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How things look or appear is an important part of Thai culture.
No where is this more evident than in the presentation of food.
Ordinary and humble ingredients often arrive at the dinner table
transformed by a skillful chef into delicate and colorful works
of art.
Although a variety of techniques are employed to create this magical
transformation, the skillful carving of fruits and vegetables is
probably the most famous. Visitors to Thailand often marvel at how
melons, gourds, pineapples, and a host of other items suddenly become
intricately carved bowls and platters for fruits, salads, and cooked
dishes.
In Phuket, for example, virtually every buffet's obligatory collection
of fruit is housed not in an ordinary bowl, but in a beautifully
carved container made from a watermelon. Fried rice becomes a special
event when it arrives at the table in a basket made from a pineapple.
Tropical drinks appear in green coconuts or hollowed pineapples
decorated with beautiful orchids. And desserts arrive on plates
fashioned from carved fruit or intricately folded banana leaves.
Equally fascinating is the transformation of fruits and vegetables
into flowers, fans, leaves and a variety of other shapes and objects.
Even humble restaurants often serve their spicy salads with green
onions cut to look like little brushes or red peppers cut and chilled
so they represent flowers.
More elaborate presentations are created from carrots, radishes,
and turnips, resulting in daisies, chrysanthemums, or lotus blossoms.
Turnips, not everyone's favorite vegetable, achieve salvation when
carved and dyed red to represent a rose. Cucumbers, mangos, and
melons are favorites for creating leaves.
Visitors who get the chance to see a yellow watermelon carved into
a bunch of yellow roses should count themselves lucky it is an impressive
and incredibly beautiful presentation. Fruit and vegetable carving
is an art requiring skill, patience and training.
Many hotels and restaurants have demonstrations of this unique
art form. A few venues, like the Chedi at Pansea Bay, have presentations
each evening and not only demonstrate, but also teach participants
how to create simple objects. The Baan Rim Pa, one of the island's
most famous Thai restaurants, has a demonstration each evening,
beginning at about 7:30 and lasting until closing time. Some hotels,
like the Novotel Phuket Resort, Le Meridien Phuket, and Le Royal
Meridien Phuket Yacht Club have demonstrations on certain days of
the week.
If you are interested in learning more about this interesting art,
check with your hotel to see if and when they have a demonstration.
In addition you might want to consider purchasing a cookbook entitled,
Cooking Thai Fod in American Kitchens .. Book 3 by Malulee Pinsuvana.
Available at the Books in Phuket Town, this charming little volume
not only teaches the art, it comes with a set of knives and tools
for doing the carving.
Whatever you do, take some time to look at your Thai meal before
devouring it. The beauty and balance of the culinary presentation
will not only be a reflection of the talent of the chef, but also
of the culture from which it came.
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