Samui Island is having a Samui Carnival on the island between 18^th to 20^th of July. The Carnival will be the first of its kind in South East Asia and the organizers of this event intend to make it a yearly event. A brainchild of Bangkok airways and the Tourism Authority of Thailand, Samui carnival was created to draw people both locals and foreign tourists to the Resort Island during the low season. It was hoped that there would be great interest in the event by foreign tourist but with SARS just finally being controlled in our area of the world, the focus was turned to local tourists to benefit from the special promotions and tour packages to attend this event.

           This does not mean that the foreign tourists are not welcomed. On the contrary, foreign tourists are most welcome because the organizers want this event to become a yearly international event.Foreign tourist will have a double bonus in terms of price of these package tours to and from the event because they were designed for local tourist in mind for this year because of SARS. There will be floats both on land and from the sea. Dancing all night with to the music of internationally known VJ and DJs. Costumes, parades and of course food and drinks will be available at the event venue by the beach for all three days of the Carnival. Those of you, who would like to know more about the event and what tour packages are on offer, please check out their website at www.samuicarnival.com.

           For my part of the event I guess it has to be food and drinks. As a pre-launch promotion I had arranged a Samui recipe contest which was held last month on Samui Island. The concept of the competition was “From the sea and from the Island”. I had chosen crab as the ingredient for main course either Thai or International cuisine and coconut was selected for dessert with the same two categories of Thai or International desserts. There were 12 hotels that entered the competition and it was stipulated that the main course had to be cooked infront of the judges so that we could see their cooking techniques and their skills. I had chosen crab as the main course item for two main reasons.

           First I want to see how all the chefs use crab in their recipes and at the same time see if they have the technical skill to deal with this raw material and understand its properties. Secondly I love crab very much and it is always available and very fresh in Samui. One of the best ways to eat crab Thai style is a dish that the locals call “Roat Tung” or “The Tank”. When ever I have the chance to go to Samui, which is not often enough, I always call up the restaurant at Samui airport to prepare me this special dish before boarding the plane back to Bangkok

           The tank is no more that live crabs cut up into smaller manageable pieces and chilled. When you are ready to eat it, a dressing made from chopped chili peppers, chopped garlic, lime juice and fish sauce is poured over it and you eat it like a raw crab salad, sucking up all the sweet gelatinous meat of the crab. The flesh of the crab is cooked by the acid from the limejuice. It is particularly important that the crab is absolutely fresh or you would have a stomachache. This same dish is also served in Bangkok but called pickled crab and you could never get as fresh a crab as you can in Samui.

           Here I go again going off on a tangent. There were 12 five star hotels which entered the competition. They were Baan Hadd Hgam Boutique Resort, Le Meridien Bann Taling Ngam,Tongsai Bay Cottages, Central Samui Beach Resort, Chaweng Regent Beach Resort, Imperial Samui, Samui Peninsula Spa & Resort, Poppies Samui and Santiburi.

           Not every hotel enter in all categories but all the food created were quite remarkable and imaginative. By cooking the main course in front of the judges we were able to see their techniques and their understanding the use of their raw material. I must congratulate everyone in their efforts in coming up with quite a varied selection of menu items made from both Crab and coconut. There were suppose to be only four winners two in each category but at the end of the competition there were five winners.

           For International menu main course there were two winners. The first was a dish created by Chef Jan Hollister whom I know quite well so he had his staff enter the competition. The dish was Crispy Soft crab, which was stuffed with a spiced (curried) crabmeat, and a strip of rice pancake is wrapped around the middle of the crab, clued on and deep-fried. The soft crab is served with a julienned salad already dressed in a tart and refreshing dressing and wrapped in rice noodle sheet. The combination of the tartness in the salad and the crispy and slightly oily crab was perfect.

           The other winner in the International or European main course is from Chef Rene Oskam from Baan Hadd Ngam Boutique Resort with his Saffron and Black Squid Ink Ravioli Stuffed with crabmeat served with fresh artichoke salad and grilled vegetables. First it looked really good and beautifully presented. Then came the taste, which was balanced, between the rich starch stilled ravioli and the sourness from the salads. The Chef obviously knew what he was doing. The Thai main course winner goes to Chef Rungvikrai Labyai from Samui Peninsula Spa and Resort for his Crab Curry with Rice Stick Noodles.

           Usually you eat the crab curry with Khanon Jean, a fermented sticky rice noodle but Chef Rungvikrai realized that Khanon Jean is difficult to handle and keep for a long time so he turned to the dry rice stick noodle instead which shows imagination in his adaptation. The curry was well made and not too hot for tourist but hot enough for the judges who realize that southern cuisine has to be hot. As for the two desserts, one European and the other Thai, The Thai dessert went to Chef Somroj Mepiern from Le Meridien Bann Taling Ngarm. It was his coconut custard, which is a Thai recipe better known by the name of Sankaya. He made it differently from the standard recipe by using the meat of the coconut to male the shell of the Sankaya and did not make the custard too sweet as most Thai recipes call for these days. It smelt heavenly and the custard melted in your mouth while your teeth catches just a little resistance from the tasty meat of the coconut. Lastly, Chef Thitipong Honyam from Central Samui Beach Resort, created a European dessert called simply coconut pie served with a crème anglaise and raspberry sauce. The pastry was flaky and the filling was coconut but not too rich and oily. He made a coconut tree out of meringue to decorate the top of the dessert. I was surprise that a Thai pastry chef had created this dish but at the same time felt some pride that in Thailand we have many chefs with great skills even though they did not have the formal schooling for chefs like I did. I congratulate all the winners and invite you all to meet me and party together between 18-20 of July. See you there and prepare to have a great time.