CORNUCOPIA
Thailand’s tasty jungle food is shaped by wild ingredients plucked from cooks’ natural surroundings.
If you make a trip to a place like Sangkhla Buri district in Kanchanaburi, or maybe Ban Rai district in Uthai Thani or Dan Chang district in Suphan Buri, you’ll feel that you have left the city far behind and are in a very different environment. So when mealtime comes and you get hungry, you’ll probably want to find a restaurant whose character matches that of the town — one with a view of surrounding forest and mountains, if possible.
If you happen on one that serves local ahaan paa, or “jungle food”, that might be best of all. If it makes a speciality of this kind of cooking, the menu might include dishes made of local fish, soft-shell turtle, eels and mountain frogs, as well as wild boar, birds and even cobra meat — all made using plant ingredients gathered from nearby. Dishes like these are simple to make and seasoned with a fiery-hot mixture of seasonings. If you do discover a place that answers this description, you’ll be able to taste authentic local jungle food.
Ahaan paa restaurants do not differ greatly from other types except where location is concerned. It is their closeness to natural attractions like forests or mountains that draws visitors to them. Meats like venison, boar, soft-shell turtle, frog and different fish give the impression of coming straight from the forest, but these days they are farmed legally as the ones that occur naturally in the environment are protected by the law. The kitchen techniques used to prepare them are authentic local ones, however, and have been used in the area for generations.
The history and background of ahaan paa is interesting and revealing. It can tell a great deal about Thai society and the natural environment as it was in the past. Their influence has been preserved over the centuries, never forgotten, although some aspects may have been adapted to suit the present era.
Thais were dependent on the forests as the source of food and other necessities throughout history, and knew them well. They knew the routes to follow in the wild and what were the appropriate times to go into the jungle, long before there were maps and calendars to guide them. Those who lived near the forest sometimes made their living by going in to find medicinal herbs or plants used for seasoning to sell or exchange for rice and salt.
They would form groups that included men who were expert at navigating the forest rather than venturing in alone, which was considered too dangerous, bringing along knives, perhaps an old-fashioned long gun, rice, salt and dried chillies. When they stopped to rest, they chose a place near water and cooked the rice by putting it into a freshly-cut bamboo tube together with water and placing it in the fire. If they could catch birds, wildfowl, fish, snakes or other game, they would clean it, cut it into pieces, put it into a bamboo tube with water, salt and dried chillies, and cook it in the fire. If there was some fresh wild basil available, this was even better. It made for a tasty meal when eaten with the rice.
The main purpose of these excursions into the forest was to find plants that had medicinal properties or that could be used to season food. If they were lucky, they would sometimes be able to catch big animals like wild bulls, boars or deer. Then they would camp for a few days to skin the catch and remove the meat to be salted and dried before taking it home. No one would bring the entire carcass home because it would be big, heavy and hard to carry, especially if there was water to cross. Dried meat was easy to transport and could be stored without spoiling. Skulls from wild bulls and deer could be sold too.
This was the way that villagers of the past made their sojourns into the jungle, and the ahaan paa that they ate while there.
Later came the age of larger agricultural communities who raised rice and other crops. Most had fairly big populations who lived close together, but they were still usually surrounded by forest out beyond the cultivated fields, although they were not as dense as the ones in less populated areas. Clumps of bamboo, with its hard wood that the villagers could use, grew there, and local people planted other kinds of trees that could be cut for use.
Small animals would make their homes there, too — some of which could be eaten, although they were not hunted on a regular basis. When one was caught, it was a special occasion that had to be celebrated by the village men. If they caught a cobra, for example, a group of at least 10 men would gather to savour the catch.
But snakes were not the only animals that might be brought in. There were also wild fowl, field mice, egrets, large bats called khangkhaomae kai and big lizards known as tua lane. Most of the dishes made from this kind of meat were in the kapklaem category — foods to be eaten together with alcohol. They were chopped fine and stir-fried with simple ingredients to be fiery-hot, and flavoured with the extra-hot chillies called phrikkheenuu, small, pea-like eggplants called makhueaphuang, and fresh basil. Another ingredient that couldn’t be missing was the aromatic rhizome called krachaai, which masked the potent odour of the meat. The combination of strong chilli heat and alcohol went together perfectly, and made for a good time among everyone who took part. This was a kind of ahaan paa for communities that lived in the middle of these lightly forested areas.
Eventually, jungle food like this achieved enough of a reputation to be served in restaurants that specialised in it. Most were located next to fields, waterways and in farming districts adjoining mountains, but almost never found in cities or seashore areas. With time, places that offered it became well known enough to convince people that it took skill to prepare ahaan paa.
The best cooks were officers in the military or police, especially the Border Patrol Police or the Border Guards, and were men who invariably held the rank of jaa, meaning sergeant. Some of the famous soldier-cooks were JaaThawee, JaaSak and Jaa Rung. The reason for their expertise was because their police and military units had camps that located near the border, and almost all of them had worked as cooks there. When they left the military service, they often put their experience to work by opening restaurants. Sometimes shops opened whose owners had never been soldiers or police, but they put the word “Jaa” into the names of their restaurants anyway.
Even though the era when ahaan paa flourished is behind us now, there are still many villagers who like to cook up these dishes to make things lively when they drink with friends, and it is still easy to find restaurants and stalls that offer them. Jungle food is an old and rich branch of Thailand’s food culture. Opportunities to taste it at its best are not as frequent as they once were, but if you do find yourself with a chance to enjoy some with friends, don’t let it slip by.