CORNUCOPIA
Older generations may hanker for Thai cuisine as it used to be, but changing needs can take a toll on people’s taste
Nostalgic food lovers may never satisfy their craving for the past because you cannot turn back time.
Something strange happens to people who have been around for some time and adopted a certain taste for the past. At times, it could be so bad that may make them either nostalgic or fussy — maybe both at the same time. They can get depressed thinking about the fact that nowadays Thai food doesn’t taste the same as it used to. Those bygone dishes may look the same, perhaps slightly different, but they simply don’t taste the same. Such a disappointment is hard to swallow.
Some wise people may advise them to let it go and move on. There’s no point of holding onto something that was once precious but now non-existent. Cooks evolve recipes and eaters must adapt their tastes accordingly. Admit it — today’s food isn’t cooked exactly as it was in the past. Period.
We must accept that kang som (chilli sour vegetable soup) with hua chai tao (turnip) or dok kae (Siam tulip) is now different from what it used to be. The texture of the soup is clear, no longer thick. In the past, the ground boiled fish meat would be mixed with the paste to make the soup. The sliced fish also be added to the mix.
But think about it — if the sellers preserve the original method, they might have to focus on selling only kang som as they won’t have time to make other kinds of soup too. And do not be dismayed by the fact that tawd mun pla
krai (fried fish cake) is less extravagant than the version that your parents might have cooked for you. Now they mix only sliced tua fak yao (long bean) with the cake, leaving out the classic touches of sliced winged beans and sliced kaffir lime leaves. The more ingredients involved, the more expensive it gets. Besides, people don’t take it too seriously whether you add winged bean or kaffir lime leaves or not. The long beans are just enough.
If you don’t like how they make pad Thai these days, just don’t order it. You have to understand that cooking pad Thai the old way adds value to the price tag. Today, cooks don’t care to follow the older, more meticulous method of stirring shallots in orange juice or tamarind juice until the noodle goes soft, then adding the sliced tofu, chopped radish, dried shrimps and seasoning it with fish sauce, sugar, eggs, bean sprouts, sliced ginger and garlic chives. Then comes the sprinkling of ground peanuts and cayenne pepper.
But there’s more to the original pad Thai — you need to sprinkle some sliced mango or chopped gooseberry on top. If you want to eat pad Thai like that, you need to cook it yourself. These days, people are fine with cutting corners in Thai cuisine. They don’t have the time for slower methods. So let’s not be fussy.
Today’s diners seem to care more for the colourful presentation of the dish rather than its authenticity. Som tam (spicy papaya salad), for instance, adds sliced carrot to the dish to make it look nicer. Kang liang (spicy mixed vegetable soup) is also made quite differently. Cooks no longer seem satisfied with just zucchini, calabash, pumpkin and canola leaves. They now prefer baby corn and oyster. However, they may leave out pounded dried shrimp or fish to mix with the paste that includes shallots and pepper. This is because it’s expensive and time consuming to prepare.
On the bright side, to make peace with the drastic change in ingredients might be the best solution, although it might not come easily for older cooks.
Let’s take a look at the background of today’s trending food and why it’s changed from the past. Firstly, grandmother’s cooking class is gone. The grandmas are gone too. Some families have inherited their secret recipes but some haven’t. If they’re still alive, they’re probably too old to cook. And even if they have taught their children to cook, their more timeconsuming methods don’t necessarily suit the younger generation’s lifestyle. Let’s face it — we no longer cook every meal ourselves, let alone think about opening a restaurant to carry on mama’s recipes. It’s quite a risky business, involving a lot of investment and trouble.
Secondly, the restaurant business, no matter on what scale, is highly competitive. You need to know how to cut costs and create a catchy theme for your restaurant. You need the right marketing and presentation techniques to stand out.
The above-mentioned reason is related to the third reason. It’s about mass media, printing and television, especially the latter. In food programmes, the good-looking hosts are hired to taste the food and recommend the best dining experiences to the audience.
The question is if they are knowledgeable enough about Thai cuisine, if they actually know how to cook, and if they know how and why certain dishes were created with specific ingredients.
Of course restaurant owners are now aware of the power of advertising. However, they may not be aware of the thin red line between the image being sold versus the authenticity of the dish. The show producers might not even know about the restaurant’s authenticity. For example, they might unknowingly take you to taste kua tew kae (noodles with tofu balls) at an old-looking noodle shop, feeling like it’s old enough to have a story to tell — there actually might be, but not the right one. This shop, for example, said that it has been open for 70 years. The menu includes dried egg noodles garnished with seasoning sauce and eaten with tofu pork balls. There are also side dishes like fried egg and dim sum. The fact that they have been there for 70 years doesn’t mean the kua tew kae is cooked in the original way. They might have their own version, which is only an adaptation of the authentic kua tew kae dish.
Seventy years ago, these noodles weren’t sold in shop. Sometimes, they were sold on boats, in which case they were called it kua tew rua. If sold on a road (the noodles used to be put in woven/wooden baskets to be carried on one’s shoulders with a pole), it would be called something different. The road noodles are called kua tew moo (noodle with pork), bae mee
moo daeng (egg noodle with dried pork) and kua tew kae (noodle with tofu balls; kae is the woven basket).
Furthermore, in the past, kua tew kae would only use vermicelli rice noodles. They didn’t cook it dry or eat it with a fried egg or dim sum.
One newspaper article praises a kua tew rua shop in Rangsit using a Eiam Jun boat that cruises the canal.
The writer showers the shop with compliments, explaining that this shop has been passed down from a father to his son. And the son rows the Eiam Jun Boat selling noodles in the canal. The writer has no idea what kind of boat the Eiam Jun is. It is a cargo ship, big and heavy, requiring 100 people to tow it. It may be a little mistake that the writer can get away with it but it reflects a certain ignorance and gives the readers wrong information.
The fourth reason why old cooking techniques have changed is the fast-paced world of social media. Now everyone can exercise influence online using images. People’s posts can entice others to go eat the appetising-looking food featured. It may be wrong doing so because you might not be in the best position to judge if you’re not a food expert. You must be responsible for what you share.
Nostalgic food lovers may never satisfy their craving for the past because you cannot turn back time. This longing seems to be specific to older people. The younger generations have moved on and are happy with the available variety today. However, some say there is such a thing as food karma. They can suffer these symptoms in the future when they get really old because the food of the future might not taste quite like what they used to know. P r i n t e d a n d d i s t r i b u t e d b y P r e s s R e a d e r P r e s s R e a d e r . c o m + 1 6 0 4 2 7 8 4 6 0 4 • O R I G I N A L C O P Y • O R I G I N A L C O P Y • O R I G I N A L C O P Y • O R I G I N A L C O P Y • O R I G I N A L C O P Y • O R I G I N A L C O P Y • C O P Y R I G H T A N D P R O T E C T E D B Y A P P L I C A B L E L A W