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Food Stall in Chiang Mai market (photo by Elaine España)
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Fifteen years ago I fell in love. It was a cold winter evening in Syracuse, New
York. She served me a dish of stir-fried
rice noodles sprinkled with crushed peanuts, bean sprouts, shrimps, shallots
and an array of spices. Phat Thai, it was called, and I have
been infatuated with Thai food ever since.
There are four famous world cuisines: French, Italian and
Chinese and then most recently, Thai.
Actually, in practical terms, we can only say three. For most average wage earners, like yours
truly, French restaurants outside France are expensive.
When one says Italian, images of spaghetti and pizza come up
and as for Chinese, stir-fried rice and noodles, dim sum and the likes. But when it comes to Thai, the words that pop
out are “spicy and hot,” not negatively but as a salivating, appetizing memory and craving. Thai restaurants are all over the world. Nairobi, London, New York, even small towns
like Kaneohe, Hawaii (which has one of the best and e-mail me why).
What makes Thai cuisine
world famous?
In my quest to find out deep illuminating answers, I went on a
mission to Thailand to find out – the real thing in its natural setting. From food stalls to food malls, I sampled,
explored and inquired.
For
centuries an Asian crossroad, the Kingdom of Thailand is the only country in
Southeast Asia that has never been colonized by a Western foreign power. The country owes its rich culinary art to the
cuisines of India, China, Malaysia and Indonesia.
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Street vendor in Chiang Mai (photo by Elaine España)
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The success of this country’s cuisine is attributed to the
blend of four basic tastes – salty, sweet, sour and pungent. Yes, pungent!
Pungent, often a term used with derision, becomes a positive modifier in
Thai cuisine. The pungency and
spiciness, largely due to the prolific use of garlic, chilies and fish sauce,
give the dish a tempting aroma.
The staple is an extraordinary fragrant jasmine rice, grown
best in northeastern Thailand, accompanied by a variety of dishes that are all
served at once. Thai food is served with
a variety of condiments and sauces such as ground red pepper (phrik bon), ground peanuts (thua bon), vinegar with sliced chilies (naam som phrik), fish sauce with chilies (naam pla phrik) or shrimp paste
(ka-pi) to make it salty, and lime to
make it tangy.
Whether you’re eating up north Chiang Mai at the local J and J
Bakery (excellent seafood fried rice), or at the formal Thanying restaurant (a
royal Kaeng phet pet yang - roast duck curry) in Bangkok, or southern
Phuket Old Market, there is a wide variety of Thai dishes possessing freshness,
beguiling flavors and an artistic presentation.
A plate of Thai cuisine will make you giddy with wonder of wonders. Tomatoes turn to roses, watermelons and
cantaloupes are now chrysanthemums, papayas into ornamental jars, green beans
are knotted like cuff links, and at the world class Oriental Hotel along the
Chao Phraya River, even toothpicks become a lovely fan with a banana leaf serving
as an axis and a frame, plus an orchid flower on the side. Cleaning your teeth has never been
classier. The attention to detail, both
palate and visuals make Thai cuisine a world class culinary art.
Infamous Chilies
Phrik in
onomatopoeic Thai, has a potency ranging from the “atomic” to prickly, to the
very mild. Actually, chilies were
introduced to Thai cooking during the late 1600s by Portuguese missionaries who
had acquired a taste for them while serving in South America. No wonder Latin cooking can be just as
fervent. Perhaps due to the soil and
weather and the blending of other spices, there is a widespread perception that
Thai curries burn intensely, but briefly, while other dishes prolong more in
their prick.
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Som Tam – Green Papaya Salad (photo by Elaine España)
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Not all Thai dishes are equally fiery. There are degrees of hotness; one is given
the option for adjustment with the tray of sauces often on the dining
table. Keep in mind though that food
stalls in Thailand are catered for the local palate. Be prepared for more chilies per square inch
than you’re used to. The adjustment
you’ll make is picking out the chilies.
If you have a difficult time with chili peppers, in a
restaurant be sure to ask for it mai phet (not too chili hot). Now, if you really want it spicy hot, just
say phet mak. Chili contains capsaicin, a biologically
active ingredient beneficial to the respiratory system, blood pressure and
heart. Other therapeutic uses include
being a carminative and antiflatulence agent, as well as a digestant. Was it my imagination to feel healthier after
days of consuming nothing but Thai food?
The Palliative for Fiery Spice
The Thais are not particularly immune to the fervor of
chilies, they are just probably more used to a higher intensity. Nonetheless, Thai cooking is meant to be a
harmony of tastes and complementary. The
spiciness of Thai dishes is tempered by steamed pearly white rice (khao).
Steaming rice is the antidote, the quick-fix solution to a burning
throat and not icy water – though this is the knee jerk response. Psychologically, I find the combination of
steaming rice followed by ice-cold water down the esophagus, in hot and humid
tropics, to be the perfect elixir.
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In Chiang Mai market (photo by Elaine España)
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“To eat” in Thai is literally “eat rice” or kin khao. Thailand also happens to be the world’s largest
exporter of rice.
Much Maligned Fish Sauce
You
will see this seasoning on every dining table. Naam pla or fish sauce is
the juice in the flesh of the fish that is extracted in the process of
prolonged salting and fermentation. If
salt is to the West, soy sauce to China, naam pla is to Southeast Asia. It is salty, sometimes fishy smelling (hence
the initial queasiness), brown or reddish liquid, used as an all-around
flavoring ingredient.
Mixing crushed fresh chilies with fish sauce and a dash of lime
juice makes a superb seasoning for any oriental dish. Adding crushed garlic and a tiny amount
of raw shrimp paste transforms it into
an all-purpose dip called naam phrik.
The World’s Favorites
If you have never tried Thai food and have no idea what to
order, try the dependable appetizers (shrimp toasts are incredible at Ka Jok
See restaurant, Old Phuket) or the all-time winner Phat Thai (anywhere in the planet), and the world's favorites.
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Phat Thai to go in Chiang Mai (photo by Elaine España)
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Although done in 1999, the Thai government then announced the top 10 popular Thai
dishes based on a global survey of 500 restaurants, which have Thai chefs and
offer authentic Thai food. This survey still gives a picture of current trends.
The top ten in order of their popularity are:
Tom yam
kung (spicy shrimp/prawn soup) 99%
Kaeng
khiao wan kai (green chicken curry) 85%
Phat (or Pad) Thai
(fried noodles of Thai style) 70%
Phat
kaphrao (meat fried with sweet basils) 52%
Kaeng
phet pet yang (roast duck curry) 50%
Tom kha
kai (chicken in coconut soup) 47%
Yam nua (spicy
beef salad) 45%
Mu or kai sate (roast pork or chicken coated
with turmeric) 43%
Kai phat
met mamuang himmaphan (chicken fried with cashew nuts) 42%
Phanaeng
(meat in coconut cream) 39%
The world’s no. 1 Thai dish, Tom yam kung, is a shrimp/prawn soup flavored with lemon-grass,
kaffir lime leaves, shallots, chilies, coriander leaves and seasoned with fish
sauce and lemon juice. This appetizing
shrimp soup sometimes arrives like a volcanic brew boiling in a charcoal-heated
vessel. One is filled with wonder on the
dynamics of the liquid and gaseous phases. Please see recipe (boxed).
A Very Sweet Word
No meal is complete, especially after a spicy one, without the
balming effect of desserts to the overworked taste buds. Desserts give that pH adjustment our tongue
needs after a highly zesty meal. The
magic word in Thai for sweets, which I sought to know immediately, is kanon.
The
common ingredients of Thai sweets are eggs, mung beans, rice flour, glutinous
rice, lotus seeds, palm sugar, cassava roots and coconuts Jasmine and other aromatic flowers are soaked
in water and the resulting scented water is used to make syrup to give
fragrance to desserts. The Thais clearly
value the function of the olfactory sense in pleasing the palate.
In
any open market in Thailand, for 5 to 10 Baht ($0.25), one can buy a good
serving of: laht chong – tiny 2 in.
green noodles flavoured with pandanus leaves; kluay ping – bananas being grilled
in its flesh (coated with sugar) or skin (less sweet); kanon pianpook - rice cakes; and kanon krok – coconut-rice hotcakes churned out as miniature
muffins. These are just a few of the
varieties of delectable snacks one can sample.
But order them “to go” for it’s considered rude to be eating while
walking in the country. Damnoen Saduak,
the floating market outside Bangkok swamped with tourists (two foreigners for
every Thai), offers a wide variety of kanons
including the beguiling Thai crepe, kanon
buang yuan, made of beaten egg whites with shredded coconut filling and
coffee-flavored rice crust. A-roi! (delicious)
What to Drink
Thailand has one of the highest sanitation index in Southeast
Asia. All plain water (naam plao) offered to customers in
restaurants or to guests in an office or home are purified.
Put the word naam
(water or juice) together with the name of any fruit and you can get anything
from naam farang (guava juice) to naam sapparot (pineapple juice). However remember naam pla literally means
fish sauce.
Throughout Thailand, there are numerous cart vendors of small
young coconuts (about 6 inches in diameter), maphrao-on, with an unusually sweet and scented juice - at 10-15
baht per. Maphrao-on is a real quencher on a hot day and more refreshing than
iced tea.
The Quest
Just like the Crusaders who traveled thousands of miles to
find the Cup, I also covered such distance from northern to southern Thailand
to find out the real thing in its natural setting and why among so many, Thai
cuisine is now a gold medalist in the Olympics of culinary arts. After numerous hurdles and several laps of
inquiries and investigations, a backpacker in the island of Ko Samui gave me a
most illuminating answer "Simply because it tastes good!"
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Radna Talay noodle dish (photo by Elaine España)
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Conclusion of the Love Story
As for my HER who served me Phat Thai - well, she married someone else but we have remained
friends. With Thai cuisine as a partner
in life’s survival, I am content.
When Eating in Thailand
(Things to Know)
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With growth in tourism, most places in Thailand now serve
vegetarian dishes. For visiting
vegetarians, the Thai words are phom kin
jeh (for men) or dii-chan kin jeh
(for women).
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Thais eat most dishes with a fork and tablespoon except for
noodles, which are eaten with chopsticks.
The fork is held in the left hand and used to direct the food unto the
spoon (with the right hand of course).
You eat from the spoon.
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Knives, a symbol of aggression, are absent at meal times. To begin with, most Thai food is already cut
into small pieces before serving or made tender enough to be cut with a spoon
or fork making a knife unnecessary.
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Saltshakers are rarely found on Thai dinner tables, so used
the various blends of naam pla
usually on the center tray.
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Instead of serving dishes in courses, a Thai meal is served
all at once, permitting the group to taste, share and enjoy a variety.
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Tipping is not normal practice in Thailand except in
restaurants or places which cater to tourists in Bangkok or big resort areas
such as Pattaya and Phuket
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Some useful dining words:
Chai means
yes
Mai Chai means no
A - roi means delicious (you wouldn’t think
or want to say anything else)
And don’t forget mai phet
(not too chili hot).
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To obtain your bill, simply point towards your plates and make
1-2 circular clockwise motions with your right finger.
Where To
Learn Thai Cooking in Thailand
In Bangkok
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Oriental Hotel, 48 Soi
Oriental, Bangkok
Tel. 437-6211, 236-0400
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U.F.M. Food Centre,
593/29-39 Soi 33/1, Sukhumvit Rd., Bangkok
Tel. 259-0620/30
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Modern Housewife (Women Institute), 45/6-7 Setsin Rd., Bangkok
Tel. 279-2831, 279-2834
In Chiang Mai
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Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School
11/29 Mu 1, Chiang Mai Flora
Village, Doi Saket, Chiang Mai
Tel/fax (053) 206387 till 8
Suggested
Websites For Thai Cuisine
www.thaifoodandtravel.com features the well-known Thai author Kasma
Loha-unchit – with illuminating articles on fish sauce and the right way of cooking rice.
www.thaigrocer.com – online shopping of lemon grass, Thai
produce, Asian seasonings/sauces/condiments and just about everything; features
recipes, informative “Ask the Chef”question and answer forum.
The World’s No. 1 Favorite Thai Dish
The Thai people learn their cooking through “hand-me-down,
watch-me-do-it” practices. Recipes are
never used because through experimentation, one can judge his/her own
preference for the strength of the different ingredients. The amount of chilies
can be reduced to lower ‘heat’ or the droplets of naam pla can be adjusted for piquancy.
Each cook injects a
unique personality and hence any dish for that matter can be eaten in
different places with detectable nuances.
You be the judge.
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Thapae Road, Chiang Mai (photo by Elaine España)
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Tom Yam Kung
(Hot and Sour Prawn/Shrimp Soup)
– courtesy of the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT)
In Thailand, there is often no distinction between shrimps and
prawns ( at least in the English menu) and often mussels are mistakenly
referred to as oysters. So be
forewarned.
Ingredients
(outside Asia, many of the items below can be obtained from
Oriental grocery stores)
20
prawns (or shrimp), medium size
4-5
cups water or light chicken stock
3
shallots, finely chopped
2
stalks lemon grass (lower 1/3 portion only), lightly pounded,
cut into 1 inch long segments
2
tablespoons fish sauce
2
slices fresh or dried galanga root (related to ginger with a
subtler aroma and aids in digestion)
20
small mushrooms, halved
5
kaffir lime leaves
3
tablespoons lime juice (or tamarind juice)
2-3
chilies (small red or green variety), OPTIONAL
cut coriander leaves, spring
onions
Wash
the prawns or shrimp and shell them without removing the tails. Pour the water/stock into pan. Add the shallots, lemon grass, fish sauce and
galanga root.
Boil for three
minutes. Add the prawns and mushrooms,
and cook until the prawns turn pink. Add
the kaffir lime leaves, lime juice and chilies (if using).
Cover and remove from heat. Sprinkle with coriander leaves and chopped
spring onion and serve hot.
With steam
rice (use the jasmine variety), the recipe provides 4-5 servings.
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