What makes Thai food your unforgettable experience is; the tremendous diversity of their food’s culture. The art of cooking and how ingredients are used can be so different from one plate to another, from one province to another…
Thailand today have kept their beautiful way of traditional cooking whether you’re in an upscale fine dining restaurant or at your local joint.
But as an addition to this, you now have a number of chefs in this country who are taking Thai cuisine to a whole new level. Chefs like Khun Bo at Bo.lan, Khun Bee at Paste and many more (I like to name the female ones first…)
My inspiration with this piece,
came definitely from Austin Bush, writer, photographer, traveller and food lover of all kinds.
He has a very deep understanding of Thai culture in general, and his way of searching far away to please his palette is so compelling!
Austin is the author of the much inspiring book “The Food of Northern Thailand” which is an extensive and very ambitious work.
The lovely staff at my resort in Nan, and with a special Thanks to Mandy, the assisting manager. Who understood so very well what I was looking for. Apart from taking us on a fabulous road trip, showing some really stunning temples and interesting sites. Read more here!
She also took us one morning to this old house, it didn’t look like much and definitely not like a restaurant.
Chef Prayuth, who first looked very surprised and a bit shy, when a Swedish and a Venezuelan woman, walked in and asked to taste some of the traditional and typical foods of the region.
Including the raw blood larb,
which is a speciality in the Northeast regions of Thailand. Just so you know; most of my Thai friends admit having raw blood larb is a bit too much, even for their guts…I tried it… a tiny bit, to not hurt the chef’s feelings, then he cooked it and it became a really amazing, flavourful and nicely spiced dish.
When we drove there, it was early morning;
and we were the only ones in the restaurant. So he took his time to prepare a few dishes and at the same time tell us a bit about the cooking, with a good translator.
The beautiful, fresh mix of herbs and his broth, was so delicate and flavoured. In a traditional “Kuai-tiao”, the broth, herbs and meat, whether you use beef, chicken or pork, come together with noodles, in a simple but such a delicious dish. The Thais eat this on an almost daily basis.
They also love to add some liver as well and our chef added pork skin, I have never seen that before. For my taste buds, I could have had his soup vegetarian style, but of course, you taste everything your chef serves you!
He looked very pleased to have had us, foreigners, visiting his small place, eager to taste his cooking. Probably something which doesn’t happen every day…
