Understanding the Principles of Authentic Thai Cuisine

 My latest travels have brought me back to a place quickly becoming a second home, Thailand. I spent a significant amount of time in Bangkok with Chef Khun McDang, author of The Principals of Thai Cookery. McDang is Thailand’s leading food expert, chef, TV host, and writer. I had the opportunity to cook side by side with McDang as he schooled me in all things Thai.  Mesmerized and intrigued by just how simple authentic Thai cuisine really is, but how quickly it can become bastardized. McDang‘s book is purposely printed in English to expose the western world to the true Thai cookery and heritage of his countries native cuisine.   

“The most important thing about a country’s cooking is the ingredients.  The ingredients we use reflect the leading tastes in our food: saltiness, sweetness, and acidity.  From these three elements alone you can tell where the food comes from, or in other words, the country’s food profile.”    -Chef Khun McDang  

  

Thailand has a food culture that is like no other I have ever experienced. Thai’s casually eat eight times a day. During sit down “family style” meals there are typically a minimum of five dishes presented. Soup (typically clear), Fried Dish, a Stir fried, Dip with vegetables, Curry dish, and khao (rice) the only component served individually.   

Thailand’s terrain and proximity to the equator make it perfect for year round agriculture.  Thailand also boasts 3,219 kilometers of coast line, which makes the seafood industry a strong hold for the nation’s economy. Thai’s use seafood in numerous applications.  

  

Preserving, drying with salt and allowing the sun to naturally extract moisture.   

Steaming/Boiling, adding moisture and commonly used for larb preparations, dips, curries, and salads  

Grilling, Stir Frying, Deep Frying- Grilling (over charcoal) the most common in Thai culture, deep-frying (palm oil) was  later introduced to Thai Cookery. Deep fried foods are commonly accompanied by a dipping sauce (with chili) to cut the high fat content from the oil.  Green mango salad is commonly paired with fried seafood.  

 

  

   

 

The Thai’s have a phrase which says “gin len” or “play eating”. This references a quick bit or snack. Wherever you go in the streets you will always find food stalls. From dawn to dusk and in some areas, all night. By far the majority are mobile. At the end of their day they wheel their carts back home. Some are pushed and others have bicycles or motorcycles attached. However, an increasing number just leave their cart on the sidewalk and maybe just pull a sheet over it.   

   

This trip exposed me to the deeper layers of “What is Authentic Thai?”, thanks to my friend, Chef McDang. He took me deep into Bangkok immersing me in Thai Food from around the country. We feasted at true hidden gems, most tucked away off the main roads. These streets are referred to as a Soi.   

My favorite of all served E-San cuisine (North Eastern province), which is bold in flavor profiles. Each geographic region of Thailand carries a slightly different basket of staple ingredients. The rules of what defines authentic Thai cuisine will always be the same. SALTINESS, SWEETNESS, ACID (SOURNESS).   

On your next trip to Thailand don’t be shy, wonder down a Soi, stop into a local Thai restaurant and just enjoy! Who knows you may see us at the next table!   

(more…)

Raw Foods. Food Raw. Raw Food Diet. The Secret to Raw Food Recipes is Time.

One would think “cooking” Raw would be as simple as slicing and dicing.  Previously mentioned  it takes hours in preparation for each experiment!  I was not sure if  setting up my telephone line in the St. Thomas took a longer amount of time?  Regardless, it was a test of patients in comparison to actually heating up a sauté pan and whipping up dinner!  In order to do some of the experiments we had to sprout dry seeds –which took between 30 min-6 hours…

It was all worth the time and effort that we endured (along with my patients to get the other half fed!)  The  natural energy levels that I had after just 2 days of eating raw was one that I had never experienced.  I felt like I was in a formula 1 car 16 hours a day!

Below is the making of walnut “whipped cream” and fresh fruit dessert.

*The walnut whip cream had a denser texture that had an incredible aroma of vanilla, creamy texture, and full of great nutrients.  How could you go wrong!

Raw Food Recipes. Raw Foods. Dehydrating Mushrooms.

Mushroom, fungi, spores, some woody, some meaty, yet all have a large water content that defines their unique texture.  Another perfect item to explore when playing with raw food.  My only thoughts of raw shrooms is when your crafty waitress brings you a house salad with sliced raw button mushrooms.  Thanks, I will pass!

In order to extract optimal flavor in mushrooms they need to have  heat added to them, this creates a problem in the raw food scenario.  Ah yes, dehydration!  I marinated the generic shrooms in organic soy (just a little), shallots, chili flakes, and sesame oil.  They sat for 4 hours then off they went into the food dehydrator!  12 hours later we had moist flavorful shrooms!  These were used to add flavor packed punches in all kinds of raw dishes and as a tasty snack.

Raw Food Snacks

For me, it is not about writing on  meaningless topics & nonsense (especially critiquing restaurants) .. it’s about sharing things that have expanded my knowledge, inspired my creativity, or bring back an emotional tie.  In addition, educating others from my experiences is my goal-whatever the topic may be.

My ultimate goal is to inspire others to–TRAVEL. COOK. & EAT.

“Un-cooked” madness-

After 2 days of nipping at raw seeds and nuts, I realized I needed to put together some “snacks”.. this being a bit challenging because most people grab the box of wheat thins and kick back in front of the tube…  Not this week—it was all about that wonderful food I was set out to create all with the wonderful and challenging factor of that magic 120 degree mark!

Some of the snacks that were basic and fairly tasty were…

Cinnamon and nutmeg dehydrated banana chips (make sure to use raw bananas!), papaya chips, Asian marinated beef jerky (which turned out more like crackers…) I was a big fan, but had mixed reviews from the co-pilot.

The preparation time for each item took between 24-36 hours.… tisk tisk.. there is no question I should have started preparing these items in advance.

Raw Food. Rules & Guidelines of Raw Foods Experiment

After years of pondering what would it be like to only eat RAW food I decided to take the challenge… I did not do this for the trendy diet/cleansing aspect but for the culinary challenge. After a little convincing and flattery I somehow managed to get a co-pilot for this experiment! (ahh, the art of flattery…)

We decided that for one week we would taste, “un”-cook, and design new ideas that could potentially turn the thought of RAW food into something palatable.

When l used to live in Santa Monica, CA I ate at Juliano’s RAW, the food was creative, tasty in its own right, and no question vibrant. I was blown away when I ate at Bliss Café and Elixir Bar in Dallas- we couldn’t figure out how we were so full after eating hardly anything… it was a topic of conversation for weeks, so finally I made the call that we were going to go RAW!

Most Raw diets and RAW chefs stick to the vegan realm but not these omnivores!

Some of the general guidelines we had to follow were-

No food item could be heated above 120 degrees

No dairy (as commonly pasteurized)

Organic produce and grains

That said I quickly realized that my two new best friends became the blender and food dehydrator.

***Two books that are a great guideline for inspiration, reference are Charlie Trotter’s RAW and Juliano’s RAW