It would be hard to find someone who would say no to a good bowl of bami, the wheat-flour noodles served in restaurants on almost every street and soi in Bangkok. The two kinds that people know best are packaged instant noodles, familiar under brand names such as Mama and Wai Wai, and the fresh bami sold in noodle restaurants.
Bami mu daeng.
Instant bami are special in that they act as an index of the state of the country's economy. If things get bad, people rely on them as a way to economise because they are cheap and filling. The packaged noodles can also be seen as an indicator of extraordinary circumstances. If they disappear from the shelves, it can mean that difficult times are anticipated. They have vanished from local supermarkets and convenience stores during the periods of flooding and rioting that have affected Bangkok in recent years.
These instant noodles also play an important role in merit-making activities. The are among the favourite choices for people choosing dry foods to put into monks' begging bowls, or contributing to donations of food to be made to famine- or disaster-stricken countries.
Thais often take them as ''emergency rations'' when travelling abroad, especially when they are not sure whether the food there will be to their liking. This way they can be sure of not having to spend too much money on meals that don't appeal to them. These are just of few of the things that give packaged instant bami its special significance for Thais.
Fresh yellow, or egg, bami are even more important to Thais. These noodles are served in almost every kui tio (rice noodle) restaurant in the country. Noodles are an essential part of Thai daily life, and bami is a noodle dish that can clearly be traced to its Cantonese origins. In Thailand, they were originally known as ''bami Guangdong'', or Cantonese bami.
Cantonese bami were in the forefront when noodle dishes were first finding acceptance and favour among Thais. This was in the days when they were sold by wandering vendors who carried their noodles and cooking and serving equipment suspended from a board balanced on a shoulder, before restaurants selling other kinds of noodle dishes appeared. Now, wherever rice noodles with beef, pork, chicken or duck are sold, Cantonese wheat noodles are also available.
WHOA MAMMA, NOT MAMA: The bami at Jee Jang Waw, still made the old-fashioned Cantonese way.
Cantonese restaurants generally sell grilled duck, stuffed pork leg, the red-coloured grilled pork called mu daeng and mu krawp with its crisp skin. But they will also offer noodles stir-fried in a wok, noodles with beef in gravy and koy sim mi _ crispy-fried bami topped with meat in a gravy-like sauce.
Bami are an important item on the menu at Cantonese restaurants. The Cantonese way of serving them is to put some of the green vegetable called pak Guangdong on a plate, place the bami on top and then slices of Chinese red pork on top of the noodles. When only the red pork is used, the dish is called bami mu daeng. Other ingredients can also be added, such as kio, the minced pork-stuffed dumplings made from sheets of noodle dough. The things that make up a really good bowl of Cantonese bami are simple _ 40% of the credit goes to the quality of the noodles, 40% to the broth, with the mu daeng accounting for the remaining 20%.
The traditional technique of making a bowl of bami was different from that used in preparing other kinds of kui tio, or rice noodle dishes. First the fresh bami were put into a brass mesh dipper and cooked briefly in hot water, then quickly rinsed in cold water. Finally, they were plunged into the hot water once again and put into the bowl. Pieces of mu daeng were scattered on top together with the preserved vegetable condiment called tang chai and crispy-fried garlic in oil.
Why were the noodles cooked in hot water twice with a brief rinse in cold water in between? Cantonese cooks made their own bami, which when raw were soft, small and thin. The first time in the hot water cooked them, then the cold water rinse prevented them from overcooking, getting soft and breaking into pieces. Another brief period in hot water before placing them into a bowl for serving ensured that they were tender and delicious.
The Cantonese recipe for the noodles calls for wheat flour, egg and salt, nothing else. The proportions of these ingredients differed from cook to cook, each of whom would have a personal recipe. Some might use duck eggs instead of hen's eggs, or alkaline water, maybe passed through charcoal ashes. The amount of time spent allowing the dough to set, or kneading it, also varied according to personal preference. But every strand of bami made by a Cantonese cook would be small, tender and thin. The noodles had a very short period of viability. Cooks knew exactly how much to make for a day's sales, and limited production to that amount. Originally the finished noodles were kept in a thin wooden box and sprinkled with flour to keep them from sticking together. Cooks knew how many noodles should be put into each bowl. All of this knowledge and expertise in making and serving bami was something that was passed down through families and generations, and gave the cook's noodles their special character and identity.
Today almost all bami are made in factories and are artificially coloured. Preservatives are added, together with chemicals to keep them firm, so that vendors do not have to worry that they will get too soft in the cooking. They only have to be cooked once in hot water and then are ready to serve. Preparation is so simple that restaurants selling other kinds of noodles can offer them. Even restaurants that sell Cantonese-style noodles usually opt for the factory-made noodles, and now you rarely see the dish being made the way the Cantonese cooks of the past did it.
But those who prefer their bami tender and flavourful, made the original way, can still find them if they know where to look. Here I'd like to recommend a couple of places that still offer them.
The See Fah restaurant, which originally came from the famous and long-gone Bami Rachawong restaurant, serves bami haeng see fah and bami asawin. Here you can experience Cantonese bami made the old way. There are several branches of the See Fah restaurant.
Jee Jang Waw, which specialises in bami with stewed duck, is located across from the old Queen's Cinema in Wang Burapha. Here the wheat noodles are made with duck instead of Chinese red pork, but the restaurant makes them the original way.
Two other restaurants that make their bami using traditional techniques are Heng Kee Bami Mu Daeng in Amphoe Photharam in Ratchaburi and Jay Nia Bami Mu Daeng in the row of wooden shophouses next to the municipal market in Muang Uthai Thani. These are a few of the remaining places that still make and serve authentic Cantonese bami.
Even if instant bami have become an important part of our lives, few people would prefer them to fresh noodles. And it is as the delicious wheat noodles made fresh in the way that they were originally conceived by their Cantonese creators that they are at their best.
