Have you eaten rice
yet?" is a common enough phrase in Thailand, meaning little more than
"Hello" or "Good morning" but goes a long way in
illustrating the Thai's preoccupation with food. Nowhere is this obsession
more evident, than here, in Bangkok, where, on almost every street, noodle
stalls and dried squid carts battle for space alongside makeshift charcoal
grills while alarming bursts of flaming oil, shoot out from gas fired iron
woks. The smoke from frying chili blows out onto the sidewalk to burn your
eyes, and the air is thick with strange aromas, hinting at the amazing
variety of food. The mass of
people cramming the small restaurants and jostling on the side walks are
testimony to the Thai's penchant for eating out, and regional migrants
from all over the kingdom, along with those from abroad, have only added
to the city's enormous range of cuisine. From street stalls serving 60
cent meals to teak wood restaurants lining the river, Krung Thep, the city
of angels, has them all in abundance, and to suit all pockets.
The Northeast or Issan
plays a huge role in the city dwellers' eating habits, in part due to the
sheer volume of Northeasterners entering the city for work. However, it's
simple, cheap fare is enjoyed by all and on almost every street are the
small mobile stalls that so characterize Issan eating in the city.
Finding Issan food
couldn't be easier either, listen. Som Tam, a papaya salad so famous a
popular Thai musician coined a song in its praise, is made in a stone or
wood pestle and mortar and makes a distinct "Pok, Pok" sound
which you hear intermittently as you roam the city. For the hard of
hearing, just keep an eye open for plumes of greasy smoke coming from make
shift charcoal grills adjoining battered steel carts. There, at wobbly
metal tables, on cheap plastic stools, with the traffic just feet away,
you can enjoy Nam Tok; grilled beef cooked with chilies, lemon sauce, fish
sauce, lime and ground rice or Lab Moo; a combination of grilled pork,
fish sauce, chili, lime and mint. And of course, the infamous Som Tam,
made with unripe papaya, shrimps and nuts, pounded together.
All this washed down with an icy beer Singh as, by hand, you dip
balls of Cow Neow, or sticky rice, into the kingdom's traditional
equivalent of fast food. Although some Bangkokians might poke fun a little
at the Issan folk's deep color, squat noses and distinct dialect, all are
united in their love of their food.
Soi Rang Nam, near
Victory monument, has its fair share of Issan food stalls, and also the
food of another country that plays a big role in the nation's cuisine;
China. Bar Mee or Chinese egg noodles are a popular alternative to Koy
Teow, the national rice noodles, and although they cost barely 60 cents a
bowl, it is not unknown for aficionados to drive upwards of an hour
through Bangkok's notoriously bad traffic to reach their favorite stall.
To give each bowl a personal touch, add varying amounts of chili, peppers,
sugar and fish sauce to the steaming soup which is often, but not often
enough to my mind, served with Moo Dang or red colored pork.
Another Thai food
originating in China, and one easily identifiable by the whole boiled
chickens hanging behind glass windows, is Cow Man Gai, chicken on rice
served with a bowl of chicken broth. A dish that would be nothing special,
if not for the unique preparation of its rice, which is boiled in the same
wide deep pot as the chicken itself. This special treatment gives the rice
a flavor so rich, that if the whole package didn't cost only 70 cents,
you'd eat it just by itself.
You're never far from
food in Bangkok and Thai people never far from some kind of snack to keep
them going.. till the next snack. Moo ping, marinated pork, grilled and
served on a stick, Loochin, deep fried meat balls and Pla Mook, dried and
flattened squid, are three such popular snacks cooked on most sois
(streets), but it's fruit which fuels the staff in my office. There's
always someone handing round something colorful and fresh. Papaya, mango,
rambutan, pineapple, jackfruit, the list goes on, and depending on season,
all are freely available. Vendors push small, glass fronted carts around
their route and for 30 cents, a sharp knife wielded with the ease of an
expert neatly slices up the fruit of your choice. Although invariably
fresh and cool, if you feel the need, as many do, the accompanying sugar
and chili dip adds a bit of tang.
Street food in Bangkok
is justifiably popular, but to add a little variety, and experience the
true range of flavors and foods available, one must go up market, just a
little. Nothing too fancy, just to a restaurant that isn't equipped with
wheels. What you're looking for is somewhere where the meat, fish and
prawns lie out front on a bed of ice. Somewhere where live crabs
periodically make a break for freedom to be recaptured by giggling
waitresses. Where the kitchen is at the front of the restaurant and you
can see the chef cooking your dishes. Simple shop house restaurants, like
these, feed the majority of the city and can be found on most streets
including Soi Rang Nam. You wouldn't call the setting beautiful and little
time or effort is spent on presentation, but people come here to eat and
the food really is Alloy Mak Mak, very delicious, a phrase you hear again
and again in Thailand.
Eating out in Thailand
is almost always a social affair and no meal is complete with out say…
six different dishes and several friends. Sanook, meaning fun, is an
important concept here, where by everything, especially food, should be
accompanied by copious amounts of laughter and kidding around. And as Gai
a friend of mine remarks, " One person alone can not sanook.. not
possible." Another more practical explanation is the more people, the
more dishes, and ideally at a Thai meal you order a plate of every
different kind of food. i.e. something sweet, something salty, a soup,
fish etc. each diner taking a small spoonful from one dish to eat with
rice before dipping into something else.
On the table might be Kai jio moo sab, just your humble omelet but
stuffed with pork and served with a weak chili sauce. To counter this
savory taste, you might order a slightly sweet dish like Pla Priow wan,
sweet and sour fish. Generally we eat a soup with most meals so why not
Thailand's most famous soup Tom Yam Gung, a shrimp soup using chilies,
lime and importantly lemon grass to give it its unique tangy taste. You've
probably heard of Tom Yam before but don't let its deserved popularity put
you of its lesser-known cousins. Tom Kha Gai is a chicken soup that’s
creamy coconut milk combines perfectly with the galangal (a kind of
ginger), lemon, fish sauce, mushrooms, and chilies to give a flavor that
seems to hit all your taste buds simultaneously. Or how about Kaeng Leung,
literally yellow curry, originating in the south of Thailand and cooked
with peppers, again fish sauce and the cumin that gives it its yellow
color. Bangkokians love spicy food and Kaeng Pet Gai, a fiery red curry
served with chicken, adds fire and color to any meal. Pakana Moo Glob is
another interesting dish, and while it doesn’t sound particularly
healthy, as is usually the case it is correspondingly delicious. Cubes of
pork are deep-fried with the attached fat and skin and served with kale,
and often, oyster sauce.
Where the Thai people
come from remains something of a mystery, although a popular belief is
China. But what historians are certain of though is that they settled
mainly near rivers. Indeed Mare Nam, the Thai word for river, means
literally mother water, and a Thai meal almost always contains at least
one fish dish, or at the very least, fish sauce. Nam Pla or Fish sauce is
invariably used as a tabletop condiment, and is an essential ingredient in
many Thai dishes. With this river theme in mind, where better to
experience top class Thai dining than at an up market restaurant on the
banks of The Chao Phraya, Bangkok's River of Kings. Although the dishes
served at a higher-class eatery may remain the same as those somewhere
cheaper, the atmosphere couldn't be more different. On the terrace of Kan
Ab Nam Restaurant next to Krung Ton Bridge, artistically presented food,
excellent service, a river view, and with any luck a little breeze make
for glorious dining. For entertainment the considerable river traffic (you
never get away from traffic in Bangkok) provides interesting viewing.
While you eat, brightly colored long tails, with raised prows and extended
propellers speed up and down the river in front of you in stark contrast
to the squat, rusty barges hauling industrial materials from Bangkok's
seaport. Adding to this
confusion of river traffic are small wooden cross-river ferries and the
many large river taxis that regularly ply the Chao Phraya's length.
Dining riverside seems
a perfect opportunity to try a fish dish and Pla Duk Foo, black cat fish
with a spicy mango salad might sound like a strange combination but the
shredded fish, deep fried, blends perfectly with the unripe mango and
peanuts to form a crunchy, spicy dish. Apparently the head's the best part
but I usually leave that! Another unusual combination, but one that sounds
a bit more appetizing is Gai Pat Mat Muang Heema Pan, a mix of fried
chicken, cashew nuts, onions, oyster sauce and of course chili, which,
depending on the chef can range from slightly sweet to spicy hot. The
cashew nuts and chicken however, always blend perfectly. Gung Tawt, deep fried shrimps in batter, are usually
beautifully fresh in the city and the accompanying sweet and spicy sauce
gives the shellfish extra flavor.
While Bangkok might not
be the best place to be if you Gin Jay, or eat like a monk i.e. no meat,
Pat Pak Ruam Mit, a mix of quick fried vegetables, is crisp, light and
healthy. Pak Bung Fai Dang is another favorite of mine featuring morning
glory in a chili, garlic and bean sauce, and Poh Pia, spring rolls to you
or me, look just like as you'd imagine and are filled with bean noodles,
cabbage, bean sprouts, garlic and just a little soy sauce.
Choosing your meal when
in one of Bangkok's many restaurants, or even on the street, usually
involves a few difficult decisions due to the many different dishes your
average Thai chef is able to whip up. I've mentioned a fair few above but
believe me there are many, many more.
Difficulties such as these though, are the kind I'm sure you can
live with, and it only remains for me to briefly touch on some of the
more, shall we say, unusual foods the residents of this populous city so
love. I still remember, with a shudder of disgust, the time I realized I
was eating chicken claw. Another common sight in Bangkok is your common or
garden frog, often diced up whole, eyes and all, and served in a spicy
Yam, or salad. Deep fried grasshoppers make a crunchy snack, as do several
species of beetle, some of them looking a bit too much like cockroaches
for my liking! Be assured though, these gory sounding foods are much more
a culinary exception than a rule and whether eating a cheap road side
snack, or dining in exquisite luxury at the finest of restaurants, you'll
never be disappointed or bored with the food, in Krung Thep, The City of
Angels.
Recipes
Any
three of the following dishes, eaten with rice, will serve four.
Tom Ka Gai
(Chicken and Coconut Soup)
Ingredients
15
fluid ounces of chicken stock
5 fresh, torn kaffir lime leaves
1 lemon grass stalk, bruised
1 cup of thinly sliced galangal
4 fish sauce
2 tbsp.lime juice
5 ounce of chicken breast cut into small bite sized pieces
5 fluid ounces coconut milk
around 10 small red Thai chilies (vary according to taste)
mushrooms according to taste
coriander leaves
Directions:
Heat the stock. Add
the lime leaves, lemon grass, galangal, fish sauce, and lime juice. Stir
thoroughly, bring to the boil, and add the chicken and coconut milk.
Simmer for about 2 minutes and then add the mushrooms and chili. When
both chicken and mushrooms are thoroughly cooked, serve with coriander
leaves sprinkled on top.
Gai
Pat Mat Muang Heema Pan
(Chicken and Cashew
Nut)
Ingredients
8 ounces of chicken
breast, sliced into bite-size pieces
I half sliced onion
1 tsp. honey
2 tsp. whiskey
3 tbsp. chicken stock
or rice wine
2 tbsp. Thai or Chinese
light soy sauce
1 tbsp. fish sauce
I/4 cup roasted cashew
nuts
5 dried chilies (cut
into 1 cm slices)
3 cloves garlic, minced
Directions
Begin by frying the
garlic in a little oil. Just before it browns, add the chicken and
continue frying for around 1 minute before adding the chicken stock. When
the chicken is cooked through, stir in the soy sauce, fish sauce and honey
and simmer for a further 2 minutes before finally adding the cashew nuts
and chili. Serve hot.
Yam
Pla Duk Foo
(Catfish with Spicy
Mango
Salad
Ingredients
1 catfish
1/4 cup sliced raw
mango
3 shallots (sliced)
3 small chilies
(sliced)
1/2 tbsp. palm sugar
1/2 tbsp. fish sauce
2
tbsp. lime juice
Directions
Firstly roast the fish
well and remove all the bones. Next rasp the fish's body with a fork to
make the flesh fluffy and deep-fry in very
hot oil until golden brown. In a separate bowl mix together the
shallots, chilies, palm sugar, fish sauce and limejuice. When ready to
serve, pour this mixture onto the fish and sprinkle with mango.
Poh
Pia
(Thai Spring
Rolls)
Ingredients
50 grams mung bean
noodles
1 egg
100 grams finely sliced
cabbage
1 tbsp. chopped garlic
100 grams bean sprouts
1/4 tsp. pepper
1 tbsp. light soy sauce
300 grams small egg
roll sheets
Paste made of 2-tbsp.
wheat flour in 1/4 cup of water stirred over low heat
Directions
Soak noodles until soft
and cut into short lengths before blending with the egg, cabbage, bean
sprouts and soy sauce. Add this mixture to fried garlic and continue
frying until quite dry. Now, as neatly and tightly as possible, sealing
corners closed with the paste, wrap egg roll sheets round the fillings and
deep fry over a low heat until crisp and golden brown. Is best eaten with
fresh cucumbers and a Poh Pia sauce made by mixing and boiling, 1/4 cup
vineger,1/4 cup water,1/2 cup sugar,1 tsp. salt and half a well pounded
chili. When boiling, add little by little, 2 tsp. tapioca flour mixed in 2
tbsp. water.
