Jun Hom, checking out Pooky's Mum's old restaurant, Koh Samui

Pooky was one of the delightful Thai girls we were lucky enough to work with at Parrot Cay. Her food, amazing! So, when we met up with Steve & Kannika, also some old friends we had worked with on the island and we were in Koh Samui, we decided to hunt down Pooky's Mum's old restaurant. We knew it was called Jun Hom, and knew it was somewhere along Hat Bang Po. We doubled up on scooters, and rode the ring road up to the top of the island ... It was hot and dusty, and we were going at some speed. We of course drove past it and ended up at Mae Nam beach before heading back and retracing our steps. It took us a while to find, but it is nestled just beside the Coconut Villas, which is a great landmark should we be looking for it again.. We park the scooters and head on in.



It's so green, the entrance surrounded by fresh plants. There is an undercover eating area, but we are very happy to take a seat out on the beach tables, taking our shoes off with the sand between our toes. We order a couple of big beers, which come Thai style with a bucket of ice.



They have a huge menu, and then funnily enough only a couple of pages translated into English, which lists all the usual suspects. We are very lucky to have Kannika with us, who of course spots a whole range of interesting Thai dishes on the Thai menu. We leave the ordering up to her, just expressing our interest to try and true Southern style dishes. The first dish is just that, a dry fried curry with green peppercorns and lots of tumeric with a few slices of cucumber on the side. This is incredible, almost like a Southern style larb, but a bit dryer.



The soup is also stained with the yellow of tumeric, simply filled with chunks of chicken, slices of onion and some fresh coriander.



The next dish, oh my, I can still remember the taste, the texture of the fried lemongrass, and the amazing aroma. A whole fish was firstly marinated in amongst many other things, lemongrass, garlic & fish sauce and then deep-fryed. Then on top of that, a mountain of smashed up lemongrass and garlic had also been fried, the fine strands so aromatic and crispy. We all love this dish so much, and we have nearly devoured the whole thing before anyone notices the little sauce on the side, not that it needed it!



Majority of the Thai population are Buddist, but many of those from the South are Muslim, immigrating to the area from the Indian subcontinent over the last 2 thousand years or so. Therefor the Southern regions of Thailand bear close similarities to Indian food, turmeric permiating a lot of the Southern Cuisine. It's the fresh tumeric root that is used though, with a beautiful gold colour and mild flavor. We see it again used in the Southern style fish curry. Chunks of well browned fish, with a green leaf that is a little bitter swimming in a light coconut and turmeric broth.



Fried crab with egg, pepper and garlic was our last dish of the day. Whole blue crabs smashed up and piled high, the meat sucked from the shell.



A beautiful, beachside location, with some really interesting and delicious Southern Thai dishes to match. A must if you are up the top end of the island.



Jun Hom
Hat Bang Po
Next to the Coconut Villas
Koh Samui, Thailand


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Samui's famous Khao Mon Gai

At Mike's birthday bash the end of the evening evolved into drinking games and magic tricks and all 'round craziness. Despite this Kim and I both recalled talking to some locals about an amazing khao mon gai stall that was supposed to be within walking distance of Kelli & Glenn's place. This is supposed to be 'the' place the locals travel to, from all over the island, for their fix of khao mon gai, or chicken rice.



On several occasions we tried to find it ..... the directions were a bit hazy (or at least our heads were) and we weren't having luck from the beach side or the road side. But one day, scooting through Bang Po beach, from the Na Thon side we spot an unassuming little place that had about 6 cars and a pile of scooters outside. We wanted to check it out regardless ..... but turns out this was the spot!



We walk in, there's some glass cabinets with the chickens hanging in all their glory, and some plastic tables down on the sand.



There's a cute little jar of firey vinegar / chilli sauce with a little dish of fresh chilli's and tiny garlic cloves acting as a lid.



There's also a stack of little ramekins, piled high, in a little wooden stand that intrigues us both.



2 plates of chicken rice soon distract us from the little tower and we dig in. The chicken is plump and juicy, sitting on top a beautifully fragrant rice, with a few slices of cucumber and a little dish of soy and ginger sauce. A small bowl of the chicken soup and it's a chicken-licious trifecta! I add a touch of the chilli vinegar to both my chicken and the soup. Mmm.



We notice everyone around seems to be enjoying a few of the little dishes that are piled up on the tables so we dive on in ....... on first glance it appears to be a cute little coconut custard.



Once we scoop in, it's apparant there is a layer of gooey pandanus custard underneath.



A fantastic finish to an incredible lunch. And all this, including 2 drinks, for under 100B.

Siripoca Khao Mon Gai
Bang Po Beach
Koh Samui, Thailand


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Save some room for dinner .....

It's actually a little hard writing a blog on one of our many strolls down Bang Po beach with the thought that Sable is no longer there ........

But on one of our strolls, we did find this little beachside place serving some mean Thai food.  We had been on the lookout for this famous Khao Mon Gai place (post to come) but we could never find it from the beach side.  This other little place, recognisable from the huge amounts of bamboo by the beach, was also recommend by Glenn, a favorite stop of his for tom yum.



We were going to order the tom yum, but both immediately spotted the coconut soup with tumeric and crab. Mmm. Good choice, indeed. A rich, yellow, coconut broth packed full of lemongrass and coriander was sublime. Just trying to get all of the crab from the shell with a fork was a bit hard and we eventually gave up ....



Luckily, within moments a khai jiaw goong sup appeared on the table to distract us. A delicate, paper thin omlette was carefully wrapped around minced prawn and peanuts and scattered with chopped chives. nom nom



Lastly, (this was an in between lunch and dinner kind-of meal ;-)) a bowl of Massaman curry. It was packed full of spice, with chunks of pork, onion and potato.



Now to saving some room for dinner ....