Beating the Heat Part II: Tropical Crunch

King Narai's Summer Palace

Imagine sitting under a shade of a Charmjuree tree (another name for Kampoo or Rain tree) with a light summer breeze passing through. The white plastered, tall wall of King Narai's summer palace seems to not only keep the hustling and bustling of the city center away, but entice one to step back in time, to walk and to talk softly with a respectful gesture to the spirit and the past. Old and new, everything one touches has a spirit that lives in it. You may hear a whisper or simply a deep silence as one passes by.

Khmer Ruin Near the Summer Palace

In the mid 17th century King Narai spent most of his days in this palace, north of the city of Ayutthaya (Thailand) where he reign. He befriended the French who helped him plan the city layout. Before King Narai's time, the city of the summer palace (Lavo) was the center of the Khmer (Cambodian) and Thai civilization, dating back to the 6th century. You cannot help but feel its history in the air, walking through the palace and the city.
The summer palace is now a museum with a couple restaurants servicing small crowds. It was a place that I escaped to, to hang out with my friends. There was no Internet cafe back then, but you could always find papaya salad, sticky rice, or some sort of grilled meat to hang out with. More importantly, the place was peaceful and had shade.

Papaya Salad with Grilled Honey Chicken

Eating papaya is as tropical as you can get. It can be eaten as salad, curry, and when ripe, dessert. During raining season, you can see them ripen and practically fall of its tree daily. A midnight snack can easily be had. My aunt caught me one night after I had picked a young papaya from the garden, carved, and pounded it and was mixing a salad. Fruit of the craving was well worth the commotion that night.

Below is a simple recipe for the salad:

In a large clay mortar, pound:

1/3 cup of dried shrimp, 2 cloves of garlic and 3 Thai chili
Add 3 cups of julienne young papaya, ½ cup of cherry tomatoes, ½ of green beans.  Pound and mix lightly.

Add the flavoring: Fish Sauce, Palm sugar, and Tamarind, lime.

Sprinkle with ½ cup of ground peanut.

Lotus Stem Salad at Pho Far East, Raleigh, NC

If the spicy papaya salad is not your thing, I invite you to try the lotus stem salad at a local Vietnamese restaurant in Raleigh--Pho Far East. The fresh, crunchy lotus stem is quite refreshing. It was dressed lightly with fish sauce, lime, onion, shrimp, pork and fried shallots. Vietnamese food is mild, in comparison to Thai food, but gives your taste buds of the tropical palate that will help you cool down.

I hope you sink back through time when the sun is blazing outside and find yourselves a shady spot. Sweat it out with a tropical salad and feel the breeze. At least that's how I am planning to cope with the heat...

Cheers,
Teera