Puff piece

ThaiDay, 12/07/06

Exploring Saraburi, the country's curry puff capital.

Travelers passing through the small town of Saraburi, about 100 km north of Bangkok, may have noticed the almost absurd abundance of a particular snack. Resembling a small round pocket of dough similar to an Indian samosa or a Mexican empanada, the dish is sold in countless shops in the town and is known in Thai as kalee pap. If this doesn’t ring a bell, it may help if I reveal that kalee pap is the Thai pronunciation of the English words “curry puff”, and is a snack with obscure origins that has become wholly associated with this otherwise unremarkable town.

Curry puffs for sale at Renu, Saraburi.

Being one of the first major towns one reaches when driving north from Bangkok, the streets at the southern end of Saraburi are strategically lined with shops selling this deep-fried snack. On my way through the town one day I was astonished by the amount of curry puffs for sale, as well as the amount of people buying, and decided to stop by to learn about the origin of the snack and what it is that makes it so popular.

I stop in for a few curry puffs at Renu, one of the many shops selling the snack, and speak with the owner, Somjai Likhananusorn. “I’ve been making kalee pap for about six years,” explains Likhananusorn, who has been cooking all her life. Today she makes 13 varieties of curry puff, selling them every day from 5 AM to 9 PM. She estimates that she makes more than 1,000 a day. “Our best selling kalee pap are chicken and pork. After that it’s our fruit-flavored ones,” she explains.

At Renu, three people make the curry puff, each handling a different step.

I ask why curry puffs are so popular in Saraburi, and Likhananusorn says that the snack actually originates in nearby Muak Lek district of Nakhorn Ratchasima province. “Travelers liked the snack but complained that they had to go all the way to Muak Lek to buy it,” explains Likhananusorn. She describes how somebody got the idea of selling the snack in Saraburi, which is conveniently located along the main north-south highway. In typical Thai fashion, this person’s success inspired an almost overnight rush of people to start set up their own curry puff shops, and today kalee pap are now more associated with Saraburi than their original home just up the road.

Making curry puffs is a time-consuming process that I am able to witness first-hand at Likhananusorn’s tiny shop. She explains that the best method involves the cooperation of three people, the first of whom rolls out two discs of dough into a flat sheet about the size of a hand. By rolling two discs of dough on top of each other the snack obtains its characteristic layered look when deep-fried. Likhananusorn’s daughter then fills the dough with a heaping tablespoon of filling and folds the curry puff into its rough shape. Likhananusorn then finishes the process by deftly twisting its edges into something like a ropelike braid to seal it.

Somjai Likhananusorn, owner of Renu, gives the curry puffs a final twist.

When a batch is ready, the curry puffs are then deep-fried for about 20 minutes in a specially designed deep fryer with two frying basins. Working as a team in this manner, Likhananusorn’s daughter estimates that they can make as many as 400 curry puffs in an hour.

I mention that that kalee pap are very similar to samosa, and that the majority of the vendors I saw selling the snack in Muak Lek were Muslim, which coupled with the name, seems to suggest that curry puffs are Indian or Muslim in origin. “I’ve been told that it’s a Muslim dish,” says Likhananusorn. “But their kalee pap are different, they use butter in the dough and they don’t eat pork.”

In any event, as the name suggests, Renu’s chicken kalee pap are seasoned with a liberal amount of curry powder. However, as a result of the intense competition in Saraburi, vendors have to be creative, and today kalee pap can be found with fillings diverse as pork and shitake musroom, and pineapple and raisin.

Upon leaving I am given a box of curry puffs to take home. Finding myself stuck in traffic on the way back to Bangkok, I can’t resist the urge to nibble on a few. Crunching through one, I realize that curry puffs really are the ideal road food. They’re small, savory, filling, and at five baht each, a terrific value. Now if they could only do something about the crumbs…

Making chili water

Fiery Foods, August 2006

A lesson on Thailand's nam phrik kapi.

The first Thai dish I ever learned to make is probably the simplest Thai dish of all: Using a mortar and pestle, grind up a few small chilies with a couple cloves of garlic, squeeze in the juice of a lime, add sugar and a heaping spoonful of the pungent shrimp paste known as kapi, and mash this mess together until a thick gray muck results. The result: nam phrik kapi, one of the most common dishes in central Thailand.

Nam phrik, literally “chili water”, is the name of a family of spicy dips or relishes from Thailand. Normally eaten with rice and fresh or parboiled vegetables, nam phrik are well known to all Thais, but rarely seem to make it out of the country, and can even be hard to find in Thai restaurants in Thailand. They are generally homemade, often prepared using a well-worn granite mortar and pestle, and the recipes are as numerous as the chefs who grind them.

Nam phrik are probably among Thailand’s oldest recipes, and along with a curry or soup and a fried dish, are one of the essential elements of a “complete” Thai meal. The dish has even penetrated into the vernacular; a Thai friend recently told me he was “kin nam phrik jaak thuay derm”, literally, always eating nam phrik from the same bowl, an oblique way of saying that he was bored in his relationship.

Stripped down to its most basic elements, a nam phrik will usually encompass all of the four Thai tastes: salty, sweet, spicy and sour, although the various ingredients added to produce these flavors vary greatly. In general though, chilies, especially the tiny but pungent phrik khii nuu (“mouse shit chilies”) are used to add the heat, fresh-squeezed lime juice to add the sour flavor, and sugar, especially a kind of raw palm sugar called nam taan piib, to add the sweet taste. Some nam phrik are even flavored with maengdaa, a type of insect that secretes a fruit-like essence that is not as entirely unpleasant as it sounds. There are also “dry” nam phrik, which usually incorporate shallots, garlic, dried chilies and dried shrimp, all fried in oil until crispy, then ground together, and possessing such evocative names as nam phrik narok (“Hell Chili Paste”).

Nam phrik are probably the most regionally variable of Thailand’s foods, and one can usually tell what area of Thailand one is in simply by looking at the nam phrik on the dinner table. Northern Thais, fond of their vegetables, take the slender dark green chilies known as phrik num, roast them along with garlic and shallots, and mash the results together in the dish known as nam phrik num. This nam phrik is traditionally served with parboiled vegetables and deep-fried pork crackling, another northern Thai specialty. In far southern Thailand, the aforementioned nam phrik kapi is an obligatory side dish in most restaurants, and because the southern version tends to be much spicier than in Bangkok it is usually served with “cooling” vegetables such as cucumber. And finally, in the northeastern region of Thailand, nam phrik is often made with plaa raa, a mud-like, unfiltered, unpasteurized fish paste with a smell and taste even more pungent than that of kapi. The most basic nam phrik of all is nam plaa phrik: a small saucer of fish sauce mixed with thinly sliced chilies, and sometimes sliced garlic and lime juice, a rough equivalent to the salt shaker in western countries.

Despite the variety, the single unifying element of nam phrik is in the manner in which they are eaten, and although some extravagant versions exist, the majority are eaten with a simple assortment of raw or parboiled vegetables. This typically ranges from cucumbers to long green beans or eggplants, but can also include different regional fresh herbs or roots, such as white turmeric or sawtooth coriander. In parts of Thailand where steamed rice is eaten, one or two vegetables are placed on a small amount of rice, the nam phrik spooned over this, and the entire package is consumed using a spoon. In other regions where people tend to eat sticky rice, such as the north and northeast of Thailand, the vegetables as well as the rice are individually dipped into the nam phrik by hand, and followed by a bit of sticky rice, also eaten using the hands.

Recipes:

Nam Plaa Phrik
This is the most basic form of the family of spicy relishes known as nam phrik in Thailand. Nam plaa phrik is spooned over one’s rice to spice up bland food, much the way salt is used in the west.

3 tablespoons Thai fish sauce (nam plaa)
3+ phrik khii nuu (very small Thai chilies), sliced in rings as thinly as possible
1 clove garlic, sliced
1/2 lime

Put the fish sauce in a shallow dish, add chilies, garlic, and squeeze lime juice to taste.

Nam Phrik Kapi with Fresh and Fried Vegetables

Nam Phrik Kapi is probably the most well known nam phrik in Thailand. As the name suggests, it is made with kapi, a salted and fermented paste of fine shrimp known as khoei, and is always served with fresh and/or parboiled vegetables, as well as egg-battered deep-fried vegetables, as described below. The amount of ingredients listed below for the nam phrik are largely for reference; a Thai chef would virtually never use measuring instruments to cook, and a dish is usually made to taste, keeping in mind a desired balance of the four tastes: sour, spicy, salty and sweet.

3+ phrik khii nuu (very small Thai chillies)
1 tablespoon garlic
1 tablespoon sugar
1 squeezed lime (about 1 tablespoon of juice)
1/4 cup Kapi (Thai shrimp paste)
1 tablespoon water
2 tablespoons makheua phuang (pea-sized Thai eggplant)

4 eggs
1 Chinese or Japanese eggplant, sliced into 1 cm thick rounds and put in a bowl of water mixed with 1 tablespoon of vinegar to prevent browning
1/2 cup vegetable oil
1 bunch of cha om (a pungent vegetable sometimes available frozen in Thai grocery stores)

An assortment of fresh Thai vegetables, such as eggplant, cabbage, carrot, wing bean, long bean, all cut into long bite-size pieces

Using a mortar and pestle, grind the phrik khii nuu with the garlic until a rough paste is formed. Add the sugar and the lime juice and grind together. Add the shrimp paste and continue grinding until a paste forms. Add water. If the mixture is still too thick, add additional water, a teaspoonful at a time (nam phrik kapi should have the consistency of a slightly watery paste). Taste and add more chilies, lime or sugar, to taste. Add the makheua phuang, breaking slightly, but not grinding, with the pestle. Put nam phrik kapi in a serving bowl.

Beat eggs with a few drops of fish sauce or a pinch of salt, divide into two bowls and set aside. Drain eggplant and mix thoroughly with one of the bowls of egg. Heat cooking oil in a wok and taking two or three slices at a time, fry the eggplant in oil on both sides until crispy. Set on paper towels to drain. Remove the tender cha om leaves and blend with the eggs. Fry mixture in hot oil as a thick omelet or frittata, turning over to cook on both sides. Drain on a paper towel until cool then slice into bite-sized squares.

Arrange the fresh and fried vegetables on a plate and serve with rice and bowl of nam phrik kapi.

Nam Phrik Ong

Nam Phrik Ong is a dish that originates from the Tai Yai or Shan, a Thai ethnic group that lives in northern Thailand and Myanmar. Ong means to fry in the Tai Yai dialect, and the dish makes use of pork and tomatoes, both staples of Tai Yai cooking. Nam phrik ong is now eaten among all northern Thais, regardless of ethnicity.

Chili Paste
7 large dried chilies, soaked in warm water until soft
3 peeled shallots
1 head of garlic, peeled
2 tablespoons chopped lemongrass (using only lower white part)
2 tablespoons of shrimp paste
1 teaspoon salt

1 cup halved cherry tomatoes
2 large cloves of garlic, chopped

1/2 cup ground pork
3 tablespoons vegetable oil
1 tablespoon chopped cilantro

Fresh, crispy vegetables such as cucumber, long beans, wing beans, cabbage, sliced or chopped into bite-size pieces
Pork rinds

Using a mortar and pestle or food processor, blend curry paste ingredients together finely.

With the mortar and pestle, mash the tomatoes into the curry paste.

Heat oil in a wok over low heat. Add chopped garlic and fry until crispy. Add curry paste and tomato mixture and fry, constantly stirring, until the mixture begins to become fragrant, and oil begins to rise and accumulate, 5 to 10 minutes. Add pork and continue to stir until pork is fully cooked and the oil again begins to rise. If mixture seems dry at any point, add water, 1/4 cup at a time. Nam phrik ong should have the consistency and appearance of a thick, oily spaghetti sauce.

Serve in a bowl, sprinkled with cilantro, and serve with fresh vegetables, pork rinds, and sticky rice.

Nam Phrik Num

This is another northern style curry that has become popular among people all over Thailand. The main ingredient is phrik num, long slender green chilies that are almost exclusively used in this particular dish. Depending on the chilies used, the nam phrik can range from mild to mouth-searingly hot.

7 phrik num or other long green chili
10 cherry tomatoes
5 shallots
2 heads of garlic
1 teaspoon salt

8 bamboo skewers

Fresh vegetables, such as cucumber
Parboiled vegetables, such as cabbage, long beans, Thai eggplant, wing beans
Pork rinds

Skewer the chilies, tomatoes, shallots and garlic and grill until charred. When done, put all grilled ingredients in a plastic bag for 10 minutes and peel off burnt outside layer.

Using a mortar and pestle, grind salt and grilled ingredients together until blended, but still chunky (phrik num should ideally be in long strands or strips).

Serve in a bowl, with fresh and parboiled vegetables, pork rinds, and sticky rice.

A weekend in wine country

ThaiDay, 06/07/06

A rolling tour of the tastes of Khao Yai.

Despite being home to just two wine-producing vineyards, the area known as the Khao Yai Valley has gained a reputation as Thailand’s wine country. Although essentially accurate, the label is somewhat pre-emptive as it implies a degree of development and refinement that simply hasn’t been reached yet. As of now, much of the food and wine-based tourism is still in its early stages, but the basics are there, and being less than two hours from Bangkok, has the potential to be a unique weekend getaway.

Young vines at PB Valley, the Khao Yai area's largest winery.

With this in mind, I head north one morning with the aim of spending a weekend discovering and tasting what Thailand’s fledgling wine country has to offer. After a mere hour and a half, I stopped by Dairy Home (044 361 841), a small dairy/restaurant just off the main highway. Dairy Home is located in Muak Lek district, the site of yet another European-style food import: dairy farming. It was in this same area that Thailand’s dairy industry was started nearly 40 years ago, and not surprisingly, the restaurant offers fresh organic milk products, as well as a decent a breakfast set with homemade bread, sausage and butter and good coffee.

After breakfast I continue along the hilly roads that cut across the Khao Yai Valley to GranMonte Vineyards, a family-owned estate and one of the two wine producing vineyards in the region. Located in a secluded corner that owners have christened Asoke Valley, the vineyard has been growing grapes for nearly eight years. At Montino, the vineyard’s “cellar”, my companion and I sample four red wines, all of the shiraz/syrah varietal, the dominant grape of the Khao Yai valley. GranMonte’s 2002 “Celebration” vintage was for me the most balanced of the lot, featuring both full body and a strong but pleasant aroma.

Some of the wines available at GranMonte Vinyards.

Impressed by the gorgeous setting, we decided to have lunch at VinCotto, the vineyard’s attractive restaurant. VinCotto’s menu was designed by one of the estate’s owners, and features a relatively short menu of dishes meant to be taken with GranMonte’s wines. I begin with the soft shell crab salad, a plate of iceberg lettuce topped with an immense soft shell crab and oddly enough, several onion rings. Unfortunately even the winery’s decent but overpriced 2003 chenin blanc wasn’t enough to help this dish. Somewhat better was my main course, spiced shoulder of lamb sautéed with garlic and served over fettuccini. My companion made a better choice and enjoyed her spicy squid-ink spaghetti.

In general the weekend revealed that most attempts at Western-style food in the Khao Yai valley are forgettable, and the prices less so. A much better choice is, not surprisingly, Thai food, and one of the most popular restaurants in the area is Narknava (02 253 2455) a decidedly basic restaurant serving Thai-Muslim dishes. The restaurant is known for its 100-baht chicken biryani, which judging by the number of customers, is worth the price. We enjoyed a dish of spiced rice coupled with a fried fish and a bowl of piquant chicken soup, both spicy and delicious. Being a Muslim restaurant there’s not a drop of wine—or any other alcohol—to be seen.

From there we wound our way to PB Valley, the area’s largest vineyard, and our base for the weekend. PB Valley, whose grapes are used to produce wines under the Khao Yai and Pirom labels, is also home to a resort consisting of a few mock-Tudor “villas” perched on a hillside overlooking the vineyard as well as much of the valley. The rooms were basic but comfortable, and part of the fun lied in their almost remote location deep in the vineyard, and the scenic drive it took to reach them.

Grapes at PB Valley.

For dinner we visited the resort’s restaurant, The Hornbill Grill. Although the menu features a few German-style dishes, we decided to go Thai, and ordered a few of the recommended dishes. As most of Khao Yai’s wines are relatively high in alcohol and body, this is not a problem, as the wines are made to tolerate the heat of Thai cooking. We ordered deep-fried tapean fish in spicy Thai sauce, a dish that more closely resembled the Isaan dish laab than a fried fish. We also enjoyed the fried boar with baby pepper and the spicy enoki mushroom salad with shrimp. These dishes were helped along by a bottle of Pirom tempranillo 2004, a red wine from grapes of Spanish origin that is probably the region’s finest bottle.

Waking up early the next morning, we left the car behind and explored the vineyard on foot. Strolling among the seemingly endless rows of grapes, it took the occasional banana tree or tropical bird to remind me I was still in Thailand. The vineyard, like much of the surrounding area, takes the form of a rolling valley edged by forested mountains and gray limestone cliffs, a setting made even more beautiful by the rugged symmetry of rows of grape vines.

PB Valley.

After breakfast I met with Prayut Piangbunta, a youthful native of Chiang Mai who is the Khao Yai Winery’s resident winemaker. Piangbunta also happens to be the country’s only Thai winemaker, and has agreed to show us his winery. We are taken from room to room while Piangbunta describes the wine making process and the functioning of the equipment. At one point we stop to taste the 2006 vintage, still being held in towering stainless steel tanks. Piangbunta gives me a glass of 100% colombard, which despite its cloudy appearance, is deliciously crisp and fruity, causing me look forward to its release in 2008. “I let the wine reflect the vintage,” explains Piangbunta of his winemaking philosophy. “I don’t add sugar or acid, I let the yeast make the wine.
Although at present, going behind the scenes at Khao Yai Winery is only possible by appointment, Piangbunta is working on plans to offer tours on a regular basis in the near future. For now, visitors will have to make due with the wine tastings that are given every weekend and the occasional tour.

With the end of our weekend drawing near, we reluctantly leave PB and stop for a light lunch at the Fabb Fashion Café. The restaurant is one of a growing number of Bangkok-based establishments opening branches in the area. I order an Italian sausage salad with balsamic vinegar, an odd combination that was oddly satisfying. Our waiter told us that the prices at Khao Yai are significantly cheaper than those of the restaurant’s Bangkok counterpart, which already seemed expensive given the rural setting.

The Italian sausage salad with balsamic vinegar at the Fabb Fashion Cafe.

Another import is the popular Bangkok-based chain, Cabbages and Condoms. Run under the auspices of the Population and Community Development Association (PDA), the leafy open-air restaurant features local ingredients such as mushrooms from a nearby mushroom farm and fresh herbs from the resort’s pesticide-free garden.

After a final drive through the hills, it was time to head back to Bangkok. Although the Khao Yai Valley wine district may not yet live up to its label, it is by all means a fun getaway and a beautiful destination, and possibly an early glimpse at what may in the future be a bona fide wine district.

Lerdthip

Tonight's dinner was at a khao tom restaurant called Lerdthip. Khao tom literally means "boiled rice", but can also refer to a restaurant that has Thai and Chinese-Thai style food made to order and eaten with watery rice served in bowls.

I began with kaeng paa look chin plaa kraay, "jungle" curry with fishballs made from a type of freshwater fish:

Although it looks pretty, I've et better. This one was a bit too bland and sight too salty.

I also ordered yam hoy naang rom, a "salad" of raw oysters:

I always order this dish, forgetting that I don't really like this dish. Actually it's not bad, but I don't really care for yam that employ that sweetish, red sauce. I would much rather have the simple mixture of lime juice, chilies, fish sauce and sugar, as illustrated in painstaking detail here.

Khuat ordered pet phalo, duck stewed in Chinese-style spices:

For me this dish is like the Thai equivalent of steak; a big hunk of meat. Not bad, but boring.

She also ordered phat phak boong fai daeng, flash-fried morning glory:

God, I love this stuff. It's everything I like in food: spicy, crunchy, garlicky, salty, and it's veggies. I eat it so often I think it should constitute a whole other food group for me.

And finally in an moment of feeding frenzy that was later regretted, we also ordered ahaan thale luak, a variety of seafood par-boiled and served with two dipping sauces:

Not bad, but there are places that do this much better.

Halfway House

ThaiDay, 01/07/06

My first view of Kamphaeng Phet was from a bus bound for Sukhothai. I was considering getting off to explore the small northern provincial capital, but when I finally saw the town—seemingly not much more than a highway bordered with a few utilitarian shops—I changed my mind and decided to continue to my original destination.

It was only later that I learned that Kamphaeng Phet’s bus station is located a few kilometers outside the town, and offers no suggestion of the city. Returning to Kamphaeng Phet recently for a closer look, I discovered that the city is both atmospheric and interesting, home to impressive Buddhist ruins, an attractive riverfront setting, and some excellent Thai food.
Kamphaeng Phet literally means “diamond wall”, a reference to the unbreakable strength of this formerly walled city’s protective barrier. This level of security was necessary, as the city previously helped to protect the Sukhothai and later Ayuthaya kingdoms against attacks from Burma or Lanna. Parts of the wall can still be seen today, and the former moat, which was used for irrigation as much as protection, is currently being rebuilt.

The Kamphaeng Phet of today has expanded far outside its former walls, but is still located on the banks of the Ping River. The riverfront area is a focus of the city, and is home to a vibrant night market and a recently remodeled promenade. Taking a walk one evening I saw joggers, couples cuddling under palm trees, and in what initially appeared to be some sort of trompe l’oeil, a group of teenagers playing soccer on a submerged island in the middle of the river.

Playing football in the shallows of the Ping River.

I was fortunate to have my own vehicle, and a bit of exploring revealed that Kamphaeng Phet is pleasanter than most provincial capitals. Although Bangkok-style concrete architecture dominates, a surprisingly large amount of old wooden houses can be seen, of which Kamphaeng Phet even has its own architectural style, defined by a slightly peaked roof topped with terracotta tiles. The greatest concentration of wooden buildings can be found along the northern end of Tesa Road. Another architectural highlight of the city is the hor trai or manuscript depository of Wat Khuu Yang. Built during the 19th century, this graceful wooden building in the Rattanakosin style is located above a fish pond.

The hor trai, or book depository of Wat Khuu Yang was built during the 19th century.

However the main attraction of the city, and indeed the province, are the impressive but relatively little-visited ruins. Begun in the 14th century, roughly the same time as the better-known kingdom of Sukhothai, Kamphaeng Phet’s Buddhist monuments continued to be built until the Ayuthaya period, nearly 200 years later. As a result, the ruins possess elements of both Sukhothai and Ayuthaya styles, resulting in a school of Buddhist art unlike anywhere else in Thailand.

The remains of Wat Phra Kaew are still have examples of the Kamphaeng Phet school of Buddhist artwork.

The ruins of Kamphaeng Phet are found in two separate areas. Those located inside the city walls were inhabited by monks of the gamavasi (“living in the community”) sect, and are dominated by the remains of Wat Phra Kaew. This former Buddhist temple showcases some impressive Buddha statues and a stupa decorated by some modern but less attractive restoration work. The combination of Ayuthaya and Sukhothai styles is particularly evident here, with bell-shaped chedis reminiscent of Sukhothai and a reclining Buddha similar to that found in Ayuthaya.

The remains of Wat Phra Kaeo combine elements of both Sukhothai and Ayuthaya-era styles.

Near these ruins is the Kamphaeng Phet National Museum, a small but decent collection of antiques mostly associated with the ruins. The highlight here is an ancient bronze sculpture of Shiva that was unearthed where the city pillar now stands.

Making an offering at Kamphaeng Phet's city pillar.

The majority of Kamphaeng Phet’s ruins are found a few kilometers outside of the city walls in area previously home to monks of the arani (“living in forests”) sect. There are at least 40 temple compounds in this area, including Wat Chang Rop, named for its base that boasts 68 elephants, and remarkably, a few patches of relatively intact stucco relief work. Another standout is Wat Phra Si Iriyabot, which has a four-faced altar that once held a reclining, a sitting, a standing and a walking Buddha. Today the towering standing Buddha is the only one remaining, although elements of the graceful Sukhothai influenced walking Buddha can also be discerned.

Wat Phra Si Iriyabot is home to four-faced monument of which this standing Buddha is the only intact example.

Wat Phra Non, another temple in the area, is known for possessing the largest single laterite pillar in the world. Laterite, a clay-like material that is abundant in Kamphaeng Phet, hardens when exposed to light and air, and served as the primary building material for the majority of Kamphaeng Phet’s religious structures.

Wat Chang Rop is named after the 68 elephants that surround the base of its chedi.

The historical park also boasts an excellent brand-new visitors’ center, which also doubles as Kamphaeng Phet’s tourist information office. The center, possibly the best of its kind in the entire country, offers films, interactive computer presentations and displays, all offering clear English. Like many of the attractions in Kamphaeng Phet, the ruins are best accessed by those who have their own transportation, although there are bicycles for rent at the visitors’ center.

After all this exploring I was hungry, and although Kamphaeng Phet is not known as a food destination, I was pleasantly surprised by what I found. The city’s most famous contribution to Thai food is kluay khai, small sweet-tasting bananas. However much more interesting is Kamphaeng Phet’s famous egg noodles. At Bamee Chakangrao on Ratchadamnoen Road I ordered a bowl of bamee haeng, which contained at least six different preparations and cuts of pork (barbecued, par-boiled, stewed, skin, liver and deep-fried pork crackling), as well as sides of a slightly sweet broth and a bowl of par-boiled green beans and bean sprouts. The noodles used are reminiscent of smooth higher quality Chinese-style noodles, rather than the pasty yellow noodles found across much of the country.

Egg noodles with various cuts of pork is a signature dish of Kamphaeng Phet.

If noodles aren’t your thing, Kamphaeng Phet is also home to an impressive night market. Located on Tesa Road near the banks of the Ping River, this covered area is open from about 5 PM to late, and features an enormous selection of food sold to go, as well as several basic restaurants. I sat down to an excellent phat phet muu paa, spicy boar stir-fry served on a heaping mound of rice and reflected on my luck. What at first appeared nothing more than a gritty bus stop turned out to be a worthwhile diversion, perhaps even a destination.

Inside the greenhouse

ThaiDay, 29/06/06

At a grass jelly factory, the secrets behind the popular dessert are revealed.

Perhaps you’ve encountered a Thai dessert consisting of small black cubes of jelly served with crushed ice. Like me, you probably took one look and said “no thanks”, opting for something a bit, well…less black and jellylike. Next time however, I urge you to try that dessert. It’s called grass jelly, and is actually a pure and delicious product. And if you believe the manufacturer, a very healthy product as well.

A bowl of grass jelly at a Kamphaeng Phet restaurant.

I recently became aware of grass jelly on a trip to the city of Kamphaeng Phet. The dessert, which Thais call chao kuay, seemed especially popular there, and on a whim I stopped by Chao Kuay Chakangrao, a small grass jelly factory. Arriving unannounced I was greeted warmly by the company’s owner, Sermwut Suwanroj, who was happy to take me around his factory and reveal how this unique dessert is made.

Suwanroj has been making grass jelly full time for a little over three years. He claims that it was his success that inspired the grass jelly craze that seems to have swept over Kamphaeng Phet. “I was the first one to make it here,” he explains. “All the others followed after me.” Suwanroj’s business is not limited to this small northern city though, and his product is sold in Bangkok and even abroad.

Sermwut Suwanroj, owner of Chao Kuay Chakangrao, shows a pot of the fresh herb used to make grass jelly.

Having heard that grass jelly comes from everything ranging from tree bark to grass, I began by asking Suwanroj what the stuff is actually made of. He replied by pointing to a small potted plant resembling mint. I knelt down to smell it, but unlike mint the herb had virtually no fragrance. Suwanroj explained that it isn’t until the herb is dried for a year that its odor is apparent. He goes on that his single potted plant is a mere decoration. “We get most of the herb from Vietnam, China and Indonesia,” he explained. “Very little is grown in Thailand. The conditions just aren’t right.”

The dried herb used to make grass jelly is imported from China and Vietnam.

We enter his factory and I am shown blocks of the dried herb, which is thoroughly rinsed of dirt several times before entering the first phase of grass jelly production. This involves boiling the herb in water for two to three hours in an effort to extract the fragrant oils. This is done by hand in large barrels over charcoal-burning stoves, much as it would have been done in the past. After three hours the liquid has developed a sticky, glue-like consistency, and the unmistakable earthy, medicine-like odor of grass jelly has flooded the open-air room.

The dried herb must be boiled for two to three hours to extract its fragrant resin.

The next step involves pressing and straining the thick liquid, which at this point resembles something like crude oil. The strained liquid is blended with a small amount of flour and put into a large steam-powered mixer where it is kneaded for one hour. The smooth jellylike liquid that results is then spread out onto several shallow trays where it is left to cool and solidify.

The resin is then extracted (shown above) before being filtered, blended and cooled into jelly-like sheets.

The final step in production involves simply cutting the solid mixture into small squares, which are packaged with syrup. At this point Suwanroj offers me a bowl of grass jelly, which in the Thai style, is served with crushed ice. Suwanroj’s grass jelly is more fragrant and slightly toothier than grass jelly I’ve had in the past. I find the dessert a tad too sweet, but immensely refreshing, especially on this hot morning. This is hardly surprising, as the herb used to make grass jelly is in fact in the mint family, and is known by the Chinese for its cooling or “yin” properties.

While I enjoy my treat, Suwanroj expels the supposed health benefits of grass jelly. “It lowers your blood pressure, it cures colds, and helps to cure infections and relieve diabetes.” He explains that it is particularly beneficial to drink the boiled herb as a kind of tea. I am skeptical, but I can’t imagine a more appropriate spokesperson for grass jelly than this vibrant and enthusiastic man.

Before leaving I express a desire to by some grass jelly to take home and ask how long it will last. “Our chao kuay contains no preservatives,” explains Suwanrot, implying that it should be consumed soon. “I’m not doing this to make money,” he adds, “I make grass jelly to make customers healthy.”

This article as it was printed can also be read here at the ThaiDay website.

Chinatown

Bangkok's Chinatown, known in Thai as yaowaraat, is probably the most hectic and crazy district in a hectic and crazy city. I went there this morning and had an amazingly productive shoot; it's almost hard not to shoot something interesting here!

I started on the main street, Thanon Yaowarat. This photo has been taken many times before, but I still like it:

There are heaps of markets in this part of town and delivery guys can be found everywhere:

I moved on to Yaowarat Soi 16, also known as Trok Itsaranuphap, the heart of Chinatown's main market:

Where, among other things, you can buy roast duck:

Fish:

Tofu:

Teacups for Chinese tea:

And pomelos (the thong dii variety, as indicated on the peel):

The market is really narrow and you're constantly being passed by delivery people, motorcycles and people pushing carts:

A lot like outside actually, this on Thanon Charoen Krung:

A streetside breakfast of kaphoh plaa, fish stomach soup:

More photos from this shoot, although somewhat less food-related, can be found at my Flikr account, here.

How To Make: Pumpkin Fried With Egg

Seeing as this dish was mentioned in the previous post, I thought I post the recipe here. It's really a no-brainer and requires a few simple ingredients and a wok, but is one of my favorite Thai dishes. However I should clarify that when I say pumpkin I'm not talking about jack 0'lanterns, but rather Thai-style gourd-like pumpkins, which look like this:

I reckon you can use a Western-style pumpkin if that's all you've got, but to maintain authenticity, see if you can get your mitts on the real thing.

Pumpkin Fried with Egg
(Serves 4)

Ingredients
Pumpkin 500 g, cut into 3 cm cubes
Eggs 4
Cooking oil 2 Tbsp
Sugar 1 tsp, or to taste
Fish sauce 1 Tbsp, or to taste

Thai basil leaves (bai horaphaa) for garnish

Method
Bring 1 l of water to boil in a large saucepan, and boil pumpkin until soft but not mushy, about 5-7 minutes. Drain and set aside.

While pumpkin is boiling lightly beat eggs together in a bowl. Set aside.

In a large wok over medium heat, add oil and fry pumpkin until heated through, stirring occasionally, about 5 minutes. Add sugar and fish sauce, stir to combine. Pour eggs over pumpkin and allow to set, without stirring, for about two minutes. Continue to cook at low heat, stirring mixture only occasionally.

Serve hot, garnished with basil leaves, with rice as part of a southern Thai meal.

Phaholyothin Soi 7

The area surrounding this street, also known as ari, is one of Bangkok's food hotspots. It's located near lots of very tall office buildings, which means during lunch there are lots of very hungry office workers. The general atmosphere of most of the restaurants is decidedly basic. No, perhaps assertively basic. No air-conditioning, grumpy staff, predominately plastic furniture and not the cleanest restaurants in the world. The food is cheap, however, and most of it looked pretty good.

Here's a bird's eye view of the street:

Once you enter the street, then take the first side street to the left (the one the green and yellow taxi is turning into). I can't recall the name, but this is where most of the action is. It was here that I saw all of these people were queing up to buy mangoes and guavas:

Normally mangoes and guavas aren't the source of this sort of frenzy. Howeve on closeer inspection I noticed they were peeled, which means they were probably chae buay, meaning that they have been soaked in sweetened plum water, and are really, really tasty.

Here's a well-stocked fruit stand:

And a well-stocked som tam (papaya salad) vendor:

And a Chinese pork vendor counting his profits:

This lady blocked my shot a chicken rice restaurant, making it somehow much more interesting:

All this was making me hungry so I stopped by a curry shop for lunch. I choose three things from the approximately 20 already prepared curries, fried dishes and soups, and got this:

I don't think my dish has ever been piled to this extent in Thailand. At 9 0'clock you have pumpkin fried with egg, at 12 o'clock phat phet plaa duk, catfish fried with fresh herbs, and at 3 o'clock fish fried with onions, chilies and copious crushed black pepper. Somewhere under all of that there's some rice as well, if memory doesn't fail me.

Koyi

For dinner tonight we visted Koyi, a popular open-airish restaurant near my house. This restaurant is a bit unusual in that it only serves a few different dishes, mostly an odd mixture of somewhat traditional Chinese and Thai dishes. Here's the entire menu:

I ordered khao phat poo, fried rice with crab:

Delicious. They fry the rice in a wok over a large flame, which gives it a slightly smoky flavor. The whole dish consists of just rice, crab, eggs and perhaps a splash of fish sauce, and is served with sides of sliced cucumber, green onions and a slice of lime to squeeze over it.

Khuat ordered kaphoh plaa:

The name of this dish translates as "fish stomach", which oddly enough, some people consider food. The dried fish stomach is suspended in a thick sweet broth topped with crab meat and a quail egg. Bizarre. Never really been a fan of the stuff.

Needing a bit more I ordered green curry with grilled pork served with khanom jeen, fermented rice noodles, instead of the usual rice:

Pretty good, but a bit too meaty and sweety for my taste. Like the green color though.

Talaat Nat

It's Saturday and that means time for my weekly neighborhood market. Today it was mostly the same old faces and the same old eats, however I chose a couple interesting things to describe below.

This chap comes every Saturday and sells candies that he shapes out of sugar himself.

The wooden base holds a small coal oven used to heat up and soften the sugar mixture that is held in a metal bowl. When it's soft enough he takes a bamboo stick and a glob of each color:

and twists it into the shapes he desires, using nothing but his fingers and a pair of scissors to do the details:

Today he had parrots, hearts and flowers. I asked him to make a custom one for me and he made this elephant:

Another interesting thing at the market is the kung ten salesguy:

The sign says "Kung Ten Salad. Fresh and clean." Kung ten literally means "dancing shrimp", and refers to tiny freshwater shrimp that are sold while still alive:

You can't tell in the photo, but they are bouncing around all the time, thus the name. These are popular in NE Thailand, especially in the provinces near the Mekong River, where I imagine they're raised in cages. Here's a closeup of the shrimp:

He sells them by the bag, makes them into yam, a spicy-sour salad, or deep-fries them until crispy. I've had them before and they really don't taste like much. I think the attraction lies in the thrill of eating something that's alive!

Sukhothai Style

I spent the previous four days up in the former Thai kingdom of Sukhothai. Going up to this northern city wasn't a food trip per se, but being that I was traveling with Thai people, food was always at hand. Basically we would get up, eat breakfast, stop for coffee, find a snack, eat lunch, find more snacks and eat a huge dinner. Repeat for three days.

Sukhothai is not really a food destination, but there's some interesting stuff there if you know what to look for. With some free time on our hands the first night, we stopped by Sukhothai's fresh market to see what was going on. Here's a busy curry vendor:

Freshwater fish has been an important food of the people of this region for a very long time, and was included in virtually each of our meals. Here's some of the raw ingredients being sold at the evening market:

The next day we got up early to check out the ruins of the nearby Sri Satchanalai Historical Park. Luckily for us, there was a small market going on right near the ruins. We thus ordered some coffee prepared the traditional way:

To give you an idea of the setting, this is what dominated the vendor's view:

The weather at Sukhothai Historical Park was hot so we stopped for a cool snack. Can anyone guess what this is?

I'll give you a hint: take a couple scoops of homemade coconut ice cream, some sticky rice, peanuts, sweetned condensed milk, and put it between two slices of white bread. What do you have? An ice cream sandwich, of course!

Outside of Sukhothai we stopped at Hat Saa, a small town known for its silk weaving industry, and also home to a pretty good restaurant serving dishes using some of the local ingredients. Among other things, we ordered kaeng paa muu paa, "jungle" curry with boar:

And yam yawt maphrao awn, a "salad" of tender coconut shoots:

One of our last stops was at a place that sells Sukhothai-style noodles. These are really popular and quite well known, but as far as I could tell, are pretty much the same as noodles sold in Bangkok except that they included a variety of pork (barbequed pork, par-boiled pork and stewed pork ribs) and came topped with thinly-sliced par-boiled green beans:

Much more interesting, and more delicious, was the "Sukhothai-style" phat thai, which despite Sukhothai being at least 400 km away from the sea, included prawns:

Saraburi Style

Was on my way to somewhere else and stopped by the tiny town/province of Saraburi, about 100 km north of Bangkok. Saraburi is mostly known for its dairy industry, and is the first place Thai people started milking cows, about 40 years ago. Other than that, it's not known for much, but I came across a couple cool food surprises nonetheless.

My first discovery was a Thai snack called karee phap. This is, believe it or not, the Thai pronunciation of the English word "curry puff", and refers to small deep-fried turnovers. These bad boys are sold in the thousands along the main street of Saraburi, mostly sold at roadside stalls like this:

Many of the vendors were Muslim, which is not surprising when one considers how much they resemble samosa. The curry puffs are filled with a variety of fillings, ranging from savory, such as chicken or pork, to sweet, such as pineapple or chocolate:

They are all made by hand:

and deep-fried until crispy. Here's a close up of my pork and shitake mushroom curry puff:

Not too shabby, and I like the "layered" effect of the dough. Bought four (two pork and shitake and two "original chicken"), which at a paltry 5 baht each, almost made me feel guilty. Interestingly enough, the word karee is also Thai slang for prostitute. Would be curious to find out the origins of that.

Another fun discovery in Saraburi was the roadside stalls selling local agricultural products:

These can be found in rural areas all over the country, and vary depending on where you are. In northern Thailand you can find things like freshly-picked wild mushrooms or wild honey. In Saraburi the emphasis was on bamboo and pumpkins:

In the top photo the small bamboo was grilled, something I'd never seen before. Unfortunately I'm not currently in need of giant pumpkin or a bamboo root, and only took photos.

My final discovery came while looking for lunch on the hardscrabble streets of Saraburi. Other than karee phap, the food situ in Saraburi is pretty grim, and I it took me a long time to find something that wasn't wrapped and deep-fried. Eventually I came across a shop selling beef noodle soup. This is not something I would normally choose, as beef in Thailand is invariably chewy, usually consisting of fat and joints rather than meat, and the broth that accompanies this soup is usually way too sweet. However, this place served beef that was par-boiled to perfection, and accompanied by "homemade" beef balls that were tender and delicious:

Throw in a few more veggies and you got yerself a damn good bowl of noodles.

North and South

Was at the venerable Or Tor Kor Market again this afternoon for lunch and a spot of shopping. Since the recent rennovation, the old Or Tor Kor is becoming a more and more interesting place to eat. Today's lunch involved eats from the polar opposite ends of Thailand; the cool north and the spicy south.

Starting in the north, I downed a bowl of khanom jeen naam ngiaow, a spaghetti-like sauce of pork and tomatoes served over thin rice noodles:

These were served up by a lady from Chiang Rai in the far north of Thailand. Here's the old gal dishing up another bowl:

A single bowl of noodles generally not being enough, we decided to move to the stall next door, which served southern-style food. Khuat ordered kaeng tai plaa, "fish kidney curry", a really freaking spicy curry that tastes much better than it sounds, served over the same rice noodles:

I ordered the same curry, along with a side of khua kling neua, beef simmered in curry paste, served over rice:

Also really freaking spicy.

Here are the shopowners, two ladies from Phuket, in the midst of a lot of predominately orange-colored, really freaking spicy southern Thai food:

Nonthaburi Market

Inspired by a writer acquaintance who encourged me to "hone my craft" I decided to get out of my home office and take some photos. My muse led me to Nonthaburi Market, north of Bangkok. This is a really fun market in a sort of old fashioned area right next to the Chao Phraya River.

A marketside breakfast of stewed pork leg amongst the flies and screaming vendors. Not my ideal brekkie:

Much more interesting for breakfast are khanom jeep, Chinese-style dim sum-like meat tidbits:

You'll need coffee, and that's what this cheeky lad is here for:

Steamed plaa thuu, mackerel, is one of the most common foods in Thailand:

Sometimes plaa thuu is grilled, along with chilies, garlic, shallots and eggplant, and then mashed up in mortar and pestle into a delicicous dip. Here are the ingredients before the mashing; the dish is made to order:

This guy is dishing up preserved freshwater crabs, a popular ingredient in NE-style som tam:

This guy was selling knives and razors. To the right is a try of very finely chopped ginger. I'm not sure if this was for sale or a testament to the sharpness of his knives!

A few more pics from this trip can be seen here.

Lychee Season!

That's right, it's lychee season, and this year, as usual, we've received a fat box of these beauties direct from Chiang Mai.

Here is Khuat unveiling the booty chest of lychee goodness:

And Norng Paeng displaying her ration for the evening:

That large box is far too much for us to eat on our own, so we usually end up giving lots away. Jealous?

Nong Khai

Nong Khai is the name of a province in NE Thailand. Lying on banks of the Mekong River, the city of Nong Khai sits directly across from Vientiane, the capial of Laos. Nong Khai is also the name of an Isaan/Vietnamese restaurant very near my home. The place is a real hole in the wall, incorporating insanely crappy service, horribly filthy tablecloths and a kitchen I'm sure I do not want to see. But despite all this, the restaurant serves some of the most interesting regional food in Bangkok, a delicious mix of Vietnamese and NE Thai fare.

Below is by far my favorite dish at the restaurant, as well as possibly one of the tastiest dishes I've come across yet in this country, laap plaa duk:

Laap, as you may already know, is a kind of NE Thai-style "salad" usually consisting of minced meat. Plaa duk means catfish. In this laap the catfish has been grilled, then the meat picked off and minced up along with some hearty freshwater snails. The lot is then mixed up with sliced shallots, green onions, fish sauce, lime and khao khua, ground up roasted sticky rice. It is then served with two vegetables, dill, in the back, known in Thai as phak chee lao, "Lao coriander", and a hard-to-find herb called phak khayaeng. I'm really not sure how to describe the flavor of this herb, which I've virtually only ever come across at this restaurant, but it's sort of bitter and fresh at the same time. The laap itself is spicy, sour, savory, smoky, crunchy, chewy... it really has got everything.

Following close behind the laap plaa duk in terms of interest and flavor is the restaurant's namesake, som tam nong khai:

This som tam differs from papaya salad elsewhere in the use of a few very interesting ingredients. First of all, the small green seeds on the top are called kathin and have a pungent flavor, similar to the southern Thai favorite, sator. Also making this som tam very unusual is the addition of kung ten, literally "dancing shrimp". These are tiny freshwater shrimp that are kept alive until being cooked (or more commonly, eaten raw). They are named for the way they bounce around in the mesh containers they are kept in until being used. And finally this som tam uses a particular kind of small round green and red tomato found in northern isaan and northern Thailand known as makhuea som. These tomatoes have a wonderfully crispy texture, and a slightly sour/sweet flavor. All in all a very unusual and delicious variation on the already delicious papaya salad.

Next was deep-fried pork belly served with thin rice noodles and crispy fried shallots, a dish of Vietnamese origin, I do believe.

Pretty damn good, but crunching through deep-fried pork fat is a guilty pleasure I'd rather not take part in too often.

One of the most popular dishes at the restaurant is a Vietnamese dish called naem nueang:

This is grilled pork "sausages" served with a variety of condiments and rice paper wrappers and a fat bowl of fresh herbs. You take a lettuce leaf, top it with some herbs, top this with a piece of rice paper, a chunk of sausage, a chunk of garlic, cucumber, chilies, unripe banana or starfruit, and finish it off with a generous dollop of the requisite sweet/sour peanut sauce. The final step involves rolling this "package" up and stuffing it in your greedy gob. Yes, I know, a lot of work just to eat, but it's worth it.

My companions ordered this dish, pork skewers wrapped in bai cha phluu (wild tea leaf) and "grilled":

I write "grilled" rather than grilled because the menu says they are grilled when in fact they are deep-fried. A brilliant idea for a dish, but definately not something that should be deep-fried; the greasy skewers alone are enough to make me not want to eat it.

Secret ingredients

ThaiDay, 15/06/06
Inspired by a delicious Italian meal, our writer tries to make it himself.

Fans of pasta and pizza in Bangkok should consider themselves particularly fortunate; the Italian Trade Commission estimates that there are currently more than 300 Italian restaurants in the capital. This is obviously a wonderful situation for diners, but what about those of us who love to cook? Does Bangkok also have the ingredients and produce to make a high quality Italian meal at home?

I first began to think about this after eating at biscotti, the Four Seasons’ Italian restaurant. When I stopped by last week, Chef Giovanni Speciale was preparing food from his home province of Puglia, also known as Apulia, the “heel” of the Italian boot. His meal began with hearty slices of grilled bread spread with ricotta forte, a pungent cheese spread, accompanied by a white globe of mozzarella di bufala topped with arugula and cherry tomatoes. This was followed by orrechiete, the “little ears” of pasta often associated with southern Italy, served with a thin sauce of broccoli, anchovies, chili and olive oil. “You cook the broccoli in the same water as the pasta, and you add just a bit of chili,” explained Chef Giovanni, who emerged from his kitchen to explain each course. The final course was bombette di maiale, thin slices of pork filled with provolone cheese, wrapped in pancetta and grilled.

Chef Giovanni Speciale explains the nuances of Puglia's major product, olive oil.

Wiping our plates clean of dessert, my companion and I were awed; the meal was simple and even rustic, but astonishingly delicious, the result of strong, confident flavors and quality ingredients; in short, I wanted to make it. Luckily, during the course of the meal, Chef Giovanni was kind enough to describe how the dishes were made. The only obstacle would be finding some of the more obscure ingredients. Obviously this would involve sourcing a fair amount of imported meats and cheeses, but when possible, I wanted to look into the growing variety of Italian-style ingredients that are being produced in Thailand today. An invaluable tool in my mission was a map provided by the Embassy of Italy, Bangkok With an Italian Heart, which describes the various Italian institutions, monuments, restaurants and shops found in Bangkok.

To recreate Chef Giovanni’s antipasti, I followed a lead indicated on the map and visited Maria Pizzeria (909-917 Silom Road,02 234 0440). Seemingly a nondescript pizza parlor from the outside, Maria is also the home of Gennaro, one of Thailand’s first producers of Italian-style cheeses. In an effort to provide cheese for his popular pizza restaurant, owner Somchai Thaveepholcharoen decided to make Italian-style cheeses himself. He sent an employee to Italy to study cheese making, imported the necessary equipment, and began producing Italian-style cheeses using Thai milk. That was 15 years ago, and today Thaveepholcharoen produces more than 10 different styles of cheese including mozzarella, ricotta, mascarpone, scamorza and most interestingly, a fresh mozzarella that contains buffalo milk. “[Buffalo milk] is very hard to get,” explained Thaveepholcharoen. “Thais aren’t interested in making it, so I can’t get a lot of it.” It is this fresh cheese that I have come by to pick up, and Thaveepholcharoen mentions that Gennaro products are also available at some branches of Tops, Villa and Foodland, but he has no problem with people coming to the restaurant simply to buy cheese to go.

My next stop was at another business featured on the map, Food DItalia (160/1 Sukhumvit Soi 33, 02 259 9549). Owned by Roberto Brivio, a friendly native of Milan, Food DItalia is an importer of Italian food products into Thailand. Though the vast majority of his business is conducted through hotels and restaurants, Brivio is more than happy to serve individuals who are willing to come to his showroom. “I like being here to explain the products to customers,” explains Brivio. I describe the meal I plan to make and he is able to provide every last ingredient including smoked pancetta, which Brivio slices paper-thin, a “spicy” provolone cheese known as auricchio, and ricotta dura di pecora, a sheep’s milk cheese from Puglia. “People in Puglia use this cheese on pasta instead of parmesan,” explained Brivio, as he gave me a piece to taste. The cheese was delicious, and was just one of the products that I didn’t previously realize was available in Bangkok. As an added bonus, I am able to take Brivio’s last bag of fresh orrechiete; a vast improvement over the dried stuff generally available at Bangkok’s supermarkets.

Food DItalia owner Roberto Brivio slices off paper thin slices of prosciutto.

I had mentioned to Roberto that I was still in need of wine, preferably something from Puglia, and he suggested I visit ItalAsia’s showroom at All Seasons Place (Wireless Road, 02 685 3862). ItalAsia is Thailand’s oldest importer of Italian goods, and claims to have the largest selection of Italian wines. I stopped by the small shop, and after some deliberation, picked up a 1.5 litre bottle of Sangiovese di Puglia, a dry red that would hopefully go well with the slightly spicy pasta course and the grilled meat with its strong cheese filling.

I still needed a few odds and ends, and stopped by Villa, Bangkok’s standby for imported groceries. For better or worse, Villa’s stock of specialty food items is unmatched, and I needed a few items that could only be found there. I picked up some arugula from Rai Pluk Rak, Thailand’s first organic farm, as well as a jar of oil-preserved anchovies from Siam Fishery, a Thai brand. I also bought a loaf of country-style sourdough bread from La Boulange, Bangkok’s best bakery, which sells its products at Villa.

My final stop was at my favorite store in Bangkok: Doi Kham (101 Kamphaeng Phet Road, 02 279 1551). This tiny supermarket located near the Or Tor Kor Market stocks a truly impressive variety of Western-style produce grown in northern Thailand under the auspices of the Royal Project Foundation. The fruits and vegetables sold at Doi Kham are high quality, pesticide-free and include such Italian staples as eggplants, artichokes, fennel, zucchini, bell peppers and radicchio, as well as fresh herbs such as sage, Italian parsley, oregano and thyme. I picked up some young broccoli and juicy cherry tomatoes—essential ingredients for the pasta dish, and made my way home.

Doi Kham stocks an impressive variety of produce.

The next day I invited some friends over and made my Apulian meal. Relying on Chef Giovanni’s descriptions and my own experience making Italian food, the cooking went relatively smoothly. The antipasti of grilled bread, arugula salad and mozzarella was a hit, the creamy buffalo cheese winning over even those who normally don’t like dairy products. The fresh pasta of the next course was deliciously tender, and was only improved by the tender Doi Kham broccoli and tomatoes and the strong flavours of the Thai anchovies and dried chili. The Apulian wine stood up to the food well, surviving both the spicy pasta and the strong provolone in the grilled pork.

Pleasing the critics.

In the end my Apulian meal wasn’t necessarily cheaper or even more delicious than my meal at biscotti, but for someone who loves to cook, it was a pleasure to discover the diversity of products available in Bangkok. And although sourcing these ingredients may have involved a considerable amount of travel, it was worth it considering the quality of both the imported and the domestically produced products. With resources such as these, surely it’s only a matter of time before Italian food in Bangkok moves from the restaurant into the home.

Hookahs and kebabs

ThaiDay, 08/06/06

From Iran to Bangladesh, a tour around the cuisines of Nana's Soi Arab

The songlike call to prayer emerged from a mosque across the street as I sat sipping a glass of mint-laced tea. I turned to find the source of the noise but by my view was obstructed by the fragrant smoke of several turbaned men smoking hookahs. Where am I, you may wonder? Well, not Dubai, or Damascus, or even Beirut, but rather Bangkok. Sukhumvit Soi 3/1 to be exact.

Known colloquially as Soi Arab, this street, and the area that surrounds it have long been associated with visiting Muslims. In reality, the name Soi Arab is a misnomer, as the area is home to North Africans, West Africans, Bangladeshis, Pakistanis, Persians and Malaysians, as well as Arabs, but the atmosphere is unmistakably Muslim.

And a great deal of this atmosphere is provided by the area’s lively food scene. Muslim food conjures of images of flatbreads and skewered meat, mezze and bizarre grains, and Soi Arab is no exception. A stroll around the area will reveal signs advertising a variety of restaurants serving Egyptian, Bangladeshi, Malaysian and Persian cuisine. However, despite these names, the vast majority of the restaurants serve what could only be described as ‘Pan-Muslim’ cuisine, typically incorporating elements of the better-known Lebanese and Indian styles of cooking. A restaurant claiming to have Turkish food might also have hummus on its menu, whereas a Bangladeshi restaurant may also serve a few Arab specialties. However there are a few restaurants that focus on the cuisine of a particular country, which are described in more detail below.

Nasser Elmassry Restaurant & Shishah
4/6 Sukhumvit Soi 3/1
02 253 5582
www.restaurant-shishah-nasir.com

Nasser Elmassry is one of several Egyptian restaurants in the Soi Arab are, but judging by the amount of kitschy Egyptian paraphernalia and abundance of stainless steel, appears to be the most well established. However it’s the food, rather than the ambiance, that has kept me coming back to Nasser Elmassry for years. The freshly baked pita bread (particularly the kind topped with garlic) is the best in the area, delicious when dipped into the Middle Eastern standards of hummus and baba ganoush, and hand-in-glove perfect with the Egyptian national dish, ful, pureed fava beans. As with most Muslim food, the emphasis at Nasser Elmassry is on meat, and my companions and I ordered grilled lamb chops and mutton and chicken kebabs, which served together on a vast platter, appeared substantial enough to satisfy any large carnivore. The meats were delicious and suggested every adjective associated with grilled meat: smoky, juicy and tender. One disappointing aspect of Nasser Elmassry, other than the grumpy and pushy service, is that more than 2/3 of the menu is written only in Arabic, suggesting that there’s almost certainly a great deal more on offer than the usual Middle Eastern standards.

Nasser Elmassry also features a shishah, an upstairs smoking room, where customers can recline and watch Egyptian TV programs while smoking fruit flavored tobacco from bubbling hookahs. You can also eat there if you don’t mind consuming your kebab in a haze of cherry-scented smoke.

Al-Iraqi Restaurant
8/17-18 Sukhumvit Soi 3/1
02 655 5357

Tucked into the far corner of Soi 3/1, Al-Iraqi is a restaurant that one could easily pass by without noticing it, as I did myself several times. The restaurant, as the name suggests, serves the cuisine of Iraq, a country known for many things other than its food, but the existence of a restaurant in Bangkok serving its cuisine must mean there’s something there, so I gave it a try.

Navigating the lengthy menu, I asked the staff for something typically Iraqi and was steered towards the Iraqi kebab, two skewers of minced lamb, lightly spiced and served on a bed of shredded cabbage. The meat was, I imagine, probably as good as grilled minced lamb can possibly be, and was accompanied by two colossal wheels of freshly baked bread made in a tandoor-style oven in front of the restaurant. I was only able to eat one piece of bread and was shocked to see the Iraqi man at the next table order curry and bread, as well as a heaping biryani-style rice dish, also a staple of Iraqi cooking.

Kebabs
Sukhumvit Soi 3/1, next door to Nefertiti Egyptian Restaurant

If you find the relatively high price of food in the Soi Arab area prohibitive, it will come as good news to learn that the area is also home to one of Bangkok’s best value meals: kebabs. Consumed directly on the street or at rickety tables, the kebabs sold in Soi Arab are utterly proletarian, but really are delicious, and at 50 baht, one of the best deals in Bangkok. There are three vendors selling kebabs, but the best is found at a basic restaurant adjacent to the Nefertiti Egyptian Restaurant. The kebabs here are carved from rotating spits of beef or chicken, rolled in a thin flatbread and are slathered with the requisite vegetables and sauces (as well as, oddly enough, but deeply satisfying, thick cut French fries) before being warmed in a sandwich grill. Simple, delicious and filling. And the kebab I ordered take home was just as delicious as the one I ate at the restaurant.

Abyssinya Café
16/11 Sukhumvit Soi 3
02 655 3436
www.search.in.th/abyssinya

Those in search of something more obscure than hummus or pita can do no better than Thailand’s only Ethiopian restaurant, Abyssinya Café. Located just off of Soi Arab on Sukhumvit Soi 3, this café/restaurant was started three years ago by Tigist Fekade, an Ethiopian woman who, in the words of her daughter, Frey Nebiat, was simply “looking for good coffee.” Ethiopia is the homeland of the coffee plant, and when Fekade was not able to find real Ethiopian coffee in Bangkok, she decided to circumvent the problem altogether and opened her own café serving the drink.

It didn’t take long before customers started asking for Ethiopian food, and Fekade expanded the café concept to include a variety of traditional Ethiopian dishes. Stopping by on a recent day I ordered yemisir kik wet, a vegetarian set that included stewed lentils, curried onions, a vegetable curry and an Ethiopian-style vegetable salad. My companion ordered yedoro kei watt, chicken cooked in spicy/sour berbere sauce and accompanied by homemade Ethiopian style curds and a hard-boiled egg. The dishes were served together on a large platter, the curries placed directly on top of two vast portions of injera, spongy Ethiopian-style bread. “We used to get our injera directly from Ethiopia,” explained Nebiat, of the soft, gray flatbread, “But Ethiopian Airlines stopped giving out free tickets, so now we make it here.” Along with teff, the grains used to make injera, the restaurant imports the majority of its ingredients, including the chilies and spices used to make the piquant berbere sauce, a staple of Ethiopian cooking.

The emphasis on coffee has not faded, and every Saturday and Sunday evening at 7:00 PM, Fekade brews up Ethiopian coffee beans the traditional way.

Shater Restaurant Persian Food
79/6 Sukhumvit Soi 3/1
02 655 6460

Persian is one of those cuisines I had only ever read about, so I was excited to discover that Soi 3/1 is also home to a restaurant featuring the food of Iran. I visited the restaurant recently looking forward to trying something new and exotic, but was disappointed by the menu, which seemed to feature nothing but eerily similar combinations of grilled meat and rice. Surely the people of Iran eat more than this? Nonetheless I braved forward and chose a dish highlighted as the “Webmaster’s Favorite”, the gormeh sabsi (“parsley, cilantro, chives and beans cooked with veal shank and served with basmati rice”). The dish took the form of a dark puree of the aforementioned herbs, with the random bit of bean and meat floating in the mix. The dominant taste was sour, and was not entirely unpleasant, but was entirely uninspiring. The dish and its accompanying Everest-like mound of rice seemed to be an illustration of food for sustenance. Perhaps I should have stuck with the grilled meat?

Al-Hussain Restaurant
75/7 Sukhumvit Soi 3/1
02 252 0240

Al-Hussain is located in the heart of Soi 3/1 and boasts a vast display case holding a variety of curries and brandishing a line of Bangladeshi text. Assuming the restaurant served Bangladeshi food, I asked the employees to recommend any specialties of this country. “All our foods are Bangladeshi,” said the man behind the counter, in an effort to get me to hurry up and order something. So I pointed to a chickpea curry, curried vegetables, and dhal, pureed lentils in a spicy broth, accompanied by the ubiquitous naan bread. The food was hearty and tasty—very similar to meals I’ve had in Pakistan, although I don’t think it was particularly Bangladeshi, which to my limited understanding emphasizes freshwater fish and mustard seed.

Al-Hussain features an open-air dining area, and during the course of my meal, every time a European-looking foreigner walked by, the staff had the annoying habit of screaming “Welcome saaar!” which seemed to result in making all European-looking foreigners eat everywhere but Al-Hussain.

How To Make: Kaeng Massaman

Kaeng massaman, literally "Muslim curry", is a dish you'll probably find in almost every Thai cookbook. I've tried many of these recipes and have never been happy until recently. The following recipe is one that I came across in a Thai-language cookbook and adapted myself, and is by far the best I've seen. Kaeng massaman differs from most Thai curries in that it doesn't have a curry paste that's pounded up in a mortar and pestle; the ingredients, mostly dried spices, are added step by step. Keep in mind that Thai-Muslim food tends to be sweet. If you don't like sweet dinner dishes, than reduce the amount of sugar in the last step. Most people expect this dish to have peanuts; you can put them in there at the last step if you want, but I think it's oily and fatty enough already!

“Muslim” Curry with Beef Kaeng Matsaman Nuea
(Serves 4)

Ingredients
Beef 500 g
Thick coconut milk* 1 cup
Think coconut milk** 1 cup
Freshly roasted and ground
coriander seed 3 Tbsp
Freshly roasted and ground
cumin seed 2 tsp
Chili powder 2 Tbsp
Turmeric powder 1/2 tsp
Ground pepper 2 tsp
Cooking oil 3/4 cup
Chopped shallots 1/4 cup
Cinnamon 3 pieces
Star anise 3
Thai cardamom (look krawaan) 10
Water 1/2 cup
Potatoes 200 g, quartered
Shrimp paste 1 tsp
Peppercorns 20, crushed
Shredded ginger 1/2 cup
Salt 1 1/2 Tbsp
Tamarind paste 4 Tbsp
Palm sugar 5 Tbsp
Onion 1, sliced

*Thick coconut milk is the coconut milk that comes directly from the can.
**Thin coconut milk is canned coconut milk that has been diluted, 50%, with water.

Method
Wash beef and cut into large bite sized pieces. In a medium saucepan, cover beef with water, bring to a boil, reduce heat and simmer until beef is tender, at least 40 minutes.

Combine ground coriander, ground cumin, chili powder, and ground pepper. Set aside.

In a large saucepan over medium heat, add oil and fry shallots with cinnamon, star anise and Thai cardamom, until golden and crispy. Add dry spice mixture, stirring well to combine. When fragrant, add thick coconut milk followed by water. Bring to a slight boil and add potatoes. Simmer until potatoes are just done, about 5 minutes, and add beef. Combine shrimp paste with two Tbsp of hot curry mixture and return to saucepan, stirring to combine. Add peppercorns and ginger. Bring to a boil and reduce heat, simmering until fragrant and flavors have combined. Add thin coconut milk and season with salt, tamarind paste and palm sugar. Bring to a boil and add onions, simmer until onions are soft and remove from heat.

Serve hot with rice as part of a southern Thai meal.