Koh Samui Jan 2015 Part IV - Dessert at Lolamui Cafe, Lamai Fresh Coconut Ice Cream

Continued from
Part I - Fenix Beach Resort at Lamai Beach
Part II - Lamai Sunday Night Market
Part III - Food at Krao Chao Ban, MK restaurant, Koh Tan Cuisine, Sabienglae 2


Actually we didn't have much room for dessert since we ate so much thai food for our meals.

But I passed by this interesting cafe which happens to be located at Lamai, and couldn't resist the temptation to take a look. In fact, it's located along the main road, very hard not to see it, especially with the distinctive old train car and interesting name post.

There's ample parking in the vicinity.

Upon entering the grounds, I could see a section of the vintage train car. Initially I thought it's just for display but it is actually a part of the cafe too, as in customers can choose to have their cakes/beverages here in the car. Cool!

The cafe is set among a lush hillside and appears to be converted from some wooden houses. It has this tropical feel with the white-bluish-grey colour scheme.

The main cafe houses the beverage preparation area, display counters as well as a kitchen where cakes are freshly baked daily. Here's the chef owner Khun Pun. She told us she bakes about 20 cakes daily for walk-in sales and sometimes additional if there are advance orders.

I wanted to try the coconut cake which is supposedly the house special and very popular, but it was sold out already :( Decided to make reservation and return the next day.

There are only 4 seats in the main cafe.

Here's the back of the main cafe/house where the kitchen is.

Alfresco area.

Steps leading to another house/more seating areas.

This house is much bigger, more seating available. Very simply furnished and decorated with some vintage items and mismatched furniture.

When we returned the next day, it was quite quiet due to a weekday. Apparently the cafe is packed during weekends and thai public holidays.

We ordered the signature Coconut Cake, Banoffee Pie, iced latte for the hubs and earl grey tea for me.

Banoffee Pie. This was surprisingly very good, a crushed crispy biscuit base, sweet and fragrant bananas with caramel sauce and generously topped with a light whipped cream and dusted with coffee powder.

I love the Coconut Cake! The sponge cake was feather soft and the coconut was so tender. Understand from Khun Pun that she specially selects a soft and creamy coconut called maprao kati (macapuno). Overall the cake was less sweet and very pleasing. Yummy! I would love to come back for this cake!

soft and creamy coconut called maprao kati (macapuno) - See more at: http://bk.asia-city.com/restaurants/article/best-thai-restaurants-samui#sthash.YLOoq2u7.dpuf

soft and creamy coconut called maprao kati (macapuno) - See more at: http://bk.asia-city.com/restaurants/article/best-thai-restaurants-samui#sthash.YLOoq2u7.dpuf

soft and creamy coconut called maprao kati (macapuno) - See more at: http://bk.asia-city.com/restaurants/article/best-thai-restaurants-samui#sthash.YLOoq2u7.dpuf

lolamui cafe

Open daily 11am-6pm. 127/184 Moo 3, Lamai, Maret. 089-688-4818, 077-601-607 - See more at: http://bk.asia-city.com/restaurants/article/best-thai-restaurants-samui#sthash.YLOoq2u7.dpuf

127/184 Moo.3, Lamai, Maret

Amphoe Koh Sa-Mui, Surat Thani, Thailand

+6689-688-4818, +6677-601-607

Opens 11am to 5pm daily

https://www.facebook.com/lolamuicafe

Besides lolamui cafe that is worth a visit, another must-try is the Lamai Fresh Coconut Ice-Cream!

Although more and more ice-cream stalls are popping up everywhere in Samui (in Bangkok as well), this is apparently the original one. Look out for this van that's parked at the Lad Koh Viewpoint (located between Chaweng and Lamai). The van is not always there though, during our previous trip, we tried once and wanted to eat more the next day and the van wasn't there.

The owner hard at work. The queue was perpetually non-stop.

She used a special tool to scrap the coconut meat from the husk.

Then added 2-3 scoops of coconut ice-cream, followed by toppings like candied yam, tapioca, sweet potato, banana, glutinous rice and peanuts.

Absolutely yummy, especially on a hot day. The ice-cream was very creamy and not too sweet, and the toppings complemented the ice-cream really nicely.

Enjoying ice-cream with a breathtaking view, only at Samui.

And this marks the end of my trip to Koh Samui, already looking forward to the next one, probably gotta wait till next year or if we get lucky to snag a good airfare deal!

Koh Samui Jan 2015 Part III - Food at Krao Chao Ban, Koh Tan Cuisine, Sabienglae 2, MK restaurant

Continued from
Part I - Fenix Beach Resort at Lamai Beach
Part II - Lamai Sunday Night Market


As I mentioned, food is a major reason of why we kept going back to Samui.

Sabienglae Restaurant at Lamai Beach is located just 5 minutes' walk from our resort. We wanted to dine there for our lunch after checking in but unfortunately the restaurant was closed during the period we were in Samui! Boohoo!

Ok, fret not. We made our way to Krao Chao Ban Restaurant, about 10-15 minutes from the resort.

The landscape of the restaurant is still as pretty as before, enhancing the dining experience altogether.

At Krao Chao Ban, this is a must-eat dish - deep fried fish drizzled with a spicy and sour tamarind sauce. It is this dish that made us come back over and over again. The fish was deep fried to perfect crisp on the outside yet remaining very tender and juicy inside. The sauce was sourish and a little spicy which is very appetising and goes very well with the white fish meat. The fried shallot bits were a perfect topping which complemented the entire dish very well. There are other restaurants that served similar style of cooking but none has managed to rival the one at Krao Chao Ban yet.

Craving for some Thai papaya salad and I must say the dish served here is very well-made indeed. Spicy, sour, salty and topped with some deep fried anchovy. Perfect!

The coconut/milky squid was not bad but nothing to shout about.

Stir fried morning glory (kang kong) was always nicely done in Thailand.

On the second day, we decided to explore the southern part of Samui island and rode our bike all the way to Thong Krut Beach. Thong Krut Beach is like a sleepy little town with a small stretch of sandy white beach and restaurants along the beach.

We stopped by this quaint little restaurant for our lunch.

Most of the restaurants here also provide additional services like canoeing or snorkeling trip to the nearby island, Koh Tan.

I ordered a thai-style stir-fried kway teow (flat rice noodles) which was very yummy!

Hubby wanted to try some tom yum soup. Not bad at all, spicy and sourish.

Some stir-fried vegetables to share.

Hubby also ordered a stir-fried pork with rice.

Over all the meal was enjoyable, made perfect with the comfortable surroundings and lovely sea view.

Saw a mobile vegetable stall outside the restaurant. So cool!

Central Festival is a large mall, the latest development at Chaweng Beach. We went there for shopping on the second afternoon.

Delighted to see MK restaurant, so decided to have dinner there.

MK restaurant's famous roast duck. The meat was tender and succulent and so yummy with the sauce. The spinach noodle is also very popular, texture is very springy.

Since we had so much meat and carbo, we ordered mostly vegetables for the hot pot.

On our 3rd morning, we decided to skip breakfast at the resort and headed to Lamai Beach area in search of some regular noodle soup.

Most shops weren't opened but we chanced upon this stall selling noodles.

Ordered kway teow noodle soup which came with shredded chicken and pork balls. A basket of assorted vegetables (basil, bean sprout, bittergourd) was given for us to add freely to the noodles. Nice!

For our lunch on the 3rd day, we decided to ride all the way to Sabienglae 2 restaurant at Chaweng since we really missed Saebienglae's food.

Actually we found that Sabienglae 2's food quality/standard is not as good as the original restaurant at Lamai Beach. The restaurant is also quite quiet since it's not located along the Chaweng Beach that's populated with tourists; it's located at the central main road.

I think the restaurant is serving mostly tour groups (especially from China) now because they started playing Chinese songs and a group of tourists came in after we ordered.

The tom yum goong here was still quite good.

Steamed squid with garlic and lime. Not bad, quite appetising.

One of my favourite thai dish, Tod Mun Goong, thai shrimp cake. Quite nice but standard seemed to have dropped a little, used to be better (I think not as fresh as before).

For our dinner on our 3rd/last night in Samui, we decided to go back to Krao Chao Ban since it's so near to our resort, and we wanted to eat the deep fried fish with tamarind sauce again.

The papaya salad we ate on the first day was good so we ordered it again.

This was salted egg yolk encased with minced pork and prawn, coated with breadcrumbs and deep fried. The first piece was yummy but subsequently too overwhelming. Don't think will order this dish again.

Braised king prawn with rice vermicelli. Very yummy as the rice vermicelli soaked up all the sauce and was very flavourful.

And we simply had to order the deep fried fish with tamarind sauce again! It was just soooooo good!
Once again, we over-indulged but couldn't help it lah!

Stay tuned for the last part on the desserts we had!

Koh Samui Jan 2015 Part II - Lamai Sunday Night Market

Continued from Part I - Fenix Beach Resort at Lamai Beach


We've been to Samui several times but this was the first time we've been to the Lamai Sunday Night Market. In the initial years, we usually flew in on Friday night and out by Sunday morning. Whereas recent years, the trips were usually Thursdays to Sundays. This time, it happened that hubby booked a Sunday flight in, and so I made it an agenda to visit the night market, and staying at Lamai area itself fitted the agenda perfectly!

We had rented a bike from the resort and riding to the market took less than 10 mins. Reached there close to 6pm but it was still too early; many stalls were still in the midst of setting up.

Decided to pop into one of the spas for a "Tiger Balm" massage first. Basically the therapist would mix a herbal balm with massage oil and massage the back/pressure points with soothing strokes. The balm smelled like "Tiger Balm" and had a nice heating sensation which I really like. This method of adding a balm to the massage oil seemed to be practised only in Samui; didn't see it elsewhere like BKK or Phuket.

Anyways, the massage took an hour and we felt rejuvenated and raring to eat our way through the night market!

Besides body massage, there's also foot massage and pedi/manicure.

7pm and the crowd had just started to come in.

The food and drink stalls were the most popular.

Lots of stalls selling grilled meats like beef, pork and sausages, and whole chicken.

Spotted a stall selling coconut ice-cream, tried it but it wasn't as nice as the original Lamai Fresh Coconut Ice Cream which I'm going to share in the post on dessert.

When in Samui, must see Samui pancakes! It's somewhat a cross between prata and crepe, with a thin dough which is thin and slightly chewy and slightly crispy. Many flavours to choose from and our favourite is always Banana Nutella! Yummy!

Fried insects anyone?

At the cross junction of the night market is a small stage where performances are hosted. Performances always make a market more lively and vibrant.

Grilled kebabs.

We decided to sit down and try one of the street hawkers selling Pad Thai Noodles. It was not bad, but nothing to shout about.

I spotted a BBQ pork ribs stall nearby and they looked really good. Indeed the meat was bone tender and succulent. The BBQ sauce was delicious, sweet and salty.

After eating our fill, we made our way to the merchandise section but nothing caught our eye. I guess we've been to so many night markets, the goods offered seemed similar (so far the best night market is still Cicada at Hua Hin!).

Stay tune for the next post on the restaurants we went to and the food we ate :)