Traditional Siamese cuisine can be challenging to decipher: the culinary codes are complex and ingenious, as well as resourceful. It uses a creative set of flavor layering tools that strengthen the flavor and amplify the umami through chemical synergy without neglecting the dishes’ aroma, color, and texture.
Culinary codes put a dish into context; very much like our own DNA, these codes testify to its origins, revealing foreign and regional influences and, at the same time, expand our creative toolbox and guide us through the process of decision making and cooking. This article describes basic elements for the flavor understanding and introduces an alternative lexicon to the standard – and often meaningless – food-related jargon. My goal is to set up a communication tool to describe my culinary decisions as I examine and demonstrate recipes throughout the program.
Class Content
แกงไตปลาปลาดุกย่างโบราณ – Fermented fish innards curry is a dense curry made of fermented fish innards is dark coffee-brown in color – a salty, fiery hot dish, it grips the palate in an intense umami embrace. As the flagship dish in the repertoire of spicy southern Thai cuisine, it comes in different versions: some are water based; some have a base of coconut cream. But whatever the style, it is a fiercely hot dish that features both dried and fresh chilies.
The type of chilies – fresh, dried or rehydrated – and how they are processed into the curry paste have a significant influence on the dish’s flavor, color, aroma and heat profile. Fresh chilies inject an immediate, sharp spike of heat that rushes in with a piercing, punctuating intensity, a grassy aroma and fruity liveliness. Dried chilies, on the other hand, impart a subtle warmth alongside rich, earthy notes that gradually build up into a steady, lingering burn. The choice of the chili variety will also shape the curry’s flavor. Through an informed selection and processing of chilies, cooks can navigate between mild and spicy, fruity and earthy, and bright and mellow flavors, creating a complex and nuanced heart for their curries.
Chef Thapakorn Lertviriyavit (Gorn) brings us a rare perfumed and colorful starter [salad] dish that was rediscovered in a cookbook written by a former governor of Nakhon Ratchasima (พระยานครราชเสนี – สหัด สิงหเสนี), which contained a recipe that called for rose petals, called ‘Yum Gularb’ or ‘Rose Petal Salad’. But I’d prefer to rename it, ‘Yum Gleep Kuppatchka’. You will soon understand why….
From indigenous tribes to a national culinary identity. An old Thai expression – Saang baan bpaeng meuuang (สร้างบ้านแปงเมือง) – condenses into four words the complicated dynamics involved in the founding of a country with a national identity from a group of families and their tribes.
These dynamics were intensely influenced by the topography of the country and, especially, its water sources. Important river deltas were often the site of significant settlements and cities. The river delta topography allows the use of high land along the river for habitation and plantation, the lowland for cultivating rice, and the waterways for transportation. The Chao Phraya River delta was the birthplace of three major kingdoms – the Ayutthaya, the Thonburi and, later, the current Rattanakosin or Bangkok period.
