Thinking back to when I was a child, I remember the early morning mist and the smoke from food my grandmother cooked for my school lunch box, It was as if the smoke and mist would making it impossible to separate them.
I would help my grandmother collect eggs from the nearby duck house, break them open, and stir their yellowy contents into some fish sauce and shallots. We would pour the mixture into a folded banana leaf, shaped like a boat, and grill it over charcoal in the traditional way until it was firm and smelling delicious. To accompany it, my sister would pick small cucumbers off the vine covering the bamboo fence of our house. Kai Pum is the old local item we use for eggs cooked this way in banana leaves. It’s a tasty and easy way to make breakfast.
And I might have been the only student who brought sticky rice and grilled fish to school at that time, instead of the more fashionable American fried rice or macaroni, as others students from the Catholic school loved to bring, But these days I feel as though I owe my grandmother a lot. She raised me as a Northern Thai woman, and now I have become a person who is proud of my roots, and the traditional ways of culture, especially our food.
In The Good Old Days
My grand mother used to say “When the time comes that we have to buy vegetables, rice, and water. Then it must be time for the end of the World!” For her generation there was rarely any need to buy food. Even as children, whenever we wanted to eat or cook something, we just fetched the ingredients from the garden or from the farm.
At the time of the Thai New Year (Song Kran) we would prepare fresh sugar cane to make Thai dessert; Kanom Tein (steamed rice flour stuffed with coconut), and Khao Tann or Khao Nang Led (rice crackers). You could hear the tok tok tok sound of things being cut upmon chopping boards resonating all around, that was the way of cooking Laab (Northern Thai Style minced pork), and we believed that eating Laab at the beginning of the year, brought luck, or money, it’s what some of us still believe. On Thai New Year’s Eve we would also have the chance to sample Gaeng Kanoon, a special jackfruit soup. It was thought that by eating this soup we would be supported, as the name of the jackfruit in Thai also relates to support, the kind that we give to each other as people.
Whenever we went to the rice field, we’d always gather Pak Waen (Northern Thai clover fern) and Plaa Kradi (a kind of fish). This was enough to make an unbelievably delicious dinner. One of the other most fun food for foraging activities for kids was trying to catch crabs for making Nam Poo (crab sauce) We’d crush lemon grass together with the field crabs to get rid of their strong smell, and be left with a rich dark sauce. This goes very well with boiled bamboo shoots, as a side dish.
Cooking spicy Northern Thai food is very easy on the whole, as long as you have some basic ingredients to make the paste used in most soups; chill, salt, garlic, red shallot onions, and Ka Pi (shrimp paste). My grandmother also told me, as a guideline, that when you create a Thai soup, if you are using beef then you’d better and more galangal to it, and if it’s a fish soup you better use a lot of lemon grass. For chicken, color the soup with turmeric. And if you would like to get an umami (broth like) taste, then add some crushed red onions. The rest depends on the chef, but you should be able to make your own delicious dishes following these simple rules, without resorting to monosodium glutamate! In fact, traditional natural methods of cooking food are becoming very popular again since a reaction to so many unnecessary chemical ingredients and excessive uses of high technology. Many people want a more personal connection to what they eat, the way it was grown, and how it is then packaged and produced.
When we talk about food in the North, we also need to talk about “rice” Sticky rice is a staple dish for Northern Thai families. Traditionally we eat sat on the floor, gathered around a circular table. A spicy soup is then normally rested on the table upon a round platform called the Kantok. There are different ways to then handle and mold the rice, including: Ong Ka Long Kwai Non, Huk Na Wok, Mur, Bai.
At the time of the Thai New Year (Song Kran) we would prepare fresh sugar cane to make Thai dessert; Kanom Tein (steamed rice flour stuffed with coconut), and Khao Tann or Khao Nang Led (rice crackers). You could hear the tok tok tok sound of things being cut upmon chopping boards resonating all around, that was the way of cooking Laab (Northern Thai Style minced pork), and we believed that eating Laab at the beginning of the year, brought luck, or money, it’s what some of us still believe. On Thai New Year’s Eve we would also have the chance to sample Gaeng Kanoon, a special jackfruit soup. It was thought that by eating this soup we would be supported, as the name of the jackfruit in Thai also relates to support, the kind that we give to each other as people.
Whenever we went to the rice field, we’d always gather Pak Waen (Northern Thai clover fern) and Plaa Kradi (a kind of fish). This was enough to make an unbelievably delicious dinner. One of the other most fun food for foraging activities for kids was trying to catch crabs for making Nam Poo (crab sauce) We’d crush lemon grass together with the field crabs to get rid of their strong smell, and be left with a rich dark sauce. This goes very well with boiled bamboo shoots, as a side dish.
Cooking spicy Northern Thai food is very easy on the whole, as long as you have some basic ingredients to make the paste used in most soups; chill, salt, garlic, red shallot onions, and Ka Pi (shrimp paste). My grandmother also told me, as a guideline, that when you create a Thai soup, if you are using beef then you’d better and more galangal to it, and if it’s a fish soup you better use a lot of lemon grass. For chicken, color the soup with turmeric. And if you would like to get an umami (broth like) taste, then add some crushed red onions. The rest depends on the chef, but you should be able to make your own delicious dishes following these simple rules, without resorting to monosodium glutamate! In fact, traditional natural methods of cooking food are becoming very popular again since a reaction to so many unnecessary chemical ingredients and excessive uses of high technology. Many people want a more personal connection to what they eat, the way it was grown, and how it is then packaged and produced.
When we talk about food in the North, we also need to talk about “rice” Sticky rice is a staple dish for Northern Thai families. Traditionally we eat sat on the floor, gathered around a circular table. A spicy soup is then normally rested on the table upon a round platform called the Kantok. There are different ways to then handle and mold the rice, including: Ong Ka Long Kwai Non, Huk Na Wok, Mur, Bai.
Fusing the Past with Present
And even while everyone was still growing and picking their own vegetables straight out of the garden, there were often different groups of foreigners setting and working in and around Chiang Mai. Well over a hundred years old. There was already a whole international riversidecommunity, driven by a burgeoning fumber trade. There was a Chinese, European, and Indian community. They mainly lived near the Wat Kate temple area known as Bann Ta Huan Pae, located opposite what is now the Lam Yai fresh produce market (opposite Warorot Market). They all equally brought their own ideas, and cultures of food to bear on the eating habits of everyone in the city, and that has continued right through to the present day. Chiang Mai’s international eating scene stands as a clear testament to the fact.
But while getting a real ‘taste of Chiang Mai’ is all about the mixing of different cultures, with new dishes being created daily, the charming old ways of how to cook and savor Northern Thai food has never failed to have an influence either.
One thing I can guarantee; once you step into this town you will never leave hungry, as there is so much good food for you to sample and enjoy, both authentic and contemporary.
And even while everyone was still growing and picking their own vegetables straight out of the garden, there were often different groups of foreigners setting and working in and around Chiang Mai. Well over a hundred years old. There was already a whole international riversidecommunity, driven by a burgeoning fumber trade. There was a Chinese, European, and Indian community. They mainly lived near the Wat Kate temple area known as Bann Ta Huan Pae, located opposite what is now the Lam Yai fresh produce market (opposite Warorot Market). They all equally brought their own ideas, and cultures of food to bear on the eating habits of everyone in the city, and that has continued right through to the present day. Chiang Mai’s international eating scene stands as a clear testament to the fact.
But while getting a real ‘taste of Chiang Mai’ is all about the mixing of different cultures, with new dishes being created daily, the charming old ways of how to cook and savor Northern Thai food has never failed to have an influence either.
One thing I can guarantee; once you step into this town you will never leave hungry, as there is so much good food for you to sample and enjoy, both authentic and contemporary.
RSS Feed (xml)