N 110 Traditional Tai Food (Part
1 )
Every people have their own staple food.
People from the west eat wheat flour as their staple food whereas Asians mostly
eat rice. But only bread and rice are not enough to become meals. So meat and fish and vegetables along with a
wide varieties of ingredients are also used to make dishes of these days.
People have their own ways and ingredients in cooking their food. People
from the west use dairy products like butter and cheese in their food. But I
know they also use spices and herbs. Listen to the song which is one of my
likes….Scarborough Fair. Parsely, sage,
rosemary and thyme……They are names of herbs , aren’t they ?So though these
herbs are unfamiliar to us we know they are used in western recipes.
Indian foods cannot be made without peppars and spices . Chinese have their own
spices and herbs.Our own people the
Burmese use fish paste called ngapi in their curry , and we the Tais use this
pe poak or fermented soy in our curries. And I think we may have been consuming
this food for centuries.
According to history Tai people
originated in China, but they were suppressed by the Han Chinese . So they
moved south. First to Nan Chou ( Yunnan ) and then eventually to the Burmese
border where they established the Merng Mao Kingdom. And then from there spread
westward towards Burma proper, where they settled from northern throughout
southern Burma, but mostly in the
mountainous regions of eastern Burma
which became known as the Shan State.
But there were some Tais who branched out
to find better places to settle. Some continued towards the west via Hu Kaung
valley until they reached Manipur and Assam and became Tai Assam. Some migrated
to Laos and are acknowledged as Laotians and some settled in Thailand where
they became known as Tai Thai. There are
also people of Tai origins in Vietnam, Malaysia, Indonesia, and also in other
parts of the world. Tai population is estimated to be about 93 million
worldwide.
I am a descendant of Shan people of the
new Shan State of Burma, a Tai Yai. As about food I know only about our food, what we are eating and how
they are prepared. So I am writing about some of them in this blog.
Mistakenly all Tai people eat rice until
now. But unlike the Burmese people old Tais also eat sticky rice.The way to
cook sticky rice is not the same as ordinary
rice. It is steamed in a wooden
or bamboo steamer. When it is cooked it is spread to cool down a little and
then put back into the steamer to be consumed later. If someone has to go to
work or somewhere else the sticky rice is put into a bamboo container with some curries wrapped in
plantain leaves to eat with the sticky rice.This curry may be some pe poak powder pounded with chillies and onion and
garlic or some grilled or steamed meat or fish.
What the Tais eat with rice are very
different from Burmese. Burmese curries resemble those of the Indians because
fish and meat are cooked with gravies using much oil. But Shans (Tais ) don’t
use much oil in their cooking. I will describe some recipes of Shan cooking.
As much as I know Tai people in our Shan
State had lived a simple and peaceful lives. We blend well with nature,using
and eating what nature provide for us. If someone doesn’t have anything to cook
for curry he or she would just go into the woods nearby and pick what are found there, edible vegetables such as tender
leaves of puc hi,( a family of the banyan tree ) puc le(a family of fig tree )
puc kut (fern )etc:
The vegetables Tais usually grow are puck
kat (mustard ) puc puk (pumpkin) puc noi (ridge gourd ) egg plant, chillies etc
and some herbs.
To make soup about 2/3 spoons of soy
powder, some onion and tomato,a little oil, some chilli and salt are put in a
pot and boil with water for some time. If there is meat or fish some are added
into the soup to enhance the flavor.
When eating time is near
pieces of tender pumkin, ridge gourd, ladies finger, beans are put into the
boiling soup to be followed by the main vege, which is being selected for
tender parts and washed, and let it cooked for a little time so as not to let
it overcooked and turn yellow. Before the pot is put down some herbs may be added to
the soup according to the vege cooked. If it is mustard a little crushed
ginger, and if it is pumpkin leaves a handful of basil will be put into the
soup pot.
Another kind of popular soup is puc saw.
It is a simple sour soup mostly stewed with tangerine. The veggies that are
mostly used to make puc saw are mustard, water cress, and puc kut (fern )If
pork or pork bone is available they can also be put into the stew .But this
soup has to be stewed a little long time. Eating this soup with muc pit tam
(chillies pounded with garlic and salt ) can result in a hearty meal.
to be continued…..
