Archive | She Rants and Muses RSS feed for this section

Food and Cooking in Thai TV Dramas, Love Destiny, 17th Century Siam, and Crispy Noodle-Wrapped Pork Dumplings

love destiny and crispy noodle-wrapped pork dumplings
For a country that takes such great pride in its cuisine, Thailand, surprisingly, hasn’t seemed very enthusiastic about spotlighting its food in its cinematic endeavors. If it’s true that art imitates life, then it’s quite perplexing how the magnitude of the love the Thai people have for their food and the enormity of the role food plays in their lives—all obvious to even the most casual observers—haven’t really manifested themselves on silver screen and television. And the few times when food and eating were incorporated into films and dramas, it was rarely done with any perceptible sense of intentionality.

I believe we can do better. Continue Reading →

Comments are closed

How to Prepare Pomelos for Thai Pomelo Salad

HOW TO PREPARE POMELOS FOR THAI POMELO SALAD

Pomelo Salad Bites, Page 46, Bangkok cookbook

About seven years ago, I published on YouTube a video that showed how to prepare a pomelo. I took it down at one point, as I was planning on replacing it with one that is of better quality. Regardless, when it first went up, a few emails came in wondering why I had to complicate something that was supposed to be so easy and if I even knew how to prepare a pomelo. I was more surprised than offended. ‘Is there another way to do it?‘ I remember thinking to myself. One of the people who emailed me said there was a better way to prepare pomelos that even her legally blind grandmother could do in much less time, so I asked her to please enlighten me. Her reply came with nothing but a URL—you could see an eye roll and hear an annoyed sigh—to a website that showed you how it was done, and I went, ‘Ah.’ Continue Reading →

Comments are closed

Khao Chae (ข้าวแช่)

Khao Chae Songkran Bangkok Cookbook Leela Punyaratabandhu
Songkran, Thai New Year, means different things to different people in Bangkok. To many, it’s the time to get out a plastic water gun along with a bucket of water and talcum powder, to wrap their cell phone in a plastic bag, and to take to the streets for some serious water-fighting fun. To just as many, it’s the time to go back to wherever home is and spend the days off with the loved ones they don’t get to see often the rest of the year. To some, it’s time to visit older relatives to wish them health and ask for their blessings in return. To some, it’s time to enjoy—even just for a few days—Bangkok without the usual around-the-clock traffic jam with many of the people visiting their homes upcountry.

I detest the water fight thing. I always have. I always will. So whenever I spend Songkran in Bangkok, I never leave home. I stock up on the basic grocery items in advance to last me for 3-4 days, and I don’t set foot beyond the threshold of my front door. I’m doing that right now. Continue Reading →

Comments are closed