Showing 21 - 30 of 61
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.
Having enough on your plate
B Magazine, Suthon Sukphisit, Published on 14/08/2016
» By the term "one-dish meal", most people mean a meal where a single plateful will fill them up. But using satiety as the basis if the definition doesn't really work, because people have different capacities. Some eat very little, while others prefer a big meal. For example, some food shop customers might not feel full after finishing off a plate of pork fried rice and order a plate of kui tiao sen yai raad naa (broad rice noodles with meat in gravy) as a follow up, or start off with pork noodles and then move on to a bowl of yen ta fo. Both examples show that it takes a combination of these dishes to fill up some members of the clientele, and that both cooked-to-order food shops and noodles shops will offer a variety of dishes.
Currying flavour
B Magazine, Suthon Sukphisit, Published on 24/04/2016
» When it comes to Thai dishes that have staying power and remain favourites from generation to generation, nothing can beat khao kaeng, or curry and rice. It is like a supporting pillar of Thai cuisine that is deeply rooted in the culture. Every region, every ethnic or religious community in Thailand will have its own style of food, and high on the list will always be a curry. There is Thai Yai curry and rice in Mae Hong Son and Muslim-style curry and rice in Satun. Vendors in Chanthaburi in the East will have on display a range of local curries hard to find anyplace else.
Roadside stalls step up to the plate
B Magazine, Suthon Sukphisit, Published on 17/04/2016
» 'Roadside warriors" is a great title for the intrepid vendors that cook food-to-order at stalls and shops beside many roads and lanes in every province throughout Thailand. But not all who buy their food hold it in high esteem. Many customers don't really like this kind of eating and settle for it only when they have no other option.
The old and the new
B Magazine, Suthon Sukphisit, Published on 24/01/2016
» When you read old Thai cookbooks, you will find certain very specific descriptive words often appear with the instructions on how to prepare a dish. These can be very interesting, as they give an insight into how cooks of the past chose the ingredients and techniques that would ensure the dish would turn out at its best.
Bird is the word
B Magazine, Suthon Sukphisit, Published on 08/11/2015
» I probably sound like I’m bragging or exaggerating when I say Thailand is home to the greatest variety of grilled chicken in the world. Be that as it may, there are reasons why chicken cooked this way has been such an important part of Thai cooking and over the centuries spawned countless variants.
Tap jak of all trades
B Magazine, Suthon Sukphisit, Published on 18/10/2015
» In the past, this column has taken a look at many of the plants found in Thailand’s fields and kitchen gardens — the trees that bear coconuts, bananas, tamarind, mangoes and papayas and smaller plants grown close to the house, like lime trees, chillies, kaffir lime, taling pling, galangal, ginger, lemon grass and different kinds of basil.
On the origin of dishes
B Magazine, Suthon Sukphisit, Published on 04/10/2015
» You have to sympathise with the confusion a foreigner may feel when encountering Thai food on its native turf, especially in Bangkok. The visitor may have conflicting feelings; thinking that he knows something about what he sees, but also suspecting that he doesn’t. For instance, if the tourist comes across a southern curry and rice shop he will recognise it easily enough because every southern curry shop has a sign saying that it is a southern food shop, and often mentions the province the owners come from. Even if the sign is written in Thai and the visitor can’t read it, someone nearby might explain.
A taste of adventure
B Magazine, Suthon Sukphisit, Published on 12/07/2015
» Travelling brings knowledge as well as pleasure and excitement. As we explore new places we find out about their famous sites, religion, traditions and society. But just as importantly, we have the opportunity to taste and learn about new food; local dishes not to be found elsewhere.
The pick of the bunch
B Magazine, Suthon Sukphisit, Published on 05/07/2015
» Think of the qualities that make the banana such a useful fruit. It is available everywhere all year round, it can be eaten in a great number of ways, and it’s cheap. Thailand has many different kinds of bananas. The kluay nam waa is probably the most familiar of them, but there is also the kluay hawm, the little kluay khai, the kluay hak mook and the recurved and fragrant kluay lep mue nang, to name just some of the commonest ones.