Beach oysters for a dollar seventy, mango sticky rice from a cart, and where to sit.
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Four months of eating on and around Koh Samui, and almost none of it in a restaurant with a website.
The best meal of the trip cost under two dollars and was eaten sitting on a plastic stool with my feet in the sand.
Sixty baht — about a dollar seventy — for a plate of them, shucked in front of you, on the beach, with lime and a chilli sauce that is better than it needs to be.
They come from the farms up the coast and they are served all day. I ate them roughly four times a week and would again.
In season, roughly March to June, this is the best thing on the island and it comes from a cart, not a restaurant. The mango should be almost falling apart and the coconut cream should be poured over at the moment of serving.
Out of season it is still sold everywhere and it is not the same. Wait for the season.
The queue rule: if there is a line of people in work clothes, join it. That single heuristic has never let me down anywhere in Thailand.
Avoid anywhere with a photographic menu in four languages on the pavement. Not a rule about authenticity — just a reliable predictor of a kitchen cooking for people who will not come back.
Beach oysters, mango sticky rice in season, and whatever is being grilled where the local queue is. The expensive resort restaurants were the weakest meals I had.
Roughly March to June. It is sold year round and out of season it is a different, sadder dish.
In my experience yes, with the queue rule — high turnover means fresh food. I ate almost exclusively street-side for four months without an issue.
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