Thai Street Food - A Second Thai Cooking Book by David Thompson
Thai Food Legend David Thompson launched his second book "Thai Street Food" with a series of dinners at leading restaurants across Australia, including Sydney and Perth.
Very few chefs ever become as synonymous with a particular cuisine as David Thompson has become with Thai food. Since travelling to Thailand in the late eighties, Thompson has been obsessed with Thai food, or should I say with traditional Thai food.
His obsession lead to the opening of string of successful Thai restaurants in Sydney, being asked by the Thai government to set up and run a venue showcasing Thai food in Bangkok, publish a Thai cook book that remains the absolute bible on Thai cooking and open the first Thai restaurant in Europe to achieve a Michelin Star.
Darley Street Thai
Thompson's first restaurant in Sydney, Darley Street Thai, was somewhat inauspiciously located upstairs in the Botany View Hotel in Newtown. However, as Thompson's Thai food prowess gathered momentum, Darley Street Thai was soon moved to a more up-market locale in Bayswater Road in Kings Cross. It was here that the legend that is David Thompson's Thai food really began.
Sailor's Thai
Built on the success of Darley Street Thai, Sailor's Thai was opened in The Rocks area of Sydney in 1995. This restaurant was divided into two parts, one with a large shared table with quick, cheaper dishes (Sailor's Thai Canteen) and the other a more formal dining area. This structure probably goes someway to explaining Thompson's approach to Thai food.
Essence of Traditional Thai Cooking
Thai food is complex and wide-ranging in texture and flavours but not traditionally suited to Western style restaurant dining. It is more a cuisine of dishes to be served to and shared by a family, or bought from a street vendor. Thompson's great achievement has been to create often spectacular restaurant dishes that have won the consistent acclaim of diners and critics alike, without sacrificing the essence of traditional Thai cooking.
Thai Food Encyclopedia
Only by living in Thailand and totally absorbing himself in Thai cooking over a long period of time could Thompson have been able to produce "Thai Food", the stunning 673 page virtual encyclopedia of Thai cooking, first published in 2002. This is a very detailed book and the recipes, although clear in instruction, are not for the half hearted home chef.
More than just a series of recipes, "Thai Food" meticulously weaves together details of Thai history, culture, cooking ingredients and alternatives, preparation techniques and of course recipes to produce what has become for many an indispensable compendium of Thai cooking.
Thai Street Food
Thompson has now published a second book, "Thai Street Food". The launch of the book in Australia included a series of dinners in restaurants in major cities across the country, featuring selected dishes from the book. The dinner in Perth was hosted at Star Anise in Shenton Park where a somewhat tired looking Thompson (as usual Perth was at the end of the whistle stop Australian tour) introduced each of the courses and provided gentle banter to assist diners in understanding the food they were being served.
Shared Thai Dishes Matched with Wine
The dishes were all designed to be shared, starting with a range of delicate looking, but intensely flavoured canapes, followed by entrees that starred a dish of scallops, shredded green mango, toasted coconut and shallots wrapped in betel leaves. There were six main courses, with the Neua Kem Sot, salted beef ribs with lime, chillies and red shallots outstanding along with the red curry of dhufish (Geng Chuu Chii Plaa Dhu). The meal was rounded out by a sensational sticky rice dish served with mango (Kao Niaw Mamuamg). An array of cleverly matched wines complemented the food perfectly, with the stand out wine being the 2008 Donnhoff Riesling from Germany.
And of course, a brisk trade was done in signed copies of the book. With exquisite food photography by Earl Carter, Thai Street Food effectively captures the unique atmosphere of Thailand's street food and market culture and forms a neat counter-point to Thompson's first publication.
Michelin Star Thai Food
Perhaps as far from a Thai street food stall as you can get, Thompson opened Nahm in the Halkin Hotel in London in 2001 and the restaurant has since become the first Thai restaurant in Europe to win a Michelin Star. As a consequence of Thompson's relocation to london, Darley Street Thai was closed, but Sailor's Thai is still going strong under the ownership of Thompson's long term business partner Peter Bowyer.
