How did you become a dessert chef?
It’s because of my mom, who used to sell desserts at the market. When I was a kid, I would help her make them and accompany her to the market to sell.

Is there a philosophy to Thai desserts?
Yes, of course. Certain desserts are meant to be eaten with certain meals, and certain desserts are specific to certain seasons. For example, now we’re in the cold season, so we eat warm desserts, like dumplings in ginger broth (bua loy nam king).

Are Nahm customers as interested in the dessert as they are in the food?
Yes, I think so, because the desserts are dishes you don’t normally see much anymore, so it’s a good opportunity to try them, and here they are made with lots of time and high-quality ingredients. Elsewhere, in the markets, you’ll encounter these desserts individually and buy them separately. It doesn’t occur to people to have a little bit of many kinds of desserts, which is what I try to get them to do.

Do you ever feel like you’re in David Thompson’s shadow?
Well, yes, of course, sometimes I do. But David is also my life partner, and I support him in the areas where he needs me. I’ve also trained many youngsters who have gone on to do great things, and that is also rewarding.

Why are Thai desserts not as highly regarded abroad as Thai food? Why is it all mango and sticky rice?
I think it has to do with the availability of quality ingredients abroad as well as the issue of time. A lot of these desserts are hard to make and take lots of time to make properly, which most restaurants probably cannot do.

The menu at David Thompson’s Nahm (Metropolitan, Sathorn Rd., 02-625-3333) largely features old-school, slow-cooked recipes seldom found in the streets nowadays. But it’s a lesser-known fact that the desserts there, under the stewardship of dessert chef and long-time collaborator, Tanongsak Yordwai, are equally unusual and unusually paired. Here, Tanongsak talks us through one of the options currently available on their ever-changing menu.

1. Pa grim khem: raw coconut cream slightly salted to bring out the flavor of coconut and jasmine or rose
2. Pa grim waan: cooked coconut cream
3. Sakhu: tapioca balls, for a grainy, chewy texture
4. Rose petal for garnish
5. Fak thong cheuam: jackfruit glaceed in a saffron syrup
6. Maphrao on: strips of young coconut
7. Khai nok kratha: quail eggs deep-fried in a tapioca and taro batter

Get the Classics

Places that do quintessential Thai sweets.

1. Sri (G/F, K Village, Sukhumvit Soi 26, 089-923-5447). A cute little stall in the middle of K Village, this small-scale operation uses all-natural ingredients and no MSG to produce old-fashioned Thai desserts like chor muang, pieangpoon and other snacks from family recipes.
2. Bua Loy (Klong San Plaza Pier, Charoennakhorn Rd., 089-697-5971. Open daily 1-7:30pm). Folks often line up at this bua loy shop which offers seven colors of the little dumplings. Go for the bua loy khai khem or khai wan (both B20) which also come with young coconut, water chestnut and taro root.
3. Khanom Wan Talad Plu (1129 Terdthai Soi 25, Thonburi, 02-466-9332. Open daily 2-7pm). Around for 65 years, this little shop in Plu Market in Thonburi is run by the second generation of owners. They do preservative-free desserts like fak thong sankhaya (B70) and foy thong (B10).
4. Khanom Wan Sala Daeng (Sala Daeng Soi 1, 085-156-2473. Open daily 10am-2pm). On the left, down a busy food alley on Sala Daeng, a sweet lady has a set up of a couple of tables that are mobbed with office workers hankering for her black sticky rice, sankhaya, kluay buad shee and more (B10, B15 for take away).

Jamie’s 30-Minute Meals
By Jamie Oliver ($64.20)
Despite winning a TED grant to revolutionize school lunches and starring in a reality food show set in America’s fattest county, the affable British chef still manages to publish a cookbook almost every year. What’s more, each bubbles with his can-do attitude for even the the most timid would-be chefs. (Although, we’re secretly glad he’s lost The Naked Chef nickname somewhere along the way.) This time, it’s 30-minute meals—not dishes, but entire meals for your whole family—and it’s already the UK’s fastest selling non-fiction book of all time. Recipes come in sets of three or four, with a main, salad or side and dessert. Easy-to-follow instructions rotate from dish to dish, so we hope you’re adept at juggling different activities as you’ll be working on all of them at once.

The Big Book of Noodles
By Vatcharin Bhumichitr ($53.95)
Owner and chef of the Thai Bistro in London, Bhumichitr’s, periodically latest offering is a must for noodle lovers, featuring recipes and how-to guides for all kinds of Asian noodles dishes from countries including Japan, the Philippines and of course, Thailand. The anecdotes are a paragraph long, so there’s little heavy reading aside from the recipes themselves, though there is a preliminary section going over the basics of equipment, noodle types, and more, which is helpful for tackling foreign recipes as well as pretentious conversation (take that you pompous snobs).

The Book of Tapas
By Simone and Ines Ortega ($32.11)
Those new to Phaidon publications will be pleased to discover that their books are part reference, part works of art. You’ll be drooling over these vibrant red and yellow pages, at least as much as the recipes contained therein. The Ortegas are already iconic in the world of Spanish cookbooks for their seminal classic 1080 Recipes. Here they arrange a more manageable 250 tapas recipes by ingredient (veggies, fish, meats and such) and even by temperature (cold and hot). Particularly useful for the uninitiated is the glossary of Spanish ingredients, while the final chapter of tapas recipes by new and famous Spanish chefs is both impressive and refreshingly unique.

Thai Street Food
By David Thompson ($119.95)
Admittedly, it’s unlikely that anyone but the most principled DIY chefs will attempt the recipes in this enormous book. Especially as the dimensions and weight prove a little unwieldy for stove side reading. Size aside, the smaller, more focused number of recipes makes it a lot more accessible than Thompson’s previous encyclopedic publication, Thai Food. Even if you are the type that no amount of food porn can lure into the kitchen, you’ll still love having the Michelin-starred chef and Thai food historian’s new tome on your coffee table, thanks to its gorgeous photos of street scenes shot in picturesque Thailand.

All books are available at Borders (#01-00 Wheelock Place, 501 Orchard Rd., 6235-7146).
 

1 Read the label. Extra virgin olive oil is unrefined and extracted by the first cold pressing of the olives. It’s a superior oil with strong aromas and flavors. Virgin olive oil is still unrefined, but can have a slightly higher acidity, making for less strong flavors. If the label says just olive oil, it’s a mix between virgin or extra virgin olive oils and other olive oils.

2 Have a plan. If your oil is for dressings and cold cooking, go for the extra virgin. If you’re making something with delicate flavors, a robust extra virgin might overpower those flavors.

3 Don’t write off mixed olive oils. They may seem pedestrian, but they also have lower smoke points than extra virgin olive oils. So if you plan to do frying or deep frying, a plain olive oil might be a better idea than an extra virgin.

4 Keep it small. Those giant, retro-looking cans of Italian olive oil may look tempting, but because olive oil is over the hill within a year, go strictly by the best before date and buy small amounts and finish them off quickly once you open them—especially extra virgin that you plan to use cold.

5 Stay in the dark. On a related note, pick a bottle that is made of dark glass to minimize exposure to sunlight. A tin can is even better.

If you were inspired by our cookbook story last week (visit tiny.cc/6wu3m), chances are you’re missing some key ingredients to cook up your next masterpiece. Here we round up a diverse range of specialty food stores that have what you need.

INDIAN

Bimla Mini Mart

Sukhumvit Soi 10, 02-653-1524. Open daily 11am-7pm
This dusty little shop carries a wide range of Indian food products to suit every level of cookery: red chilli powders, poppadums, lentils, legumes, raita and pre-made mixes, and more. Should you become enamored and want vast amounts for your home, the folks behind the counter will even arrange a delivery. Ask them about their bricks of fresh paneer (B300 per kg) if you want to try your hand at making saag paneer at home. Also, be advised that although the store is officially open everyday, it is sometimes randomly closed on Sundays, so do call ahead if you plan to go then.

MEDITERRANEAN

Crescendo

7/F, CentralWorld, Rama 1 Rd., 02-613-1630. Open daily 10am-10pm
A bit hard to find in the madness that is the Central Food Hall at CentralWorld, this little set-up behind the escalators conceals a pretty big concept: specialty oils, vinegars and spices in small portions. Sure you know your peanut oil from your olive oil, but these guys have earthen jugs dispensing avocado oil (B199 per 100ml), grapeseed oil (B399), lemon oil (B149), four different kinds of olive oil with various Italian origins (B199) and more. Not to mention their vinegars: apple balsam, honey balsam, and different kinds of balsamic. Their spices aren’t that unusual, but we like the spice mixes, particularly the ones to help you make chilli con carne (B25 per 10g) and chimmichurri sauce (B25 per 10g)—and we love that you have the choice of taking only as much as you need in little baggies. As for the oils, though, bring your own empty bottle, unless you want to pay an extra B199 to buy one of theirs.

KOREAN

Food Mart

Sukhumvit Plaza, Sukhumvit Soi 12, 02-653-3920, 080-975-6325. Open daily 9am-10pm
An unintimidating little mini-mart in the Korean plaza at the corner of soi 12, Food Mart manages to pack a range of products into its few shelves, limited not just to Korean instant noodles, cookies and ice creams, but also enormous, economy-sized bottles of sauces, which makes us think that some Korean restaurants probably come here to stock up. Dry goods such as Korean wheat noodles (B180) and buckwheat noodles (B230) are plentiful, but the highlight is the small selection of freshly prepared kimchis and other pickled vegetables at the far end of the store. A word of advice, though: bring a Korean friend as all the packaging here is in Korean and there are no helpful signs in English or Thai, a good sign that you’re in the right place.

RARE VEGGIES

Doi Kham

101 Kamphaengpet Rd., 02-299-1551. MRT Kamphaengpet. Open Mon-Fri 10am-6pm, Sat-Sun 7am-6pm
A small and manageable annex store of the Royal Project Foundation, the shop is located right next to Talat Or Tor Kor. At least twice a week, they receive fresh produce from the farms in Chiang Mai, including some produce not traditionally grown in Thailand. So if you don’t want to pay for imported jalapenos, Swiss chard, figs, radicchio, and more, check these guys out. It’s also good for a range of super cheap and fresh (not that bottled, dried junk) herbs like sage, rosemary and thyme.

NEW YORK DELI

Dean and Deluca

G/F, Mahanakhon Pavillion, Sathorn Road, 02-234-1434. BTS Chong Nonsi. Open daily 7am-8pm
In the well-lit, high-ceilinged space of this fancy deli, you may have neglected to notice that a small portion of the store is devoted to food and kitchen products, including a house-line of inspiring ingredients like hard-to-find spices, mixes and rubs (B150 for 40g), such as hot pimenton, for your Spanish tapas, and a tandoori blend, for your Indian roasts, as well as a range of flavored, large-grained sea salts to jazz up almost any finished meal. How about a tiny sprinkle of espresso flavored salt (B650 for a 200g jar) on a scoop of chocolate/caramel ice cream, or some chipotle salt with your steak? At these prices, though, you’re paying for the brand and packaging, so these are probably better given away as gifts than used in the kitchen.

FRENCH BUTCHER

Gargantua

10/2 Soi 6 Convent Road. 02 630 4577. Open Mon-Sat 10am-10pm
Right opposite Indigo restaurant, a right turn down a small alley on Soi Convent, Gargantua boasts a real-live French butcher at the helm. Drool over their display of house-made sausages: Toulouse, Cumberland, lamb merguez (B420 per kilo), as well as the more unusual liver pate (B570 per kg) and rabbit terrine (B590 per kg). Gargantua also does specifically French cuts of beef, like the cote de boeuf, which is headache to describe to non-connoisseurs (seriously, just try asking for a “1.2kg double bone-in ribeye steak, but very thick, and with the bone” at any other market). Gargantua’s Thai-French one is surprisingly succulent (B690/kg).

CHEESE

Quintessence

116 Sukhumvit Soi 23, 02-662-3577. Open Mon-Sat 10am-7pm
It may be a non-descript little store and cafe with little more than a black and white awning as a distinguishing mark, but Quintessence is the only speciality cheese store in the city. They specialize mostly in French stuff, including high-quality AOC cheeses such as Sainte Maure de Touraine (B575 per piece), bleu d’Auvergne (B1,131 per kg), brie de Meux (B1,480) and premium Camembert de la Perelle (B451 per piece). Sure they have a little stall at the Emporium supermarket, but their flagship store has a walk-in fridge and it also doubles as a café offering European-style sandwiches (the café, not the fridge). And don’t be alarmed by the prices; it’s highly unlikely you’ll ever need a whole kilo of cheese—unless you’re French. The folks at Quintessence will be happy to cut their cheeses to a size suited to your needs. So 250 grams of brie de Meaux, for instance, will only work out to about B370.

HOW TO: Choose Your Olive Oil

How did you get involved with cooking?
I never trained as a chef. It was a kind of play for me as a child to help my mother and grandmother in the kitchen. When I was studying in the UK, I didn’t have a lot of money, so I had to cook for myself.

We don’t really do recipes in Thai food. We just estimate. Is that how you learned?
When I opened my restaurant in London, I would stand at the wok with my chef beside me, telling me what to do and when. I never measured anything, but learned the importance of timing and process. For example, if you cook the shrimp too long, it becomes hard. If you add the garlic to the oil, and then add the meat later, the meat becomes flavored with garlic.

So was it hard to write precise recipes for your books?
I always say in my books that the recipes are just guidelines. In Thai cooking, different fish sauces have different levels of saltiness. Even with produce, all over the world, they have different tastes.

Not all chefs become cookbook writers. How did you get started?
My customers wanted me to start a school, but that would have been too time-consuming, so I put together a book. In the 1980s, no one in the UK knew anything about Thai food. Even my publishers couldn’t point to Thailand on a map. I wanted to tell people about my country, how people live. They only knew about the sex industry.

How did you research your recipes?
In the old days, I would go to villages and talk to the people. It was very different. People were self-sufficient. They would say, “I don’t need money at all. I have a house, vegetables, chickens.” Even the rice they grew, they would feed their families for the whole year. They sold only the surplus. When they killed a cow, they would divide it among all the houses. These days, it’s different. You might want a phone, television, kids need to go to school. You need money for that. It’s a shame.

Are your recipes suited to Western palate?
Thai people using my recipes might find them a bit light and choose to add more seasonings. One of my earlier books, Thai Kitchen, was for the American market, so the recipes were for bigger portions. It’s not as simple as just doubling the recipe.

The Big Book of Noodles is more international that your previous books. How come?
Noodles really originated in China, and other Asian countries adapted them into their own cuisines. When my publishers suggested a book on Thai noodles, I said it would be better to cover Asian noodles.

What are you working on now?
I set up my own arts and craft homestay in Chiang Mai, called La Bhu Salah. We have pottery, batik, wood-carving and even cooking. Guests can stay in rooms above the workshops. I teach cooking, not like a school; I demonstrate to them.

Thai Street Food

By David Thompson (B2,295)
Admittedly, in the capital of Thai street food, it’s unlikely that anyone but the most principled DIY chefs will attempt the recipes in this enormous book. Especially as the dimensions and weight prove a little unwieldy for stoveside reading. Size aside, the smaller, more focused number of recipes makes it a lot more accessible than Thompson’s encyclopedic previous publication, Thai Food. Even if you are the type that no amount of food porn can tempt into the kitchen, you’ll still love having the Michelin-starred chef and Thai food historian’s new tome on your coffee table, due to its huge, beautiful photos of street scenes.

The Big Book of Noodles

By Vatcharin Bhumichitr (B850)
Owner and chef of the Thai Bistro in London, Vatcharin periodically puts out easy, accessible cookbooks on Thai food with photos, recipes and brief, charming anecdotes, like Vatch’s Thai Street Food and The Big Book of Thai Curries. The latest is a must for noodle lovers, featuring recipes and how-to guides for all kinds of Asian noodles dishes, from Thailand, Japan, the Philippines and elsewhere. The anecdotes are a paragraph long, so there’s little heavy reading aside from the recipes, though there is a preliminary section going over equipment, noodle types, and more, which is helpful for tackling the foreign recipes as well as snobby conversation. (See our Q&A HERE.)

Jamie’s 30-Minute Meals

By Jamie Oliver (B1,095)
Despite winning a TED grant to revolutionize school lunches and starring in a reality food show set in America’s fattest county, the affable British chef still manages to publish a cookbook almost every year. What’s more, each bubbles with his can-do attitude for even the the most timid would-be chefs. This time, it’s 30-minute meals—not dishes, but whole meals for your family. Recipes come in sets of three or four, with a main, a salad or side and a dessert. Instructions rotate from dish to dish, so you work on all of them at once. The recipes have Jamie’s usual Italian slant, with lots of hearty and simple pastas, if you like that sort of thing—we do!

The Principles of Thai Cookery

By Chef McDang (B1,750)
We think a bit of competition and choice is healthy for everyone. That’s why, despite our love for Thompson, we have to tell you about this equally exciting book by Chef McDang, a more introductory version than Thompson’s humungous opus. McDang’s cookbook covers similar topics: history, fundamentals, ingredients and, of course, recipes—in a quicker, more accessible way but still with lots of gorgeous photos for those allergic to reading. Even if you’ve grown up eating Thai food, chances are you’ll learn a thing or do about the principles underpinning the preparation that you didn’t know before.

The Book of Tapas

By Simone and Ines Ortega (B1,116)
A Phaidon publication is part reference, part work of art. You’ll be drooling over these yellow and red pages as much as the recipes contained therein. The Ortegas are already iconic in the world of Spanish cookbooks for their seminal classic 1080 Recipes. Here they arrange 250 tapas recipes by ingredients (veggie, fish, meat, et cetera) and temperature (cold, hot). Also useful is the initial glossary on Spanish ingredients, and impressive and refreshingly unique is the final chapter on tapas recipes by new and famous Spanish chefs.

Recipes from an Italian Summer

By Phaidon (B1,295 at Asia Books)
Another Phaidon feast for the eyes and a follow-up of sorts to their monolithic Italian cookbook Silver Spoon, Recipes from an Italian Summer is an expansive collection of 380 Italian recipes specific to summertime—which makes them great for our sultry climes. The recipes are from various regions like Tuscany, Sicily and Sardinia and involve minimal slaving over a hot stove. So expect recipes with few ingredients and simple preparations that let their original qualities shine.

All books are available through Asia Books. Try 2/F, Siam Paragon, 02-610-9609, or www.asiabooks.com

I was born in Bangkok and grew up in a Muslim community in Bangrak. I went to Assumption College, so basically I’m a city person.

But my community is like a village, even though it’s a ten-minute walk from Silom. I don’t know if it was strict. If you live in the South, it’s even stricter. But you have to study the Koran and your family always encourages you to go to the mosque.

I was shuttling between two worlds everyday when I went to school.

I turned down Chula. I got into their Faculty of Law but my friends all went to ABAC, so I just got carried along. I studied business there.

My first job was as a salesperson at a computer company. I didn’t have any business sense or interpersonal skills. I panicked. This was what I had studied, but I couldn’t actually do it.

I applied to the Bangkok Post for a very basic position. My editor allowed me to do many things, and I learned from the experience.

Going to the cinema is like being in a coffin. I love that atmosphere. I think it’s true of a lot of people who write about films: they love being in the dark and being hypnotized.

Writing about film allows me to write about other stuff. You can write about politics, culture and society by writing about films.

Not many Thai films deal with politics, even though politics is now so inseparable from our lives.

We just want to see film as entertainment. But I think cinema can be more than that.

We have very sophisticated political commentary and complex economic reports, so why don’t we cover art and culture like that. Even with just a page in the newspaper.

The government tries to officially define Thai culture. See what they support: traditional Thai performances or elephants or monks or anything to do with temples.

You have to let culture grow organically, instead of trying to impose a definition. The issues of hill tribe people or Muslim people, is that part of Thai culture? If you have this official definition, then you will  end up excluding a lot of things.

After 9/11 and the bombings in the South we heard only from the hardliners: the bin Laden types and the extremely liberal Muslims in Europe, who criticize Islam very strongly. We only heard from these two groups because they’re such colorful characters.

The voice of the moderate should be heard more. I met these two friends six years ago, with whom I did three documentaries about Muslim issues in Bangkok. We try to present another side of Islam.

In Baby Arabia [Rithdee’s film about a Thai-Muslim rock band], we tell people, look, Muslims can be fun. They can dance at a concert. They can communicate through means other than violence and religious strictness.

I feel this burden to explain that not all Muslims are bad. That’s why we made the documentaries in the first place.

Islam has to find a new way to talk to non-Muslims, to let them understand that we are happy and sad like others. If we have problems, it’s not because we’re Muslim; it’s because we are human.

The biggest obstacle for Thai independent films is the lack of space to present the films. Without a permanent public space, we cannot expand the audience. The BACC is a good start.

We need all kinds of movies, even slapstick comedies, romance and horror. But we need space for other kinds of films as well. Both of them have to co-exist.

We have to allow filmmakers to criticize the government and not censor them. We cite Korea as an example for exporting culture. But in Korea they can criticize their government openly.

I do not agree with censorship and banning [Insects in the Backyard]. Cutting and banning stand directly opposite to what the state is trumpeting about promoting the Creative Industry. They never talk about cultural issues at the ASEAN summits. They talk about economic issues, but I think that’s a big waste of opportunity.

I work all the time. I don’t have hobbies.

The best thing about Bangkok is the fact that this is not the best place on Earth but you cannot escape it. If you live in Bangkok, you have to solve all your problems by yourself. It’s a spiritual exercise, in a way.