"One Night in Bangkok"

Green Curry Kanoom Jean with Garnish

Krung Tep (aka Bangkok) is the City of Angels by translation. Thais, Chinese, Indians and other Asian ethnic groups have transformed the city, creating its fusion flavors to date. I am not from Bangkok but spent summers there during my childhood years and later did my architectural internship there. I try to get out of Bangkok as soon as I can whenever I visit Thailand now. But my craving usually wins over and motivates me to overcome the chaos, polluted air and succumb to the great food this city has to offer.

Visiting Bangkok is like seeing old friends with something familiar and something new to discover every time. My husband and I invited a group of friends to join us for dinner recently as I tried to recreate the flavors of Bangkok for one night. Friends whom my husband has known since 7th grade and who have been living in the Triangle area for many years. Everyone has a different definition of how "spicy" one can tolerate and still enjoy the food. This dinner hopefully will help explain their definition, rediscover our old friends and give a sneak peek of the Triangle native’s palate.

The thought had crossed my mind to order Pad Thai for delivery and blast Murray Head's famous song to create one night in Bangkok impression. Pleasure is a rudimentary thing and appears in different states. One is always tempted by the easier way, but not necessarily getting the most. So, only pain will gain result. For the sake of my craving and rediscovering our new friends, below is the somewhat painful remedy.
 
I started the evening with Curry puffs.  They have crunchy shell and soft, spicy filling that is a mouthful of an introduction. I do not know the origin of the curry puff, but imagine that it has to do with Indians who migrated there. It is made with Indian curry powder, similar to the Indian samosa. You can probably get the good ones at most gas stations in and around Bangkok. Since I am not in Bangkok, I will make it with what I have in my cupboard.

Makes 24 curry puffs:
2 sheets of puff pastry cut and stretched into 3"x3" squares
Make the filling with
2 sweet potatoes chopped into 1/4" cubes
1 medium chopped onion
3 cloves of chopped garlic
2 tablespoons of hot curry powder
3 tablespoons of palm sugar
1/2 tablespoons of salt
Stuff and fold into triangles. Pierce a couple openings.
Brush with egg wash.  Bake @400 degrees for 15 minutes
Serve with Ar-jard (cucumber relish)
 
Second course: Lemongrass Salad and wing bean salad:
Experiencing a balanced texture and flavor on the first bite is the goal.

Wing Bean Salad

Wing bean salad:
12 wing beans, blanched and chopped
1 cup of toasted, salted cashew nut
1 cup of toasted coconut sweetened flakes
1/2 cup of fried shallots
Flavor with lime, fish sauce, chili flakes, palm sugar




Lemongrass salad, there are a few versions of this salad, depending on where you are. This recipe is closer to another snack which is served with Bai Cha Plu.

Lemongrass Salad

 

6 bulbs of chopped shallots
5 chopped fresh Thai chilies
12 stalks, julienned lemongrass
1 cup salted, toasted peanuts
1/2 cup dried, fried, salted anchovies
1/2 cup dried, fried, salted shrimps
1/2 cup of coriander leaves
Flavoring with tamarind, fish sauce, palm sugar
 






Third course is a soft tofu soup:
Tofu comes in different forms, textures and tastes. There are fresh, soft, firm, hard, foam, and fermented. Soup serves as a cleaning and awakening of the palate agent. Don't look back at what you have tasted but what you are tasting. Cleaning one's palate this way reminds me of the Loy Kratong festival in Thailand, paying respect to the ways of the river. Banana leaf floats float away with all the bad thoughts and spirits, washing the mind clean. Drinking soup between meal courses resets one's tongue, preparing it for the next set of flavors. I used soft tofu for this soup for its luscious quality.
 

Mushroom ginger stock or any vegetable stock, Soft tofu, Garnish with Ground white pepper, fried garlic oil and coriander leaves
 

Main meal: Kanom jean
If you have visited the residential areas of Bangkok, you may have met a vendor, walking along with a push cart or carrying 2 bamboo baskets on his or her shoulder. This is how I learned to eat Kanom jean, a Chinese influenced dish (mainly the noodles part). There are different types of curry that can go on top of the noodles. The rice noodles served with this dish are of Chinese descent. The curry topping sauces are uniquely Thai.

During one of my visits to Thailand, my husband and I went to a sunflower festival. While walking through the festival, my husband got pinched by a stranger who just turned around and smiled at him as he walked by in the opposite direction. Nevertheless, it was his first time trying this dish at the festival and he liked it.

There are 2 types of toppings: vegetarian Green curry (picture above) and Namprik shrimp curry. I am not going to explain green curry since that recipe can be easily found on the Internet, but my recipe uses young bamboo shoots and Thai eggplant.

Namprik: serves 8
1 cup toasted and ground lentils
6 tbspoon Namprik Pao (dry shrimp, toasted dry chili, roasted garlic and shallot, palm sugar, fish sauce, tamarind-- ground and pan fried)
Grind the below ingredient into paste:
1 tbspoon shrimp paste
6 bulbs of roasted shallots
6 cloves of roasted Garlic
6 slices of roasted galangal
Mix all above ingredients together and cook on medium heat with 6 cups of coconut milk, for at least 2 hours.  Flavor with palm sugar, tamarind water, kaffir lime juice and fish sauce.  10 min. before serving, add 1 1/2 lbs fresh peeled shrimp.  Serve on top of rice noodles (Japanese brand) with bean sprouts, fried shallots, lime, and pickled cabbage.
 
This recipe was by far the spiciest course for our friends and the most painful for me to make. End the meal with tropical fruits such as pineapple, papaya and mango.
We discovered our friend’s taste buds and hope that they rediscover theirs...even if it was for one cold night in the Triangle...there was a tropical paradise on their tongue.

Cheers!
Teera