Tag: thai_food

Categories
Journalism Thailand

New Yorker cartoon featuring ‘underwater’ Thai food

This week’s Mother’s Day themed New Yorker magazine cover, which you may have already seen, is remarkable.

But I also found another element of the issue to be notable — for a reason that should come as no surprise given my previous posts about stateside reminders of Thailand.

So: What happens when you combine the often inscrutable New Yorker cartoon aesthetic with a parody of exclusive New York City ethnic dining?

You get this:

2013 05 08 new yorker thai food cartoon

Get it?

One thing, if you’ll forgive my pedantry: Even allowing for the cartoon’s cryptic nature, we all know that except for eating some soups, chopsticks aren’t typically used in Thailand. Forks and spoons are the norm.

But let’s not let that stand in the way of the joke…

Categories
Thailand

Is Thai Street Food Increasingly Expensive Despite Lower Commodity Prices?

2012 03 14 thai street food

The Bangkok Post says so.

According to a story in today’s paper, the prices of commodities like meat and eggs has actually been falling over the last year, and fuel prices are now lower or slightly higher than they were this time last year.

But vendors, anticipating Thailand’s coming minimum wage increase, have been increasing their prices.

The Post reports:

People across the country are being squeezed in the economic vice of rising inflation and stagnant incomes.

Just one year ago, a simple dish of khao kaeng (rice with one side dish) was 25 baht, but today some street vendors, shop-house stalls or food courts are selling it at 40 baht.

According to the latest Abac poll, almost 64% of people say they are more concerned with what to eat than with any political conflicts that might result from charter amendments.

My experience is that dishes in my neighborhood have not, in fact, been increasing in price drastically. However, I have noticed a slight decline in the quality and quantity of dishes.

(For the record: In the chart above, when you figure that $1 is about 30 Thai baht, we’re still talking about dishes that are, by Western standards, quite cheap.)

(All emphasis mine.)

Post story via Terry Fredrickson.

(Image: Bangkok Post.)

Categories
Bangkok Thailand

Austin Bush talks about Bangkok street food

2011 04 27 thai street food

In Jake Warga’s recent radio piece on “PRI’s The World,” Austin Bush discusses Thai street food. Worth a listen.

(Image: Jake Warga/”PRI’s The World.“)

Categories
Thailand

Are the best new Thai chefs farang?

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That’s the provocative title of an upcoming event at the Foreign Correspondents’ Club of Thailand (FCCT) that I look forward to attending. It’s on Mon., Dec. 13 at 8 p.m. here in Bangkok.

The announcement on the FCCT site helps put the issues — which I’ve mentioned before — into perspective:

You have only to ask a Frenchman for his thoughts on English cooking to realize that all over the world matters culinary provide an outstanding excuse for chauvinistic excess. Hotels and restaurants in Thailand are full of Thai chefs and cooks who produce wonderful and completely authentic Western fare every day — and nobody gives the matter a second thought. Local newspapers, magazines and books feature recipes and cooking tips for Thais who might want to roast the perfect leg of lamb, bake a black forest gateau, turn out a pizza or simmer a bouillabaisse. Yet when the occasional daring farang turns his or her ladle to a tom yam kung, or does something different with a green curry, a surprising number of Thais are left in slack- jawed astonishment. Their horror only deepens when more broadminded compatriots praise the results and laud some of the innovations. This culinary cross-pollination is more than a debate about carrots in the som tam or dairy milk in the soup. To read some recent comments about mischievous farangs in the Thai kitchen, a heresy is being uncovered that could threaten the end of Thai civilization as we know it. Could a plot be afoot here that is even more threatening than a nuclear-empowered Myanmar? Fortunately, the FCCT is no stranger to controversy, and only too pleased to release some steam from the kitchen. The club welcomes without reservation all great cooks and gourmets, including for this special programme.

(Cartoon via.)

Categories
Misc.

Where to eat in Bangkok, by Austin Bush

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Visitors who are new to Thailand and have culinary questions about the Thai capital should check out “Where to eat in Bangkok 2010,” a new post by Austin Bush.

I can tell you from personal experience that Austin has a great deal of knowledge about Thai cuisine, and he has a good feel for what interests food-focused travelers. ((Readers may recall a recent eating expedition I undertook with Austin, in which we sampled Cameroonian food in Bangkok.))

Austin recommends that visitors first try Thai cuisine in shopping mall food courts (don’t knock ’em until you’ve tried ’em), then move on to an upscale Thai restaurant. Then he recommends visiting some Thai food neighborhoods before finally graduating to street food.

The post includes annotated Google Maps for more info on individual restaurants and neighborhoods.

(Image credit: a pic of yours truly, snapped by Austin himself.)

Categories
Misc.

Pok Pok on the Travel Channel

Pok Pok, the Thai restaurant in Portland, Oregon that I’ve mentioned before, was featured on the Travel Channel program “Diners, Drive-Ins, and Dives.”

The segment is embedded below, and you can find it on YouTube here.

(Via Oregonian and Thai food expert Austin Bush, who points out that the show was filmed during characteristically rainy weather.)

Categories
Misc.

My CNNGo audio slide show about David Thomspon

You may recall my recent post about attending David Thompson’s Thai cooking demonstration here in Bangkok. I was there for CNNGo, a recently launched travel and lifestyle site that focuses on six Asian cities. ((In addition to the Thai capital, the site covers Hong Kong, Mumbai, Shanghai, Singapore and Tokyo.))

I put together an audio slide show about the David Thompson event that you can find on the site here. And I’m embedding it below. Thompson talks about authenticity in cooking, what he finds appealing about Thai cuisine, and more.

If you have a look around CNNGo, you’ll also find a couple of my earlier contributions in the Bangkok section.

In one piece, I describe the best burgers in Bangkok. ((Newley.com readers will recall that I’ve written about this before.))

And another item is called “The Siam Sunray: Chasing down Thailand’s ‘signature’ cocktail.” ((Again, this item may be familiar to Newley.com readers.))

Categories
Misc.

Does Sydney have better Thai food than Thailand?

From the Sydney Morning Herald:

Wake up, Sydney, and smell the lemongrass. Do you know what’s under your collective nose? Anyone who has lived away from this city for any time suffers withdrawal symptoms for Thai chicken curry, deep-fried snapper with sweet chilli sauce, pad thai noodles or Thai beef salad, whether from Longrain, Chat Thai, Spice I Am, Sailor’s Thai or (insert your favourite local Thai here). Even Sydneysiders who have moved to Thailand suffer post-Sydney-Thai-fabulousness syndrome.

That’s because there is nothing in the world like Sydney Thai food. Europe can’t do it and neither can America. London certainly can’t, with one honourable exception (David Thompson’s Nahm), and neither can Bangkok, because only Sydney has the mix of climate, produce, attitude and style – and those last two are as important as the first two.

(Emphasis mine.)

Link via this New Mandala post, where you’ll find some reactions to the story. And here’s more, um, hard-hitting feedback from Stomachs on Legs.

Categories
Misc.

The best — and only — Thai food in Beaufort, SC

Back in January, as you might recall, my little brother C penned a guest post here at newley.com called “Top five restaurants in Beaufort, South Carolina.”

C is a serious foodie, and unlike his older brother, he’s spent a lot of time in SC over the past several years.

Though it didn’t make his list, I wanted to point out that our sleepy seaside town (pop. in 2000: 12,950) now boasts…a Thai restaurant. ((Side note: The globalization of sushi is well documented. But what about the globalization of Thai food?))

The curiously named Yes! Thai Indeed restaurant has been earning some positive reviews of late. (Not only does the restaurant have a Web site, but they even have their menu (PDF link) and guest book online.)

Will Yes! Thai Indeed make C’s 2010 round-up of Top 5 Beaufort restaurants? Only time will tell.

Categories
Misc.

Thai Waffle-coated hot dog: in the news

I’m not sure whether to laugh or cry.

The Thai waffle-coated hot dog, which you’ll remember that I consumed in Kanchanaburi in late 2007, has been featured on what is currently the Internerd’s most popular bad-food blog, This Is Why You’re Fat. TIWYF (tag line: “Where dreams become heart attacks”) mentions the creation here.

To have this Thai dish featured alongside the Carny Casserole, the Jabaconageburger With Cheese, and the Mega Double Stuff Oreo is an honor.

I think.