My name is Collin and I cook food. One day I will do something significant with it. Until then here is what I've been up to...

Tuesday, September 27, 2011

thailand . . . part 1

There is this little city known as Bangkok in a country you may have heard of called Thailand.


As it so happens, it was our second destination in our tour of the East.  Little known to anyone in America, this country is quite the culinary destination…   Yeah so sarcasm is out of fashion.  But come on, it’s Thailand! A place as a chef I was so excited to visit it was only appropriate to let slip how kid like it makes me thinking about it. 


I mean, this place is one of the biggest influences of Asian cuisine in America; which blew up at such a fast rate it made many chefs embarrassed to admit their former obsession with the food that “must not be named.” (I.e. French) Now days you’d be hard pressed to stumble on a small town that doesn’t have at least one Thai restaurant.  The food is distinct.  And beyond that it is downright good.  Not just ‘go back for seconds’ good, but rather, got food writers to loosen their neckties and start describing food as ‘sexy.’  The cuisine of Thailand is beyond how good and addicting we all know it to be.  It carries with it an ambiance.  A distinctive homeyness.  A sense of homage to family and friends.  All that which has encouraged even some of the stuffiest classical kitchens to toss out the white linen and doilies in an effort to re-identify with their roots.  Okay, a stretch to say Thai cuisine is the sole contributor to this national change in restaurant style and menus, but it did come at the right time.  As well, it reinforces the increasing hunger for simple down to earth food that is subverting the restaurants of the United States.  


Thailand brings to the modern global kitchen what so many people and restaurants have lost sight of.  That what matters most is the food.  And as single tracked as it makes me out to be, on my way to Bangkok, all I could think about was the food I was going to have!  Of course once I got my first glimpse of the country, a lot of my presumptions began to go into question.



Forgive me now for briefly stepping onto a philosophical soapbox, but there are ideas churning inside my brain I’d like to share regarding the country.  More accurately it is something I caught a whiff of as I roamed the littered roads.  Perspective.  It’s the cheapest thing I got visiting Bangkok… besides the hookers that is...  Bad joke.  Reflecting back, the country was far from the lawless destination so many people imagine it to be.  While the traffic gives a different impression, the people were some of the most civilized and smiley I have ever encountered.  What they are, conversely, is dreadfully poor.  It is this that has led them to develop a bad reputation.  One obtained because poverty has pressured many of them to adopt frowned upon methods of income.  Arguably, I, and no one in a similar economic situation as me, am in a position to judge.  I never once even saw a hooker, a brothel, a theft or even a crime committed for that matter.  The worst offence I experienced first hand was a taxi driver trying to charge me about 50 cents over.   I mean I didn’t need that money.  He probably did far more. 
 It’s easy for me to get caught up in the moment of a trivial situation and build an imaginary wall between me and other people.  To lose my… how should I put it?... human-ness: an epidemic that has infiltrated and infected most all of the United States.  But as I think back, there wasn’t one person in that country who didn’t smile and politely let me walk away when I acted that way.  I cannot stress how much of a culture shock it is for me to meet people who simply aren’t rude.  Instead they were personable.  They interacted with us.  They seemed happy we were there.  And so yes while Thailand is very poor, and Bangkok is very dirty.   And though in most all considerations, it’s far behind the times of the modern ‘first-world’ civilization I grew up in; I am tempted to admit they seemed more civilized than my own “first-world” home.  Spend a day in a city of the United States and count (if any) friendly gestures you get.  I couldn’t walk a block in Thailand without getting a smile or bow.  Go try and buy a car from a dealership and see how much money you get cheated out of.   I likely didn’t over pay a taxi more than a buck and it was instinctual to treat them like they were thieves.  Ultimately, the visit there helped me re-evaluate both my general disposition on how I interact with people and simultaneously how something as simple as a meal can bring everyone together.


That all said, Bangkok is no perfect picture.   But without a doubt the city will encapsulate your full attention as you funnel through its busy and cluttered streets.  It is a place where the extremes of the country seem to harmonize and generate a town that is simultaneously nauseating and intoxicating.  The smell of the thick air conjured both appetite and repulsion as it lined my lungs with the weight of exhaust and the sent of fresh curries and stew.



Every intersection or corner is a stand selling the brightest colored fruits and vegetables you could imagine.  Street venders, twenty to a block, are cooking customers breakfast to order in woks overtop buckets of hot coals. 
 


Stray cats and dogs, piles of garbage spewed about and women selling Buddha figurines on blankets fill in the gaps between the food carts and lawn chair seating.  


The streets themselves are a current of mopeds, taxis and ‘tuk-tuks’ – a rickety three-wheeled golf cart looking vehicle providing the accommodation for tourist to taxi around town for twice the amount of time it should take. And then there was us.  Just watching.  Taking in a world unlike the one we knew… and getting hungry while we did it.


Thailand: objective one: eat everything!  Oh man did I eat.  Obviously not everything the city had to offer, but it’s hard to be hungry in a place where there is a new option of food every five feet.  So continual snacking was as much a right of passage as it was my priority.  Not to worry for you health conscious folk, the amount of walking combined with the hot humid weather made it seem a chore to gain any weight in this city.  What did come across note worthy was that only the Pad Thai I had tasted like the Thai food back home.


It’s always interesting to see how different truly authentic food tastes from the restaurants in America that have the word ‘authentic’ somewhere on their menu.  Overall, the food was always good, and always hot.  Not cardiac arrest spicy, but my breakfast ‘khao tom’ (a spicy rice soup) was what set off a nice first wave of sweat for a long and sweltering day in the sun.  

Fortunately everyone is sweating mid-summer in the subtropics of Southeast Asia; so I only stuck out because I was tall and white.  The tattoos helped a lot too but fact of the matter is me being warm was not weird.  After all, everything was outside.  We did not eat a single meal inside.  Everywhere you go are sidecars fixed to mopeds outfitted with camping stoves and fryers.  You buy your food from these venders and watch them cook it in front of you for no more than the equivalent of a U.S. dollar. 





Then you take your plate and eat in communal dining areas of lawn chairs and a tarp roof.  Some nicer areas might be under tin roofs with siding.  Nevertheless it’s outside, it's with 30 strangers, and its fantastic!


The first few days were dedicated to exploring some of the main attractions of the city.  That is, other than the street food…  We managed to navigate right from the start by walking, which was a lot of ground to have walked, but it got us to a large temple. 


Giant Buddha statues in every room was what we saw.  I’m slightly curious what all goes on in these temples considering every room seems just to harbor a larger statue then the next.  Regardless, we continued on to the outside of the Imperial palace just as it began to rain.  A lot.  We took a cab until his engine died.  I helped him push it off to the side of the road and figured that was payment enough considering he was driving the wrong direction.  We took the rest of that day easy and made it back to our stereotypical crummy hostel ran by a guy from Georgia, but with an Australian accent.  Not sure what to believe as for that.  By the time he invited us to a roof top party on a helipad, we realized he was one to distort reality to sound a little more interesting.


The next days we did our research to find out the way locals get around town.  Boat taxis!  We found the nearest stop just down some railroad tracks full of garbage and stray dogs.  Standing by a river cutting straight through Bangkok provided a good sense of the city and how just the bare minimum required to make something work is what they had.  The dock is just a platform with tires tied to the side to cushion the landing.  And I mean landing.  This thing came in fast.  



And saying it stops is a reach.  The driver slows down and men lasso the boat to the dock just long enough for people to jump on and off.  Maybe 5 seconds when there is a lot of people.  Blink and you’d miss what happened.  Fortunately we made it on with no struggle.  There are tarps on the sides to pull up and keep the water from hitting you.  It hit me once and I understand why.  Smelled like sewage.  Likely was.


However with the tarp down the view was very nice.  I found it amusing to watch the floating garbage surf the wake of the boat next to me.  Just above eye level where houses and shacks lining the river with clothes out to dry.  Yes this was definitely the way to get around in Bangkok.


Thailand Part 2 next...


 
 

Above: recent dishes of mine - Below: a little more about me