Reykjavík Grapevine - 24.06.2005, Blaðsíða 53

53
An alternate food-related activity we discover is a Ping
River boat cruise. One outfit offers a longtail boat trip
that departs south of the city center and heads upstream
for a two-hour ride. The Ping is slow-moving, and
especially tranquil just 15 minutes out, where the city
falls behind and the riverbanks reveal subsistence farmers
and fishing families living in bamboo huts on stilts. The
boat’s destination: a vegetable, fruit, and herb garden
where you can taste fresh jackfruit and see kaffir limes
growing on the tree. It’s instructive to see the produce
as living and developing, not simply piled in markets as
harvest or sliced and fried for the restaurant table. For
the ultimate food and culture combination, a few days
later we try the Old Chiang Mai Cultural Centre, the
city’s most authentic khan toke dinner-theater show.
The evening begins with a traditional meal, served on
a three-legged teak or rattan table called a “khan toke.”
Our shoes are off and we sit on mats before the outdoor
stage. Then, the trays of pumpkin fritters, fried chicken,
stir-fried cabbage, sticky rice, and hangleh (Burmese
pork curry) arrive. About midway through the meal, a
classical orchestra plays while dancers perform northern
Thai steps, like a solo sword dance, a group depicting
villagers reeling silk, and the slow and stately “fingernail
dance.”
After the food is gone, we move to a smaller theatre
to see performances from the Lahu, Hmong, Mien,
Lisu, and Akha hill tribes. Their bright costumes and
eerie pipe sounds add an inexplicable flavor to the
evening, and I think back to the dinner I just consumed.
The food surprised me; it was dull-coloured and less
palatable compared with what we had prepared in
school. I struggle to not pass judgment based on Western
standards or what I now know about Thai food. I realize
I would need more eating and more cooking before I
could do that.
Ethan Gilsdorf is a travel writer and poet who has been
featured in the Boston Globe and the Washington Post. He
last wrote for the Grapevine on the Hiking the Scottish
Highlands.
What to do:
Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School
1-3 Moonmuang Road, opposite Tha Phae Gate
011-66-53-206388
Fax: 011-66-53-206387
www.thaicookeryschool.com.
Open Monday-Saturday, 8:30 a.m.-6 p.m.; Sunday 9-
6. About $20/day for a five- to six-hour class (10 a.m.-4
p.m. or 4-9 p.m.). Price includes food, drinks, cookbook,
transportation. Early booking is essential during high season.
River cruises
Behind Wat Chaimongkhon on Thanon Charoen Prathet
011-66-53-274822 Daily 8:30 a.m.-5 p.m.; $7 with
garden tour and refreshments. Dinner cruises 7:15-9 p.m., set
menu, $9.25.
Old Chiang Mai
Cultural Centre
1853 Thanon Wualai
011-66-53-202993-5
www.oldchiangmai.com
Open nightly 7-10 p.m.; $6.25 for northern Thai khan toke
and hill-tribe performances, including dinner.
Call to reserve.
THAILAND
By Ethan Gilsdorf
FIRST LESSON: START SLOWLY
DESIGN: GEIM
STOFAN.IS
of the wok into a bowl, the group
dines together. Roong brings out
our steamed banana cakes (khanom
kluay) plus trays of Asian fruits to
try, including a sliced durian, spiky
like a hedgehog on the outside,
smelly butter-almond flesh within,
and several red and hairy rambutans,
which would be as at home on a
coral reef as on a fruit tree.
“Yellow inside, good for eating.
White inside, good for salad som
tam,” Roong says, pointing at a
sliced papaya. “Peel your banana in
four peels. If you peel three, you’re a
monkey.”
At meal’s end, it’s 9 o’clock. We
take the obligatory group photo,
some students exchange e-mail
addresses, and Roong hands out
copies of the school’s cookbook,
detailing every recipe should we dare
try this at home.
Having learned more about local
flavours and tried our hands behind
the wok, we feel better equipped to
sample what had tempted us in our
early exploring around Chiang Mai.
It’s not hard to get hungry: We soon
learn that an afternoon of haggling
with songthaew drivers and visiting
“wats” (Buddhist temple complexes)
can work up an appetite. But like
in a lot of far-flung destinations,
in Chiang Mai it’s easy to see the
segregation between the farang and
local hangouts. Inauthentic dining
experiences abound, especially
at places with menus in English,
Japanese, German, and French
that cater specifically to tourists.
Fortunately, most of what you see
for sale on the street, where the
average Thai eats, is perfectly safe for
Western stomachs. Whether you’d
want to pop some of these snacks
in your mouth for a late-afternoon
pick-me-up is another issue.
Here’s what I did learn from my head-first eating experiences. First, if you’re
serious about street food in Thailand, it’s best to break in your stomach slowly
by eating small amounts of fresh fruit and spicy foods at the start of your trip.
It’s also wise to always stick to bottled water and stay away from ice. The
cheap prices - a basic plate of pad thai fried noodles usually runs a whopping
$1 - may encourage a dangerous all-you-can-eat streak. But new flavours,
ingredients, and microbes require some getting used to. After a few days
you’ll be ready to tackle the more mysterious local specialities. (I never did
work up the courage to practice what I preach by “participating” in the crispy
insect fritters, though.)
Second, I became wary of Western-style restaurants, which may rely
on imported ingredients and refrigeration. (One of Chiang Mai’s oddest
must be Bierstube, which serves German beer and schnitzel alongside Thai
favourites.) We know someone who ate a poorly-frozen chicken burger and
was laid up for three days with serious diarrhoea and a fever. When you’re
ready to dive into the diverse dining scene of Chiang Mai, Heuan Sontharee
is an enchanting first stop. Here you’ll find regular Thais alongside a scant
supply of farang, all enjoying northern delicacies like nam, which are strong
pork, rice, and garlic sausages, and steamed Ping River fish in fermented
sauces. Local celebrity and folk singer Sontharee Wechanon owns the multi-
tiered riverfront establishment on the town’s northern outskirts. Glowing
lights and haunting traditional Thai music make for a memorable evening.
It’s here that I notice the irony of my diehard travel mantra. In their effort
to blend in, the foreigners wear the vivid, hand-woven jackets and sarongs of
the mountain folk. But the locals have long since shed their traditional attire,
preferring Western dress shoes and button-down shirts.
In the same neighbourhood is Khao Soi Samoe Jai, where natives
outnumber the brave farang 20 to 1 and no-nonsense waiters serve up some of
the city’s best khao soi (egg noodles with meat in a curried coconut soup) and
satay (grilled meats). Rumor is, the chef was once noodle maker to the king.
Heuan Phen, in the centre of the old city, is also little known to tourists. An
informal street-side eatery during the day, it has a suite of antique-decorated
rooms open only in the evening. Just thinking now of their local dishes like
laap khua (minced-meat salad) makes us miss Chiang Mai.
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