A Taste Explosion | Miang Khum
30th Sep 2017
By Spa Director Lina Lotto
Miang Khum is one of the most delicious street foods that can be found at certain times of the day in some areas of Bangkok and I am sure, all over Thailand.
There are so many amazing street foods on offer in Thailand ranging from permanent stalls to roving vendors.
Miang Khum tends to belong in the roving vendor category and it has always been a mystery to me where and when sellers of street delicacies decide to surface. When I lived in Bangkok I would revisit streets where I had previously eaten in the hope of reliving the experience and to my great disappointment the vendor wouldn’t be there.
Miang Khum can also be found in restaurants as a spectacular starter but on the street its hidden glories are concealed within a pre-wrapped Bai Cha Plu leaf to enable you to conveniently pop it in your mouth. The Thai people are very considerate in that way.
Miang Khum consists of the following ingredients which are wrapped in Cha plu leaf.
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Bai Cha Plu leaf – wild pepper leaf (we substitute betel leaf) as it is almost impossible to find outside Thailand
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Lime
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Dried prawn
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Birds eye chilli
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Ginger
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Roasted peanuts
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Shredded toasted coconut (nothing like the tasteless desiccated coconut you buy in supermarkets)
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Red Onion
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Sweet tamarind sauce
This is the restaurant starter version which you can find in our Zen Garden restaurant.
There is no way to effectively describe Miang Khum; it is simply a taste explosion.
Having most of the big, bold flavours of Thailand encased in a leaf packed with health benefits. Miang Khum has sweet, sour, astringent, fragrant, oily/nutty, salty, hot and bitter tastes. In fact eight of the nine medicinal tastes in Thai cuisine, which I will talk about in a future blog.
Sadly Thai officials are set on removing vendors from the streets. They cite the deadline as being end of 2017, though having just recently returned from Bangkok I can report that street food is very much still in evidence. Bangkok was named as the best in the world for street food by CNN Travel* and it would change the face of many Thai cities should this amazing street facility be banned, especially as millions of people rely on the quality, variety and inexpensive prices that street food offers. Let’s hope they rethink this policy and allow it to continue.
Taste this delicious starter for yourself at our Thai Zen Garden restaurant. Call 01590 624467 to book.
*Source http://edition.cnn.com/travel/article/best-cities-street-food/index.html
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