Cooking is one of the oldest cultural instruments in the world. Even before people used language to communicate, feelings of home and tradition were conveyed through food. It is therefore quite understandable why the “Thai Tourism Authority” announced a cooking competition last weekend to clarify how the real, the real “Pad Kaphrao” should taste.
“Pad Kaphrao” is considered one of Thailand’s national dishes, it consists of minced meat that is sautéed in a wok with basil, garlic and chili and served with rice and fried eggs. This is very quick and easy, which is why the dish is popular in the famous street kitchens in Bangkok and also on the islands, where tourists burn their mouths on it. If you order it “spicy”, you get a stack of napkins to wipe the sweat from your forehead and upper lip.
At home and above all abroad, however, it is offered in all sorts of variants, sometimes even enriched with corn, carrots or onions. And in Europe, if necessary, with the basil that is customary there, as it is plucked onto the mozzarella. “The biggest concern is that the Kaphrao that we have in Thailand and the Kaphrao that we have in the UK, the US and other countries are very different,” said Yuthasak Supasorn, governor of the tourism board. In a way, the competition was about national identity.
The participants saw it more relaxed. Chakkrit Chuma, 30, who won the competition, explained to the British magazine The Guardians after the award ceremony, “you can add any vegetables you have in the fridge”. Only if you mix up the main ingredients and use the wrong type of basil will the taste be distorted. As far as the spiciness is concerned, Chakkrit was rather reserved, the Pad Kaphrao shouldn’t be too spicy, “then you won’t taste anything anymore”.
Thais themselves actually eat it rather mildly. Just like the “Wild Boars”, the youngsters of the football team who were locked in a flooded dark cave in northern Thailand for days in 2018 and later said that they longed for Pad Kaphrao. Eating can also mean comfort.
The idea behind the weekend’s competition was also to attract more visitors to Thailand, which has not yet recovered economically from the pandemic. Tourism accounts for about 20 percent of gross national product, and “Food is the best way to increase the spending per trip of tourists or travelers coming to Thailand,” Gov. Yuthasak said.
Incidentally, Thai cuisine is one of the most popular in the world, ranking fourth in popularity, ahead of French, in a pre-pandemic Yougov poll. 25,000 people from 24 countries were asked about their favorite international cuisine. First place, not surprisingly: Italy. Then come China and Japan. Germany didn’t make it into the top ten, so maybe that’s why it’s a travel nation because, in addition to history and tradition, people also love the taste of faraway places.