Part 2 – How Culture’s View of Communal Cooking Fosters Rich Human Connection – January 22, 2019
There is so much to this topic. After I wrote part 1, I realized there was a part 2 to all this… and most likely a part 3, 4, etc. as things unfold over time and travels. Different cultures have different ways of cooking/eating together. I’m trying not to have a preference or a judgment about it and only report what it is that I’m finding.
Yesterday on a one hour walk from where I am staying into Silom, Bangkok, I came across an area where there is an outdoor market and a bunch of restaurants with mostly locals and no tourists. One of my favorite places to be. It was around lunchtime and was full of hustle and bustle. Most of the food items cost around B25-B75 (about $0.75 – $2.00) depending on the kind of meat protein in the items. Meat is the more expensive item, rather than the vegetables. Yes, the USA still has it backwards. I made a note to stop back through this area again when I was ready to eat… today was that day.
I walk into this restaurant where there are all locals eating. Students in their school uniform and aeronautical students with their epaulettes. I got a smile from one of the cooks which I find a rare occasion, so I stepped in and looked at the 9-item menu and decided to stay. I just so happened to order the most popular item on the menu… a pork-based soup… it was described to me as Pad Thai Soup. I’m really loving the noodle bowls here even in the hot weather.
It was my lucky day. The restaurant cleared out and I was the only one left inside finishing my meal. I looked around and mentioned to the owner, Burt, that maybe I should leave because having a foreigner in his place might not be good business. He spoke English fairly well and told me I was OK. I began asking him some questions about himself, how long he’s been in business, how long his employees have worked for him, standardizing recipes and his educational background.
I received some really great data from Burt that affirmed what I have been experiencing around Bangkok, Pattaya, and Chiang Mai. That there isn’t much home cooking going on here and most people are eating outside of the home. People are meeting their friends and family outside of the home and the sense of community and belonging is happening in these market places and street food “restaurants”. These places are full of people all the time and there are a lot of unique items to purchase interspersed between the many of the same old typical Thai food items. You just have to know what to look for or hear by word of mouth.
Even as I sit here writing this in a mall full of westernized restaurants, I am surrounded by locals pulling out plastic bags full of street food. Here in Bangkok, you can buy a cup of coffee on the street for $0.75US or you can go to Starbucks and spend the $3.00US. You can go to a restaurant and spend the $7US for the same item you can get at the street food market for $2US. Burger King and McDonald’s are more expensive than the Thai street food. It’s cheaper to eat street food than it is to cook it yourself.
Another thing I am finding is in regards to my Airbnb home-stays here in Thailand. Not every home has what we would call a formal kitchen, with a stove, oven, ventilation, hot water system, etc.. If a room has sink with running water, a refrigerator and a microwave, it is called a kitchen here. Most of the places I have stayed in have a one burner electric induction cook-top, a microwave and a refrigerator if they say they have a kitchen.
With all this in mind from part 1 and here in part 2, how would you deduce where Thailand’s culture of cooking lies? Where are the people here building their sense of community belonging around cooking? It’s been a fascinating investigation for me and one that has taken some time to figure out. I’ve needed to spend some time here, meeting people and having the necessary conversations in order to find the authentic home cooking experience which I am now exploring this week. It’s possible I have been looking in the wrong places, or I had some expectation it was going to look a certain way, or how it needed to look… a false idea of an outcome of sorts.
You definitely can find families who are cooking but, most of what I am finding is that people generally are eating the wonderful street food, together on the street, or bringing it home… “take away”. When people are cooking at home, the items are simple to prepare, with local readily available ingredients. It’s way too hot here to cook for long periods of time. It’s amazing to see how easy it is to cook the foods they are making on the street, Pad Thai, Pad C-U, Noodle bowls, Mango & Sticky Rice, Roast Red Pork/Duck
I can get a little bit confused about all this because I think I may need more time here in Thailand to get the experience I that might be truly there for me which comes out of building relationships. I think about what I would be like in a country where there has been a revolving door of people coming through. Where a lot of these people would not give back to the country and the people by making an investment of their own resources and heart. Only taking the resources and acting in a way that would benefit only themselves. It takes time to cultivate and nurture new relationships and to build trust with people to have them open their homes to you here. And understandably so based on the history of the culture.
In conclusion… I’m getting the experience I surely need here in Thailand. I’m incredibly grateful to the people who have opened up their hearts to me, and in some cases their homes (Heather, Pratima, Purada, Kay, LekNoy). This has been a rich and powerful experience which will have lasting effects on me for the rest of my life.
A deep bow to the divine in all!
