Bangkok Dangerous?

A blog about Thailand wouldn't be complete without some discussion about the political instability. My arrival to Thailand was drastically altered because Suvarnabhumi Airport (Bangkok airport) was closed due to protesters storming it and occupying it for over a week! Soon after, the ruling government party was found guilty of electoral fraud and a new government was established.

I won't go into details about the different political parties and their stances (they all claim to be fighting for democracy), but it is apparent that they aren't happy with the way things are. Coups and changes of government aren't a new thing in the land of smiles. Since the last military coup in 2006 the Thai government has changed hands four times. There have been 18 coups since the constitutional monarchy was established in 1932.

At first, I was a bit concerned about my safety and the state of the country, especially with the events that unfolded during Songkran (Thai New Year) of 2009. However, since then anti-government protesting has been common place - typically occurring every month. The continuous civil unrest eventually became a normal part of living in Thailand. Yeah, we got the notices from the US embassy about imminent danger and the response would be, "meh, there they go again with the protesting". In reality, there wouldn't be very many protesters and they would conduct peaceful demonstrations.

The latest round of protests in March created a new benchmark regarding tactics. The 'red-shirt' anti-government protesters announced their rally about a month in advance. They claimed that a million people from all over the country would unite in Bangkok to show their displeasure at the current government and cause havoc in the capital city. This allowed both the government and the citizens of Bangkok to be prepared for their arrival. The government had tens of thousands of troops and riot police stationed throughout the city during the rally weekend. Businesses chose to close down during the weekend and some people left the city for those few days to avoid the situation.

The red-shirt protesters did make their way to Bangkok but rather than a million people it was more like 100,000 people - still an impressive figure. The government allowed the peaceful protests continue through the weekend as long as things wouldn't turn violent. They even closed roads in the city to allow the protesters to parade through.

The protesters causing a lot of traffic at Asok Rd and Sukhumvit Rd.

One of the parade routes passed in front of my place of work (in the elephant building). There was a long expanse of cars as far as I could see in both directions with people hanging out the windows or riding in the back of trucks sporting their red clothing and flags. The atmosphere was very festive and cheerful. The street was dotted with supporters wearing red and cheering their fellow party members in the parade. It felt more like a homecoming parade than a political rally.

Near the end of the protester's motor parade on Paholyotin Road

The next day I encountered the protesters again. This time I was riding my bicycle. I rode my bike alongside the protesters and captured video and pictures of the festive atmosphere with my iPhone.

Riding with the red-shirts on Silom Road

Red-shirt protesters on Silom Road

Silom Road

Lots of traffic on Silom Road

Waiting at the light

After a peaceful weekend of protesting, the leaders of the red-shirts wanted change. They demanded the current government to step down and conduct new elections. If the government didn't dissolve within 24 hours, then a "blood bath" would occur. The 24 hour deadline passed without any change - the government was staying pat.

This is when things got really interesting...and really, really grotesque. True to their word, the protesters created a blood bath - of their own volunteered blood. The protesters donated a little bit of their own blood so that it could be splashed on the gates of the government complex and on the property of the Thai Prime Minister. As the blood was splashed, a blood curse was performed against the current government. Below are graphic videos and pics of their work.

Photograph: Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images

Photograph: Sukree Sukplang/Reuters

Photograph: Sukree Sukplang/Reuters

Photograph: Athit Perawongmetha/Getty Images

It appears the government will not step down. The protesters are still in town, but their numbers are dwindling. Life has returned to normal in Bangkok, but I'm sure that in the not-so-distant future another rally will be held. Could they possibly do another stunt to outdo the 'blood bath'? Regardless of party affiliation, all this instability greatly damages the image of Thailand to outsiders. Who would want to come to Thailand based on the images above? Sadly, the tourism sector takes a hit after each incident. Thailand has a lot to offer to tourists - wonderful beaches, excellent cuisine, charming people, but unfortunately political unrest is part of their culture as well.

Cooking Thai Food

“Where has this cuisine been all my life? Why am I in my mid-twenties and just now discovering this amazing food?” These were my thoughts after eating several dishes from the “Thai Cottage” restaurant in Houston. After I sampled the chicken yellow curry I was hooked. It seemed to carry the perfect balance of sweetness from the coconut milk with the wonderfully spicy, aromatic, and exotic flavor from the curry. It was topped with potatoes and carrots and served with steamed rice. What more could I want? I could have literally eaten that dish every day of the year.

The only other Thai dishes I had before coming to Thailand were Pad Thai and chicken satay. My experience in the U.S. was that the Pad Thai was hit or miss, either really good or just OK. The chicken satay with peanut sauce was generally good anywhere and the curry dishes were always flavorful, tasty, and spicy (depending on how you much you dared to try, I typically asked for medium spiciness).

Naturally, when I arrived in Thailand a little over a year ago, I was very excited to get a taste of actual authentic Thai cuisine. One of my first meals included a chicken satay with peanut sauce that blew away anything I had ever had in the U.S. I also tried out Tom Yum Goong for the first time and immediately fell in love with it. This brown soup had all kinds of unidentifiable cut-up herbs and spices in it plus pieces of shrimp, fish, squid, and muscles. It had a perfect balance of flavors - sweetness, sourness, spiciness, and saltiness. Even though it was spicy, the spiciness surprisingly complimented the flavor rather than overpower it. I was left with a tingling hot mouth that felt pleasant which curiously didn't need to be urgently extinguished as is the case with most spicy food. I felt a warm glowing happiness and my taste buds were in bliss. This is when I knew that Thai food was going to be my new favorite cuisine.

Over the weeks and months during my stay here, I have tried many more Thai dishes, most of which I had never heard of before. I've also tried the different tropical fruits including pomelo, jackfruit, custard apple, mangosteen, longan, and durian. I learned how to eat Thai-style with a spoon rather than a fork (spoon in the right hand for eating, fork in the left hand for cutting and scooping food into the spoon) and to eat noodle soup with a spoon in the left hand with a pair of chopsticks in the right hand. The toddlers and kids have it right, eating with a spoon is so much easier!

After a year of eating all this excellent food and telling myself that I should learn how to cook it, I finally took the leap and signed up for a 5 day course at The Somphong Thai cooking school. It is located at the end of an alley off a busy street (Silom road). The school is actually the home of an old Thai lady, Somphong, in a traditional outdoor (and covered) kitchen. Along the main wall are a series of gas burners with woks at the ready. The other wall serves as an open air pantry and display of various fruits, vegetables, herbs, and sauces. In the middle of the kitchen is a large table for food preparation. During the course of the week, I learned that this area is not only where the cooking classes are held but it serves as the hangout spot and dining room for the family itself. I couldn't have picked a more authentic place to learn how to cook Thai food.

The Silom Market

This is how my first day went.

The school is managed and run by Somphong's niece, Koy. The class begins with a trip to the local market. The open-air market is nothing more than a side street crammed with food vendors all along both sides. Koy tells us to be careful of the passing motorcyles and tuk-tuks and leads us to a small walkway that surprisingly opens up to a huge covered market. Half the market is dedicated to freshly cut meat where both live and freshly cut fish are on display for sale. With wicker baskets in hand, we follow Koy to a coconut grinding stall. We see how shaved coconut is made from fresh coconuts (grinding machine), and how coconut cream and coconut milk is made from the shaved coconuts (mechanical press). She explains how to make an order and how much it should cost.

Curry Pastes and bottled sauces

Koy explaining the various peppers

A look around Silom Market

We continue through the market stopping at various points where Koy talks about the various foodstuff there. I learn many things such as: all the curry pastes can be bought (easier to buy than to make by hand, but we will learn how to do it the hard way), shrimp paste is made by marinating a salt mixture with baby shrimp for a year (no wonder it stinks so much!), there are at least a half dozen types of eggplant, at least a dozen different types of pepper (the smallest ones are the hottest), and 3 types of basil in Thailand. Throughout our tour Koy buys and fills our baskets with our ingredients for the day. We make our way back to the school to let the cooking commence.

Our classroom - A traditional Thai style open-air kitchen

We are equipped with a bright purple apron, a matching purple napkin, a wooden cutting block, and a rather large knife. Koy hands us our recipe books and begins the class explaining how to make curry paste. Using a mortal and pestle, we hand grind a mixture of ingredients (mostly chilies, herbs, and spices) until it becomes a smooth paste. The work is difficult but we are rewarded with an excellent green curry paste. She shows us how to cut various vegetables and gives us pre-measured containers of seasonings (sugar, salt, fish sauce, coconut milk, etc). With all our ingredients ready, we go to the wok and cook away as she tells us what to add and how to long to cook. Within minutes, we have completed our first dish, a great looking bowl of chicken green curry. We all go to the back room (thankfully air-conditioned) and try out our first dish. It's the best green curry I've ever had! I may be biased but, really, it was the best green curry I ever had. And I can say that I cooked it – from scratch!

Koy is demonstrating how to cut various vegetables

Woks in action!

The rest of the day, and indeed, the rest of the week followed the same pattern. We prepared, cut, and mixed all of the ingredients first, then we went to the woks and slowly added everything until another culinary creation was completed. Cooking Thai food was, dare I say, actually pretty easy. Looking over the entire process, the most difficult part is collecting all the not-so-common ingredients from the market (I'm sure this is especially more difficult in the US – you'd probably have to go to a special Asian store for some of the ingredients). Once you have everything, the prep time is fast (cutting, chopping, mixing) and the cooking time is even faster.

Ingredients to make Green Curry Paste

Thai cuisine is famous for being spicy. Most people who like spicy food will come to love Thai food. I was never a fanatic about spicy food, but after tasting the local food I've become a lover of spicy Thai food. The secret is not the type, amount, or strength of chilies, but rather the balance of spiciness with flavor. I had great joy learning about this aspect of Thai food during the course. Before preparing a new dish, Koy would explain the specific flavors we were trying to achieve then tell us about each ingredient and how it contributed to the overall balance. For example, Koy would explain that sweet sticky rice with mangoes should taste sweet and a salty (it's not a Thai style dessert if it's not a little salty). Thus, we add coconut milk, sugar, and salt. What pleased me was that all dishes usually had 2, 3, or 4 simple flavors delicately mixed to create an overall masterpiece. Such is the case with Tom Yum Goong. The end result should taste sweet, sour, spicy and salty. For this combination we add (among other ingredients) appropriate amounts palm sugar (sweet), lemon juice (sour), chilies (spicy), and fish sauce (salty). By the end of the course I had a pretty good idea of what to add to achieve a desired flavor.

We also learned some simple presentation techniques. This included making a rose from the skin of a tomato, learning how to wrap chicken in Pandanus leaves (imagine doing origami with banana leaves), garnishing plates with various flowers, and topping dishes with hand-made sauces.

My lovely rose made from a tomato

I've finished the course and learned how to make 25 Thai dishes. I'm still amazed at how easy it is to cook such wonderfully delicious, yet simple dishes. After successfully cooking several dishes at home after the course, I can confidently say that I cook Thai food! :)

All in a day's work

Even though it may be 100 degrees outside, I can understand why people in Thailand will still eat sweatingly spicy food. Thai food makes you happy. It tastes so good, and it's been shown that the capsaicin in chili peppers causes the release of endorphins – the happy chemical. Despite the problems and poverty in Thailand, the people, for the most part, continue to be happy. I think their food has a lot to do with why Thailand is known as “the land of smiles.”

My Culinary Creations!
(Click to see a slideshow of my dishes)