Report from Bangkok Post dated 26 February 2012 :-
RAISING STEAKS: Steak Sam Yan.
In those days Western food was considered beyond the reach of ordinary Thais. They knew that it was supposed to be delicious, but they had no way of tasting it themselves because the meats, vegetables, fruits, butter, seasonings and tinned goods needed to prepare it were unavailable. Few cookbooks were being written to provide recipes, and the equipment needed to make Western food, like the table settings used to serve and eat it, were expensive. Only one hotel had a Western-style kitchen, and prices for dishes there were exorbitant. In short, for all but the moneyed elite, foreign food was just something for most Thais to dream about.
It was not only the privileged class who ate Western food, however. The staff of Western embassies ate it regularly and the chefs who did the cooking were exclusively Hainanese Chinese who had been brought in by the embassies.
The Hainanese were experts at preparing Western food because the province of Canton in southern China was under Western control and Shanghai was the centre of trade between China and the West. During that era, Shanghai was a kind of Paris of the East, and Chinese there from many ethnic groups chose work that answered the needs of the Western business and diplomatic communities.
The Hainanese specialised in cooking Western food, although the dishes they made were not authentically Western. They mixed in Chinese ideas and strong flavours to create a special sub-cuisine that their employers liked. When Western diplomats relocated to other countries, they brought their Hainanese cooks along with them, and this was especially true of those who came to Thailand.
With the passage of time, the Chinese cooks who had come to Thailand began looking outside of the embassies for jobs for their children and grandchildren. Commerce seemed the best choice, and since their main skill was as cooks specialising in foreign food, many opened food shops or restaurants.
The earliest ones were located in the financial district around Silom and Sathon roads, where there were many Western companies with employees who were knowledgeable and affluent.
Business in these restaurants was good. When word of their success got back to China, relatives, friends and others from the cooks' villages decided that running Western-style restaurants in Thailand was the way to get rich, and set off for Bangkok.
SHIFTING PLATES: Newstyle foreign food served in Bangkok.
Half a century ago there were quite a few of these Chinese Western food restaurants in the city. Some of the best-known were Silom Restaurant and Fu Mui Kee, both near Silom Road; Ming Lee, across from the Royal Palace (in the past the Finance Ministry was in the same area), and several smaller places located in lanes in the Silom-Sathon area.
The menus in all of them were pretty much the same, and featured salad nuea san (green salad with sliced beef), sattu lin wua (beef tongue stew), sattu phok chop (pork chop stew), see khrong moo choop paeng thawt (breaded, deep-fried spare ribs) and kaeng karee gai (a mild chicken curry) that was eaten with bread.
These Hainanese-style Western restaurants opened the door to Western cuisine for ordinary Thais, and Western dishes became the rage, especially well loved by people who had a modest income.
About 30 years ago, the 13 Rien (13 Coins) restaurant came on the scene. The owner had previously worked as a chef in the US and when he returned home he opened restaurants in areas where there were many students or crowds of people - across from Ramkhamhaeng University, for example, and on Sukhumvit Road. The menu included items such as chicken steak, spaghetti with fried chicken and chicken tacos, all offered in large servings at a low price. Of course, this approach was a hit with students, and 13 Rien became a great success, with branches everywhere.
Western food had a strong appeal for students, who were at the age where they liked to experience new things but had to keep their expenses down. Later, Steak Sam Yan opened on the second floor of Sam Yan Market, near Chulalongkorn University. Every student at the university soon knew it. The food offered was foreign and it was inexpensive, but there were only two small branches.
Eventually Sam Yan Market moved to a new location not far from the original one. The second floor of the new market is more spacious than at the previous location, and it is completely filled by Steak Sam Yan. Now it is not only Chula students who eat there. It fills up with employees from nearby companies at lunchtime and in the evening who come to order beef, pork, chicken or salmon steaks, which share the platter with a green salad topped with mayonnaise, a slice of bread with butter and French fries, all for just 100 baht.
Today, cheap foreign food like this is popular everywhere. Some of the shops that sell it are very small and set in ordinary neighbourhoods. Cook Chom (the chef's name is Chom), for example, is located on the edge of Khlong Thewes.
It is very small with a worn wooden floor, and prepares food to order, but it does such booming business that eating there usually means a long queue. The menu includes see khrong moo op nam pheung (honey-baked spare ribs), spaghetti kai goong (spaghetti with shrimp eggs), and hoy shell op sauce farangset (scallops baked with "French sauce"), each priced at a little more than 100 baht.
The Chef Krai restaurant is in Ramkhamhaeng Soi 29 in a neighbourhood where there are many residences for students at nearby Ramkhamhaeng University. It is very small and run by a young man who wears a chef's toque. Seating is on long benches, like in a school cafeteria, and the offerings include spaghetti with fried, breaded pork or chicken. A serving costs only 70 baht, and the shop is so busy that eating there also often involves a long queue.
There are many more little places of this kind in different communities around town, and they have begun spreading to other provinces.
Their proliferation is the latest stage of a trend that has seen Western food change from an expensive luxury for a privileged elite to a popular option for Thais at every level of society.
Its future looks bright, too, provided that chefs maintain standards and the price stays right.
Western food in Thailand has gone from something accessible only to an elite few to fare enjoyed in neighbourhoods throughout the country
More than a century ago, many Thai civil servants travelled to study in the West, sent off to acquire knowledge that they could use in the country's development. When they returned home they brought the new methods, foreign languages and innovative approaches to administration and management that they had learned abroad. They also brought the knowledge they had gained of Western culture, including the delights of European food.
RAISING STEAKS: Steak Sam Yan.In those days Western food was considered beyond the reach of ordinary Thais. They knew that it was supposed to be delicious, but they had no way of tasting it themselves because the meats, vegetables, fruits, butter, seasonings and tinned goods needed to prepare it were unavailable. Few cookbooks were being written to provide recipes, and the equipment needed to make Western food, like the table settings used to serve and eat it, were expensive. Only one hotel had a Western-style kitchen, and prices for dishes there were exorbitant. In short, for all but the moneyed elite, foreign food was just something for most Thais to dream about.
It was not only the privileged class who ate Western food, however. The staff of Western embassies ate it regularly and the chefs who did the cooking were exclusively Hainanese Chinese who had been brought in by the embassies.
The Hainanese were experts at preparing Western food because the province of Canton in southern China was under Western control and Shanghai was the centre of trade between China and the West. During that era, Shanghai was a kind of Paris of the East, and Chinese there from many ethnic groups chose work that answered the needs of the Western business and diplomatic communities.
The Hainanese specialised in cooking Western food, although the dishes they made were not authentically Western. They mixed in Chinese ideas and strong flavours to create a special sub-cuisine that their employers liked. When Western diplomats relocated to other countries, they brought their Hainanese cooks along with them, and this was especially true of those who came to Thailand.
With the passage of time, the Chinese cooks who had come to Thailand began looking outside of the embassies for jobs for their children and grandchildren. Commerce seemed the best choice, and since their main skill was as cooks specialising in foreign food, many opened food shops or restaurants.
The earliest ones were located in the financial district around Silom and Sathon roads, where there were many Western companies with employees who were knowledgeable and affluent.
Business in these restaurants was good. When word of their success got back to China, relatives, friends and others from the cooks' villages decided that running Western-style restaurants in Thailand was the way to get rich, and set off for Bangkok.
SHIFTING PLATES: Newstyle foreign food served in Bangkok. Half a century ago there were quite a few of these Chinese Western food restaurants in the city. Some of the best-known were Silom Restaurant and Fu Mui Kee, both near Silom Road; Ming Lee, across from the Royal Palace (in the past the Finance Ministry was in the same area), and several smaller places located in lanes in the Silom-Sathon area.
The menus in all of them were pretty much the same, and featured salad nuea san (green salad with sliced beef), sattu lin wua (beef tongue stew), sattu phok chop (pork chop stew), see khrong moo choop paeng thawt (breaded, deep-fried spare ribs) and kaeng karee gai (a mild chicken curry) that was eaten with bread.
These Hainanese-style Western restaurants opened the door to Western cuisine for ordinary Thais, and Western dishes became the rage, especially well loved by people who had a modest income.
About 30 years ago, the 13 Rien (13 Coins) restaurant came on the scene. The owner had previously worked as a chef in the US and when he returned home he opened restaurants in areas where there were many students or crowds of people - across from Ramkhamhaeng University, for example, and on Sukhumvit Road. The menu included items such as chicken steak, spaghetti with fried chicken and chicken tacos, all offered in large servings at a low price. Of course, this approach was a hit with students, and 13 Rien became a great success, with branches everywhere.
Western food had a strong appeal for students, who were at the age where they liked to experience new things but had to keep their expenses down. Later, Steak Sam Yan opened on the second floor of Sam Yan Market, near Chulalongkorn University. Every student at the university soon knew it. The food offered was foreign and it was inexpensive, but there were only two small branches.
Eventually Sam Yan Market moved to a new location not far from the original one. The second floor of the new market is more spacious than at the previous location, and it is completely filled by Steak Sam Yan. Now it is not only Chula students who eat there. It fills up with employees from nearby companies at lunchtime and in the evening who come to order beef, pork, chicken or salmon steaks, which share the platter with a green salad topped with mayonnaise, a slice of bread with butter and French fries, all for just 100 baht.
Today, cheap foreign food like this is popular everywhere. Some of the shops that sell it are very small and set in ordinary neighbourhoods. Cook Chom (the chef's name is Chom), for example, is located on the edge of Khlong Thewes.
It is very small with a worn wooden floor, and prepares food to order, but it does such booming business that eating there usually means a long queue. The menu includes see khrong moo op nam pheung (honey-baked spare ribs), spaghetti kai goong (spaghetti with shrimp eggs), and hoy shell op sauce farangset (scallops baked with "French sauce"), each priced at a little more than 100 baht.
The Chef Krai restaurant is in Ramkhamhaeng Soi 29 in a neighbourhood where there are many residences for students at nearby Ramkhamhaeng University. It is very small and run by a young man who wears a chef's toque. Seating is on long benches, like in a school cafeteria, and the offerings include spaghetti with fried, breaded pork or chicken. A serving costs only 70 baht, and the shop is so busy that eating there also often involves a long queue.
There are many more little places of this kind in different communities around town, and they have begun spreading to other provinces.
Their proliferation is the latest stage of a trend that has seen Western food change from an expensive luxury for a privileged elite to a popular option for Thais at every level of society.
Its future looks bright, too, provided that chefs maintain standards and the price stays right.