Every kind of food has its story to tell. For example, there is chu che pla nuea awn (sheatfish in a thick curried coconut cream sauce), a dish made with curry paste that is half-way between a curry and a stir-fry. It has fewer ingredients than a curry, just sheatfish, curry seasonings, coconut cream, kaffir lime leaves, palm sugar and nam pla.
CONSISTENCY: The kitchen system and food preparation methods in a Chinese restaurant differ little whether it is in Thailand or China.
It is easier to make than a curry, too. The curry paste is fried in the coconut cream and then the fish is added. When it is done the dish is seasoned to taste with the sugar and the nam pla. Finally, shredded kaffir lime leaves are scattered on top, and it's done.
Chu che pla nuea awn is a simple dish originally made by people who lived near rivers. It doesn't take much time to prepare and the ingredients can be assembled without much difficulty. The scent of kaffir lime dominates it and gives it its individual character, which is different from curries and stir-fries where this citrus supplies only part of the aroma.
If a cook fries the fish to crispness first, a special quality of the dish will be violated because the flavour and softness of the fish will be lost. Sheatfish is one of the finest and most delicious of Thailand's fresh-water fish, and has few bones. Frying it not only hardens the tender meat, it also destroys its delicate taste. This is just one example of a dish that has things to tell us about itself.
In a kitchen, the equipment usually includes shelves where things are stored, a cabinet for plates and glasses, the sink, the gas stove and oven, a microwave, knives, a mortar and pestle, a cutting block and a wok. The way in which these things are placed and arranged also tells a story.
Last week, this column visited kitchens in a hilltribe household and at a Chinese vegetarian shrine. Today I'd like to tour the kitchen of a simple streetside Chinese restaurant in China and another in a Chinese restaurant in Thailand.
In big Chinese cities where the weather is not very cold there will be outdoor dining areas like the Thai ahan klang jaeng gathering places. Or sometimes there will be an open-air restaurant where fresh ingredients such as pork, chicken or fish are displayed, depending on what kind of foods are available for sale at nearby markets. Besides the meats there will be fresh vegetables in basins so that customers can chose what they want to eat and have it prepared for them right away, as in Thai ahan tam sang restaurants.
Commercial cooking is primarily a male profession in China, and female cooks are hard to find.
Chinese food has to be eaten when very hot. When it comes to soups and vegetable stir-fries no country in the world can challenge China's status as the champ. But it is a good idea to pay attention when helping yourself to a Chinese soup that looks clear and unremarkable, with no telltale steam rising from it. It looks harmless, but an incautious mouthful can assault the mouth like a gulp from a boiling teapot.
When vegetables are being stir-fried, if fire doesn't flare up toward the ceiling from the wok, it shows that the man at the stove is no professional, and that the finished dish won't be as delicious as it should be. When frying vegetables and other kinds of food, Chinese cooks like to toss them into the air by flipping the wok as they cook to make sure that everything is properly cooked. This calls for very strong wrists and arms, and may be one of the reasons why men are better at it than women.
The woks used in Chinese cooking have two handles, and cooks use a piece of heavy cloth when picking them up to keep from getting burned by the hot metal. They do not like to use spatulas or fish slices, but prefer round, scoop-like utensils with long handles, since these can be used in the same way as fish slices for frying but also for cooking liquid foods such as soups.
This kind of Chinese kitchen differs little in its essentials from those in Chinese restaurants in Thailand. Nowadays there are modern additions, such as counters for food preparation and very hot gas stoves called Hong Kong stoves, all made of stainless steel. In placing this equipment in the kitchen, the stove is set in the middle with the ingredients on one side and a sink with running water on the other. Ingredients such as oil for frying, sugar, salt and flour are kept in large jars arranged together in one place. But the woks still have two handles and these are still grasped using a piece of cloth to insulate against the heat.
When preparing a dish, from the time the oil is placed in the wok, followed by the ingredients and all through the cooking process to the time when the food is taken from the stove and put on plates, only the long-handled round scoop is used, as in the restaurants in China.
These are the basics concerning the equipment used in Chinese restaurant kitchens and the way it is used. As to the system of work in the kitchen, it follows rules and traditions that have been passed down through the generations. It is interesting that in the past, the profession of cooking was not taught in classrooms the way it is now.
A Chinese chef will often try to train his sons and grandsons as chefs, but if they resist he may look to more distant relatives. Sometimes a young man who wants to become a chef will ask to train with his father or another adult relative because he will learn more that way and will be able to work more comfortably, and the chef may be more receptive to him than others would be.
The chef standing in front of the stove is the number one man in the kitchen. He has authority over everyone else. Employees who have recently started will be given duties according to precedence, beginning with washing and cutting vegetables; washing pork, fish and prawns; making sure that the jars of ingredients are full; and blowing air into ducks to make sure the skin is crispy when they are cooked (very tiring). At the next level are tasks including boiling stock and making batter for different dishes.
It takes a very long time to graduate from one level to another. Anyone who wants to get on the head chef's good side to learn or advance faster has to act almost as a personal servant, all the way to washing his clothes and lighting his cigarettes.
Every chef who has made his way to the top position in a Chinese kitchen will have his stories to tell. The kitchen is the heart of any restaurant, and if the place is famous with customers who keep returning because of their love of the food, the head chef will have a higher status than any mafia godfather. Even the owner of the restaurant will approach him with lowered eyes and be ready to move mountains to keep him satisfied, because if he becomes unhappy and decides to leave, he won't go alone. He'll take the whole kitchen staff with him.
This is the Chinese restaurant kitchen and the story it tells _ one that remains much the same whether the restaurant is in China or Thailand.
