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A Thai time
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A three- day festival showcased more than food
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Taste this A live cooking demo was also offered at the festival
Thai food has come to mean green curry, yellow curry and red curry. It is all this and more, proved a recent three-day festival called “Destination Thailand”. The Royal Thai Embassy showcased the foods, handicrafts and products of their c
ountry at Ansal Plaza.
The amphitheatre of the mall was converted into a bustling and colourful fair. Stores selling food to offering Thai massages were arranged in neat symmetry. Traditional dances were organised on the makeshift stage, much to the joy of the audience. But Thai food was certainly the focus of the event. There were live cooking demonstrations. People who signed up for it learnt to cook and got a hot and tasty meal in the bargain. There was little elbow room at the stores offering satay. The curious flocked to the stall that distributed free Thai fruit. The Thai litchi looks like a round nut. But once you nail through the hard brown outer covering, it tastes just like our litchis. The children were most excited about the fat tamarinds. Shops offered traditional Thai food products like coconut milk and fish sauce. While a few stalls did offer fish snacks, most visitors peeked in but stayed away.
While Thai food differs from region to region, rice is the mainstay. It is known for its fresh fruits and vegetables. In fact the spices and herbs tend to be fresh rather than dried.
A live cooking demo was offered by Ladapah Mortero and Naruemon Nantaragsa of Suan Dusit Rajabhat University. They showed how to cook herb chicken and sweet tri colour balls. The chicken dish used the traditional dried chillies and roasted crushed peanuts. The Thai touch, explained Ladapha, was provided through the use of the three sauces. Palm sugar, fish sauce and tamarind juice give that unique tingling Oriental flavour.
The tri coloured balls were sticky rice combined with pumpkin and sticky rice combined with taro, a tropical tuber. The balls were then soaked in coconut milk, sugar syrup and a dash of salt.
Naruemon, a professor at the University says of Thai food, “It is healthy dishes in harmonious flavours. It’s not only sweet or sour. You can taste the ingredients. But if you just try to cook it, you wouldn’t get it right, since the proportions are crucial.”
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