Pok Pok The Drinking Food of Thailand
March 2, 2018 by Jenny
Picture it, New York, August of 2011, I was watching an episode of Best Thing I Ever Ate on the Food Network when I paused the show to rewind. “Pok Pok? Did I hear that correctly? Rahm Fama was talking about Ike’s Vietnamese Fish Sauce Wings from this magical place in Portland named Pok Pok.
How do I remember this? It’s the moment I started following Andy Ricker and wondering when a cookbook would be forthcoming. Two years later, Pok Pok: Food and Stories from the Streets, Homes, and Roadside Restaurants of Thailand was born. Ike’s wings, cucumber salad, and the noodles with pork, peanuts and herbs are three of my favorites from the original book.
Late October of 2017, the author published his second cookbook Pok Pok: The Drinking Food of Thailand. Ricker’s rambunctious no-holds-barred style that we come to expect and appreciate is served with a drink in hand. The book features 50 Aahaan Kap Klaem style recipes (drinking food) and travelogue-like essays, inspired by the more laid-back Whiskey Soda Lounge, another of Ricker’s hot spots in Portland.
Ricker is a respected authority on Thai cuisine. His books bring us approachable yet detailed recipes that we can easily recreate at home such as Thai-style fried chicken and Thai papaya salad. For the more devout adventurer, there are dishes such as Pig’s brains grilled in banana leaf or Dancing shrimp using live shrimp but you have the option of using dearly departed seafood. I don’t believe there is enough drink in all of Thailand to encourage me to deal with live shrimp trying to escape my bowl, but one never knows – I’m a cheap date – one drink and done.
To me, Ricker’s books are no brainers (pigs, excluded). His books transport the reader to Thailand and bury us deep in the culture and cuisine. With the charisma of an impassioned minister, you will follow Ricker’s tales and be inspired to bring them home in your own kitchen. Praise the chef and pass the whiskey.
Special thanks to Ten Speed Press for sharing the Salt-chile dip
for green mango recipe below and for providing three copies of this
book in our contest open to US members. Head to the bottom of this
post to enter.
Phrik Kleua Salt-chile dip for green mango
Add this recipe to your Bookshelf (click the blue
+Bookshelf button).
Special equipment: A Thai granite mortar and pestle
◊ serves 4 to 8 ◊
4 g /12 stemmed dried Thai chiles
100 g /½ cup rock sugar
36 g /¼ cup kosher salt
2 green mangoes, peeled, pitted, and cut into spears
Even the most informal bars in Thailand have food. By day, a table on the sidewalk might host a modest pork butcher shop. By night, a relative of the pork butcher runs a curbside drinking establishment, with the same table now draped with an oilcloth. There’s an ice bucket, a pitcher of water, and assorted bottles of rice based liquor, like lao khao, ya dawng, and Sang Som, the ubiquitous brand of Thai rum. A woman dispenses shots to men who have already consumed enough to tell you loudly in English that you will “save the world.” You slowly realize that they’re referring to the movie Armageddon. This is not the first time a drunk Thai man has informed you that you look like Bruce Willis. At a place like this, the food on offer is simple- probably sliced fresh fruit with salty sweet chile powder for dipping. I especially like it when the fruit is green mango, which is crunchy and far more tart than sweet. In the States, there’s pretty much just one variety to choose from. Sold mainly at Southeast Asian and South Asian markets, the green mangoes you’re after aren’t just firm and unripe but also actually green- not mottled or greenish- in color.
Firmly pound the chiles in the mortar to a fairly fine powder. Add the sugar and pound to a fairly fine powder. Add the salt, mix, then pound until the mixture has the texture of granulated sugar. You should have about 85 g /½ cup. It will keep in an airtight container in a cool, dark place for up to 2 weeks. Serve the mangoes with about 22 g /2 tablespoons of the chile mixture.
The publisher is offering three copies of this book to EYB Members in the US. One of the entry options is to answer the following question in the comments section of this blog post.
Which recipe in the index would you try first?
Please note that you must be logged into the Rafflecopter contest before posting or your entry won’t be counted. For more information on this process, please see our step-by-step help post. Be sure to check your spam filters to receive our email notifications. Prizes can take up to 6 weeks to arrive from the publishers. If you are not already a Member, you can join at no cost. The contest ends at midnight on April 5th, 2018.
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