Thailand: Hot, Sweet, Sour and Salty

The Canberra Times - January 16, 2002

My 11-year-old daughter loves telling the story of the night mum ordered ‘chargrilled robster’ in the Thai seaside resort of Hua Hin. The splendid array of seafood at the local night market had looked so promising, but what was described as ‘robster’ on the menu actually turned out to be what we would call bugs. Not that I would have minded, but these were overcooked, dry and disappointing. Punishment, perhaps, for my greed, when for just over $2, or one-sixth of the price, I could have had a plate of very tasty fried rice garnished with succulent seafood. This was my daughter’s choice and it proved a good one, washed down with Coke from an old-fashioned glass bottle costing 15 baht (70 cents). The seafood stalls are a big attraction at the Hua Hin night market, where they jostle for space alongside the George Bush and Osama bin Laden t-shirts, wacky cigarette lighters and embroidered silk cushions.

Favoured as a summer resort by the Thai royal family, Hua Hin is 238km south of Bangkok, on the west coast of the Gulf of Thailand, its main attraction a white sandy beach offering horse rides, massages, pedicures and madicures (sic). Dining choices are endless, from little seafood restaurants on the pier to establishments with names like Heidi’s Musikgarten, steakhouses, and food stalls on the beach. But for my money, the star attraction of Hua Hin is the Anantara Resort and Spa, a place so exquisitely beautiful that guests could well feel they had gone to heaven. It’s the sort of place where you come back from dinner and find the bathtub filled with rose petals. Enormous jackfruit, coconuts and other fruits and flowers grace the open-air lobby which is decorated with antiques and huge sofas draped with mosquito nets. The guest suites nestle around lagoons in beautifully landscaped grounds with flourishing tropical plants including about 45 species of banana and a few token pineapples. Hua Hin and the surrounding region claims to be the world’s biggest producer of pineapples. Every one of the many pineapples I tasted in Thailand was deliciously sweet.

One of the activities on offer is a weekly cooking class, but sadly it had just finished when we arrived. Executive chef David Bedinghaus, who is US born but has worked in Thailand for the past 10 years, takes guests to the local Chat Chai market, introducing them to the fruits, vegetables, herbs and spices on offer. He and Thai sous chef Khun Sunthorn then bring guests back to the hotel for a lesson in Thai cooking and to help prepare their own lunch. Last year, Bedinghaus visited some of the finest US kitchens such as Mark Miller’s Coyote Café and Charlie Trotter’s restaurant in Chicago, no doubt giving him plenty of inspiration for the Anantara restaurants, which range from stylishly Italian to a beachside grill and the authentically Thai Rim Nam Restaurant in a romantic setting overlooking the pool.

There are in fact two pools, the second adjacent to the Mandara Spa where in a hedonistic setting of massage rooms set up for two, with private outdoor shower and plunge pool, one can feel terribly self-righteous by ordering a ‘spa cuisine’ meal of spinach salad with poached quails egg, steamed fish on olive couscous or other low fat, high fibre dishes. Also on offer are healthy drinks such as carrot, rockmelon and mango juice, and guava, cucumber, green apple and mint juice. A private barbecue on our terrace sounded tempting but we opted for a cultural show and Thai dinner in the Rim Nam Restaurant, where the set menu included beautifully cooked specialities such as spicy seafood salad, tom yam koong (spicy and sour prawn soup), stir-fried scallops with asparagus, and squid with onion and chilli. It would have been money well spent for two hungry adults but there were no concessions for my daughter, our bill coming to more than 2300 baht, or $A110, for a meal I loved but which she barely touched.

This is not to say the Anantara is a couples-only retreat. There were quite a few junior guests at the resort during our stay, and they were accommodated very graciously. But perhaps more suitable for families is the Hua Hin Marriott Resort and Spa, which is more centrally located near the downtown area and also offers a great range of dining choices (see story opposite). Its enthusiastic executive chef is planning cooking classes too. Its sister hotel in Bangkok is an oasis in one of the world’s most densely populated cities. Set in 5 ha of lush gardens, the Bangkok Marriott Resort and Spa has 10 restaurants and bars, ranging from the Riverside Terrace with barbecues and Thai dancing, to a teppanyaki restaurant, Benihana, where every meal is a show. There is a charming boat, too, offering evening dinner cruises.

A shuttle boat plies the Chao Phraya River between the hotel and the bustling downtown area, where we enjoyed dinner and some splendid Thai dancing in a royal pavilion-style room at the Indra Regent Hotel. The following day, at the suggestion of the concierge at the Marriott, I hired a boat, with driver, which proved to be an economical and practical way of seeing Bangkok in a short time. As well as taking us to the Grand Palace and magnificent temples, it afforded a great view of life on the klongs (canals) where most people seemed to be in the process of either eating or preparing food. Here there was a mini floating market, with just one boat selling touristy items, the others delivering food to the locals.

Temporarily lost in the Chinatown area near Wat Po and its giant reclining Buddha, we stumbled on little alleys, warehouses and markets that looked like they had changed little in hundreds of years. Here, amongst cartons of Milo and Nescafe stacked to the rafters, were sacks of every conceivable type of dried fish. Finally, we took an overnight tour to the River Kwai, where we were moved to tears by the World War II atrocities and got back to basics at the River Kwai Jungle Rafts, accessible only by a thrilling 40-minute ride by motorised longboat. Without electricity and hot showers, the hotel has a charming ambience, with pretty flowers spilling everywhere, ingenious recycling and a scenic location on the water in the heart of the jungle. The food was necessarily humble, with monks at a nearby monastery growing many of the fruits and vegetables. An army of women from the nearby Mon village prepared dinner from late afternoon, surrounded by enormous plastic bags filled with cabbage leaves.

Our guide, also from the nearby village and who we only ever got to know as Master A, was someone only a mother could love, barking orders like an army drill sergeant. With the exception of a particularly dour young Polish couple, most of the guests were amused at being directed to ‘sit here for Thai food, sit there for European’ and the chaos which ensued when the tastes of one half of a couple failed to converge with the other. The European food was, not surprisingly, pretty awful. Better to stick to what the locals do best: chicken curry, stir-fried vegetables and deliciously sweet pineapple to finish. I booked the River Kwai tour in one phone call to Qantas Holidays, paying by credit card, with confirmation by e-mail. Their brochure also lists a Thai culture and cooking tour. Many other tour companies, hotels and small businesses offer cooking classes for those who want to experience the flavours of Thailand.

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Beachside dining ...

A talking parrot called Alex greets visitors to the Sala Thai restaurant, which must surely have one of the most beautiful locations in Thailand. Perched right on the beach at the Hua Hin Marriott Resort and Spa, the restaurant serves excellent Thai cuisine, from the spicy and sour prawn soup, tom yam koong, to prawns in a kaffir lime, galangal and coconut broth, lobster lightly sauteed with a yellow curry ‘souffle’ and krathong thong, dainty tartlets made from rice flour filled with spiced minced chicken, prawns and tiny vegetables. Executive chef Ed Thompson says Hua Hin is fortunate in having ready access to both agricultural and fishing, allowing it to feature seafood dishes with spices and well-rounded flavours that can be difficult to find in other parts of Thailand. He has worked strenuously to put into place strict quality control and hygiene procedures, getting to know his suppliers so that he can better ensure the quality of the products they deliver to him. ‘We are even getting people to bring in the spring onions still in the soil,’ he said. Thompson spent 13 years as a pastry chef in the US before moving to Thailand in 1994 to work with the Royal Garden Resorts Group. He launched Numero Uno Bakery and Coffee Shop at the Bangkok Marriott Resort and Spa and through his dedication, it not only won awards but also began supplying pastries and breads to other restaurants and coffee houses in Bangkok. He was appointed executive chef of the Hua Hin Marriott early last year and credits his Thai sous chef On-a-nong Lampol with helping him to understand the intricacies of Thai cuisine – ‘she is innovative but understands all the classics’. He hopes to introduce cooking classes soon to bring her knowledge to a wider audience. As well as the Sala Thai, the Hua Hin Marriott has another beachfront restaurant, Ciao, serving contemporary Italian-inspired food, and one of the finest dining rooms in Hua Hin, the Chicago Grill, serving American and Australian grain-fed steaks.

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A unique legacy ...

The four elements of Thai cooking are hot, sweet, sour and salty. Most dishes incorporate a mixture of the four, while the meal itself will be, says James Mayson in his book, Street Food From Around The World, "a lesson in composed symmetry of these four seasons".

A typical Thai meal includes three to five dishes such as soup (tom), salad (yam), curry (gaeng), stir-fry (pat) and a dipping sauce (nam prik) accompanied by raw and blanched vegetables. The hot comes from chillies and spices, the sour from ingredients such as galangal, lemongrass, lime, tamarind and green fruit, and the sweet from palm sugar and tropical fruits. Also countering hot and sour is the extensive use of coconut milk. It is a sophisticated cuisine, and thanks in part to never having been colonised by a western power, the country has managed to maintain a uniquely delicious cooking legacy that is now appreciated universally. In Sydney alone, there are more than 250 Thai restaurants, according to Robert Carmack and Sompon Nabnian in their book Thai Home Cooking, published by Lansdowne ($34.95). Nabnian is the founder of the Chiang Mai Thai Cookery School and the book is an excellent guide for those who want to create the delights of Thai cuisine at home. The recipes for curries, soups, salads and sweets come from all regions of the country, and are preceded by a useful glossary of ingredients and step-by-step illustrations of preparation techniques.

© Christine Salins

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