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Thailand:
A country of images and image problems
BY LEONARD NOVARRO
didn’t know the difference between a mortar and a pestle, much less Khang Keaw Wan Gai and Gai Hor Bai Toey. But here I was with ten other brave souls, pounding, grinding, crushing and otherwise pummeling away at a bowl of coriander seeds, green chiles, white pepper corns and garlic cloves in a com- bined cacophony that sounded more like a home under construc- tion than a preparation for green curry.
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The occasion was a cooking class on the banks of a tributary to
Bangkok’s Chao Praya River, about a half hour by motor boat from the Royal Grand Palace and Wat Phra Kaeo, the most impor- tant Buddhist temple in Thailand. Earlier we had taken in the mag- nificence of the temple, with its combined Hindu, Khmer, Chinese and Thai architecture, and the adjoining Western-inspired palace, walked across the street, hopped aboard a ferry and wound our way through the Sanam Chai Canal, straddled by houses, shanties, condos and temples, until we came to the home of Piyawadi “Tam” Jantrupon and her Amita Thai Cooking Class, which has been written up in Vogue Asia as one of the ten best reasons to visit Bangkok.
After their king and temples, there’s nothing more sacred to Thai people than their food. In fact, the Tourism Authority of Thailand (TAT) will periodically issue edicts on what constitutes a Thai dish and what is not acceptable in a recipe. So, it’s important we get this right. Finally, we get to savor our own creations. My green curry actually tastes like, well…green curry. My culinary compatriots wholeheartedly concur about their own dishes. We leave refreshed, satisfied and, most importantly, well fed. But I don’t think any of us is ready to open up a restaurant back home – not yet, anyway. The Tourism Authority of Thailand calls excursions like this “experiential tourism.” Instead of savoring Thai food, you cook it. Instead of watching elephants perform, you travel on the back of one. Instead of gaping at the Golden Triangle – the borders of Thailand, Laos and Burma (Myanmar) – from the veranda of a five-star hotel, you trek through an Akha Hill Tribe village on the outskirts of Chiang Rai.
Thailand has long been one of the premiere travel destinations in the world, and tourism has traditionally played an important role
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May 15-May 22, 2010
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