Farm to Table: Chiang Mai Style

Chick cupcakes!! One of my favorite recipes...

Happy Bakers

        This weekend all I did was bake… and eat. Apparently Khun Mae is one of the only people in Chiang Mai with an oven. I’m pretty sure she is also the person in Thailand/Southeast Asia/maybe even the entire world who owns the most cooking supplies. There is nothing this woman doesn’t have, and she uses about 10% of it on a daily basis. Her kitchen is half inside half outside, with walls of glass shelving units housing heaps of bowls, spoons, dishes, tools and machines to make every kind of food you could ever imagine. She has a bread maker, kitchen aid mixer (gifted by a previous host student), flame torch and deep frier. She has every size and shape of pan, bowl, muffin mold, spatula and nifty slicer/scraper/shaper. (Oh, except a grater, she could use one of those). And, like I said, she has an oven, which scores major points here. This weekend we made apple cake, chick cupcakes, pie crust and chocolate chip cookies. I managed to accidentally dump the chick cupcakes in the sink, and they were ruined. If Lucrecia and Brian are reading, they will find this extra funny because the last time I made these I did the same thing… only that time was on the carpet, frosting side down. The chocolate chip cookies were to bring to school… I kind of went to town (a quadruple batch, 100 cookies plus some dough for snacking).

         Cooking with my Mae has been an unmatchable bonding experience. I learn so much about her through her fascination with food. We still can’t say much to each other, and even though I nod and smile when she talks to me, she knows I still don’t really understand her. I decided to start simple and go with some “classic” desserts/snacks. Most of the recipes I suggested had already been introduced to her by her previous host students, so we got a little more technical. They love apples, so apple cake was easy, and Khun Mae miraculously remembered the chick cupcakes from a photo I had shown her 3 weeks ago and asked to make those too. I like that recipe because they are cute and delicious. But today we went to a book store and spent about an hour browsing the cooking section, making big plans for the rest of my stay. Our list includes chocolate cheesecake, cream puffs, banana upside down cake, and crème brulee. Like I said she has a flame torch, and wants to buy ramekin cups- a worthy investment in my opinions. This is really fun for me because it makes me feel like an expert on Farang food, and it makes me feel like I can give her something in return for the wealth of knowledge she is giving to me in the magical and “authentic” realm of cultural cuisine known as Thai food. More to come about cooking that stuff…

Yod using the new apple slicer

We also made spaghetti with white sauce for dinner, Yod got a little talk about eating all of the food on his plate.

Beautiful Chiang Mai

         Back to rice. I learned a bit more about it today from a reading I had for class from Charles F. Keyes’ Thailand: Buddhist Kingdom as a Modern Nation-State: “… rice is a basic of life for all who live in Thailand. Rice (khao) is equated with food in a basic sense, all other foods being considered as ‘that which is eaten with rice’. From rice one acquires not only nutrition but something that is also spiritual in essence. All of the peoples in Thailand, like their neighbors elsewhere in Southeast Asia, conceive of rice as having ‘vital essence’ that is the same as possessed by human beings. Rice not only unites people in Thailand, it also serves to distinguish them… For most people in Thailand the main food to be eaten with rice is fish, in some form. Fish Sauce made from salted fish is used as either the base for hot sauces or as seasoning. Fish sauce in particular is to Thai food what soy sauce is to Chinese or Japanese food” (11). This is pretty much my experience in another man’s words. He tells it like it is. Thailand must also be spoken of in relation to the countless tropical fruits that grow here that the people thrive upon! Passion fruit, guava, man koot, gno, pineapple, watermelon, farang, and countless others are staples in a Thai diet.

         Being the foodie that I am, and having visited a rice field and eaten rice every night, I can’t help but wonder where all of this food comes from. According to my host parents (and granted, there is still a degree of language barrier to be factored in here), all of the rice served or eaten in the city of Chiang Mai is grown in the surrounding suburbs (Mae Rim, Lampung, Doi Sukhet) on rice farms. In fact, The surrounding areas of Chiang Mai grow so much rice that much of it is sold to Bangkok or even exported. Additionally, when visiting the markets here, one gets a sense that everything being sold is coming from the surrounding area, there is no fancy packaging or pre washed and weighed kind of deal. This observation was confirmed at a presentation we had from someone at the city planning association in Chiang Mai, who seemed to think that having food grown in the surrounding suburbs was not quite as good as it could get. Now, of course all of this food is coming from so close by because of the climate, and the ability of the people to grow/raise this food year round, but needless to say I am still very impressed.

Learning about growing our own food,
and growing 2 plants in the same pot!

         Additionally, many families (like mine) have small gardens where they grow greens or raise chickens. This food significantly supplements each meal. I recently learned of the “Sufficient Economies” model that is a declared goal for all of Thailand to basically become self-sustaining. The way to do this is to have small communities primarily sustaining themselves with small amounts of exchange or transport of certain items throughout Thailand. Last week we visited a small functioning community/village inside the city and went to visit a man who sustains his own consumption of produce. It was really interesting to hear about his goals for his family in the context of the “Sufficient Economies” model, and how he has explored many farming methods and techniques to be producing all of the crops he needs throughout the year. Supposedly this movement is taking off, and it will be interesting to see if Thailand achieves this goal. I think they are very capable of it in terms of production, it will be the organization that will be the most important.

The garden we visited

Bananas!

         With that, I reach the climax of this post, our “Chiang Mai, Chiang Mai” dinner we had tonight. We had a pork dish that is a Chaing Mai recipe/favorite, with all Chiang Mai ingredients, including greens on the side from our garden. Ugh, local food comes so easily here…

All these veggies are from the garden!

This is a Chiang Mai dish, spicy pork. In the north, we like our food spicy.

To all of my K friends, good luck with classes today. Thinking of you!

 

** Side note: much of this food is grown with terrible chemicals and unsustainable farming practices. I will learn more about this soon, and will definitely update you, but I have decided that when I have to make the choice I prioritize local over sustainable.

The cave we rock climbed, ziplined, and repelled in on friday.