About the Fresh Ingredients
I always like to use the freshest ingredients possible, and for this meal, they include Shrimp, Limes, Jalapeno Peppers, Shallots, Garlic, Mint, Cilantro, Watercress, Red Onion, Radishes, Cabbage, Ginger Root, Coconut, Scallions, Lemons, Bean Sprouts, Peanuts, Carrot Juice, Carrots, Snow Peas, Red Pepper, Green Pepper, Bok Choy, and Bananas. And as always, I'll be shopping the day before the dinner, so that I can do some of the preparations the evening before.
12:06 AM PDT Permalink |

A Little Background on the Film
Suriyothai is a Thai epic, which centers around the woman for whom the film is named. Written and directed by Chatrichalerm Yukol, Suriyothai tells the 16th century story of a beautiful young Thai princess who becomes the wife of King Mahachakrapat. In addition to the family dynamics within the palace walls, Suriyothai also focuses on the ongoing struggle between Thailand and Burma. Having taken a sneak peek at the first few minutes of the film, I can already tell that the production quality is excellent, the settings and costumes are rich and exotic, and the actors are gorgeous. I can't wait to watch it after a delicious Thai meal.
10:24 AM PDT Permalink |

About Thai Cuisine
Thailand is located in Southeast Asia, on the same peninsula with Burma, Cambodia, Laos, and Vietnam. Its proximity to India and China has had a strong influence on the cuisine, however, Thai cuisine has its own distinctive characteristics.

Rice is the primary starch, topped with modest amounts of curry, and other spicy sauces. Since Thailand is a coastal nation, seafood is commonly featured in many Thai dishes. Two flavoring ingredients, an Asian fish sauce called Nam Pla, and a shrimp paste called Kapee, are an essential element of nearly every dish. In addition to Nam Pla and Kapee, Thai cuisine is also flavored with ginger, garlic, onions, tamarind, hot chile peppers, cilantro, basil, lemongrass, cumin, black pepper, palm sugar and coconut milk. A typical Thai dish combines the four basic flavor elements: sweet (sugar, fruits, sweet peppers), spicy hot (chiles), sour (vinegar, lime juice, tamarind), and salty (soy sauce, fish sauce).

The most common methods of preparation are stir-frying and steaming in a wok, or grilling over an open fire. A Thai meal may include many dishes, but is not typically served in sequential courses. And unlike many Asian countries, the use of chopsticks is not common in Thailand, where meals are eaten with a spoon.

The most popular Thai dishes are:

Tom Yam Gung - hot & sour soup with seafood
Tom Yam Gai - hot & sour soup with chicken
Tom Kha Gai - hot sweet soup with chicken and coconut
Satay - grilled meat served with peanut sauce
Pad Thai - pan-fried rice noodles with various ingredients
Gaeng Pet - hot curry made with dried red chiles
Sweet Green Curry - made with fresh green chiles and cumin
Massaman - yellow curry
Som Tam - grated papaya salad
Larb - various salads with meat
Gai Yang - marinated and grilled chicken

02:15 AM PDT Permalink |

Eureka!
I've made a most wonderful and convenient discovery. My favorite gourmet grocery here in town, the place where I often shop for the best and most exotic produce for my Dinner & a Movie, also offers free home delivery! So...as an experiment, well in advance of my Suriyothai Dinner & a Movie, I gave them a try. They offer free delivery on orders of more than $100 (which I can easily spend at the grocery store on any given day), so I made up a list of mostly basic stuff and phoned it in.

At about 2 p.m., there was a knock on my door. My first home-delivered grocery order had arrived. The whole transaction was over in less than two minutes, and I sent the delivery lady on her way with a personal check and a generous cash tip. However, upon reviewing the grocery receipt, I discovered that $9.03 worth of pecans had been added to my bill, which I not only hadn't ordered, but also weren't delivered. Now, being a southern gal, I love pecans, but $9 bucks for less than two pounds of 'em...and I didn't even get the pleasure of eating 'em. Yikes! A call to the dispatcher was all it took to resolve the problem: $9.03 will be deducted from my next order.

There were also a few other problems...I got sliced sandwich pickles instead of whole dills, whole-milk cottage cheese instead of fat free (but boy is it a guilty pleasure!), fancy albacore tuna instead of regular water packed, and in every case, top-shelf brands instead of the budget varieties. So, as my Mom always said, I'll be dining 'high off the hog' for the next couple of weeks.

Nevertheless, it was an interesting learning experience. For the convenience of having someone else perform the chore of shopping for my groceries, I have to relinquish a certain measure of control... Not an easy task for a Type-A diva like me. I also learned that my grocery delivery will only be as accurate as the order that I place, so I have to be mindful in specifying exactly what items I want delivered.

But gosh, for a few minutes this afternoon, I felt like spoiled royalty.
12:37 AM PDT Permalink |

Tracking Down Exotic Ingredients
This month, I think I already have all the exotic Asian ingredients I need except the Thai Curry Paste. But since I have a very low tolerance for strong spices, I may skip it altogether. I already have Nam Pla Fish Sauce, Sesame Oil, and Soy Sauce. Dried Shrimp, Coconut Milk, Jasmine Rice, and Cellophane Noodles can all be gotten locally. So shopping is going to be easy this time. But for those of you who need to stock up on hard to find Asian ingredients, AsianFoodGrocer.com is an excellent online source.
12:08 AM PDT Permalink |

A List of Ingredients
Specialty Ingredients:

Nam Pla Fish Sauce, Thai Curry Paste, Dried Shrimp, Coconut Milk, Jasmine Rice, Cellophane Noodles, Soy Sauce, Sesame Oil

Fresh Ingredients:

Limes, Jalapeno Peppers, Shallots, Garlic, Cumin, Corriander, Peanut Butter, Curry Powder, Mint, Cilantro, Watercress, Red Onion, Radishes, Cole Slaw, Ginger Root, Grated Coconut, Large Shrimp, Scallions, Lemons, Bean Sprouts, Peanuts, Carrot Juice, Carrots, Snow Peas, Red Pepper, Green Pepper, Bok Choy, Bananas, Shreded Coconut

Basics:

Brown Sugar, Vegetable Oil, Corn Starch, Eggs, Butter

12:10 AM PDT Permalink |

Deciding on the Dishes for a Thai Dinner
Appetizer: Peanut Satay
Soup: Pad Thai Noodles
Salad: Thai Spring Rolls over Fresh Greens
Main Course: Stir-Fry Shrimp and Vegetables with Coconut Rice
Dessert: Banana Fritters

03:12 AM PDT Permalink |

Designing the Menu
For my Thai dinner, I'd like to serve several dishes that fairly represent the cuisine. The Fried Fish Cakes sound good, and Peanut Satay seems like a must have. And I have lots of wrappers left over from previous dinners to make Spring Rolls. I definitely want some kind of light vegetable salad, and Pad Thai Noodles seem like a good choice for the soup. For the main course, probably some kind of shrimp stir-fry dish with rice. Of course, this sounds like way too much food, but leftovers are always a welcome treat for the next day, when the last thing I feel like doing is cooking.
12:03 AM PDT Permalink |

Looking for Recipes
The Thai recipes featured in The Joy of Cooking include Beef Satay with Peanut Sauce, Lime Chili Dipping Sauce, Chicken Coconut Soup, Thai Beef Salad, Thai Vinaigrette Dressing, Coconut Rice, Pad Thai Noodles, Poached Shrimp with Carrot Juice, and Fried Fish Cakes. The Recipes in Essentials of Asian Cuisine include Curry Paste, Peanut Satay, Fried Black Chili Sauce, Spicy Shrimp Soup, Jasmine Rice, Coconut Rice, Sweet and Crispy Vermicelli, Pad Thai Noodles, Curry Soup, Pork Noodle Soup, Thai Spring Rolls, Cucumber Shallot Salad, Pork Curry, Chicken Curry, and Banana Fritters.

Between the two cookbooks there are so many recipes that I can surely put together a Thai dinner without looking any further. And I may even serve it buffet style.
02:47 AM PDT Permalink |

Getting Acquainted With the Cuisine
Upon researching Thai recepes, I've learned that Thai cuisine makes use of many of the same ingredients used in other Southeast Asian dishes. Lots of hot chile peppers, a similar assortment of spices, and many of the same herbs and fresh ingredients. But as with any cuisine, it's the way the ingredients are combined, prepared and presented that makes it truly unique.
12:28 AM PDT Permalink |

My Cookbooks
I've browsed my cookbook shelf and discovered that the only ones in my collection that have Thai dishes are The Joy of Cooking, which has a surprising number of choices, and my old standby, Essentials of Asian Cuisine, by Corrinne Trang. Once I get a good overview of Thai cuisine, I may go cruising the Internet for some alternatives, but judging from what I've already read, I can probably make a fine Thai dinner using just those two cookbooks.
02:17 PM PDT Permalink |

My Experience with Thailand and Its Cuisine
I've never been to Thailand. However, when I lived in Tokyo, it was the destination of choice for many of my fellow teachers when they wanted to get out of the city for a little R&R during the holiday seasons. They always came back tan and relaxed, raving about the food, the nightlife, the people, the beaches and the scenery. One of them, a young man named Paul Faure, even fell in love with a Thai woman and bought her family a cow to give as a gift when he went to ask her father for her hand in marriage. Alas, my exotic Asia travel was curtailed by my pregnancy, so my travel experience was limited to several wonderful vacations to nearby destinations in Japan. Of course, I wouldn't trade my son Will for all the travel adventures in the world, and besides, there's still plenty of time to see and do it all.

As for Thai cuisine here in the U.S., I've only eaten it a few times. In my catering days, the ubiquitous Peanut Satay was a favorite finger food at all the gala events, and years ago, I think I had dinner at a Thai restaurant in Berkeley. But that was about the extent of it, until Rene took me to an unpretentious little place here in Napa called Thai Kitchen. I don't remember the names of all the dishes we had, but I recall everything being quite sweet, and a little spicy. I remember enjoying the salad most of all, but then that's true of nearly every meal. I really love salad.

The learning curve is going to be steep again this month, but judging from my advance research, it doesn't look very complicated. Can't wait to get started learning all about the cuisine and choosing the dishes.
02:20 AM PDT Permalink |

Welcome to Dinner & a Movie for September
The food and film for this month's Dinner & a Movie will be a five-dish menu of Thai cuisine and the epic film Suriyothai, written & directed by Chatrichalerm Yukol. Thai is another cuisine for which I have very little experience, so I'm looking forward to learning about the food, the culture and the history of Thailand.
12:09 AM PDT Permalink |

Next Month's Dinner & a Movie
Well...it's official. I've decided that September's Dinner & a Movie is going to be a five-dish Thai diner and a film titled Suriyothai, an epic period piece written and directed by Chatrichalerm Yukol. I've already delved into my cookbooks for lots of tempting recipes, and I have a copy of the film on DVD. Looks like I'm off to a great start this month.
02:25 AM PDT Permalink |

Looking Ahead to Next Month
Rene has a birthday coming up on the 18th of September, and has recently cultivated a taste for Thai food. And since I always like to spoil him on his birthday, this seems like the perfect time for me to learn how to prepare it. Of course, after a busy and productive summer season, we are going to indulge ourselves with a little well-deserved birthday getaway to San Francisco as well. (No details...That's still a surprise.) But when time comes for my Dinner & a Movie for the month of September, it's definitely going to be Thai.
01:54 AM PDT Permalink |