Koh Samui Oct 2012 Part III - Food Glorious Food

Continue from Part I - Hansar Samui Resort and Part II - Bophut.

Yeah, this is the most delicious part for it's all about food we had at Samui :)

One of the main reasons why we love Koh Samui is because of SabiengLae Restaurant. Crazy it may seem but we really like the food there. Will talk about the dishes at SabiengLae later.

Breakfast at resorts is also something I eagerly look forward to :) I guess it's rare for us to have such sumptuous spread of breakfast back home. So I always make it a point to wake up for breakfast, unless the spread is bleah or food quality is mediocre. I must commend most of the breakfast spreads at Thai hotels and resorts are pretty decent, so much as that I always over-indulge and had to eat lunch at a later hour or skip the meal altogether!

Breakfast at Hansar Samui is served from 6.30am to 10.30am (although I saw people still eating after 10.30am), at the main restaurant. Both upper and lower floors are open during breakfast, with the same spread.

Not a very big spread but they focus on quality rather than quantity. The self-service bars serve fruits, cereals, breads, cold cuts, cheese, hot food like porridge, stir fried noodles, fried rice. Items like eggs (all methods of cooking) and waffles could be ordered from the kitchen.

Fresh juices; I love the thai orange juice.

Cereals, and some confit I think.

Bread station.

The hot food like stir fried noodles, fried rice, porridge etc.

Impressive selection of condiments for the porridge.

Deli items like ham, cheese, with crackers and nuts.

During our first breakfast, we were initially seated alfresco but someone next table started smoking. Lovely weather and marvelous view but we didn't want smoke-infused food so we had to shift.

Omelette which I ordered from the kitchen. The eggs were cooked to perfection, slightly fluffy, smooth and runny.

More food for me :p The hashbrown was overcooked - disappointing. Other than that, the fried rice, stir fried noodles were yummy!

In fact, both hubby and I were very impressed with the stir fried noodles. There was another impressive dish which I didn't think much of, but blew me away, the stir fried chicken with basil.

Hubby's porridge. Surprisingly good as well, the broth was flavourful with pork yet very light on the palate.

Our much anticipated lunch at Sabienglae Restaurant. We rented a bike and the ride took us about 45 mins from Bophut (to Lamai).

To our pleasant surprise, the restaurant has underwent some renovations and expanded even further towards the beach area. The seating capacity is like double than before.

It was much too hot, otherwise would be lovely to sit right next to the beach.

Our favourite appetizer at Sabienglae, the Prawn cake, must eat with the sour plum sauce :d~~~ otherwise won't taste as good.
The prawn cake was crispy on the outside and tender inside, great combination of prawn meat, fish meat and perhaps some sotong meat as well, with a hint of spices.

The Tom Yum Goong was very spicy and sour (I couldn't help but salivate just looking at the photo), with strong notes of lemon grass. A tad too spicy for me but perfect for hubby. There were generous servings of prawns, sotong and mushroom inside the soup, actually a little too much for just the two of us.

I love the steamed sea bass in lime sauce. The fish meat was very fresh and tender and perfect with the garlic, lime, chilli sauce base.

Stir fried mixed vegetables. The vegetables were crunchy and sweet!

We had guessed the meal would cost around 1300-1500 baht given that the fish was quite big, but no, it cost only 900 baht! Which is an impossible price to get in SG! See, now you get what I mean when I say the food here is good and reasonably priced?

Anyway, we were so full by the end of the meal that we skipped dinner altogether.

So we had supper instead :p We dropped by a random eatery along the road at Chaweng (on our way back to Bophut after massage), coincidentally the shop's name is called "Stop and Eat". It's opened by a foreigner and managed by locals. We ordered a braised pork knuckle rice and noodle soup.

Both were simple and nice comfort food, and cost less than 100 baht. Cheap cheap good good.

Another breakfast. This time, we had it at the ground floor. Similar spread.

I love the coleslaw and fruit salad here.

The dining hall overlooks an open-concept kitchen. Different types of sauces for self-service.

As usual, good variety of fruits.

I love these colorful petite plates of jam, nutella, peanut butter etc.

Bread and pudding and assorted muffins.

Interesting to see a honeycomb!

The puff pastry (apple pie) was not bad. I love the coleslaw and fruit salad.

As usual the stir fried noodles and rice were nice. The greens was actually spinach cooked in some creamy sauce, it was really really good!

The pomelo and pineapple were very sweet and juicy too!

Finally the last meal before heading home. We had a late lunch at the Samui Airport. Ok, we knew that it's usually not advisable to dine at the airport but, well we wanted to try.

Hubby had this bowl of beef noodle soup which was so-so only.

I ordered a Mango Salad and Pork sandwich and this came in. I didn't expect a burger at all! Anyway, it was yucks.

The saviour was the deep fried spring roll which was crispy on the outside with moist stuffings. The meal came up to 1400-1500 baht which was outrageous as compared to our Sabienglae meal in terms of taste, quality and price. *sigh* Lesson learnt, never dine at the airport.

This concludes the food we had for this trip. Stay tuned for the final part on spa and massage!

Koh Samui Oct 2012 Part II - Bophut

Continue from Part I.

This post is about Bophut, but it's very brief only because we didn't really explore much!

By the time we checked into Hansar Samui, it was already 10+pm. I was very keen to visit the Bophut Walking Street since it only happens every Friday night, luckily the stalls only close at close to 11pm and Hansar Samui Resort is literally a stone's throw away from the Walking Street.

The Walking Street is sort of divided into 2 zones (an L shape which is not connected to each other), 1 zone mainly clothing, accessories and ornaments; the other, mainly food with some clothing/accessories and entertainment (live band).

We went towards the clothing zone first, had to browse through very quickly as it was approaching 11pm and we wanted to see the street food section as well. "Luckily" there wasn't much too see (I only bought a bracelet and ring) and we were able to turn back towards the food zone after 15-20 mins. The food zone was rather disappointing with only a few stalls selling grilled meats, seafood, phad thai, drinks.

Hubby decided to try some Phad Thai (local stir fry noodle) cooked a la minute.

Tasted ok, the noodles were a little mushy (too wet) though.

We also tried a stick of grilled cuttlefish. Not bad, quite juicy and chewy but the chilli sauce was way too spicy for me and I had to gulp half a bottle of water to quench the spiciness.

There was a live band at one section of the walking street where patrons could listen to some thai rock music while drinking cheap mojitos.

Towards 11pm, most of the stalls starting packing up and we headed back to the resort. Overall, the walking street was a little disappointing. I had expected more stalls with more activities. And to our suprise, it wasn't crowded at all, in fact the whole Bophut Fishermen's Village was pretty quiet.

True indeed, when we re-visited Fishermen's Village the next evening, it was like a dead town! Such a stark contrast to Chaweng area. Most of the shops close early (perhaps due to lack of crowd), and we couldn't find any spas/massage palours after 9-10pm; unlike in Chaweng where most spas operate till 1-2am or 11-12 midnight.

The only Pancake stall that we found, unlike in Chaweng where you can find one such mobile store every few streets.

We got the Banana and Nutella Pancake which was delish! The pancake was very crunchy on the outside and slightly chewy on the inside, served with generous amount of banana, nutella and condensed milk. Sinful but so good!

Beachside bar that looks so pretty! They only open from evening onwards. Oversized beanie cushions are laid on the beach for patrons to relax over drinks.

Apparently their house specialty is Coconut Ice Cream (besides all the alcoholic drinks). But when we popped in one of the nights after dinner, they were sold out. How could their house specialty be sold out? It must either be damned good or what? Rather disappointed as we had settled comfortably on the beanie cushions already. We don't drink and there weren't any other things that we could order unfortunately.

Our ride for the 2 days =D

Rented a bike to help us get around, especially to and fro SabiengLae Restaurant located at Lamai Beach area (taxi fare would cost about 700 baht). The rental shop is just a few minutes walk from Hansar Samui Resort. Cost 200 (or 250) baht for 24 hrs rental. Diesel cost is very minimal, 50-100 baht should be sufficient for 24hrs. The bike is reasonably new and well maintained. We didn't have to place our passport as deposit (a common practice for some places). We were late by 1.5hrs when returning the bike and didn't even have to pay any penalty or extra charges. Having a bike is really convenient as we could travel anywhere, anytime without the need to reply on taxis or tuk tuks.

That's all for Bophut. Wished I could have more time to explore the area, next time perhaps!

Stay tune for upcoming post on FOOD!

Koh Samui Oct 2012 Part I - Hansar Samui Resort, Bophut

Hubby and I has been pinning for Koh Samui for a long time and finally we made it this October! Why Koh Samui again? Well, we love the "Tiger Balm" massage there (can't be found anywhere else e.g. Phuket) and our favourite Thai restaurant "SabiengLae" offering yummy thai food at reasonable prices. If air tickets weren't so ex (as compared to Phuket, Bali etc), we would have gone more frequently!

It has been more than a year since our last trip; for that trip, we brought dear son along and had to take turns for massages and cater to his needs all the time so it wasn't very relaxing or convenient. And the trip before the last, I was preggie and didn't get my favourite "Tiger Balm" massage. So this time, it was just us =D

Basically just a short 3D2N getaway, via Bangkok Airways on Friday night and return on Sunday afternoon. Our itinerary was pretty R&R.

Friday night - Check-in, Bophut Walking Street (every Friday night)

Saturday - Breakfast at resort, laze in room, rent a bike to go Sabieng Lae for lunch, Chaweng to walk around and massage, Bophut Fishingmen's Village to walk around, back to Chaweng for massage and supper

Sunday - Breakfast at resort, laze in room, check-out, massage at nearby spa, late lunch at airport

For the next few posts, basically I'll cover the resort we stayed in, the food we had, spa and briefly on Bophut.

For this trip, we I chose to stay at Bophut as we stayed at Chaweng the past 3 trips and thought of trying a new place. And I wanted to go to the Bophut Walking Street which is an open-air bazaar style every Friday from 5pm till 11pm. Staying at Bophut itself would be more convenient. After much research and reviews, decided on Hansar Samui Resort. Hansar Samui is just a stone's throw away from the walking street ;)

We booked a Sea View Room, other categories include Sea View XL and Beach Front. We reviewed the photos on the room types and reckoned that Sea View Room should suffice :)

This is the view of the room, taken at the balcony area, pretty sizeable and well-appointed with warm, woody colours.

Plasma TV. Wifi is provided free all around the resort. I guess a necessary service these days.

Complimentary fruits.

Complimentary coffee/tea making facilities, and a mini bar (chargeable) inside the cabinet. 4 complimentaty bottles of mineral water were provided daily.

The spacious shower area, but there's no door so water could be splashed out into the changing area. Oh, I love the tassel curtains, which gave a soft touch to the room.

The balcony area which I lounged around most of the time. I love the rocking armchair; if I have a balcony I would want something like this :)

The balcony overlooks the garden and pool.

As well as the sea, well, diagonal view. Hubby was a little disappointed as he thought that sea view room means facing the sea. But to me, this is good enough. Anyway, he spent most of his time indoors enjoying air-con. I was the one who prefer the balcony.

The reception area. Service standard was quite good, although our request for late check-out was rejected :(((( which was a big disappointment and lowered our overall experience at the resort.

The staff claimed that the room was booked for another guest checking in after us. We thought it was bulls***. The flight was at 4+pm, and the transfer would leave the resort at about 2pm. So far, all the resorts we stayed in allowed late check-out at 2pm.

Mini library at the lobby area.

Infinity pool. Heck, we didn't even swim because hubby was lazy!

The pool looks inviting right?

There's a tiny pool for kids to waddle around, water toys are even provided. Parents could lounge around at the cabana while watching over their kids.

The open bar area, which offers Happy Hour 3 times a day. Well, we don't drink though.

H Bistro, the only restaurant at the resort. Both levels are opened for breakfast. The upper deck is known as The Chill Lounge. We only had breakfast here and didn't manage to try lunch or dinner.

Alfresco dining which boasts lovely view of the sea. For our first breakfast there, we sat here briefly till someone from the next table started smoking and we were forced to shift.

As the indoor seating on the lower floor was full, we went to the upper deck, which was offered even better view.

The lounge sofas would be nice to chill out.

Very quiet stretch of beach here.

Dining under the Stars, reservation required.

The water is clean, but sand is not powdery, feels a little coarse.

There are several other resorts further left, like Anantara but we didn't have time to explore.

Overall, Bophut is considered a more laidback area and suitable for people who wants a more relaxing and quiet holiday.

Next up, Bophut and the walking street. To be continued.

Going bananas - Banana Cake and Banana Cream Cheese Muffin

I went bananas over the weekend, by baking 2 banana recipes! Ever since I saw Annie's FB posting on her moist banana cake recipe, I was obsessed with it! It's been yonks since I baked banana muffins and suddenly I had this huge craving :p The photo posted by Annie was simply too tempting lah!

 

The thing about banana cake is, we have to use very ripe, in fact over-riped bananas. We are not big on bananas in my family, I mean we buy them only occasionally, so I didn't have any bananas on hand to bake! Was at the supermarket and decide to just buy a bunch and let it ripen. Wanted to buy the small ones as recommended by Annie but they were sold in huge bunches of at least 20 bananas, why would I want so many of them? Had to settle for the usual Delmonte ones. Silly me, should have just go to the wet market.

 

Anyways, I patiently waited for the bananas to ripen (even put them into a plastic bag together with an apple to hasten the ripening process) and finally on Saturday evening, it was time to bake!

 

Started on the banana cake recipe first. The steps are pretty straightforward and I didn't modify any ingredients or steps. I used about 4 bananas which came to about 240g as stated in the recipe.

 

The baking time took about 50-55 mins and thereafter I had to wait for about 20-30 mins to let the cake cool down before removing it from the baking tin. It was still quite hot when I removed the cake so I let it cool down further and finally after another 15 mins, I couldn't stand it anymore and decided to just cut a corner to munch. I was famished coz I didn't take dinner to save tummy space for the cake :p

 

 

It was sooooo good! Moist and tender with intoxicating taste of banana! It must be the best banana cake I've ever eaten =D

In fact, the banana cake tasted even better the next day as the banana flavour was fully infused and developed.

As I was washing up and waiting for the banana cake to be baked, I stared at the remaining 2 bananas and decided to just use them up. I remember seeing a Banana Cream Cheese Muffin by Rasa Malaysia recently and very intrigued by how it would taste like.

I refered to both the recipes by Rasa Malaysia and the original author, Bakedbree, and combined/adpated the methods of both :)

Banana Cream Cheese Muffin
(makes about 15-16 regular size muffins)

Banana Muffin

• 192g plain flour
• 1/4 tsp baking soda
• 1/4 tsp baking powder
• 1/4 tsp fine salt
• 1/2 tsp ground cinnamon
• 112g unsalted butter, room temperature
• 112g cream cheese
• 90g caster sugar
• 60g soft brown sugar
• 1 large egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract
• 2 over-riped bananas, mashed
• 15-16 pieces walnut

Cream Cheese Filling

• 112g cream cheese
• 1 tbsp caster sugar
• 1 tbsp plain flour
• 1 egg
• 1 tsp vanilla extract

Steps

1. Preheat oven to 180 degree celsius.
2. Mix all the ingredients of the cream cheese filling until well blended and smooth. Transfer the filling into a piping bag fitted with a small pointed piping tip. Set aside preferably in fridge as the filling is a little runny.
3. Sieve the plain flout, baking soda, baking powder, fine salt and ground cinnamon. Set aside.
4. Beat the butter, cream cheese and sugars in an electric mixer till creamy and fluffy.
5. Add the egg and vanilla extract, mix until combined.
6. Add the dry ingredients, one tablespoon at a time, mix until just combined. Do not over mix.
7. Gently fold in the mashed bananas.
8. Using spoon or ice-cream scoop, fill each muffin case with the batter about 3/4 full.
9. Pipe cream cheese filling into the batter. Top with walnut.
10. Bake for 20-25 minutes.

Ok, so how did the Banana Cream Cheese Muffin taste like? It was quite a complex taste, with the aroma and taste of banana, a tinge of saltiness from the cream cheese, distinct taste of cinnamon, nuttiness of walnut... Very moist and a little dense.

Verdict from hubby? He prefered the good old banana cake. I agree with him. The traditional banana cake is simple and straightforward, just the rich taste of banana, nothing more to complicate the tastebuds. The banana cream cheese muffin is confusing with too many different tastes vying for attention. Although it is nice, you get sick of it after a few bites and the tastebud got overwhelmed. But the banana cake, you could have a few slices at one go and still craving for more! Well, I must compliment the muffin for it looks prettier than the banana cake. 外在美  vs 内在美!

I gave a quarter of the banana cake to MIL, and hubby brought half to his office. According to him, the cake received ravings from his colleagues and there weren't enough for seconds.

Ok, not sure if I would give the banana cream cheese muffin a second chance, it did look very pretty you know. Probably I would omit the cinnamon next time to see how it goes. But for now, I'll stick to the banana cake recipe.