I talked before about the eating habits of Thai people (see Thai People and Meals). I mentioned that they seemed to snack all day and still remain quite slender. However, this is not saying that there are no obese people in Thailand. Far from it. There are quite a few very chubby students at my school. I would go and take a picture of them now but my Western sense of decency would forbid it. However, if I asked one of my Thai computer teachers to take a picture, they would go and do it. Not only that, they would also tell the student and everyone within hearing distance exactly why I needed the picture! (see picture above)

To Thai people there is nothing wrong about this. After all, some people have nicknames from birth until adulthood that mean “fatty” or “piggy”. If you are fat then they will tell you without any malice. In fact, I had quite a few teachers last year point at me and say “fat” and “big big” and gestured with their hands which parts. (I had put on quite a bit of weight over the last year or so and the teachers were only too happy to point this out to me.)

I do believe that the reason why some people can snack all day and not get fat and others do is a lot to do with their diet. Many of the children today are snacking on Western junk food. Take a look at the canteen in our school for starters. Everything is deep fried. Then there is the toast which is covered in sugar and cream. I think that if the Thai people stick to Thai food only, then they would stay thin.

Newspapers are now reporting that 14% of Thai children are obese. They are mainly blaming Western fast food, like McDonalds. However, they also note that the new generation spends too much time watching t.v. and playing video games. They are not going out to play as much as they did in the past. I think all of these are contributing factors. At our school they are now trying to promote a healthy lifestyle by having a big aerobics session every Friday after assembly. What they probably need to do next is sort out the snack shop menu.

As I mentioned before, last year I became overweight and so I decided I should do something about it. I was getting too many jibes from the other teachers about it. I will tell you tomorrow which diet I went on and how I managed to lose 15 kilos in less than three months.

INTERESTING FACTS: According to the Kasikorn Research Centre, the country's quick-service restaurant industry is now worth about 12 billion baht a year. Of the total, chicken menus account for about 6.2 billion baht, 2.9 billion for burgers and another 2.9 billion baht for pizza. A survey in 2004 by market researcher ACNielsen showed that KFC was the leader in the chicken market with a 72% share, followed by McDonald's with 15% and Chester's Grill at 11%. In the burger market, however, McDonald's is the leader with a 72% share, followed by KFC with 24% and the rest shared among other brands.

I read in the newspaper the other day, that a research team from the UK had proved that an extract of galangal can both kill cancer cells and protect healthy ones from the disease. As this is a common ingredient in Thai stir-fries and soups I was intrigued to learn more. I went onto the Internet and googled "galangal". I eventually found a recipe for Tom Kha Gai (chicken coconut soup). As this is on my favourites list I decided to have a go at cooking it.

My first stop was my collection of cookery books. I soon discovered that although each book had a recipe for Tom Kha Gai they were quite different from each other. From my memory of eating this dish I decided to use the recipe from "Thailand The Beautiful Cookbook". I made a list of the ingredients before setting off to the supermarket. I needed: coconut milk, galangal, lemon grass, kaffir lime leaves, lime juice, coriander leaves and some chili. They wanted green but I wanted red.

On the left is the galangal (kha). As you can see, it is similar in appearance to ginger. It is pinkish and has a peppery flavour. The label on the pack said it cost 45 baht per kilo. This pack cost 5.75 baht. More than enough. On the next shelf I noticed another pack with both lemon grass (right), galangal and kaffir lime leaves (below right). These are the ingredients for Lemon Grass Soup (more famously known as Tom Yum). As this was only 7 baht I decided to go for that. (1 US$ is presently 38 baht.) As far as I understand, although these two dishes have similar ingredients, Tom Yum focuses more on the lemon grass and Tom Kha Gai focuses more on the galangal. If you are wondering at this stage what "tom" means then I will tell you that it means "boiled".

Next I needed the coriander or "pak chee" in Thai. There were two varieties on the shelf. One was "pak chee tai" and the other "pak chee jeen". I guess the former was Thai and the latter Chinese. As "pak chee jeen" was translated into "coriander" on the label I knew which one to pick. This only cost 4 baht. Next on my list was the small green limes, coconunt milk, chilis and of course the chicken. Oh yes, did you know that the red chilis that are labelled in English as "red bird chili peppers" are called in Thai "mouse shit chilis"! I wonder why they didn't translate that properly in the supermarket?

Tom Kha Gai - Chicken coconut Soup

Ingredients:
2 cups of coconut milk
6 thin slices of galangal
2 stalks of lemon grass (cut into 1 inch strips and crush with cleaver)
5 fresh kaffir lime leaves (torn in half, not cut)
250 g of boneless chicken
5 tablespoons of fish sauce (naam blaa)
2 tablespoons of sugar
Half a cup of lime juice
1 teaspoon of black chili paste (nam prik pow)
Quarter cup of coriander leaves
5 green chili peppers (I will use red chilis)

Method 1:
(1) Combine half the coconut milk with the galangal, lemon grass and lime leaves in a large saucepan and heat to boiling. Add the chicken, fish sauce and sugar.
(2) Simmer for about 4 minutes, or until the chicken is cooked. Add the remaining coconut milk to the saucepan and heat just to boiling.
(3) Place the lime juice and chili paste in a serving bowl then pour the soup into the serving bowl.
(4) Garnish with the torn coriander leaves and chili pepers, and serve.

Other recipes I have read don't include the lemon grass. I also saw another one that said add the chili at the same time as the chicken. I will do that. This next version of the same recipe comes from a book called "Simply Thai Cooking". I am thinking I will go for a mixture of the two. However, they say add lemon juice which I don't have!

Method 2:
(1) Slice the chicken into thin strips.
(2) Smash lemon grass with the flat side of a chef's knife once and then cut into 1 inch pieces; slice galangal into thin rounds; tear lime leaves into thirds; cut chilis in half.
(3) Heat coconut milk and water in a saucepan for 2-3 minutes. Don't let it boil. Reduce heat to a medium and add lemon grass, galangal, lime leaves, chilies and cook for another 2 minutes, stirring continuously and not letting it boil.
(4) Add chicken strips and cook for 5 minutes, stirring over medium heat, until the chicken is cooked.
(5) Add 2 tablespoons of lemon juice, 1 tablespoon of fish sauce and quarter tablespoon of sugar. stir, and continue cooking for another minute or two/
(6) Transfer to a soup bowl and serve immediately, garnished with fresh corriander leaves.

Well, I think everything is ready. I am off now to cook some Tom Kha Gai. Wish me luck!

One of my favourite meals, which is definately in my Top 10, is Som Tam, otherwise known as Papaya Salad.

The meal is quite simple to make. The main ingredients are shredded green papaya, chopped green beans, tomoato, dried prawns, unsalted roasted peanuts, chillies, garlic and lime juice. These are all pounded together in a mortar using a pestle. The sound it makes is "pok pok". Whenever I hear that sound while walking down the street I always turnaround to look for the som tam stall.

The papaya salad is best served with sticky rice (khao neow) and grilled chicken. That is the way I like it. But you can have fish instead. There is also a recipe which has crab.

When you come to buy Papaya Salad, it is nearly always prepared in front of you. This way you can tell them how many chillies you want! I like mine hot. Papaya Salad with sticky rice from a roadside stall will cost you about 20 baht.

[b]Recipe:[/b]

1 medium dark green papaya
4 garlic cloves (kratiem)
6 green Thai chilies (prik khee noo)
2 tomatoes, cut into wedges
1/2 cup chopped green beans, in 1-in (2.5-cm) pieces
2 tablespoons anchovy sauce
1/2 teaspoon sauce
1/4 cup (2 fl oz/60 ml) lime juice or tamarind juice (ma-kaam piag)

[b]How to make:[/b]

1. Peel the papaya and rinse with running water to remove the acid. Remove the seeds and shred the papaya with a grater. Set aside.
2. Place the garlic cloves and the chilies in a mortar and mash with a pestle until crushed into chunks. Place the papaya and the remaining ingredients in the mortar and gently combine all ingredients by mixing with the pestle and a spoon. Serve cold.

[i]Source: "Thailand the Beautiful Cookbook" by Panurat Poladitmontr[/I]

Whenever we have new foreign teachers at the school, I always take them out to a restaurant as part of their orientation. This is partly to introduce them to my favourite Thai food on a menu. But, I also want to point out to them some of the finer points of Thai dining. After all, it is highly likely that they will make friends with Thai people and they will be invited out to eat.

The first thing to note is the use of communal bowls. When you go to a restaurant, you don’t usually order food just for yourself. If there are four of you, then you should order at least five dishes. When I took some people out the other day, we ordered: a red chicken curry, mix stirred fried vegetables, lemon grass soup, chicken with cashew nuts and a steamed fish. That was just enough for the four of us. The chicken and cashew nuts were very tasty so we ordered more. Another favourite side dish is deep-fried prawns.

What happens next is that the waitress will put a couple of big spoonfuls of rice on your plate. You then help yourself to food from any of the dishes in any order. However, you should make a point of using the serving spoon from each dish. You should also only put a couple of spoonfuls on your plate at a time. Don’t fill your plate up as we do in the West. Just go back to help yourself to more.

In Thailand, it is traditional to use a spoon and fork. Chopsticks are actually a Chinese influence and you probably would only use them for eating noodles. Actually, when the students eat noodles at school they use a spoon and fork. I don’t think that is because they are not old enough to use chopsticks. Maybe the administration is more worried about a student poking someone’s eye out!

Anyway, using just a spoon and fork is not as difficult as it might seem at first seem. Most ingredients in the meals are already cut up into bite sizes before cooking. So, unless you are eating a steak, there is no reason to have a knife. I usually also point out that the fork is only there to scoop food onto the spoon which is then raised to the mouth. On no accounts should you put the fork in your mouth. This is much the same as putting a knife in your mouth in Western culture.

At the orientation, I also give them some remarks about the drinks. Thai people always put ice in their beers. To me that seems strange. I just can’t handle drinking beer with ice. It is bad enough when they try to give you a straw at 7-Eleven when you buy a can of beer! Anyway, you can just tell them not to put any ice in (mai sai nam kaeng). However, Thai beer has more alcohol in it compared to Western beer BECAUSE you are expected to dilute it with ice! Just thought you should know.

When it comes to the time for paying the bill, it is usually up to the person who invited you out to pay. Either that or the oldest/richest person. There is a certain amount of prestige in being able to pay for everyone so let them do it. You should also remember that when asking for the bill in a restaurant you say “chek bin”. However, in a street food stall you can say “gep dtung” which is more colloquial. Don't get that mixed up!

I think one of the first phrases I learned when I arrived in Thailand was “gin khao reu yung?” This is a phrase that asks if you have eaten yet but is really more of a greeting than an inquiry. They are not really interested in when you had your last meal. If you dissect that phrase a bit more you will find a clue to as what is the main component of their meals. In Thai, “khao” means “rice”. So, what they are really asking is, “have you eaten rice yet?”

A second thing I noticed was that Thai people seem to eat all the time and they don’t really have the regular mealtimes like we do in the West. I would go as far as saying that for many people, eating is like a hobby. They have a phrase which says “gin len” or “play eating”. This is a bit like our snacking. I see some people eat all the time and they never seem to get fat. However, some do and I will talk more about that another time.

Wherever you go in the streets you will always find food stalls. From dawn to dusk and in some areas, all night. By far the majority are mobile. At the end of their day they wheel their carts back home. Some are pushed and others have bicycles or motorcycles attached. However, an increasing number just leave their cart on the sidewalk and maybe just pull a sheet over it.

Around the corner from where we live there must be at least a dozen of these stalls. For breakfast you can go and eat jok which is a kind of rice porridge with bits of pork and an egg. There are also little rice and coconut puddings called khanom krok. More substantial meals include pad thai (lightly fried noodles), ba mee (egg noodle soup), kao mun gai (Chinese chicken), hoi tod (oyster omlette), som tam (papaya salad) and many more. Then there are the snacks on a stick. Both seafood and meat.

One of my favourites is the fried chicken cooked by the Muslim guy (a.k.a. the “chicken man”). His secret recipe is so much better, and of course cheaper, than KFC. I don’t think his sales were affected much by the bird flu scare. In fact, everyone I know were a bit upset when he disappeared for a week or so. We later found out it was the Muslim new year so I guess he deserved a holiday. The “chicken man” starts the ball rolling mid-afternoon and then his wife takes over late afternoon. By about 7 p.m. all of the best pieces of chicken have long gone.

With all of this abundance of cheap food on every street corner it is not surprising many Thai people either eat out or get “take-away” on their way home from work. A basic meal costs from 20 baht and 5 baht more will give you an extra helping. Just ask for “piset” which means “special”. It is not that difficult to order and all of the vendors around here are very friendly. I obviously have my favourite meals but I don’t want to let any of the vendors think that I am avoiding them intentionally. So, I have this rotation worked out.

Although I do like eating Thai food, it is also nice to have Western food. Since moving into my own house and rediscovering the kitchen I often cook at home. Most of these meals are Western (like meat and three veg) though I do experiment with Thai ingredients sometimes. I think that if I want to eat Western food then I should cook myself. There are some restaurants around Paknam that have Western menus but it can work out very expensive.

Most of the Thai people I know don’t really like Western meals. They are not so keen on steak and they would rather not have extra cheese on the pizza. If they eat a hamburger they would much prefer to eat the meat and then just peck at the bread. They do have milk but it is mainly seen as a children’s drink. So, they wouldn’t have cereals. They like bacon but again it is not traditional to have egg and bacon like we do.

For myself, I prefer a good breakfast of egg and bacon on toast or some cereals with a cup of coffee. Go to a restaurant and that kind of meal would set you back 100 baht at least. On the other hand, Thai people would have a jok rice porridge for just 20 baht or so. Other Thai people I know would eat food left over from the meal the night before. Although I like curries very much, I just cannot bring myself to eating anything hot and spicy so early in the morning!

I will talk more about mealtimes tomorrow.

One thing that Thai people don’t enjoy to eat and so therefore is difficult to find is cheese. Myself, I like cheese with salads and in sandwiches. I particularly like eating cheese with Branston Pickle which is also not easy to find here in Thailand. In the normal supermarket chains like Tesco Lotus and Big C it is possible to buy large packets of processed sheets and sometimes some small blocks of real cheese. Though usually no larger than 250 grams. It can also be quite expensive so I never bought cheese that often. Usually, 250 grams of imported cheese would cost at least 100 baht if not more. That doesn’t last me long.

The other day I went to Makro “Cash & Carry”. For those of you who don’t know, Makro is a kind of wholesale place where you buy most things on bulk. You cannot buy just one tube of toothpaste. You have to buy a big box. The reason I wanted to apply for membership is that the receipt they print out will have the name and address of our company. This is exactly what I need for doing the accounts. They have stationary here as well as electronics and food. Perfect really. The only pain is that they don’t give you plastic bags for your shopping.

Anyway, back to the cheese. What I did discover at Makro was a large two kilo pack of Anchor cheese! . And the price too was very reasonable. The white cheese was only 540 baht and the red cheese 100 baht more expensive. If I had bought eight packs of the 250 gram packs at Tesco Lotus or Foodland it would have cost me something like 800 baht. So, I bought the cheese. The only problem is that I have nearly finished the last jar of Branston pickle that my sister had brought over from the UK last year.

Actually, when I went to the hospital last week in Bangkok I stopped to take a look at Villa Market for the first time. This has a good reputation of having a lot of imported food. So, I thought I would take a look as it was quite near the hospital. I am just glad I didn’t buy any vegetables without looking at the prices first. The iceberg lettuce was about 100 baht while I normally pay only 20 baht. The carrots were equally expensive. I guess they import the vegetables too.

What I did find in the supermarket was a small bottle of Branston pickle, albeit at a very high 220 baht. I was almost tempted. They also had a large jar of Marmite. The first I had seen in Thailand. However, I still have a jar left of that. Some Thai friends went to England about three years ago and I had asked them to buy me some Marmite amongst some other missed favourites. I don’t think they really understood how you use Marmite. They probably thought you spread it on thick as they came back with FIVE large bottles of Marmite! The servants certainly didn’t understand as the first sandwiches they made with Marmite had a very thick layer! Erm, a bit too much.

Talking about sandwiches, really bread is not that popular here either. It is true that you can buy half loaves of sliced bread at 7-Eleven and Family Mart convenience stores, but Thai people don’t really like it so much. They would never have it as a meal like we do. They might have it as a snack with some jam (or “yam” as the kids call it). At school, they have this thick white bread which they toast with sugar on top. Then they pour cream on it. Very popular with the students but not for me.

I think when I first came to Thailand people didn’t really eat sandwiches at school. But, as in everything else, they closely watched how I was making them and then did exact copies. I had to be careful as I tend to make “disgusting” sandwiches at times. I sometimes like to eat strawberry jam and cheese amongst other concoctions. The reason I had to be careful was that the servants were now beginning to make sandwiches for both foreign and Thai visitors we had at the school. I think the last thing we should give them is a peanut butter and jelly sandwich. Actually, these days, the servants make a pretty darn good sandwich. Whenever we have visitors they always enjoy our sandwiches. They now sell some of them in the snack shops to the students.

This fried rice dish is called khao kluk kapi ( ข้าวคลุกกะปิ ). I must admit it is not among my most popular dishes. In fact, you don't seem to see it around so much these days. The big difference between this dish and normal fried rice is that the rice is fried with shrimp paste which gives it a brown look (see picture above). It is also seasoned with sugar and fish sauce.