Sometimes instinct springs into action at mealtimes. One quick example is the way a button is pushed to make us automatically start scanning for seafood when driving through Hua Hin, Chon Buri or Rayong. When we see the forests and mountains in Kanchanaburi or Uthai Thani we’re on the lookout for ahan pa (dishes made from wild game), Pak Chong and Khao Yai mean steak, Kang Krachan in Phetchaburi elicits a hankering for grilled fish encrusted with salt, and a visit to Ayutthaya calls for pla nuea awn deep-fried with pepper and garlic or river prawns.
Wherever you go, the prospect of tasting local dishes is part of the excitement. Eating local food doesn’t only add to a traveller’s culinary experience, it also opens windows onto the true character of the place where it is made. If the region is forested or mountainous there will be indigenous herbs and mushrooms. If the seafood available at a seaside area is mostly squid, crabs and pla sai (a relative of the sheatfish), it shows that the fishermen there fish close to the shore. If the offerings are sea bass, king mackerel or red grouper, they were most likely caught off an island or from a big fishing boat that goes far out to sea.
Besides clues to the environment, local dishes give insights into the way of thinking of the community that eats them — how they choose to prepare the available ingredients — while also introducing visitors to delicious new flavours. Gaining entry to the kitchen of a local cook is not easy, however, unless you know someone, perhaps a relative or close friend, who can introduce you.
If there is a lot of tourism in the area there is no problem, because there is bound to be a restaurant that offers local dishes to tourists. But if the area is quiet and remote from tourist centres, one where the population is made up mostly of farmers or fishermen, for example, and where outsiders are rare, the cooking will be done to satisfy the tastes of the local population, and any restaurants will serve food that the residents accept as authentic.
Another way to experience local food that is the real thing is to go to informal markets that open in the early morning or in the afternoon.
If there is a stall where prepared food is being sold and bought by people from the community, make a purchase and most likely you won’t be disappointed.
I’ll give some examples of local food that must be tasted at the source. The people who live along the shore around Pran Buri have a very simple recipe for fresh pla tu (mackerel). When they catch a lot of very fresh fish they boil them with nam pla, some lemongrass and kaffir lime leaves. That is all there is to it, and the result is delicious.
After they have finished the meal they take the leftover fish, dry them and fry them until they begin to brown. Very tasty, in a different way, and nothing gets wasted.
Most people are familiar with pla krapong tod nam pla (sea bass deep-fried with nam pla). Most Thai restaurants list it on the menu. They make it by deep-frying sliced sea bass until it turns golden, seasoning it with nam pla, and setting it on a dish, maybe with orchid flowers on top for decoration. But that version is not the way the dish is made by fishermen who catch the sea bass in Chon Buri.
They prepare it simply, without all the dressing up. They take the whole fish, cut a few incisions in it, and fry it in a lot of oil. When it is done they pour nam pla into the wok, creating a cloud of fragrant steam. Then they put it, together with the oil it was fried in, onto a platter. The way to enjoy it is to spoon a little of the oil over each piece of fish before eating it. Delicious.
These are just a couple of examples of the way local people use simple ways to get the best from the food provided by the natural environment and getting full value out of everything. But a discussion of local food is not complete without suggesting a few places where it can be sampled.
Eating Northern-style larb or larb khua is an important part of any visit to Chiang Mai. There is a stall that offers it in front of the Amphoe Sarapee municipal office on the old Chiang Mai-Lamphun road. Around 4pm, vendors set up, offering many kinds of Northern dishes. There is larb phuyai ban made by former phuyai ban (village headman) Phajon Thaweerote. Both larb moo khua sook (a mildly seasoned larb made from slowly-cooked minced pork) and larb nuea sai luead (a beef larb with blood added), both authentic Northern dishes, are available, and they are very tasty. Each day he sets out big bowls of each type of larb and sells out by late afternoon.
In addition to the larb, the Northern sausage called sai ua, khaeb moo (pork scratchings) are for sale nearby. Customers buy them to take home, as there are no tables or chairs.
There are many restaurants in Ayutthaya, but for some of the best local food you have to get out of town to some basic places in the fields. Go to Amphoe Nakhon Luang, drive past the road that leads to Moo Ban Aranyik, then continue along beside Khlong Chonprathaan (the irrigation canal). There is a soi across the canal that leads to Wat Khlong Namcha. Drive for about 2km until you reach a place called Sawan Ban Rai. The food served there is in the real country style — gop tod krathiem prik Thai (frog fried with garlic and pepper), kaeng pet pla saiyuu kap naw mai (a spicy curry made with a kind of sheatfish and bamboo shoots), pad pet pla chon (a spicy snakehead fish stir-fry) and tom kha pla chon (a snakehead fish soup with coconut cream and lime).
The road from Phetchaburi to Hua Hin passes the mountain called Khao Yoi. Continue past it for just over 10km and there will be a turn-off for Nong Ya Plong. Take it, and continue on for about 2km until you come to the village of Ban Huay Tha Chang on the right, where the villagers are ethnic Lao Soang.
In the middle of the village is a restaurant called Ran Pa Song, where the food is expertly cooked local fare. Among the offerings include omelettes, fried fresh mackerel, kaeng pa moo (a very spicy pork curry made without coconut cream) and pla duc pad phet (spicy stir-fried catfish). The seasoning sauce is of the Lao type called jaew, to which the Lao Soang add pan-toasted and coarsely pounded mak kwen seeds (similar to Szechwan pepper). These fragrant seeds, which slightly numb the tongue, are popular in the North and in Isan.
These are just a couple of suggestions of places where you can enjoy real local cooking together with a dining experience not to be had in Bangkok.
They are good to get you started, but the best way to get to know Thai cooking styles that extend beyond the dishes listed on city menus is to strike out on your own, ask questions and request directions, and be adventurous in your ordering. n
