|
|
 |
 |
| Sunday, 31 August2003 |
 |
|
 |
Magazine |  |
| News Business Features Editorial
|
Food ecstasy, the Thai way By Jayanthi Liyanage Tan khao ma rue yung? This is how you ask in Thai language, "Have you eaten yet?" If your ravenous answer is, "No!", I can tell you that eating in Thailand can be a stupefying gastronomical ecstasy and a fabulous oriental affair with the healthy kind of way of gorging oneself. To the one who is new to Thailand, it might seem that the Thais are
eating all the time. He can be forgiven for coming to this obviously crazy
conclusion as the Thai streets can be a veritable carnival of food carts,
fruit carts, ready-to-eat food stalls and what seemed to the uninitiated
onlooker as improvised "pavement cafes" with eating at tables,
going on by the roadside. Stands offer delicious food at street
level, with noodles fried or in soup, and spicy papaya salad, known as somtam. Mix the influence Old Siam royal dishes and the influence of China, India, Malaysia and other neighbouring countries, but you still have what can essentially be called "Thai food". Now don't jump the gun by assuming that the average Thai must be sporting a lot of flesh on his frame, as a consequence of all this blithe eating. On the contrary, many of them are as slender as a bean stalk and it becomes apparent once you become a devotee of Thai food that real Thai food is light and very low in fat content, as well as being nutritious, and that you can afford to commit excesses without actually becoming overweight. The traditional Thai eats on the floor with the dishes spread out on a cloth, in the company of his family, friends or the visitor of the moment. Women sit with legs tucked aside and the men, cross-legged. At restaurants, dishes of food are placed on a rotating dais on the table. We flick the dais around to help each other serve portions from these common platters onto one's own platter.
It is a practice which mirrors the Thai spirit of being communal, being together in courtesy, in gossip and in pleasurable table chatting. The Thai meal is a blend of the spicy, the sweet, the sour, and the plain. Unlike the Western meals which are served course by course, Thai dishes are served simultaneously so that complement and enhance each other. The typical meal has a soup, a curry, a salad, a fried dish, a steamed dish and vegetables. The kick comes from sauces and condiments. A few of them are nam pla, the essential salt substitute made from fermented fish: nam pla phrik, which is nam pla combined with chopped chillies and other ingredients: and pickled garlic, slices of lime, shallots, spring onions, cucumber and tomatoes. And freshness of ingredients is key. A Thai dish brings out its character by the use of spices and herbs such as basil, kafir, lime leaves and lemon grass. Seafood is a staple although there is also poultry, beef and pork. Almost all Thai dishes are seasoned with shrimp paste or fish sauce. With the Andaman Sea on one side and the Gulf of Thailand on the other, Thailand has an unbroken supply of mackerel, seabass, grouper, pomfret, mullet, cotton fish, sardine, squid, crab, green mussel, oyster, eel, scallop, shrimp, prawn and lobster.
Walking one night for a dinner at a cafe, we saw a girl in an apron drop the tray which she was carrying. Curious, we craned our necks. Would you believe that the girl bent and flung out her hand to pick up the frogs which were scurrying away from her? All meals have a vegetable dish. Vegetables may be raw and eaten with a chilli dip. Or, they may be lightly steamed, or wok-fried. Mix mustard cabbage, long white cabbage, baby corn, spring onion and mushrooms; stir fry in oyster or soy sauce; and you have a popular Thai dish. But what is a Thai meal, without its heart, the chilli? It comes in three main varieties: Phrik yuak or the banana stalk chilli; phrik chi fa or the red, green or yellow sky-pointing chilli; and the notorious phrik khi nu or the mouse droppings chilli which is explosively hot and is the main ingredient in nam pla phrik, the essential dip served with every meal. A must in every meal is yam : a hot and tangy salad made from lime, herbs, chilli, leafy vegetables such as spinach and lettuce. In the Western sense of eating, yam is an appetizer, but an appetizer you can yank on to your platter even at the end of the meal. Soup is not to begin the meal but to counterbalance dryness and spooned on to rice to bring out the flavours of the ingredients. Here is a typical Thai meal made up of a good balance of different flavour, for you to devour in imaginary gulpfuls. For the chilli side, there is the spicy, seafood soup, tom yam; a curry; and phat phet, a hot stir-fry. Balance this with a plate of stir-fried mixed vegetables or Chinese kale and a plain soup - a soothing broth of tofu, noodles, ground pork and vegetables. In between, you could have a chicken-based dish with a hint of spicyness. Have steamed mussel for a nibbly type of dish. Fresh fish cooked whole. A couple of crabs cooked in curry sauce or black bean sauce, the shell placed decoratively on top of the diced crab meal. Fresh king prawns cooked over an open charcoal grill. Finish off with a fresh load of fruits : papaya, water melon, rambuttan, guava and mangosteen. "Aroi mai?" (Is it delicious?) You bet it is "Aroi!" |
|
News | Business | Features
| Editorial | Security
| Produced by Lake House |
