Hello friends, and welcome to my first post about Thai Cooking. So the first dish I personally made with friends is actually Korean, but seeing as all types of Asian food are popular in Thailand [particularly Vietnamese] I thought I might as well document every moment so that you can learn, and if you want attempt to make this meal!KOREAN BARBECUE
The first picture is a picture of what the actual Korean Barbecue looks like. I am going to make the safe assumption that most people who are reading this do not have this contraption, but if you do you are in luck! The top bit is a metal pan, almost like a frying pan that is deep so you can make soup. The inside is domed upwards to form the actual barbecue area. The holes are for the fat to drip through so it doesn't get in the soup. The wooden bucket underneath is placed on top of a piece of cement so that it can stand sturdy and not burn the floor. Inside the wooden bucket is where you light the coals. This dish is prepared and enjoyed at the same time, everyone takes part in the cooking of the meal. You sit on the ground while you cook and eat :)
The first thing you do after lighting the coals is to place a big piece of fat on the top of the barbecue to somewhat grease the barbecue for the meat. You need to keep flipping the fat around until it is completely cooked through at which time you need to supply a new piece of fat. Some people [like my friend Pooh] eat the fat after it has been completely used up but I have not been brave enough to eat a lump of fat yet, so I wouldn't be the best person to ask to explain the taste. I assume it tastes like regular fat, whatever that tastes like. There were nine of us at Aom's birthday party when I first tried the Korean Barbecue and we split up between two different barbecues. You eat straight from the barbecue so if you have a big group of people for this meal it would be ideal to have more than one cooking station.
Once the barbecue has heat up a bit, you can start to add stock to the pan. We used chicken stock, but I assume it would taste fine with whatever type of stock you prefer. Most things you cook with in Thailand you buy from the market that are already prepared. The stock was bought prepared, the meat was bought cut up in a bag of blood and water and the ingredients for the soup were prepared together in a bag. Chopsticks do not originate from Thailand, but because Thailand is close to so many countries, they have adapted the use of chopsticks for meals such as the Korean Barbecue. You use chopsticks to place meat on the barbecue and pick it back up. You also use them to rotate the fat and to take noodles and plants out of the soup. You can use your hands to put the ingredients into the soup, but then you use chopsticks to submerge them in the stock. You can eat this by picking things out with chopsticks and eating them normally, or you can pick things out with stock and eat it like a soup with a special type of spoon. Like most Thai dishes, this meal is enjoyed by everyone using their own utensils to serve themselves. Thai people do not use serving utensils unless it is a buffet, you stick your own chopsticks, spoon or fork into whatever is on the table and help yourself. Actually, you rarely go out for dinner and have a dish for yourself, everything is shared.
In the barbecue you can really put whatever you would like. You can use any type of noodle and any type of vegetable. You also have the choice of adding the meat into the soup or grilling it on the dome of the barbecue. For ours we used cabbage, mint leaves [and lots of them] as well as different types of lettuce. We added onion and a couple of other plants that you cannot find in Canada. They somewhat resemble bean sprouts but are definetely not the same. We used pork for our barbecue as well as cow stomach and liver. I wasn't brave enough to try the cow stomach either, maybe when a fellow exchange student will try it with me, but I did try the liver and despite the fact that the texture tasted like sandpaper it wasn't that bad. The spoon in the picture is the spoon you use here for soup, rice etc. It's kind of a mix between a spoon and a ladle. My Thai friends also had a bowl of sauce to add to the food; I tried it and it was extremely spicy so I only used a little bit on a lot of food. I'm not sure how to make the sauce because it also came prepared at the market, but it is safe to say it had chile peppers in it, and if you are that interested, let me know and I will ask someone to explain how to make it.There you have it, the Korean Barbecue :) If this wasn't as detailed as you had hoped, please let me know and I will do my best to explain better. Soon I will try to video some footage of cooking and hopefully I will be able to take a Thai Cooking course next semester. I did video some of this experience but it was mostly me pointing at things saying "This is where you cook the meat, and this is where you put the coals, and this is where you make the soup" with a lot of Thai chatter in the background and Suzanne expressing the fact that she had learned Thai cuss words.
Peace and Love,
Happy Cooking!
"I make a deal with myself. I can try anything that I have never tasted before. I already know what chocolate, tiramisu, pate, prime rib, smoked salmon, etc. taste like. Foods that I've never tried before and probably won't have the opportunity to sample at home are worth the exception"
- Laurie Armstrong
