FOOD & TRAVEL – Only this year 2012 we managed to get some time off from work and decided to book ourself for a few days stay and escape to the island of Koh Samui. We flew with Berjaya Air which was an exciting experience and it took us about 2hours to reach our destination from the Subang Airport, Kuala Lumpur. On our second day stay we decided to take a trip round the island by using a rented motorcycle that was very affordable (RM20/day). We left our hotel at 10am and head to the west south of the island which was more a covered countryside, smaller roads, tranquil private beaches and resorts.

We stumbled upon Ma am Restaurant as we passed by the beautiful Bansai Sunset Beach Resort & Spa located just right after The Raja Ferry at the mid West of the island or just before reaching the Elephant Gate. The beauty of this restaurant just caught our eyes right when we passed by it and without a thought we wanted to stop for a lunch do, a place with much comfort under the striking sun.

We just love the setting of this restaurant, lunching in the hut can be such an adventurous thing to do, I felt so Marco Polo. In fact the floor of the restaurant was raised up beautiful architectured on stilts. The floor was mattressed up with old wooden planks and gave a truly beautiful rustic feel while the little dining huts were constucted with old treated bamboo. The roofing too was crafted with such a rustic look, feel with comfort.

We were early at the restaurant just before noon and we had the pleasure to pick any of the huts as there were still empty.

Within seconds of ur arrival, I straight dashed to the fridge to grab a large bottle of the local Chang beer, a Thai brewed beer to killed my thirst. It was well chilled and was deliciously cold. I felt so refreshing, lovely Chang !

A smiling and charming auntie came and took our order. The restaurant was serving set lunch meal but we decided to order single dish as we knew we will be charmed by the cooking. Of course our first would be the Tom Yum Goong as I had been craving about it since the first day of our arrival. Then a dish with Thai basil is a must and we also settled another salad dish.

The Tom Yum Goong was so over my expectation, it was refinely cultivated using fresh herbs such as ‘galangal’ blue ginger, lemongrass leaf “daun limau purut”, lemongrass and lime juice. It was tasty with a strong dash of sourness and sweetness, a lovely yet and addictive soup. The seafood that went with it such a prawns were very fresh and tasty. Defitely I had stumbled onto one of the BEST Tom Yum Soup I ever tasted! The portion was huge too.

I can smell the traces of fragrant fish sauce in our stir fried slice beef with Thai basil. It was mild hot and done perfectly to taste and does so well with my organic white rice.

Our salad came slight late as the crowd started to fill up the place but we were prepared to wait. The salad was surprisingly delicious. The squid was perfectly poached to a tenderizing texture, it was directly fresh from the sea. How can anyone resist such a simple dish, fresh chopped onions, chilli, corriander leafs and laced witha sweet and sorish sauce. Just perfect.

At the end of the day we were left with such a great desire of Thai cuisine and a full refueled energy to continue our bike ride around the island. . . . . I was amazed and charmed, Sidney Kan.