Fire and Spice - The Flowering Flavors of Southeast Asia
Few regional cuisines can boast the diversity of tastes, colors and aromas of Southeast Asia. From pungent seeds to aromatic bark, a unique host of indigenous plants provide flavor for many of the region’s distinctive dishes.
Lemongrass, for example, a tall tropical grass found throughout Southeast Asia, has a distinctive tangy taste and countless regional dishes exploit its fragrant stalks. Many Thai chefs say it’s the lemongrass that puts the ‘yum’ in Tom Yum Goong!
Cardamom is another regional ingredient used to flavor since ancient times. The ancient Egyptians chewed cardamom seeds as a tooth cleaner; the Greeks and Romans used it as a perfume, but Southeast Asians now use the expensive aromatic pods in a variety of sweet and savory dishes, and Laos alone exports 400 tones or more of the herb every year via Thailand and China!
Another well-known facet of Southeast Asian cuisine is galangal, or ‘blue ginger’. Occurring naturally in Northern Vietnam and Laos, its distinctive earthy aroma and pine-like taste are a common feature of Thai, Vietnamese and Lao cuisine when it is frequently combined with coconut milk as a ‘de-fisher’ of seafood dishes.
Pepper reached Southeast Asia more than 2000 years ago and has become one of the most widely used spices in the region. Thai cooking has developed a liking for fresh unripe pepper berries, and in Cambodia, black pepper is part of the ubiquitous table condiment tik marij, a mixture of lime juice, salt and freshly ground pepper. Indeed, the Cambodian riverside village of Kampot is renowned for producing one of the finest peppers in the world.
Its generous use of indigenous spices such as lemongrass, cardamom, pepper and galangal – as well as other pungent plants - is what makes the traditional cuisine of Southeast Asia so deliciously distinctive.
Enjoy a nourishing journey to the Northern part of Thailand, and take the Lanna Experience Tour for three days to discover traditional living, recipes and ingredients with fun Thai cooking classes.
