Bopeep's Story

“Sawat-dee-kah…” (Hello) says the lady at a gritty marketplace in Thailand. She was making Sam Tan, a local Thai salad made of fresh green papayas, coriander, red chilli, spring onions and lemon juice for dressing. She puts them all in one big mortar and works her way pounding on it with a pestle the length of her forearm. I watch her as she dips a spoon to taste it, add a little more teaspoon of monosodium glutamate (MSG), some more powdered red chilli and scoop everything in a clear plastic bag.
I tried another stall along the same street where a dark, thick soup is being mixed with brown sugar while star anise floats about. She smiles at me and asks in Thai if I wanted my order with a bunch of swamp cabbage – our conversation understood only with gestures. The swamp cabbage, still tied with rubber band, is plunged into the stew. A few seconds after, she scoops it up and places it on a chopping board, the rubber band holding them in place. Pretty functional. The stall had two large bottles of sweet and sour chilli and soy sauce with vinegar and chilli.
Backstreet Brunch
I head on to a noodle house with a Filipino friend in Bang Chak, right below the BTS train station. My friend Jofferson said he had asked the restaurant owner once if his brother could apprentice for them to learn how to make the noodle. Unfortunately, he got declined as the noodle-making itself had been a family secret for more than 140 years! I had to visit the place. Too bad its name is written in Thai.
The serving is pretty moderate for my handsome appetite. But the delectable broth is available upon request and the heavenly flavor more than compensates for the quantity of the noodles. The toppings were generous – two slices of what tasted like seafood sausage, two dimsums, fish balls and squid balls, leaves of Bok Choi and a piece of fried wanton wrapper.
As in everywhere, the ubiquitous condiments of grandly await my taking.
The Last Bite
Walking the backstreets of Bangkok, the cooking preparations that I have witnessed is sure to drive celebrity chef Gordon Ramsey into eternal madness, with the chaos that eventually ends up in a full stomach nonetheless. Some may even question its hygiene, but no one’s complaining.
Thai cuisine tells me that Thailand was never conquered. It does not impose its flavors and perhaps, as coupled with their Buddhist belief that observes maximum tolerance, you will surely have the freedom to bring your food to where your taste buds want to go.