I think it is a shame that this column comes out right after the Songkran holiday. I should have written about this restaurant and resort in my last column in anticipation of the coming Thai New Year. Well, it is no use crying over spilt milk. I am sure if I write about this place some of you will try to find time to go visit this rather peaceful and very beautiful resort and restaurant. There is something magical about sitting at a seaside restaurant which has a wonderful view of tips of mountains jutting out of the water and a tiny pier with boats moored around it. The boats are not your normal speed boats but Thai fishing boats turned snorkel floating platforms and ferry that takes tourists to nearby islands to explore caves and deserted beaches.

             It was last month that I went on a television-shooting trip of five southern provinces. I was in Pattani, Yala, Satoom Songklah and Trung. I did not actually shoot in the city of Trung, which incidentally is the birthplace of our former Prime Minister Chuan Leekpai. This southern town has great beaches and is known for it’s wedding ceremony under the sea every Valentine’s day. People in Trung have a very different eating habit than the rest of the south. This is particularly true during breakfast. They eat Dim Sum and roast crispy pork in the morning with Chinese tea. I am not sure where and how this practice of eating Dim Sum and roast pork started but it might be the fact that Trung has a very large Chinese population.

             The restaurant resort at Lay Trung is not in the city of Trung. It is about 40-minute drive from the city in Tumbon Mai Fad, Sika district. The resort sits right by the pier at the end of a very beautiful beach drive. Although the main road runs along the beachfront, this does not lessen the beauty of the scenery of the islands and the pier near the resort. There are bungalows for rent and a very large restaurant by the sea, which serves wonderfully fresh seafood and local fare. Let’s talk about the food here. As most of your probably know, all southern food is very very hot and spicy. They use a lot of Turmeric in their cuisine, which gives their Gang Som, or sour curries a yellow color.

             When you taste the gang som here it looked harmless enough from with yellow color and fresh local fish pieces and hearts of coconut floating in it but be warned that you shout eat it with rice and preferably Thai omelet. The omelet would help to absorb some of the heat from the curry and is a perfect accompaniment for this dish. This restaurant is known for its southern delicacies such as Stir-fry shrimp with Sator beans. This dish is particularly good here because of the abundant supply of young fresh Sator. I have written about Sator before and I hope that you all remembered that it is a kind of bean, which comes from a pod. It has a nutty and green taste and very crunchy then cooked. In the south they eat Sator with Nam Prik which is a shrimp paste chili dip.

             Their fried fish marinated in garlic and turmeric is very delicious because the fish is very fresh and just came off the pier by the resort. For those of you who do not like hot food, try the fried sun-dried squid. It is perfect munchies for cocktails or beer. There are freshly steamed local crabs. You don’t have to be shy, just go ahead and use your fingers and dip the meat from the crab in the spicy dipping sauce. Unfortunately they don’t have melted butter here. There is fresh oysters, eaten Thai style with herbs, crispy fried shallots chili peppers paste, fresh garlic, fish sauce and lime. Or you can just add lime Tabasco to the oyster. These local oysters are very large. Sometimes you have to cut the oyster in half to eat them. With abundant supply of seafood nearby there are many varieties of shellfish and fish for you to choose from.

             You could easily just order a simple steamed whole fish Chinese style with soy sauce and julienned green onions and ginger. You can sit in the garden of the restaurant and relax watching the ocean, the distant island and just be lost in your own little world. And when you had enough to eat and soaked in the beauty of the sea you can amble back to your cottage with its surrounding gardens and rest. The next day you could get up early and walk the short distance to the little pier to take a boat the island and explore the caves and beaches. What more do you want. Good view, good food and peace, that’s all you need to have at Lay Trung resort and restaurant. I suggest you get away from it all and take rest here but definitely not a rest for you digestive system because the food here is so good.