TASTE THE WORLD….the travel adventures of South African Super Chef Jenny Morris, aka The Giggling Gourmet, the owner of the award-winning restaurant YUMCIOUS which is located just around the corner from our spa…
“Wonderful friendly fragrant Thailand! I am in love with all things Thai. My experience of the Thai people is that they are very warm and sociable….and always hungry. That’s why you will find little food stalls on every street selling delicious fresh food. What I love about eating the Thai way is that there is no such thing as a starter or main, nor is there one dish per person; the food is shared by everyone and that means that the more people there are at the table, the more delicious dishes are served. I am told that the Thai people believe that eating alone is bad luck, so the more the merrier!
One of the things I look forward to when I go to Thailand is a som tam salad, a beautiful hot and sour green papaya salad that you can also make from green mangoes. I grow papaya in my garden at home. They hardly ever see the light of day, and when those plump little bodies are still grass green, I shred them into a salad. I pound up some gorgeous fresh lime, chilies – lots of chilies! – fish sauce, palm sugar and garlic. It’s one of the most delicious things I’ve ever tasted.
When I was in Thailand to film a cooking insert for an episode of a television show called Life’s a Journey, we went to a neighbourhood floating market – not the big tourist one, but the one where the locals shop and eat. There were tables lining the walkway, laden with delicious food – moist, falling-off-the-bone succulent roast pork, with a whole pig’s back of crackling; endless desserts; tons of exotic fresh fruit and vegetables; and the Thai version of bouquet garni, fresh bundles of all the right herbs you would need for a dish.
I got to do the one thing I always want to do in a foreign country: buy the ingredients and cook them. Oh, what fun I had”.