The Teochew and Hokkien kitchens of Siam

The Chinese who settled in Siam came chiefly from the south-eastern coast of China, and the Teochew from the Swatow region and the Hokkien from Fujian were among the most numerous groups to arrive by sea. They settled along the Chao Phraya and in the trading quarters of Bangkok, where they worked as merchants, labourers, shopkeepers and cooks. Their food entered the Thai kitchen through the street and the market stall before it reached the palace or the home, and David Thompson in Thai Street Food treats much of what is sold by the roadside as a Chinese inheritance that has been naturalised.

The Chinese contribution to Thai cooking is one of technique and ingredient more than of flavour, and it is best understood by what the Thai kitchen took and what it left. The wok, the cleaver and the practice of frying quickly over a fierce flame came with these settlers, as did the habit of cooking in a single vessel and serving at once. Thai cooks had long steamed, grilled and pounded; the stir-fry, the deep-fried fritter and the noodle soup sold from a pole-borne stall belong to the Chinese side of the table. Thompson places the noodle in particular among the foods carried by the Chinese, and the dishes sold in bowls and on plates by street vendors bear Chinese names or Chinese origins in many cases. The ingredients tell the same story. Wheat and rice noodles, soy sauce, bean curd, preserved radish, dried shrimp and pork in its many forms are Chinese contributions that the Thai kitchen absorbed and made its own. The pig in particular became common through Chinese cooks, in roasted, braised and minced forms, and it sits comfortably beside the fish sauce and the chilli of the Thai table. Dishes such as kuaitiao, the rice noodle served in soup or fried, and the braised or roasted meats served over rice, show how a Chinese form was seasoned to a Thai taste, with sugar, vinegar, fish sauce and chilli set out at the table for each diner to adjust. The Thai response was rarely simple copying. Where the Chinese cook seasoned in the kitchen, the Thai diner seasoned at the table, and the condiment stand of dried chilli, sugar, fish sauce and vinegar that accompanies a bowl of noodles is the plainest sign of this exchange. The dish arrives Chinese in structure and leaves the table Thai in balance. The same adaptation is seen in the way herbs, lime and fresh chilli were added to preparations that in China would have been plainer and more restrained. The exchange ran in both directions over generations, because many Chinese families married into Thai society and their descendants cooked both ways without distinction. A dish that began in a Teochew or Hokkien household became, within a few generations, simply a dish of Bangkok. For the cook, the lesson is that much of what is called Thai street food rests on a Chinese frame, and that to cook it well one must respect the heat of the wok and the order of its ingredients before turning to the table seasoning that makes it Thai.

At the table the Chinese dish is brought into the Thai balance of salt, sour, sweet and heat through the condiments set beside the bowl. A noodle soup may be taken plain, or sharpened with vinegar and chilli, or softened with sugar, according to the diner. The Chinese contribution is the foundation of savoury depth in the broth and the char of the wok, and the Thai contribution is the adjustment that follows.