Showing 51 - 60 of 198
What's cooking for breakfast?
B Magazine, Suthon Sukphisit, Published on 08/01/2017
» Everyone knows that breakfast is an important meal, but when looked at closely, it is as loaded with cultural significance as it is with vitamins and nutrients to fuel the coming day. It can provide a wealth of detailed information on the local environment, on the historical era in which it is or was eaten, the kind of work done by and the social status of the family who prepare and eat it, and the prevailing awareness of the relationship between food and good health.
A taste of the past
B Magazine, Suthon Sukphisit, Published on 01/01/2017
» When we take our first steps into a new year, starting on the path can be more reassuring if we look back on the year that just ended and put some of the things we experienced in it in one place. Over the past year, the Cornucopia column looked at many things -- among them, the old riverside neighbourhood along the Chanthaburi River, the Pathumwan area as it used to be; the informal markets known as talaad nat; traditional folk medicines; smoked fish; pesticides in vegetables; local dishes you can only enjoy by doing some travelling, and much more. Today I would like to review some of these subjects and gather them together into a kind of culinary and cultural tour.
The restos outlasting the past
B Magazine, Suthon Sukphisit, Published on 25/12/2016
» If you are someone who has been seriously devoted to food for years, you will probably experience a special feeling when you think back to old-style dishes. They were dishes that would not disappoint, and by now have a kind of immortality to them. If you had a chance to taste food like this again, you wouldn't let such a golden opportunity pass. And if you tracked down a restaurant that has been in business for 80 to 100 years or more, and was still operating in its original location with no change in decor or in the flavour of its food, it would be like stumbling upon an enchanted palace from a fairy tale. You would feel as if you had actually passed through some portal into the past.
Diningat the toptable
B Magazine, Suthon Sukphisit, Published on 18/12/2016
» Everyone must have heard the term "royal cuisine" and know that it refers to food prepared in the palaces of high-ranking nobility. In the past there were palaces belonging to many branches of the royal family and at each one, in addition to the standard dishes, there were special ones prepared that were particular to that one palace.
The age of perfectionists
B Magazine, Suthon Sukphisit, Published on 11/12/2016
» This is the age of data. Making food is easy now because there are cookbooks everywhere and ingredients of all kinds are widely available and easy to buy. Any bookshop will have its cookbook section, offering an array of volumes with clear photographs and precise instructions as to measurements and techniques.
A fish fit for a king
B Magazine, Suthon Sukphisit, Published on 04/12/2016
» High on the list of popular fish in Thailand is tilapia, called plaa nin in Thai. It is tasty and meaty, inexpensive and easy to find in the market. Cooks can prepare it in many ways, one of the most popular being to cover the entire fish with salt and then grill it or, if it is small, to salt and sun-dry it to make plaa daed dio.
It takes a village
B Magazine, Suthon Sukphisit, Published on 27/11/2016
» His Majesty the King's philosophy of the sufficiency economy, which he always promoted among Thai people, depends on diligent work and the avoidance of greed and cheating or dishonesty. The rewards of this approach to life include a comfortable life and -- importantly -- the avoidance of debt.
In His Nature
B Magazine, Suthon Sukphisit, Published on 13/11/2016
» When we were children, one of the first people who taught us what we needed to know was our father. He taught us how to pour ourselves some water to drink, to tuck in our shirts so they didn't stick out on the side, how to be careful when eating fish so that no bone got stuck in our throat and so much else. Once we had learned these things, he moved on to more advanced matters, and when we had mastered them, it made him proud.
The cream of the royal crop
B Magazine, Suthon Sukphisit, Published on 06/11/2016
» Whenever I am at the Or Tor Kor Market, I always try to stop in at Doi Kham, the Royal Project store there. As I wander around browsing the produce and other products, I get the feeling that it is different from supermarkets or other kinds of fresh markets. Every item I pick up has a special significance. Each was grown through the skill of a farmer who was cultivating land that in some way had been damaged or degraded. It may have been used previously to grow opium poppies, or to rotate crops until the soil was depleted and all that remained was bare mountain land without vegetation.
Homegrown ingredients
B Magazine, Suthon Sukphisit, Published on 23/10/2016
» If you like cooking for yourself, why not get serious and try growing your own vegetable right at home? The ones that you really need all the time are chillies (phrik khee nuu), lemon grass, galangal, saw-tooth herb (phak chee farang), and the different types of basil, known in Thai as bai kraphrao, bai horapha and yee raa.