as there are now many nationalities living on the island.

The only real common denominator is gastronomic: everyone is brought together by food and drink – though without any ugly kitchen moments as stress reaches heart-attack levels.

What’s certain is that once you’ve enjoyed Christmas on Samui, you'll want to have the same kind of relaxed experience again. Maybe not on Samui, but somewhere that’s equally exotic and, above all else, mellow. Somewhere with good food, that you don’t have to prepare yourself.

Christmas, after all, is a holiday, and should be something to be savoured, rather than dreaded.

But a word of warning: when you do go back home after your holiday on Samui, just remember - play things down. Your friends and relatives may well have just been through quite a stressful time and may be justifiably envious that you’ve had it so easy. Just bask in the memory that you had all this wonderful food without ever having to wash a dish afterwards.

Natalie Hughes

The Chefs’ Baker From housewives to hoteliers – a look at why Take a Bread is making everybody happy!

Samui is only small. But there are hundreds of hotels here. There are so many in fact, that nobody knows the number. A quick look on the internet reveals that just one online booking agency has 1,373 hotels and resorts listed with them alone. And there are even more when you add-in all those with other agencies or who don’t have online booking. Then there are the restaurants. At which point things get truly out of hand, as it’s impossible to even hazard a guess at their numbers. But the point is this: all these hotels and restaurants need to feed their guests.

before the excitement began to thin. He was filled with ideas, frustrated with the business opportunities he saw being missed, and reckoned he could do better if he was his own boss. So he headed back to Bangkok with an eye out for a brand new venture. This he found when he just happened to come to Samui for a few days’ break. “I didn’t need to look at Pattaya or Phuket,” he told me, “I came here and spent two weeks looking around and talking to people. “And then I knew that Samui was the place to be.”

You’ll probably be amazed to know that right up until 1997, there was only one public bakery on the island. It was in Nathon, but it only made Thai-style bleached-bread and sweet-cakes, all of them saturated in sugar. Sure, many of the hotels at that time had fresh bread on their tables. But they made it themselves, and only allowed a little of what they made to be sold privately or to other hotels – you or I couldn’t have bought any.

Chef Yom is currently making over 100 different products, and this total is growing, as and when he can find time to make more. His premises are surprisingly humble, and take a bit of hunting-down if you don’t already know where they are. It’s effectively a double-fronted shop.

The right side serves as a café-cum-bistro, with coffee (very good espresso) and beverages, as well as cakes and pastries, with a couple of sets of tables and chairs outside. Alongside this is a twin window revealing boxes and bags, and shelves full of bread. These are the orders, ready to pick up, and this window empties as the morning wears on.

But things change. Today well over a million visitors come to Samui each year. Many of these are European, but with an increasing number of Indians and Asians, too. And that’s why now, scattered all over the island, you’ll find small independent bakeries. Some are French, some Italian, others German. And all of them make a wide range of different breads. But there’s only one bakery that produces bread from all of these nations, plus several more besides. And that’s Take a Bread, just outside Chaweng.

This is the adventurous precinct of Khun Thiti Thongnamorn, better known as Chef Yom. Most Thai chefs gain their experience by working under Western masterchefs who happen to be Thailand. But not so with Chef Yom. He began in the usual sort of way, as a general kitchen helper in Bangkok until, three years on, he developed a liking for the bakery. He started to specialise, then took the plunge and found himself in China, then went on to the position of head chef in a big restaurant and bakery in Singapore.

He honed his skills there for a number of years,

Walking through to the rear shows that both shops have a small back room, plus a long communal area that runs across the back of both shops. The two smaller rooms are for dough making and pastry preparation, sorting and packing. And the rear is where the ovens are; several stacked up and in a line. Chef Yom has only eight people working for him. But the bakery never stops. It runs 24/7, with staff working a shift rota. Chef Yom is not only very good at what he does, but he’s also learned some very good lessons along the way.

“There are two things needed to make a business successful,” he told me. “The first is that you supply a demand. But the second is more important. You can never let anybody down. Not even once. If I say that something will be ready at two o’clock, then it has to be ready at two o’clock. Yes, this is Samui, and it’s a laid-back

island. But I’ve worked alongside businessmen in Hong Kong and Singapore, where things are very different. And so, even with this island lifestyle all around, I have to keep my word. I have to be 100% reliable. If I do this, then I stand out from the crowd. People trust me. And they will come back to me again and again.”

Thus, early in the morning, you’ll see cars and trucks pulling up outside to collect their orders.

Take a Bread also has extensive contracts on Koh Pha-Ngan, and everything is equally as well-organised on this front, too, with one of the staff driving off to catch the 2:00 pm ferry to load it up with boxes and bags. And when it arrives, there’s a queue of happy customers waiting to pick up their orders, as smooth as silk.

But, if you really want to see just how well Chef Yom has knitted himself into the fabric of the island in just three years, take a look around in the afternoon. You’ll see people sitting at the tables outside. They will be chefs, food and beverage managers, plus the occasional hotel boss, too. This is where they come to relax and meet up for a while, on the way home, in the quiet gap between lunch and the evening dinner session. And it’s no accident that Khun Yom was invited to be, and is now a member, of the Thailand/Samui Chefs Association.

Imagine you are coming out of Big C. Turn right.

Look to the left. And you’ll see the chef’s baker in his shop. You can’t miss it – everyone’s there to Take a Bread!

Rob De Wet For further information, telephone 0 885 023 112 or 0 819 002 923 Facebook: Take-a-Bread-Samui-Thailand

Located in the beautiful Fisherman’s Village on Bophut Beach.

Our experienced chefs proudly present authentic Thai cuisine and Southern Thai dishes. Fresh seafood is a must with great quality at reasonable prices.

Enjoy the tranquility of the beach, the twinkling stars and the whispering waves along with the beautiful music. A superb dining experience and great memories.

Fisherman’s Village

Tel: 077 430 030, 077 245 035 www.kruabophut.com

Free Parking available at The

Wharf!!

www.siamwininganddining.com 5

Oral Floral Flowers are not only beautiful to look at and lovely to smell – they taste great, too!

What do broccoli, cauliflower and artichokes have in common? Well, yes, they’re all vegetables. But there’s something else, too.

Something that not too many people know about. I’ll give you a clue. They’re the same as roses, violets and lavender. Got it yet? The answer is – they’re all flowers. The first three fall into the category of ‘inflorescent vegetables’ – that is to say, the flowers or flower buds of plants that are eaten as vegetables. But roses, violets, lavender and many other flowers have another thing in common with these vegetables.

And that is – all of them are also edible.

Most people today seem a little disturbed at the idea of eating flowers, and for two reasons. The first is that it’s unusual. You don’t see them in tins or packets on supermarket shelves, or on your plate in a restaurant. And the second is that there are lots of plants that are poisonous or toxic. The safe option being that if you’re not sure what’s edible, then it’s best to steer clear.

But things haven’t always been this way. It’s only really in the last century that flowers and buds

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have fallen out of favour as tasty morsels. If we look back to Victorian Europe, then we’ll see people everywhere, cheerfully chewing on flowers. The ones already mentioned, along with primroses and marigolds, found their way into soups, cakes, biscuits and confectionary. But, if you think about wine making, or teas for that matter, then there seems nothing strange about ingesting concoctions of roots, leaves or flowers.

It’s all a matter of viewpoint.

Actually, eating flowers has been in and out of style since the early days of the Roman Empire, when rose petals and violets were a part of any respectable banquet. The Moors, in the 13th century, used sauces and syrups made from roses or marigolds. And, more recently, pumpkin flowers have caught on in the USA, due to the Mexicans using them in quesadillas. Nowadays, in Italy, the yellow zucchini blossoms – fiore di zucca – are stuffed with cheese and fried in a beer batter. And today, in Thailand, you’ll find examples of flowers being used in dishes throughout the length and breadth of the Kingdom, although they’re not always that

obvious. In fact, if you’ve ever eaten a real pad Thai, then the chances are that you’ve already had your first taste of banana flower without even knowing it.

The first recorded use of flowers in Thai cuisine comes from when the Royal Court moved to Ayutthaya, in the early 15th century. The expensive and courtly dish of kao chae (jasmine petal perfumed rice) became a favourite, due to its cooling and refreshing aromatic properties.

And, even today, you’ll find that this exotic form of rice makes a traditional appearance at the celebrations of Songkran, the Thai New Year.

But flowers and buds find their way into everything here. Many dishes use the ubiquitous Thai basil, which is similar to sweet basil, but tastes a little of anise, with a faintly liquorice aroma. The edible leaves with their purple-tinted buds are used extensively in curries, stir-fries, salads and soups. And the purple-pink foot-long banana flower, called hua plee, can be seen hanging majestically wherever the broad-leaved banana trees are found. Interestingly, most of the

flower goes to waste. It’s picked as a gigantic bud, and then stripped to its tender white heart.

It has a similar taste to artichokes and, as well as finding its way into pad Thai, it’s used widely in Thai salads.

There are a lot of very exotic tropical fruits and flowers around, so keep your eyes out for some of the more unusual ones, particularly in you’re in northern areas of Thailand. The curcuma plant – grajiew – is from the same family as ginger.

But when the root has put out stems, it produces a beautiful and complex multi-layered, bright magenta fleshy flower. These are blanched and eaten with dishes such as sour pork salad – yam nam sod, and sour fish sausage – sai grog pla nam.

And, when it comes to colour, then the Malay rose apple – chompoo – comes a close second.

Although the fruits are more usually enjoyed, the flowers are a luminous shocking pink. You’ll find them present in many variations of the spicy northern spicy ground-pork dish – laab, and also the popular som tam salad.

But it’s when we turn to the Thai desserts that we find a positive plethora of flora! Many dishes are rice-based in one form or another, and the edible flowers not only add colour, but are also used to add fragrance. Jasmine is a perpetual favourite, along with rose petals, and also the pale yellow, pendulous ylang-ylang or ‘cananga’ blossoms. And you’ll find these also in soups and puddings.

For many of us, ‘flowers in our food’ doesn’t seem quite right. But then, I’m told that ‘flower food’ is making a comeback, and in a few years’ time it’ll all be quite normal again – such is fashion. But, over here in Thailand, it’s nothing new. They been saying it with flowers all along, and eating their words!

Rob De Wet

Dawn Greens

Santiburi Samui Country Club is the place for a breathtaking breakfast – and you can play golf, too!

You wake slowly. Your eyes open. It’s dark. But your timer’s glow gives shape to things. There’s a glimmer round the shades; it’s almost dawn. But that’s not it. That’s not why you don’t turn back over again. There’s something wrong. Not wrong bad, wrong strange, somehow. Then you hear it.

It’s silent! Just one cricket chirping alone. Then it hits you – it’s too quiet. It’s not raining! You roll out of bed, wide awake. You dress fast and head out on your bike.

It’s light enough to see. The roads are blank – scrubbed and silver. The air brightens as you ride, wheels breaking mirrors of still-pools on the road. The air is keen, the colours are stronger.

You turn off from the road and head away to the side. The small road twists. You’re moving uphill, but with long, slow, sweeps that don’t seem to rise. Nothing moves. It’s just you in the brightness that spreads from the sky, crisping the edges and giving shapes form. A long, wide, glide uphill, with the whole of the island spread out below. And then you drift up to the wide front of Santiburi Samui Country Club.

This pro-standard 18-hole course is an offshoot from the nearby 5-star Santiburi Beach Resort Golf & Spa. This is an unusual course. Each of the holes has been set-squared, levelled, terraced and chiselled perfectly out of the hill. Huge trees, shrubs, hard edges, soften– then lose themselves in the blur of Maenam below.

You’re surprised at the height. The ‘club house’, actually the restaurant, is a broad stretch of floor, open on the front and side. It seems where you began is a lifetime away, sunk in the eddies of mists that are rising, framed by the sweeping sigh of the coast – where the sea greys to the sky, the clouds rim with amber, and pastel islands take shape far away. It’s a mysterious new land of mist and shadows, all of which gleam and dissolve in slow motion as the sun starts to rise. Look away. Look back. The landscape has changed. This is why you have come here. This and the breakfast!

Few know about this. And the ones who do, don’t seem to mind. The clubhouse/restaurant (no

membership required) opens up at first light and closes at dusk. Pull a seat to the rail and just sit there and stare. As the sun slants up, the greens glow in a vista of pastel. But when the shadows bite, it all comes out in 3-D. Photograph it, I dare you. It’s a hard thing to catch.

The coffee is real – freshly ground. And you enjoy a couple while your breakfast is made. The club manager is a cheery Scot, Derek McKenzie.

And he, together with his restaurant manager, Khun Ae, has put together a sound menu of bites. The breakfasts vary, from buttered toast and jam, eggs scrambled or fried, right up to the biggie, ‘The Full Monty’. But don’t expect Silver Service. As Derek says happily, this is a ‘golfer’s menu’ and it’s made up from solid and comfortable fare.

Yes, it’s a ‘country club’, but posh names aren’t always pricy. The average per plate is 200 baht.

Many dishes are less. The burgers are great: locally made, not supermarket-iced. There are sandwiches and nibbles. A couple of pastas. And

a big menu of Thai dishes. Even the top-price makes you look twice: The ‘Pork Leg with Mashed Potatoes (or French fries) Gravy Sauce and Assorted Vegetables’ needs effort to surmount, and comes-in at under 400 baht. And you can top this off with Mövenpick ice-cream, too – by the scoop or the tub.

If you’re on holiday here then you don’t just need a postcard view plus some good things to eat, you also need (some would say this comes first) a variety of beverages with alcohol. There’s a fully-stocked bar here, with a full range of Thai and imported spirits, beers and a choice of wine.

Plus of course, soft drinks, fruit juices and smoothies.

You’ll find full details of the courses and costs on their website. It won’t tell you how special the place is at dawn, or give you the vibes of that vista. But, anyway, you know all this now. So forget those corny sunset snaps – head up to the hills of Maenam instead, when the sun starts to rise. That’s the only way you’ll experience dawn on the greens.

Rob De Wet For further information, telephone 0 7742 1701 www.santiburi.com

All this and you can play golf, too! If you don’t want to get too serious, there’s a 9-hole run and you don’t need to wear golf shoes or belong to the club. Clubs and a caddy can be hired. The green fees reduce after 3:30 pm, and each Wednesday, for the whole day, you can play at a discounted rate.

Authentic Middle-Eastern chic in a tropical paradise. Enjoy a cocktail or a cup of freshly brewed Turkish coffee on our spacious beachfront terrace or treat yourself to our chef's culinary delights while being entertained by belly dancing shows.

Reservation: 0 7743 0105 Open: 6.00 pm - 11.00 pm Beachfront at The Wharf, Fisherman's Village www.siamwininganddining.com 7

Going Quietly Nuts Delving into the lesser-known qualities of the ubiquitous coconut!

You might think it’s a Samui sort of thing. But it’s not. For sure, everybody who’s here for the first time just loves a fresh coconut – you know, the green ones with the tops lopped off. All very rustic and charming, and fits in nicely with thatched huts and barbecues on the beach. And of course, that’s what you do with coconuts, isn’t it? You drink them. And eat them, too, of course. The milk from their white flesh goes into your curries. And the same stuff, dried and shredded, ‘desiccated’ to be technical, is used in all sort of dishes. But all of this is universal. It happens the world over, wherever there’s a plentiful supply of palm trees and their fruit.

“Aha!” you’re thinking, “he’s going to try and catch us out. He’s now going to tell us all sorts of things you can do with a coconut. Like making matting or trousers or native boats. And probably all the amazing health benefits of coconuts, too.” Well, yes . . . and no! It’s quite true that coconuts are just chock-full of goodness. So let’s dash through all the usual boring health blurb first, before we get into the fun stuff. They’re simply oozing with lauric acid, for instance, which is known for being antiviral, antibacterial and antifungal, and boosts the immune system. Fresh coconut juice is one of the best sources of electrolytes known, and can

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be used to prevent dehydration in cases such as diarrhoea or strenuous exercise. The juice and flesh reduces the risk of heart disease, lowers cholesterol, helps with Crohn’s, IBS, and other digestive disorders, increases the metabolism, promotes healthy thyroid function and promotes skin rejuvenation, preventing the formation of wrinkles. But then, so does lots of other fruit, too!

But just try injecting pineapple juice straight into your veins! It’s not to be advised. But the juice from a green coconut is totally sterile, with no harmful bacteria or micro-organisms. In the past, troops fighting in the tropics have used live coconut juice as battlefield plasma drips, applied intravenously to injured soldiers – coconut water is a workable short-term substitute for human blood plasma, and has been used in this way ever since the 1950s.

But, speaking about wars, what you probably won’t be aware of is that coconuts played an essential part in the First World War, too. This was the first major conflict where industrial technology was widely deployed and, in particular, gas attacks became wide-spread. All kinds of filtration devices were tried in the masks developed to combat this, and activated

carbon was discovered to be the most effective.

However not all carbon was effective. And by far the best was the use of steam-activated coconut charcoal. Even today, coconut-fired carbon is still important for soaking up toxins, and was widely used in 2011, when one of Tokyo’s nuclear reactors suddenly blew a gasket.

If you’ve ever stayed on Samui long enough to get away from the pool and out and about, you may well have noticed the rhythmic whining rise and fall of the sound of a chainsaw at work.

Unlike the West, where logged trees are taken to the sawmill, and a giant circular saw turns them into planks of wood, Thailand still follows the old ways. It’s remarkable to see a ‘planker’ at work. It’s a real skill to use a hand-held saw and precisely cut each slice of the tree not only to the same thickness, but also square and true as well. Traditionally all the island houses were made of coconut wood planks, and you can still see many examples of these, raised up high on stilts, dotted all around the island. Coconut wood is a resilient hardwood, as you’ll quickly discover if you ever try to bang a nail into any!

Talking of houses, the former President of the Philippines, Ferdinand Marcos, had the same idea when he decided to build his ‘Coconut

Palace’. He commissioned an elaborately grand residence to be used as a royal guest house, with the guideline that as far as possible it had to be built entirely from coconut wood and by-products. Seasoned and planed planks were sanded and finished to a satin sheen and used for the walls and cladding. And the bark, shells, flowers, leaves and roots were all incorporated into the building in different ways, with the ‘gothic’ pillars which supported the woven palm-frond roofs being made of entire tree trunks. It took 16 months to build in 1978, at a cost that’s equivalent to $50 million in today’s money.

Did you realise that some of the earliest diesel engines were designed and built to run on peanut oil? That was back in the early 1900s. It seems like it’s all come full-circle today, with extensive research now going on into alternatives for fossil fuels. And one of the most promising contenders is . . . you’ve guessed it, coconut oil. Coconut trees just happen to be one of the plants which are wide-spread and numerous enough to produce bio-diesel in sustainable quantities. Not only that, but coconut oil can perform multiple roles; as a base element, an additive, or a direct substitute for petroleum diesel. Yes – you can run your car

entirely on raw coconut oil if you want. But it’s better to use a refined version, as it’ll eventually gum up your engine if you don’t!

Enough! You’re on holiday. Too many facts and figures can overheat your brain. It’s probably best now that you sit down with a nice cool drink. So ask the barman if he has any arrack.

No – not the anise-flavoured stuff. ‘Arrack’; the one made from the fermented flowers of the coconut palm. Or – if you’re totally hard-core, you’ll hunt for Lambanog coconut vodka from the Philippines. This is liquid dynamite at usually around 80 proof, or the collector’s double-distilled version will blow your Speedos off with its 166 proof content. But, if you manage to find any, then you won’t remember reading this story. Thus you can read it all over again, anew, tomorrow. I wonder if that means I’ll get paid double . . .

Rob De Wet

Neuroscience, Avocados and Relaxation They're all part of The Coffee Club’s recipe for success.

Neuroscience is a growing field of scientific discovery, and each month seems to herald some new and exciting find. By studying MRI brain scans scientists have found, for example, that relaxation is directly linked to creativity; creative ideas can come more easily when you're at rest and feeling laid-back. If success comes through creativity, and this in turn is the product of relaxation, it would seem you’re better off sipping some coffee in an easy-going environment rather than sitting at your desk and pushing yourself to work harder. Intuitively a lot of people have known this for a long, long time – that’s why coffee shops have done so well for themselves. In the West they’ve been popular for hundreds of years, and are still going strong.

Out here in the East, coffee drinking hasn’t been established quite as long, but coffee shops are really taking off now, and Thailand is no exception. With a way of life that’s already very relaxed, the nation has embraced coffee shops wholeheartedly; they're springing up everywhere. International brand The Coffee Club, has now firmly established itself in Thailand, and has a seriously good reputation for coffee and a whole lot more. It all starts with relaxation, when you step into the welcoming atmosphere at The Coffee Club.

You can sit back and watch the world go by, chat to your friends and delight in the excellent food. The Coffee Club’s been going strong since 1989, and their mission is astoundingly simple: good food, great service and excellent coffee.

They provide welcoming, relaxed meeting places that double as sanctuaries where you can just step back from your usual life and, well, just ponder.

And you may well have one of those famed light-bulb moments – they're definitely not just limited to geniuses.

The Coffee Club also believes in socially and environmentally responsible coffee production and sourcing. The company is accredited by UTZ Certified, a program enabling farmers to learn better farming methods, improve working conditions and take better care of coffee workers’ children and the environment.

Some of the coffees are definitely well beyond anything to be found in your average coffee shop. Take the Hazelnut Iced Latte, for example.

But you don’t even need to be a coffee drinker to enjoy being here. The Coffee Club also has a range of teas, including Indian masala chai, peppermint and green tea. In addition you'll find frappés, juices, milkshakes, soft drinks and iced

drinks. If you need something stronger, there are even wines, cocktails and beers.

toast (can be cooked any style) or chicken nuggets and chips.

The Coffee Club has certainly done its research when it comes to drinks of all kinds but you may wonder what their interest is in, say, avocados.

Their Facebook page recently asked the question, ‘What will happen when you eat avocados every day?’ It has been dubbed a superfood in recent years, and many people, including those behind The Coffee Club, believe they are extremely healthy. Research done so far, whilst not conclusive, states that eating avocados may well lead to a raft of health benefits. You may be able to improve your heart health, have an easier time keeping to the right weight, protect yourself against cancer and boost your skin and eyes right into old age. All of this is relevant to The Coffee Club, as they're making great dishes, many of which turn out to be very beneficial for your body.

Most of the food is international but they also have quite a full range of Thai favourites too.

You can enjoy mains such as a classic pepper steak, or a selection of Thai food that encompasses dishes such as pad Thai, stir-fries and curry. Just in case you're not familiar with Thai food, the hotter dishes are marked with chilli symbols: one means it’s mild, two that it’s medium and three hot, hot, hot.

Browse the lengthy menu and you'll see that it contains a range of delicious snacks and appetizers, all the way through to full-scale meals. There are many different kinds of sandwiches, wraps and ciabatta. Children are welcome too, and even have their own menu; they can have battered fish and chips, egg on

Just to give you some particular recommendations, try The Coffee Club’s newest addition to the menu, the Avocado and Feta Cheese Smash. It’s probably the ideal brunch; and really does do justice to the idea of a meal that that’s between breakfast and lunch. It’s also filling and healthy as well. The avocado smash comes in four versions; you can choose between smoked salmon, mushroom, bacon or plain. No matter what your choice you'll be delighted by the simple, healthy dish you'll be presented with.

The combination of eggs with feta works extremely well; the eggs sit atop a large slice of toast which is spread with the avocado and feta cheese smash. It’s accompanied by some extremely fresh rocket salad and cherry tomatoes.

For main courses it’s particularly recommended you try the Salmon Niçoise and Pesto, where the salmon fillet comes delicately roasted and succulent. It’s accompanied by baby potatoes and a salad with pesto dressing. All the components go well together making this yet another mouth-watering treat.

There are many different reasons for visiting The Coffee Club, and it serves a varied clientele.

Whether you're going just for a drink or a satisfying meal, you'll find yourself in good hands. On Samui there are two Coffee Club outlets. They're both conveniently located in Chaweng. There’s one on the northern part of the beach road, while the other’s close by in Central Festival.

Dimitri Waring For reservations or further information, telephone 0 7730 0563 (Chaweng Beach Road) or 0 7741 0505 (Central Festival).

An outstanding menu of International & Thai cuisine prepared by master chef Joseph Spiteri

Choeng Mon, 88/18 Moo 5, T. Bophut, Koh Samui Tel: 0 77243888 Email: info@baywaterresort.com www.baywaterresort.com www.siamwininganddining.com

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Serene, Celestial, Superb

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With its unique setting, Silavadee Pool Spa Resort offers fantastic food and some of the best vistas on the island.

You're in for a treat. Or should we say several?

Firstly, there’s the food. At Silavadee it’s rooted in beautifully prepared and presented Thai and international treats. The menus are packed with tempting dishes with sublime flavours. Then there's something else, too, equally good. The setting: think stunning panoramic sea vistas, think incredibly beautiful. The word Silavadee itself comes directly from the Thai and means, simply, ‘the beautiful rocks’ and that gives you an idea what this resort is about.

It sits alone on a rocky promontory in the south of the island, just before you come into Lamai, if you're coming from Chaweng. Turn up the road just after the IT Centre and follow it up and round until you come to Silavadee itself. From the road, you won’t see the natural beauty of the setting, but as soon as you walk through the atrium you'll begin to see just how picturesque

and just how different Silavadee is. You'll find yourself in a tropical atmosphere where lush gardens slope towards the sea, at times dramatically. Everything’s well-maintained yet looks, and is, entirely natural. As you head towards Silavadee’s restaurants (you'll be offered a ride in a buggy, which you should take) you'll see amazing, unspoiled views of the sea beyond.

It’s exactly the kind of setting that’ll make you feel excited; it’s unusual, nothing you'll have seen too often before, and has the feel of a getaway spot – which is exactly what it is.

Silavadee is beloved of those getting married, and those who’ve just done so; romance is part and parcel of what the resort offers.

restaurant set on two levels. It includes a terrace and an air-conditioned dining room. Here excellent Thai food is served daily. In addition, on Tuesdays, starting at 5:00 pm, you'll find a sumptuous Thai buffet, featuring some of the kingdom’s favourite dishes. It’s highly recommended that you book ahead if you'd like to eat here, no matter what the day.

Silavadee has some wonderful choices when it comes to dining. But first of all, you'll need to decide on which restaurant you'd like to go to.

To start with, there’s The Height, a fine-dining

Close by The Height you'll find a building that houses not one but three restaurants. It’s collectively called Sun Moon Star. Sun, on the ground floor, serves drinks and snacks, while

In charge you'll find Chef Suravichat, more usually known as Chef Vicky, a maestro who is expert in cooking Thai and international dishes.

(He runs not just The Height, but also all the other food outlets at the resort, which are more focussed on Western dishes.)

Moon, on the first, is Silavadee’s all-day dining spot. It’s very contemporary with views out over the sea, and has its own wine cellar, containing hundreds of bottles from all around the world.

If you come to Moon during the day, you'll find lighter foods such as pizzas, pasta and burgers.

It’s a menu that’ll appeal to just about anyone who’s anything from peckish to ravenous. When evening comes you'll find a more elaborate menu, featuring delectable fish and meat dishes, with some impossible-to-resist desserts to end what is guaranteed to be a wonderful dinner.

Chef Vicky used to work in Italy, so he knows plenty about Mediterranean delicacies, and his overall approach is mostly traditional but with contemporary grace notes. This is food that definitely should be lingered over and savoured – every forkful is delicious. He certainly knows

what his diners enjoy, and goes out of his way, as does his entire team, to make sure they're completely satisfied.

Incidentally, Silavadee has its own bakery (it’s more or less open-plan and you can see it when you enter Moon) which produces thousands of baked items per day. It’s so successful that it delivers to other hotels, resorts and businesses.

Right above Moon, you'll find an impressive open-air rooftop deck, Star. And since we’re on Samui, most nights you can just look up and in all probability you'll see a scattering of stars across the night sky. Naturally, it’s very romantic.

If you’d like to eat here, you'll need to book ahead, as Star has just four tables. These are sunk into a shallow pool that overlooks the sea.

On Wednesday nights, Star puts on its weekly fine dining option, which follows the resort’s

weekly cocktail reception (from 5:00 pm until 6:00 pm). Afterwards, your dining experience begins; a delicious feast with exceptionally good paired wines, and an array of courses that finishes with a fabulous dessert. All the other nights of the week, Star is open for cocktails and tapas, and what a place to enjoy them – as the evening darkens to night, you can watch the play of light on the water and in the sky.

As you can see, there’s no shortage of options when it comes to dining at Silavadee. However, we haven’t exhausted the list. Memorable as the above are, the resort offers further charm with its beachside private dining. Private means just that – private. The bay on which Silavadee is located is inaccessible from outside. It’s totally secluded; what’s more romantic than having a luxury dining experience at a decorated table with just the chef and waiter discreetly serving you?

If you're coming from Lamai as a party of two or more, the resort offers a complimentary pick-up service, but please enquire by phone if coming from other parts of the island.

Diners on Samui aren’t exactly starved for good restaurants, but Silavadee offers an outstanding combination of location and delicious cuisine. It definitely exceeds expectations.

Dimitri Waring For reservations or further information, telephone 0 7796 0555. www.silavadeeresort.com

www.siamwininganddining.com 11

Cheeses Pleases A glimpse into the cloudy realms of some of the world’s most curious cheeses.

What’s in a name? Cheese is cheese, surely.

After all, a rose by any other name would smell as sweet, wouldn’t it? Actually – no. Not all roses smell the same. And, when it comes to cheese, they not only range from aromatic to unbearably stinky, they run between solid and liquid, too.

Nobody knows where cheese first came from – the whole business of cheese is so ancient – although all experts agree that it undoubtedly came about by accident. And they all also reckon that it must have occurred due to the way in which things, especially liquids, were stored and carried all those thousands of years ago.

Try to picture some antique Arab setting out on a journey across the desert, way back before AD and BC were invented. He grabs one of his handy sheep’s stomachs (the ancients used these for transporting liquids), fills it with refreshing goat’s milk, and spends the next seven hours lurching about on the back of a camel. He makes camp, then takes a drink. At least he tries to. Because, due to the rennet remaining in the sheep’s stomach and a thorough shaking about in the hot sun, his milk has separated out into a thin milky whey, with lumpy curds of cheese.

Overcoming his initial distaste, he goes on to discover that the liquid whey is refreshing after all, and the curds are quite nice, really.

Fast-forwarding several thousand years, today there are more than 1,500 different known types

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with odoriferous cheese, too. Up to a point, the smell melds-in harmoniously. But something like Epoisses is just so stinky that it has been banned on public transport in France. It’s runny, too.

Not much fun for anyone if it drips in your lap on a bus.

of household dust mites from bedding and carpets, and letting them loose on the curds.

The enzymes secreted turn everything brown after three months, and into a black lump at the end of a year. Aficionados fondly describe the flavour as . . . ‘bitter’.

European countries are the most notable cheese chompers, with the USA only managing to claim 22 regional named varieties (most of them French or Irish in origin), compared to France’s 101 and the amazing 179 that are listed for the United Kingdom. Eating habits are different – Europeans enjoy a variety of cheeses purely on their own merit, whereas our transatlantic cousins tend to consume cheese only as an add-on, with melted processed cheese (for burgers) topping the charts and with Mozzarella (on pizzas) coming second.

Have you noticed that all of this so far is about the smell and the texture? There’s nothing at all about the actual taste. Because, quite honestly, with traditional cheeses, the taste falls into two classes, strong or mild. It’s only with specialist gourmet cheese that texture, taste and aftertaste become a consideration. And this is where we encounter the same sort of thinking that’s usually reserved for wine experts. The French Reblochon Fermier, for instance, is made from same-day milk without heating, and aged for just a couple of weeks. It’s nutty, subtle, and fresh tasting from core to washed rind. Or take the British Tunworth. It matures lasciviously, melting towards a silken flow, reminiscent of an Iberian that’s been set with cardoons rather than rennet, and with just a few after-notes of truffles.

And this is only the tip of the cheeseburg. For every happy little Kraft cheese slice, there’s a corresponding mutant lurking backstage, waiting for its 15 minutes of fame. For most of us, cheese is just that; cheese – something with a sandwich or to nibble at after a meal. But not for all. But even if one man’s cheese is another man’s poison, it takes all kinds to make a cheese-world – and every sort pleases someone, somewhere!

But heading back again towards the land of odd things, runny cheeses and stinky ones seem to have a particular allure for many cheeseophiles.

Brie and Camembert are the leading contenders in the ‘liquid’ bracket, but the downside is that cheese gets runnier as it ages, and there’s a distinct point where the ammonia released over-rides the taste buds. It’s much the same

We’re already half way there, so let’s get really silly. Let’s look at Pule, the world’s most-expensive cheese at $3,500 a kilo. It’s only made at the Zasavica Special Nature Reserve in Belgrade, it comes from donkey’s milk, and it takes about 25 litres to make one kilogram of cheese. Or what about Germany’s Milbenkäse?

This little monster is made by collecting millions

of cheeses; nobody has been able to document them all. Broadly speaking however, we can divide them into three or four main categories.

At the bottom of the cheese chain comes the fast-food-style shrink-wrapped supermarket offerings, including processed cheese (which could be made from anything!). For a great many years, these were the cheeses that the public went for, with generic names like Cheddar or Cheshire or Edam. But, today, things have changed.

everything between Little Bo Peep and Frankenstein’s monster. Where you’ll go ‘Oooh!’ at the Stilton made with edible gold leaf at $100 a slice or ‘Argh!’ when faced with the Sardinian Casu Marzu that’s crawling with live maggots.

(It’s actually exceptionally nourishing – although I’m told there’s a distinct knack to chewing on something that wriggles between your teeth.)

But let’s skip quickly on through some of the more interesting candidates, beginning with the ones that don’t move around!

Today there’s a far greater awareness of the value of organic foods. And one of the results has been that many local farms and dairies are prospering, with their products being widely distributed and in demand. This is the second category, farmhouse cheeses. But, whereas most of these small farms are content to come up with traditional, middle-of-the-road offerings (Gouda, Cheshire, Wensleydale Brie etc.) there are some that have made a name for themselves by specialising in the more extreme species of cheesy exotica. Not so long ago these were referred to as craftsman cheeses. But such are the whims of culinary fashion-speak that today the hip name is artisan. This is the third category, and where the gourmet examples are to be found.

And the fourth and last sort? Well this is the cheese world’s equivalent of extreme sports.

This is where you’ll come across anything and

Rob De Wet

SIP, SAVOUR, LOUNGE, AND LINGER Stay all day and move your mood, exploring our range of indoor and outdoor settings, right on Samui’s beach with panoramic view of the coastline. Enjoy a casual lunch in the shade, experiencing our eclectic menu of international cuisine or lounge away the aſternoon on a sunken daybed in the sand, steps away from the beach.

For evenings, COAST transforms into one of Samui's most attractive dining experiences, showcasing grills and seafood with great beach chill music to help you relax.

A variety of dining zones make it either the ideal venue for a memorable evening out with family and friends or an equally cool place to celebrate that special occasion party.

The focus at COAST is always on views of the beach and your effortless glide through the day.

Open Hours: 12:00 – 23:00 hrs.

www.centarahotelsresorts.com/csbr E: coast@chr.co.th T: +66 (0) 77 230500

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Going Native Joining the locals at Pae Chuan Chim.

Pae Chuan Chim is a small, family run restaurant in Bangrak. It serves just 11 Thai dishes, all of which are simple, yet delicious, at prices that are some of the best on the island. It’s easy to find – head along Bangrak beach road and look for Saboey Resort and Villas, and it’s right opposite.

The sign outside is only in Thai, but you'll easily recognize the restaurant; it’s set on a corner in a modern-style building that’s open on two sides.

You might think it’s quite a new place. But you'd be wrong. Whilst the building is new, the restaurant is now in its 24th year, and has always stood in the same spot. Before it was rebuilt, it looked much simpler, but was equally popular.

Pae Chuan Chim is run by a husband-and-wife team. Khun Somsii, who comes from Samui, and her husband Khun Ekarin, who she met in Bangkok. He used to run a food stall and was good at what he did; Khun Somsii worked in a city office, but never really took to it. The couple’s solution - move to Samui and open a restaurant here. They chose Bangrak as the venue. Back then they had a view of the sea, and the restaurant, in a small hut-like building, overlooked the main beach road which was still unpaved. People started frequenting the little restaurant, telling others about it, and more and more people started coming. Word-of-mouth through the years has kept Pae Chuan Chim thriving ever since. And these days Khun Somsii’s family also help to run the restaurant.

Step inside and you'll see at first glance it’s a typical easy-going establishment. There's no standing on ceremony here. People sit at either individual tables or at the longer table – handy if you come here in a group but nobody seems to mind sharing anyway. It’s popular with families, and there’s also a sprinkling of office workers wearing the Bangkok Airways uniform – Samui Airport is just around the corner.

The restaurant is open from 7:00 am to 3:00 pm daily, except Sunday’s. They make nearly 300 dishes per day here, that’s a staggering amount with just a few staff. Yet everything here seems casual, almost effortless. They used to keep longer hours, but decided that they’d just concentrate on day-time dining.

In case you're wondering, the restaurant name translates as ‘You're all invited to taste the food’.

And that’s precisely what happens here, with people coming in to enjoy the fare that's on offer, either sitting down to eat or getting takeaways.

Within a few minutes of ordering, your food will be on the table, ready to eat. Among the more popular dishes are pork with basil, a dish, that's traditionally spicy. For something milder, there’s chicken and cashew nuts along with chicken with garlic and pepper. These dishes are all staples of Thailand, and you can find them just about everywhere. Usually they'll cost a lot more; here they're utterly reasonable in price, as well as truly tasty.

The menu is just a single laminated sheet which lists the dishes in Thai and English, all of which are stir-fry, apart from noodle soup. There are no prices but don’t let that put you off. Dishes are all 60 baht, and if you have a fried egg on top, an extra 10 baht. And when you're seated in the restaurant the first thing that happens is that the waitress brings you a glass of ice with a straw in it. Add water from the large container on your table and you'll be able to quench your thirst.

This comes free of charge, by the way. They also have mineral water, if you'd like it, and a range of other drinks.

For the food, fresh vegetables all come from local markets. Khun Somsii chooses everything herself, ensuring the quality is good. She brings everything to the restaurant where it’s cooked on demand. It’s all well-thought out and people keep coming back for more. Over the years more and more foreigners have swelled the ranks of the diners here. Many holidaymakers eat here, as well as local foreign residents who come either alone or with their friends or families. Spend any length of time in the restaurant and you'll hear a good few languages.

The staff speak enough English to understand the diners’ requests, and if English isn’t their first language, it still doesn’t seem to be a problem as the menu consists of everyone’s favourites: people seem to know just what they want.

Pae Chuan Chim has a great name for dependable, delicious food. The restaurant may look humble but it’s certainly stood the test of time and it’s a powerhouse when it comes to nourishing local appetites – some of the regulars have been coming here for years.

Dimitri Waring

Take a bread cake and bakery Tel: 088 502 3112 Location: Samui Ring Road (nearly opposite Big C)

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Experience the very best in authentic Thai cuisine at Chef Chom’s Thai Restaurant at The Tongsai Bay Chef Chom's serves truly authentic Thai cuisine with an emphasis on local southern Thai cuisine. Wherever possible, ingredients are sourced locally and dishes are prepared from scratch.

This real Thai taste is the pride of the kitchen, and dishes are not 'watered down', the taste of Chef Chom's food is just the way Thais would have it.

Chef Chom’s is open daily for dinner from 7pm to 10pm. Tel: +66 (0) 77 245-480 www.tongsaibay.co.th

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Most professional photographers aim to turn landscapes into photographs, but Cameron Hansen decided to do the reverse. For years he’d been photographing the wonders of South-East Asia, and then he decided to turn his artwork into landscapes. Which is precisely what he did; he used the money from selling his photographs to turn some vacant land into a garden producing all manner of trees, plants and herbs. It didn’t just take money, but an inordinate amount of time too. Whenever Cameron had a spare moment, he’d research just how to grow the garden he visualized. It was several years in the making, and later he added on a cooking class.

The first part, learning how to make an organic garden was all theory, but once he got down to the actual gardening; it was trial and error – literal spadework. The garden edged forwards, a kind of horticultural marathon, with many a stumble along the way. Cameron looked at the errors, sorted them out, and tried all sorts of experiments, some of which worked, some not until finally the garden was ready.

Relax@Samui Thai food - Seafood - European food Romantic atmosphere Private seaview cottages The best seaviews on Samui Bang Por Beach, Tel. 0 7760 2228

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Edible Landscapes Scooping up deliciousness at Island Organics Thai Cooking Class.

When you visit, you'd hardly associate the vibrant greenery and well-ordered rows of plants with the internet. Gardening’s about spades, trowels and forks, isn’t it? In Cameron’s case, all his knowledge came from research on the internet. The results put paid to any lingering doubts that you really can’t learn much by using just a keyboard and a monitor.

The garden is situated in a hilly area which can be accessed via Bangrak and the road that leads from the coast road down to Bandon Hospital.

If you intend to go, best phone ahead, or check out the map on their very helpful website. The garden is terraced and features many different varieties of plant life. “Everything here is edible,” says Cameron. “That’s what we aimed for: a landscape where you could eat everything that grows.” He’s on hand to show visitors around the garden, and you'll immediately notice that there’s a lot more than just plants growing out of the ground. As much as is feasibly possible, everything here has been designed to be self-sustaining or recyclable. The garden itself uses no pesticides or industrial products, for example. He says, “The land was a coconut plantation before, for perhaps 40 years or more, and before that it was just forest. So no

chemicals have ever been used here, as far as anyone knows. We don’t use them either as we want the food here to be pure and healthy.” It’s not only healthier it tastes better, too, of course.

Almost everything he needs is grown on site.

“The only vegetables we get from outside are carrots and potatoes as they're hard to grow here, though we’re working on that and hopefully will be able to produce them ourselves one day.” says Cameron. “So meanwhile we get those from organic markets in the north. But everything else comes from the garden.”

The food grown is mostly used in the cooking classes that take place right in the garden.

Cameron’s wife, Khun Rattanaphorn Dokduang, more usually known as Khun Lat, is the teacher.

She’s well qualified for this, as she’s been cooking since the age of seven, and has also spent years working in various restaurants in Bangkok. The classes are held in a purpose-built sala, which is immaculately clean, even though it’s open to the surrounding garden. Pluck-and-cook vegetables, fruit and herbs all take just ten minutes from plant to plate – freshness on tap.

If you watch Khun Lat, you'll realize just how talented she is at teaching. Her English is good, and she carefully watches what her students are doing as they set about making dishes that will be restaurant-standard by the time they've finished. Thai cuisine is a bit different from Western styles in that amounts of ingredients used are variable. It’s all about the taste rather than precisely weighed-out amounts. So she gets everyone to taste what they're making and helps them adjust the consistencies. When the class is over, everyone eats what they’ve made, and it’s a veritable feast. You'll find them grilling chicken satay over a charcoal fire or munching on delicious pad Thai.

Classes are currently held every Monday, Wednesday, Friday and Saturday from 10:00 am until 3:00 pm, though if you have a group booking then please contact Cameron or Khun Lat as they are able to alter dates to suit you. In each cooking class, you'll learn to make four dishes (check out the menu on the website). If you need a hotel pick-up then let Cameron know; he can arrange for a pick-up anywhere from the south of Chaweng to Bophut and between.

Before the cooking class starts, students are given a tour of the garden. Most classes will take students around the local market where the produce is bought, but here everything comes out of the garden, so there’s no need for a market visit. Most students find the tour highly inspiring. It’s way more than just checking out what’s growing. There are all sorts of techniques and tips being used in the most practical of ways. For example, fish waste feeds an aquaponics production that’s lifted off the ground on pipes – a neat, efficient way to grow highly tasty foodstuffs. There's also a mushroom house, a darkened hut where mushrooms sprout in ideal conditions. Cameron and Khun Lat also make their own compost, use every cubic centimetre of rain water and are always working on ways to be self-sustainable.

Once you see all that's going on here, you realize very quickly that what they are doing is the very opposite of mainstream thought. With the human race headed towards cities (more than half the world’s population now live in them) and all that that entails – food flooded with chemicals, convenience store choices and a life centred around plastic and concrete – this

couple are concentrating on combining an older, more traditional lifestyle of living off the land, with some nifty new approaches that make everything sustainable. Their garden looks like the past and the future, all at the same time.

As such, it’s drawing a lot of attention. Recently Australian TV’s Channel 9 devoted an entire program on its highly-viewed travel series, Getaway, to the garden. Many top-notch hotels and resorts are coming here to see what Cameron and Khun Lat are doing and to see how they can incorporate ideas themselves. The couple are taking their project further and always learning more, and continue to experiment with new ideas, but are keen to share all that they've learned. You'll find them exceptionally welcoming and friendly.

Dimitri Waring For reservations or further information, telephone 0 896 468 580. www.islandorganicssamui.com

Sabeinglae Restaurant

Sabienglae restaurants offer traditional fresh seafood and cuisine in an authentic southern Thai style.

Come and enjoy our unique dishes, many of which you won’t find elsewhere on the island, in a relaxing atmosphere. An experience to truly complete your holiday.

The Wharf Samui, Fishermans’s Village For reservation please call 077 430 094-5

Hin Ta Hin Yai, Samui Ring Road For reservation please call 077 233 082-3

Wimaan Buri Resort, Chaweng Ring Road For reservation please call 077 962 333

www.siamwininganddining.com 17

The Wine Page Forget the old ‘room temperature’ rule … red wine is better chilled.

"An ice bucket?" I asked the waiter, in a posh restaurant that I recently visited. "For a red wine?" I could feel the indignation he felt at such an audacious request. And various perturbed and frowning faces swivelled in my direction. But I insisted, and grudgingly, he brought what I'd asked for. It's a discussion I have had far too often in bars and restaurants.

The reason is that, in my humble opinion, most red wines are served way too warm. Too many establishments believe that reds taste best at room temperature. Advice that was probably true once, but is more or less redundant nowadays, unless you live in an igloo.

And it is important. The temperature of the cherished wine in your glass can have a marked impact on the way it smells and tastes. If you don't believe me, try the same wine first at 15 degrees centigrade and then at 25. The fruit and the aroma will be more pronounced in the former, while in the latter, the alcohol will leap out of the glass. And the flavours will seem jammy and indistinct. That's why I give most reds 30 minutes in the fridge at home before I open them, and some considerably more than that.

Manathai Koh Samui 18 www.siamwininganddining.com

How cool can you go? If they are un-oaked, 12 degrees is no problem for lighter-bodied red grapes such as Pinot Noir, Gamay, Corvina, Tempranillo and Cabernet Franc. The only thing you need to be wary of is tannin, whether from the grapes themselves or from new (or nearly-new) oak barrels. The sturdier and more astringent the wine, the warmer you should serve it. Even then, however, I wouldn't be tempted to go above 16 degrees, even for a Barolo or brawny Bordeaux reds. Apart from chunky wines like these, you can chill down pretty much anything. And it’s in the lighter, fruitier wines where you'll notice the biggest difference. Even when savouring a gorgeous deep Spanish Rioja lately, I found chilling heightened the experience. Floppy and a little bit sickly when warm, after ten minutes on ice the lovely raspberry-scented, cherry fruit was sharpened and brought into focus. It was great by itself but even better with food – spaghetti with lamb meatballs and roasted tomato and garlic salad - and it set me on a mission to spread the chilled red wine word.

Chilling wine reduces its sweetness, freshens its fruit and softens the alcohol. Any light and juicy

Samui Ring Road

Lamai

red will be lifted to refreshing peaks with a spell in the fridge, and even the over-confection (my polite way of describing the cardinal sin of added sugar) of cheap supermarket red wines, can be sharpened up, and make the substandard wine slightly more forgivable. Of course, Beaujolais’s trademark grape, Gamay, is well known as one that responds well to chilling. Its feather-light weight and strawberry fruit could be mistaken for a rosé, if you close your eyes.

Look for wines that are fairly light on their feet, Pinot Noirs are obvious, but it could be Cabernet Franc or Grenache. But don’t be too obsessed by the grape variety. The style of wine is more important. Any decent wine merchant should guide you as to which red wines are suitable for chilling. But if not, just look for something light or medium-bodied and start experimenting. Personally, even big and wintery red wines will taste soupy, and flaccid, if on the verge of lukewarm. And I suppose, over my wine-drinking career, I have changed my position on this. I can remember the trend a couple of decades ago, when respectfully handling a red wine, to, “Open it up and pop it on the Aga to breathe.” These days, those words

Telephone 0 7745 8560-4

are just as likely to strike fear into the hearts of wine lovers.

Chilled red is particularly appropriate for barbecues. Who wants a glass of Sauvignon Blanc with a messy burger? Go for something with a bit of grunt, like young Chianti, Rioja or a cheap Cotes du Rhone. And all would benefit from a spell in a fridge while you’re lighting the coals. They’ll be pleasingly refreshing, and yet, will stand up well to fatty char-grilled meat. And if they warm up as the evening progresses, nobody will object. Don’t get too strung out about the precise temperature. But over-chilling can kill a wine stone dead. If this happens you can always sit with your glass in the sun, and gently swirl its contents until it comes alive again. Generally speaking, the lighter the red, the cooler it can go without losing its mojo.

When it comes to chilled red wines with bubbles, step out from your comfort zone, and try a proper Lambrusco. It’s a world away from the cheap, sweet horrors of days gone by, and now making something of a comeback. Good Lambrusco has firm dark fruit, gentle bubbles and a lovely snappy finish. And the Aussies,

www.manathai.com

quite rightly, love their sensational sparkling Shiraz. A few have made it over here to Thailand, and are definitely worth a try if you happen upon them. And when it comes to long and thirst-quenching red wine coolers, they’re second nature to the Spanish. I like the simplicity of Tinto de Verano (literally, ‘summer red’), just red wine mixed with lemonade (or soda water), and served with or without ice.

Spanish teenagers are in the habit of mixing cheap red with Coca-Cola to make a Calimocho.

It’s not quite as disgusting as it sounds, but is probably best left to the youth. For something slightly more traditional, and a great way of using some red wine you are disappointed with, Sangria is the obvious choice. And yes, I know it’s hideous if made too sweet and fruity, but it can be a lovely festive drink to get a warm weather party started. Make it in icy glass jugs, with chopped oranges, strawberries, fresh mint and a hit of brandy.

Peter James

Opening Times 10am – 1am

Silavadee Pool Spa Resort

Silavadee Pool Spa Resort presents a wide range of restaurants and bars featuring a variety of cuisines to suit all tastes.

Premium cocktails and selected wines are also available in each outlet.

STAR

A stunning rooftop bar where you can sip our signature cocktails and enjoy some snacks while watching the sunset or gazing at the stars above.

Open: 17.00-23.30hrs.

The Height

Sun Deck

Wine and Cigar Lounge

Oering an extensive menu of delightful Thai cuisine, the restaurant has both air-conditioned and open air seating options, all with stunning views of the surrounding sea.

Open: 17.00-22.30hrs.

Exclusive dining on the deck with breathtaking views.Enjoy International delights in a romantic setting with your loved one. Please reserve in advance.

Refreshments, cocktails and snacks with a selection of premium wines and cigars to enjoy the breathtaking view.

Open:18.00-22.30hrs.

Open: 17.00-23.30hrs

Silavadee Pool Spa Resort 208/66 Moo4, Koh Samui, Suratthani 84310 Thailand Tel: (+66) 077 960 555 Fax: (+66) 077 960 055 www. Silavadeeresort.com www.siamwininganddining.com

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Rice Barge &

Terrace

Fine Beachside Dining at the Rice Barge & Terrace Authentic Thai Cuisine Daily A La Carte and Thai Set Dinner No visit to Samui is complete until you have dined at the Rice Barge & Terrace

The Barge Western Cuisine & Seafood Every Monday Cowboy Steak Buffet Every Wednesday Hawaiian Seafood Buffet Rice Barge & Terrace Nora Buri's Signature Restaurant Chaweng North For Reservation Tel: 0 7791 3555 E-mail: ricebarge@noraburiresort.com www.noraburiresort.com

Chaweng Beach Road Chaweng North

It’s all happening at Nora Beach Resort & Spa Tuesday Night- Siam Kingdom Thai Night. We invite you to experience a variety of traditional Thai dishes.

Price THB 850 per person.

Thursday Night - East Meets West. Enjoy our chef’s special buffet creations. Price THB 950 net per person. Children 6-12 years old half price. Entertainment: Polynesian Show & Mariposa Duo. Thai Cooking Class Learn how to cook 3 authentic Thai dishes with our Thai Chef. Price THB 1,500 per person Inclusive of chef hat, apron, certificate and recipe.

Fruit Carving Class Price THB 1,500 per person. Inclusive of chef hat, apron and certificate.

Daily Happy Hour Beverages Special offer 50% off (Except wine, Corona beer, all spirits by the bottle) Pool Bar 1.00 pm - 2.00 pm & 4.00 pm - 5.00 pm. Prasuthon Restaurant 6.00 pm - 7.00 pm.

Lobby Bar 7.00 pm - 8.00 pm & 10.00 pm - 11.00 pm.

Romantic Private Dining Dining on the beach with private chef and waiter/waitress.

Thai menu THB 5,000 per couple.

International menu THB 6,000 per couple.

Advance reservation required

For further information please telephone 0 7742 9400 E-mail: reservation@norabeachresort.com www.norabeachresort.com 20

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