Paste Ingredients:

Mousse Ingredients:

Garnishes:

Direction:

1. Grease the inside of all 15 timbales and line the bottom with a few basil leaves. Keep chilled for filling later.
2. In a food processor, add the cubed fish, red curry paste, egg, palm sugar, fish sauce and kaffir lime leaves chiffonade and blend all ingredients together until a smooth paste is achieved and the ingredients ball up in the processor.
3. While the processor is still running add the coconut cream and milk to make a smooth custard. Turn off the processor.
4. Filled the already greased and lined timbales with the mousse paste. Knock on the timbales to get all the air bubbles out.  Steam the timbales for 10-15 minutes until the mousse is done.  Allow to rest 5 minutes before unmolding.
5. Unmold each timbale onto a serving plate. Line the bottom of the plate with a little of the curry sauce and olive oil.  Sprinkle each of the three color brunoise peppers around the plate.  Top the timbale with the thickened coconut cream and spoon a small amount of the ibiko over the cream and garnish the top of it with chiffonade kaffir lime leaves and julienned red pepper.  Serve hot.

Every Year, around the beginning of April, I receive a notice in the mail from my friends and ex-partners from the Back Porch Cafe in Rehoboth Beach Delaware. This year is no different and the announcement of this year’s opening of the Back Porch Cafe is usually accompanied by a clever line or two from some well-known writer.

Around this time every year, I get a sense of nostalgia as the Back Porch Cafe was the place that lit up the path of my career. I first went to Rehoboth in the late 1970’s for a summer holiday break from Georgetown University and somehow decided to take a job as a lunch cook at the little beach-town Cafe. I guess since I was already throwing lunch parties, BBQ’s, and dinners for all my friends at the beach, It only figured that I might as well get paid for it. (I must admit, I was a pretty spoiled brat as everything was paid for by my patroness in Thailand.) So, this was the first time that I experienced work-ethics and the concept of working for money. It was a wonderful and eye-opening event for one coming from a well known family in Thailand. The Back Porch Cafe was a great encounter for me as I was not judged by who I am (or was in Thailand) but rather by what and how I was. I took it for granted that people might Cow tow to me in Thailand while no one had even heard of me in the US; It was really refreshing.

Eventually, when the end of the season came I decided that I would change my education from Georgetown and went to further myself at the CIA (Culinary Institute of America) to study and do the things Im passionate about. I guess the rest is history and now my family extended to all the friends and partners from the Back Porch Cafe. They gave me the guidance and the confidence that I have in my ability; And that sometimes make me rather cocky.

Yet, I suppose Im getting old because I look back on those days as some of the happiest times of my life. During those 10 years, I grew from a cook to employee, manager, co-owner, and partner; I felt no growing pains. I worked for money, I worked for myself, I played the hardest, I worked the hardest, and I felt so alive. Oh, I would love to go back to those days, at least the ones I can remember from the 70’s & 80’s.

So after living many years in the US, being at the Back Porch Cafe, and then having a restaurant in Key West Florida, I finally returned to Thailand. luckily enough, my ex-partners and friends would visit me almost every year after being in Thailand for only 4. In that time, I made a name for myself in the culinary world on television and that enabled me to take my friends to all kinds of places in Asia. The years they were here were so much fun; Maybe too much! I have them and all my buddies in the States to thank for their constant ribbing and ability to never take me seriously in order to inspire me to do better. Especially when I struggled in Thailand to be taken seriously as a chef on a life mission to bring the true knowledge and structure of Thai cuisine to the rest of the world. (I know it does sound arrogant but someone’s got to get the ball rolling)

Now that we’re all grown up and I finally have done my book, “The Principles of Thai Cookery,” in hopes to catch the world’s attention, I still go home to Rehoboth every year for Christmas and for New Years to see my family in the States. So this year when I go home, I’m going to cook up a storm with my friends, drink lots of martinis, as we reminisce and tell stories of christmas past.

check out more details on their website: http://www.backporchcafe.com/

It doesn’t resemble any of the dishes that ordinary Thais eat. Moreover, no one has really written a history of how it came about. Except a bit of poetry written by Soon Thorn Pu who lived from the reign of King Rama the second to the Rama IV. Naturally, this literary laureate wrote poetry about how delicious this dish was.

Kao Chae is the only Thai Dish where the rice is eaten cold with Jasmine and candle fume scented water. As a note, Ice was not brought to Thailand until the reign of King Rama the IV, therefore, in the past rain water was used and kept cool in an earthen ware pot in a dark place where the sun’s warmth couldn’t reach it.

(The dishes that go into making up Kao Chae represents the way Thais eat. Many dishes eaten with rice and shared. Only this time the rice in cold scented water.)

So what makes up Kao Chae?…

One of the most important ingredients in the Kao Chae is the shrimp paste. This paste has been seasoned with “Kra Chai” (wild ginger), Shallots, Garlic, Palm Sugar, all of which are pounded together into a thick soupy mix, placed in a wok and then heated to evaporate the moisture so that a paste of highly scented shrimp paste is achieved. Afterwards it is allowed to cool and then rolled into a small ball, dipped in batter, and deep fried. This makes up the first menu item.

Next comes Thai shallots stuffed with ground fish meat, herbs, spices, fish sauce, and palm sugar, and later dipped in batter then fried.

The third item, is the very intricate and complicated stuffed banana peppers with lacy egg lace wrap. The peppers are stuffed with herbs, spices, and ground pork. Then they are steamed, allowed to cool, deep fried, and lastly wrapped in the lacy egg wrap.

Fourthly, depending on the preference of each palace on whether they like pork, beef, or fish, these are treated by tearing it into strands, seasoning with palm sugar with fish sauce, allow to dry and then deep fried. This is another dish that is eaten with the cold rice soup.

The following dish depends on the palace preference as well; Each individual palace has their preference. Sweet pickled Chinese turnips are julienned, stir fried in oil, along with cracked eggs being added to the pan. This is also eaten with the cold rice soup.

Now it’s time for the cold rice, which the making of is also very difficult mind you. We start by cooking white rice normally in a rice cooker but making sure not to make the rice too soft and sticky. Once the rice is cooked, scoop the rice out into another bowl or tray and allow it to cool to room temperature. Then, place all the cool rice in a bowl and add cold water many many times to get the starch out of the rice (until the water comes out clear and not cloudy). Be mindful not to break the rice seeds; This is one hell of a process as it is very time consuming.

As for creating the Jasmine and Candle smoke scented liquid, in the olden days, you needed rain water, non-insecticide sprayed organic jasmine flower, and of course ancient candle scent. Adding Jasmine to water to scent it is easy, but imparting the ancient candle scent is a bit trickier. We achieve the latter by placing a stand which holds a smoky candle just above the waterline in a bowl (with lid) of water. Next, we light the candle in order to create smoke by extinguishing the flame. Quickly, we then cover the bowl with its lid trapping the smoke before it get away. The next morning, our bowl is now filled with fragrant water for use with Kao Chae. However, if the candle has fallen into the water, congratulations, we have to wait one more day before we eat.

Speaking of… Eating this dish is difficult; The proper way is to take some peppers, shallots, green mango, green onions, fresh wild ginger ( all of which are carved),you’re your kapi “shrimp paste ball”, as well as a bit of everything onto your side plate. Then we take some into a bowl and pour the scented water over it and a little bit of ice. When eaten, the items (excluding the vegetables or fruit) from the side plate are placed in the mouth and followed by the fruits or herbs as chasers. This is particularly important especially when eating the stuffed peppers because you will need to cut the peppers into bite size pieces before you can put it in your mouth. These vegetables, you will notice are either, fragrant, herbal, or tart as it compliments all the greasy and or fried stuff which is why Kao Chae is eaten with the vegetables (helps digest and eliminate the fat).

Now that we all know this is a process we don’t have time for; Let me say there are many restaurants in Bangkok that serve Kao Chae year around. (Although in the olden days it was served only during Thailand’s hot-season.) Hopefully I will get a chance to do some reviews of Kao Chae places for you guys soon. Signing off.

Basil is a very important ingredient when it comes to Thai cookery. So important that Thais use three different kinds of Basil in our food. These three are; Thai Sweet Basil “bai ho ra pa,” Lemon/Mint Basil “bai maeng rak,” and of course Holy Basil “bai gaprao.”

(The last of which I like to think was named as some westerner came across it and thought, “Holy Crap this is amazing.”)

Our first basil is Thai Sweet basil, it is the sweeter Thai cousin to its Italian counterpart. Being a mild and cool basil, we use it in our green curry or eaten with spicy North Eastern Thai dishes on the side.

Next we have Lemon/Mint Basil, which is the most important and most fragrant of our basils. Additionally, it is a dominant note in two of our famous dishes kanom jeen nam ya (fermented rice noodles with fish curry) and gaeng liang (spicy vegetable soup).

Lastly there is Holy Basil, which is fragrant, spicy and peppery and is used in our jungle curry (gaeng pa) and our basil stir-fry (pad gaprao – I suppose this dish would be the equivalent of a Thai burger).

This concludes todays’ bit of the Principles of Thai cookery Lesson.

Ingredients:

Preparation:

1. In a pot, bring coconut milk, palm sugar, granulated sugar and salt to the boil. This liquid should taste sweet but not sickly sweet, followed by a little bit of saltiness to balance it out.
2. Once it has achieved the desired taste, add the banana pieces and bring back to the boil. Correct the seasoning again, because Thai bananas are more sour than Cavendish bananas. Allow the banana pieces to soften and to take on the flavor of the coconut milk (about 10 minutes). Turn off the heat.
3. Serve in a bowl, hot or at room temperature.

“Some people prefer their bananas really soft, while others prefer them a little hard (which means you will have to choose ripe or not-so-ripe bananas according to your preference). If you choose hard bananas, you will have to cook them in the coconut sauce for a little longer (15-20 minutes).”

This recipe is from the Principles of Thai Cookery

My apologies for the long winded introduction to this review but I feel that it is my duty as a Thai Chef to go and taste his food, to praise him if the food is good, to guide him if the food is not correct so that he will be another force to bring authentic thai cuisine to the rest of the world. Thais should not think that they have the monopoly on cooking Thai food, Westerners have every right to cook Thai but it is the duty of Thais to tell them that the food that they cook is correct and represents the Thai food profile. We Thais need to teach them and guide them through the structure the history and the intricacies of authentic thai food so that he will be able to impart this knowledge to other peoples including westerners.

So I arrived at the restaurant the ambience was great and it is a very beautiful restaurant and it was packed. I was a little bit biased against chef David Thompson thinking that his food would not be good but when I got there Chef Thompson came and greeted me, we’ve known each other for quite a while now, he’s probably more Thai than I am and he knew how to ingratiate himself to me by calling me Ajarn, which means teacher. This is amazing for a westerner to do to a Thai who is more Farang than he is. He certainly put my misgivings about him to the side. David Thompson certainly understood that Thai people enjoy “Ba-yor” ( when someone humbles before you ). Chef Thompson greeted me at the reception and told me he had been trying to contact me and he had wanted me to come eat for a long time and so he had apologized. He asked if he could do the menu for me that night and I agreed with one provision, that I get to eat Sum rap Thai ( which means a whole selection of dishes that completes the Thai meal; A curry, soup, stir fry, deep fried dish, a salad, and the Thai dip which at David Thompson’s restaurant is called relish but in Thai is called Nam Prik. I am going to go on to tell what I ate and what my impressions are….

The first dish was an Amuse Bouche was called Ma-hor, or galloping horse. This is a very old recipe consisting of pork, peanuts, palm sugar, etc. This sticky mass is piled on top of an acidic fruit. In this case pineapple and garnished with coriander leaf. This dish I had eaten when I was young in the palace where I used to live. Most Thais don’t know it, and David Thompson knew. It was light refreshing, sweet, sour, and salty; Quite good. What was great about the restaurant was the servers who were very pleasant and knowledgeable about the food they were serving as they were obviously trained by the kitchen about the food being served so that they can have the correct information for the guests. They were able to explain to the table what was in the Mahor and what it tastes like and how it comes and what it looks like. Which is very helpful for non-Thais and I figured helpful for those Thais who haven’t eaten food like this before.

The next appetizer that came was Shucked Mussels marinated in a Curry Sauce called Gorae – a southern muslim dish, very much like a peanut sauce that is served with satay but it is heavier in terms of spice. He did this very well. The mussels were not overcooked and the curry marinade was not overly sweet like it is in the south of Thailand. I have no idea where he got this recipe from. Those thais who have not been to the south would probably not come across this recipe. One criticism is that the grilled mussel was served with sliced cucumber but should’ve been served with Ajard which is basically sliced cucumber, onion, red chili peppers in a sweet and sour liquid as most muslim related dishes are served.

The second appetizer that came to the table is very familiar to all of us from the north.. nam prik num – which is a roasted chili pepper dip. It is served on pork crackling with a half boiled quail eggs and topped with more of the chili dip. The idea of serving it this way alone represents the way it is eaten in the north of Thailand. Although I think that the dip itself was not hot enough or sour enough in terms of balance of flavor for me. The presentation looked great.

The next one is a salad served as an appetizer ( a munchy ). It is a crab salad, very very simple dressing and if you know anything about Thai salad dressing, we don’t have oil in our dressing. Then herbs and spices are added to the salad made of crab meat alone. Once dressed it is piled onto a fried rice cracker and then garnished and served in pieces. This was really delicious but still no chili peppers for me.

Next came all the courses and I must admit to you that I have eaten at this restaurant more than four times already so I have done almost the whole menu. I am going to be very frank because there are dishes that were really good and there were dishes that did not quite work. Im letting you know why it is good and why it is bad because then you will understand how what I think and how I taste things. It is not based on how i feel but it is based on whether the food stays true to the profile or what that dish is in the Thai culinary art.

First thing was the soup which there were two. The first soup came from a stir fry recipe and is called Boub Pad Kai – which is basically rib gourd or sponge gourd, stir fried with eggs. Great idea so he could take a stir fried dish and then add soup broth to it and then season it with white pepper and a bit of fish sauce. This was delicious and a great idea and a great adaptation of different cooking techniques.

The next soup was also an invention of David Thompson which was a duck soup in coconut juice soup. Great combination and very inventive because it is fragrant, delicious, yet not too sweet. I really enjoyed this dish also.

Then came the Dips, He sent me a very simple salad dip in Thai Saengweh – which is basically a salad made of prawns but he used fresh river prawns instead which makes it richer and creamier by the fact that river prawns have this creamy coral in head of the prawns. which makes it richer and creamier. It is more like a salad served in a little bowl with crispy fried catfish flakes and sweet pork belly. The whole combination is eaten all at once with rice. This goes to show that Chef Thomspon understands that in our eating culture, rice is the main meal itself; You eat everything with rice. How much more Thai can you get than that. The only misgiving about this dish is that it is still not hot enough for me.

Then came the salads or Yum, He sent out so many Yums but to begin with we had the fresh white turmeric salad. which was very very good except that the turmeric itself was served in large chunks… in proper thai cuisine, it should be julienned and a lot of it should be used. However, I understand why chef Thompson did it that way because in eating Thai food you actually mix the salad in your mouth, as you chew you bite onto a large chunk of white turmeric and then the prawns and then the sourness of the dressing and then the chili peppers and all the other ingredients that go into it. There is actually a party in your mouth.

Most Thai salads are either thick dressing or thin dressing which means like a vinaigrette without oil. The balance in flavor is equal balance between sweetness from palm sugar, sourness from tropical fruits like tamarind or lime etc, and saltiness from fish sauce. Those are the main flavors in most Thai salads.

The next salad was a lemongrass salad with pork, prawns, and crispy fish skin. This salad was great very well balanced in terms of flavor and texture. I have nothing but praise for this dish. The only regret I have was that it was not hot enough for me personally as usual.

One of the stir fry dish that he did was a tip of a leafy vegetable Pak Wan – basically it is a tip of an evergreen tree that is quite sweet and nutty. Then he stir fried with Thai fish balls, which is called Plagrai, it instead of what Thais usually stir fry it with which is shrimp. It was well done, delicious, and still crispy.

Next was the stir fried bean sprouts, this is not a Thai vegetable but very chinese. I like bean sprouts a lot and I wanted to find out how well he does it. It came out still hot but still crispy and quite delicious.

The next stir fry I questioned very much as I didn’t think it very Thai because this stir fry was mixed with mushrooms and had ginger in it. If you were going to stay with the central plain Thai food profile it wouldn’t work. We rarely use ginger in our cuisine, however, we use a lot of ginger in northern Thai cookery due to the close proximity of the north to China. This is a Chinese influence and I can only think of one central plain dish that uses a lot of ginger that is a sweet and sour fish soup with ginger and scallion which we call Thom Som.

Afterwards the Plah Scallop came – which is basically a scallop salad with coconut milk in. It was very delicious and fragrant.

Then came Thai beef jerky Nua Khem – which doesn’t stay with the kinda Nua Kehm that Im used to. It was too thick, too soft and wasn’t deep fried. It was more like a dried braised beef but it was interesting nonetheless.

Having said all this the most surprising thing that I experienced at dinner that night was a very very north eastern and a central plain dish that even some Thais don’t like it. It is called Pla Rah Sub. It consists of very smelly ( if the quality is not good ) fermented fish cooked with sometimes ground pork, or fish meat highly spiced and seasoned and its eaten as a relish or a dip. Of course you have to eat it with rice or else it will send you to the moon once you put it in your mouth. It is usually accompanied by vegetables of various kinds and in this case he used green mango as well which was a great surprise to me. The appearance of this dish when Thais make it, is basically very uniformed with no big chunks of anything but David stir fried and cooked it with large chunks of chilies, herbs, and spices. This was a joy to see because when you eat it you take those big chunks and eat it with rice. Then you don’t have to eat too much of the accompanying vegetables. I even took it home because I couldn’t finish it and ate it the next day. David is so Thai when it comes to this dish.

In terms of curry, the Fish Jungle Curry was very good although I think he put in less wild ginger ( Krachai ) than was necessary and was not hot enough for me. His Masaman Chicken Curry and his Beef Paneang to me were quite good but there are Thais who are not familiar with the fact that David Thompson pounds his own curry paste to order. Therefore, it will not smell or taste like your generic brand that you get from a store bought paste from the market. I am not sure whether Chef Thompson needs to adjust his homemade curry pastes to appease the Thai palate; For me he should stick with it.

The last stir-fry I tasted was the stir-fry frog’s leg meat with chili, garlic, and holy basil. This one should have been very good but before you use the frog’s leg meat for the stir-fry you need to grill the legs first with skin on to dry out the meat a little and you will also need to marinate the meat in coriander roots, peppercorns, and garlic paste to get rid of the fishy and wild smell of the frogs; So when you do the stir-fry it would taste much better. The Crab Curry was really good, mild, and well blended.

As for desserts, there were so many. Some of them were great and some of them I have not see before. Some that I liked and not familiar with. One was the Smokey Candle scented  Coconut Cream with fresh sliced of sapodilla fruit. It was unusual because we Thais only eat this fruit by itself and the texture of the meat of the fruit is rather unusual(sandy texture). I nonetheless tried it and liked it. What I really liked was the turmeric scented grilled bananas with coconut cream brushed over them while grilled. You are to eat this with the smokey candle scented coconut cream that has fresh jack fruit slices and imitation jackfruit stones (a Thai dessert made with beans) floating in the the coconut cream; This combination worked.

The only dessert that I did not like was the durian with sticky rice in smokey candle scented cream. The coconut cream was too smokey and when you add the durian to it and pour the whole mixture onto the sticky rice, it was too over powering. There was no separation of flavors and texture because everything was over powered by the durian coconut cream. When I was young, living in Sukhothai Palace, we also loved durian, coconut cream and sticky rice but there they served it differently. Rather than mixing the durian meat into the coconut cream, they added pieces of durian to the sticky rice in the bowl and poured the un-scented coconut cream over the sticky rice and durian. It was much better because you could taste the sticky rice, the durian and the coconut cream.

For those of you who want to try this restaurant, you should have a really deep knowledge of Thai food because some of the dishes that Chef Thompson make many Thais don’t even know it existed. I would like to invite everyone to try Chef Thompson’s food at Nahm. This restaurant is not cheap so those of you expect to find cheap good Thai food will be disappointed but please keep an open mind. It is a duty of all Thais who are proud of their culinary heritage to encourage the cooking of correct profile Thai food but everyone, not just only Thais so that the true nature of our country’s eating culture will carry all over the world. At the same time as encouraging everyone to cook Thai, we also have a duty to guide and teach these aspiring chefs of Thai cuisine,  the basic foundation of what Thai food is all about. Once they are armed with the basic foundation of Thai cuisine then creativity will come. I don’t really care if Chef Thompson was given a one star Michelin guide because the guide cannot claim to be an expert on Thai cuisine, they after all started as expert of French and continental cuisine when the guide started over a hundred years ago. I would venture to say that Michelin Guide can claim the right to give it’s stars to only French and continental cuisine. All other great cuisine in the world, Chinese, Japanese, Indian and Thai to name a few are beyond the boundaries of their expertise.

Here’s a copy of my response.

Directions:

1. Heat up oil in a wok, then add the kale, taro, cut baby corn, pumpkin, and carrots. Stir fry until all ingredients are heated up.
2. Add the cooked cold rice to the wok and stir fry. Season with soy sauce, Golden Mountain seasoning sauce, and brown sugar. Stir fry to evenly distribute the sauces in the rice.
3. Correct seasoning as preferred.
4. Add white and red beans to the wok. Stir fry until heated through. Taste for the last time for your preferred flavor, then grind black pepper corns into the fried rice. Spoon the rice onto 2 plates and garnish with sliced cucumbers and green onion stems.

What really bothers me is the lack of pride and appreciation that Thais have for our culinary heritage. It seems that Thais take our food culture for granted, since my book came out merely as an attempt to inform the world about it. We have one of the greatest culinary cultures in the world that, in the past fifteen years or so, expanded its popularity around the world. Yet, no one except Chef David Thompson, has made an attempt to give structure, explanation, and history to our culinary culture. So it has been my mission in life for the past six years to try to give Thai food structure, understanding, and organization and preach it to both Thais and non-Thais alike.

When I realized that Kiin Kiin’s food at Sra Bua was not Thai and the Michelin guide people gave them a Michelin star; Obviously, both Kiin Kiin and worse still the Michelin guide people know nothing of Thai food. In the end, it is our fault, Thai people’s fault and my fault that we are not able to all come together and tell the rest of the world what the structure of our cuisine is all about. I hope that my book goes in some way to explain our culinary heritage and its structure to the rest of the world. This does not mean that you can not experiment or deviate from the norm of Thai culinary structure. But when you do so, I hope that you will be able to explain to those who are eating your food that this is an adaptation from the original structure or profile of Thai cuisine.

Let me give you some rules in terms of Thai cookery.

1) You salt Thai savory dishes with fish sauce
2) You sweeten Thai dishes with palm sugar
3) You make your food sour with sour tropical fruits
4) All the oil that is used in Thai cookery does not have a smell in it. Therefore, sesame oil is chinese and not Thai.
5) Thais do not have emulsions in their cuisine. When we make dips or relishes, you can not blend it and make it into a mayonnaise ( emulsion ).
6) You can not cook Thai food without a paste; With one exception, that is when you make an infusion soup such as Tom Yum or Tom Kha which are both infusion soups.
7)In Thai culture we have to eat rice with everything, and the word for eating in Thai is “Kin Kao” which means, eating rice. Therefore, rice is central to our meals.

So with this in mind, we can examine Sra Bua’s Kai/Moo Palo. This dish is braised pork belly with boiled eggs in a five-spice soy broth. It is Chinese and what makes it Thai is, when you make this dish, instead of using granulated sugar, we use palm sugar to make this stew sweet. Also, we added a Thai paste consisting of cilantro roots, garlic, and white pepper corns. So it is supposed to be slightly sweet and smelling of the paste with a hint of coconut from the sugar and not only five-spice powder. Thats why it is not Thai… and where’s the rice!

I hope this is enough guidelines for beginners who are interested in Thai cuisine. Hopefully, in my next blog I will go into further details why Sra Bua’s food is not Thai but makes for an interesting experience; For me and probably for a lot of Thais who care about their own cuisine. It teaches us that we don’t have to think that Michelin guide is the “be all and end all” here since they know nothing about our food culture. How dare them give Michelin guide stars to any chefs that cook Thai food
around the world.

There Are two inherent problems:

1) Firstly, how come all notable “Thai” Chefs are “Farang” (Westerners). Moreover, are  the only ones recognized by the Michelin guide the Thai Chefs of stature.

2) The Second problem is, why do Thai people buy into it all and not spend any time to promote themselves or their fellow Thais?

There exists a negative propensity of the Thai people, nation, or culture to think that Farangs are more clever. We seem to never promote ourselves as the majority of Thais look to Westerners for promotion. I’m sad and hurt by this truth but speak from my heart when I say, “There appears to be an innate characteristic of Thais, that when another Thai is better than them, jealousy is harbored instead of pride; Pride that someone is doing great for them self and doing good for the country.” Thais only promote other Thais when there is an interest of money or position to be gained from it.

In order to best this dilemma there needs to be introspection and retrospection on our part. Thais need to look at ourselves and realize what is happening to our culture. Yes, we all yelled and screamed about, “how dare David Thompson say this and that about how Thai food is in decline and how he would be it’s savior,” but who promoted David Thompson. We Thais gave him all the information, he went through all of our funeral books, and we thanked him for it. Yet, I personally found it extremely difficult just to complete my book as I was unable to find any one to fund it; Even though I have the same education, if not better than David Thompson or any western Chef for that matter, as I was raised abroad. Unfortunately, most Thais seem to believe that Westerners have more intellect when it comes to these things. Most Thais seem to think they can write better than us, think better, and apparently know our culture and food better than us.

One case in sample is when I ate at Sra Bua, at the Siam Kempinski Hotel here in Bangkok. They said, “This is molecular Thai cuisine.” Firstly, it is their translation of Thai food and they don’t understand our eating culture very well. The Thai word for eating is Gin Khao (literally translated means “Eat Rice”); Rice is the most central part of our cuisine, yet many westerners don’t know this fact since most Thais have not taught them this about our eating culture. So, now Farangs have gone and translated our Thai food to be served at a Western table with misunderstandings of how to eat it.

An example being is their dish called, “The Harvest,” which is basically Gang Dang as an emulsion with a mayonnaise base; Thai food doesn’t have emulsions. Then a carrot is stuck in a plant pot and served with this dip… I thought to myself, “What the hell is this.” It works for the Western table or idea but it is not Thai food. This is a restaurant with a Michelin Guide background yet they’ve forgotten that carrots don’t even originate from Thailand.

This strange behavior has been going on forever within the Thai culture and psyche. Fortunately, the properly educated in Thailand don’t give two hoots about what David Thompson says, or how many stars the Michelin Guide spits out when it comes to Thai food.

Thais have to be more like the Japanese and Hong Kong people and say, “This is a bunch of bunk!” The Michelin Guide only has a basic understanding of what Western cuisine is because its French. They clearly started solely as a French or Continental cuisine guide and are just trying to brand themselves internationally. What merits their ratings when it come to Japanese food, indigenous food, or any kind of Asian food at all. Furthermore, who gives a shit what they think about Asian food because they don’t know. Why would any educated person care about it or want a Michelin Guide Star for their restaurant.

I had so many questions and so ended up in conversation with one of my Colleagues and friends Chawadee Nualkhair, Foreign Correspondent’s Club of Thailand Panelist. We discussed at length, to try and figure out why Thai restaurants are trying so hard to get Michelin stars.

Chef McDang:

Why do so many Thais still need Western approval?

K. Chow:

I think Thais seek this approval as its more about how they want to see themselves reflected in Farang’s eyes. It’s as if they feel inferior or seek some sort of approval.

Chef McDang:

Unfortunately, you know, that is why I had to write my book in English. Farangs have to accept my book first, before Thais can accept me.

K. Chow:

Ah right; I see, that’s right… It’s like they need that step of approval.

Chef McDang:

But Why?… Why do these Thai restaurants need the Michelin Guide and Western approval?

K. Chow:

Well, there’s the marketing tool. Marketing becomes so much easier if you market to Farangs who, at the moment, have deeper pockets. I think thats what’s sadly really moving things here. Farangs have deeper pockets so you have to market to them. So how do you market to them; You have to be recognized by Farangs.

Chef McDang:

But isn’t it our duty as Thais, to tell the world what Thai food is and about its structure. Why don’t Thais support each other and start an institution or campaign and educate some of these stupid Western Chefs who don’t even know what fucking Thai food is. Why don’t we tell them what Thai food is? Are Thais scared that we can’t speak english properly or something?

K. Chow:

I dont know what it is…  It seems people just want to be told what ethnic food is from someone else. Just look at Mexico; Rick Bayless, who isn’t at all mexican, is the authority of Mexican food. For some reason Westerners want to hear about ethnic food from other Westerners.

Chef McDang:

Im going to have to start shooting my mouth off. Its just that Thais seem to be dragged into this whole thing trying to conform into western marketing means and molds. So far, we’ve only got this Royal Thai food marketing scheme but the truth is that it isn’t any different than regular thai food.

K. Chow:

Haha, I know how you feel about Royal Thai Food.

Chef McDang:

Well, I grew up in the Palace it’s just a marketing scheme…

There are two ways of selling thai food.

First, if you want to elevate it to the likes of french cuisine, then it would have to be a modern Thai cuisine, platted and served in courses like western cuisine while maintaining the food profile and staying with the realm of Thai food. Which I’ve mentioned to you before, I was going to do with my next book.

The other way to sell Thai food is, regular family style like how we are supposed to enjoy Thai food. This is for normal Thai food.

But if Thai restaurants want Michelin stars, then they’ll have to go for modern style Thai cuisine. I’ve been doing it for a while and I’ve always wondered why Thais haven’t taken notice. Then, when Westerners go out and do it, everyone goes crazy and they rave about it and about how the damn Michelin guide recommends it.

( sigh )

I just want the rest the world to understand what Thai food is and educate Thais as well about it. I hope to instill pride into future Thai chefs. They are so talented culinary-wise but they lack structure, understanding, world vision. They only think in terms of making money from business and not of national pride or of our heritage. Which if they did, would make much more money than some Michelin trick. If we start from the beginning from our roots. People would pay to know the truth instead of hear what business types think they want to hear…

I guess I see my role as bringing “real” Thai food to the rest of the world to educate and inform people and Chefs about what it is and show them how they can further it. Then they can guide these Western Chefs, who get Michelin Stars, and tell them that they haven’t been cooking Thai food at all.

K. Chow:

Yeah I think that’s great; You should definitely keep up your writing. By the way if you ever want to do a dinner to showcase your Thai food you should please consider Mathuezzi

Chef McDang:

Yeah I think that’ll be good; Hey, you should meet Karla and we should have a get-together. When I get back I’ll arrange a dinner for us all to yuck it up. And if this is the case we could showcase the food, invite the chefs, and invite the writers then.

K. Chow:

That’s great I’m looking forward to it

Chef McDang:

So, do you think I’ve given enough information? Have we covered everything?

K. Chow:

Yeah, I think so.

Chef McDang:

Well then; Thank you very much and it was very good talking to you I haven’t heard from you in a while. Have a Happy New Year and I’ll see you when I get back.

End of Conversation: