A Soup for All Seasons
January 30th, 2009
BBQ Duck over Rice with Broth
Bangkok, Thailand – My first few months in Thailand, I went through a period when I didn’t want kuay tiaw (noodle soup). That was when I was still enjoying things because they were new, not familiar. I was sick of it and it seemed to be everywhere. Besides the weather was tropical and who wanted to have steaming soup when the streets were humid and baking hot? As the months passed, I soon found that there wasn’t a day when I couldn’t have kuay tiaw and in fact would start daydreaming about it after going for just a few days without it. Thai people eat soup with almost every meal. Whether the meal is noodle soup for one or an array of wok fried dishes to be shared Thai-style, soup is standard issue for the table, even if a curry is there as well.
Of course, there’s the well-known tom ka gai (hot and sour coconut milk soup with chicken) and tom yum koong (clear hot and sour soup with prawns). I also love winter melon stuffed with pork in broth. And one of the most interesting ones I’ve had was a super tangy tamarind soup with water spinach omelets floating in the thickened broth. The most basic soup is chicken stock with a little cilantro and maybe some mushrooms or pieces of asian radish, which is served alongside khao man gai or other rice-based dishes.
The first few times I was served a bowl of broth, unordered, alongside my krapow muu (pork stir fried with holy basil), I wasn’t quite sure what to do with it. I watched other diners, eating a few bites of their meal and then taking in a few spoonfuls of the hot broth, and awkwardly mimicked them, breaking my eating rhythm and reminding myself to take some soup every few bites. Now, of course, when I sit down to a plate of bbq duck over rice, the simple broth is a welcome accompaniment and my brain no longer needs to remind me to take in a spoonful.
Rice Noodle Soup with Chicken, Dumplings and Holy Basil
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