Tag: Roti

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Eat My Thai – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

In his inimitable style Anthony Bourdain described the first time he tasted Thai food: “It was like discovering a color I never knew existed before. A whole new crayon box full of colors.”  His words resonate true for those of us who don’t live in a monochromatic world of homogeneous meals lacking diversity, personality and flavor.  Similarly resonant is his characterization of Thailand’s spicy food: “That perfect balance of pain, and pleasure, and more pain. Brain flooding with endorphins and all is well with the world. Until tomorrow morning.”  Would that my words would flow with the profundity, veracity and ease with which Bourdain laced his every utterance. When my Kim and I find a Thai restaurant with a menu…

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Thai Heritage & Vegan – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

Who among us hasn’t learned at least one thing about Thai culinary heritage from The Big Bang Theory? In a 2011 episode, for example, we learned that according to Thai tradition the last morsel of food, the greng jie, goes to the most important person in the room. At least that’s what Sheldon tells Penny when she reaches for the last remaining dumpling. Thanking everyone for the honor, she devours the dumpling. Sheldon’s retort: “I’ve seen pictures of your mother. Keep eating.” Some of us learned that Thai food is meant to be eaten with forks not chop sticks though in Thailand, they don’t put the fork in their mouth. It’s simply a tool to put the food on a…

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Thai Street – Albuquerque, New Mexico

Gil Garduno12:01 AM

By chronological standards, Thai cuisine–especially as we know it today–is relatively new to the world culinary stage.  Culinary historians believe Thai cuisine may be as young as 1,400 years, coinciding with a mass migration of people from regions of China.  These settlers dined mostly on seafood, herbs and plants prepared mostly by stewing, baking and grilling (over time, stir-frying and deep-frying also became popular).  Large domestic animals such as water buffalo and oxen were too valuable to slaughter for food.  As such, meat was used very sparingly though considering the settlers’ propensity for seasoning, a small amount of meat went a long way.   While Chinese–particularly Szechuan–dietary practices were the most significant early influences, the introduction of other ingredients and…