Beyond pad thai: recipes from the ‘foreign-faced girl with the heart of a Thai’

Of course, there is a lot more to Thai food than the handful of dishes most of us can name, as Kay Plunkett-Hogge shows in her book, Baan – Recipes and stories from my Thai home (2019). The London-based cook­book author and broadcaster, who was born and raised in Bangkok, writes in the intro­duction that she learned to speak Thai before she spoke English, “which freaked out my Irish grandmother when I was brought to London for the first time aged three.

“I have spent more than half my life in Thailand, as a child, as a young professional in the film business, and latterly as a food writer and journalist. And I have been very privileged that my work has allowed me to travel the length and breadth of the country,” she writes. “More so, that the language has opened more doors for me, both literally and figuratively, than the average white-faced girl has ever had the chance to walk through.

“As a result, I have been able to collect recipes from wherever I’ve been: from tribal Tai Yai and Akha people in the mountains of the Golden Triangle; from elephant kwans in the forests of Lampang Province, from fishermen in coastal Ranong; from stallholders, chefs, shop­keepers, air stewards, taxi drivers, chambermaids, hi-so women; from little old ladies in markets; and from people who have kindly called me na farang hua jai Thai – the foreign-faced girl with the heart of a Thai.”

Plunkett-Hogge has a conversa­tional style of writing, describing the dishes so those unfamiliar with them can imagine the tastes in their head, and making the recipes seem less intimidating. When possible, she suggests substitutions for the harder-to-find ingredients, and also gives a list of pantry essentials, such as fish sauce, nam prik pao (roasted chilli paste) and shrimp sauce.