Everyone knows that breakfast is an important meal, but when looked at closely, it is as loaded with cultural significance as it is with vitamins and nutrients to fuel the coming day. It can provide a wealth of detailed information on the local environment, on the historical era in which it is or was eaten, the kind of work done by and the social status of the family who prepare and eat it, and the prevailing awareness of the relationship between food and good health.
In the past, the approach to breakfast in the Central region was rigid and fixed. It took shape during the time when most households made their living as farmers, and where the housewife would awaken at 4 or 5am to cook rice both for the monks' bowls and for their families to eat.
She would also fix some dishes to eat with the rice, and there might be food left over from the previous evening's meal. Her husband would leave the house before it got light carrying a pinto -- a stack of bowls containing food held together by a brace -- for his breakfast. He would hurry to get the work in the fields or orchards done before it got too hot, and then later have his morning meal.
At lunchtime, his wife would bring rice and a pinto of food to the fields, and then sit and eat together with him in a pavilion set in the fields called a thaeng naa (there was no need for one in an orchard, as the trees provided shade).
In cities like Bangkok, where most people went out to work or school in the morning, breakfast was prepared early for both the children and their father to eat before they left the house. The meal was usually khao tom (rice soup) with minced pork or accompanied by side dishes like the sweet Chinese sausages called kunchieng, khai khem (salted egg), muu yong (fluffy fibres of dried pork) or salted Chinese radish.
fresh meat: 'Khao man kai' was once a popular breakfast in Bangkok. Photo: Bangkok post archive
If no food had been cooked at home, they could buy it outside from a shop, where they might find joke (rice porridge), coffee brewed the old-fashioned way using a cloth bag and the fried bread called pathongko. Places selling all three of these staples were likely to be nearby, since people often like to eat joke with pathongko, and coffee goes well with them, too.
There might also be a shop that sold pork innards with congealed pork blood, a dish known as tom luead muu. These places started the day at 2 or 3am when the owner went out to buy fresh pork innards and steamed blood from the slaughterhouse and then went back to cook the food and have it ready for customers by 5am. Buyers liked it when the tom luead muu was cooked before dawn because it was fresh and hot, delicious and good for the health.
Then there were the vendors offering khao man kai (Hainanese chicken and rice) who also cooked their food before dawn. The chicken had been boiled the previous evening, and the liquid from the pot was cooked with rice early in the morning to make the khao man, or fragrant, chicken-flavoured rice.
People loved to eat khao man kai for breakfast, and many still do. There is a famous shop that serves it on Plaeng Nam Road, which runs between Yaowarat and New Road, near the intersection with New Road. By nine in the morning, there are no more cooked chickens hanging in the glass case at the front of the shop. Instead there is a box stacked with chicken bones that will be simmered later to make broth.
This is how people in the Central region, including Bangkok, ate breakfast in the past. There were fixed patterns and types of food. But as Bangkok and its population grew and people from all parts of Thailand came to the city, the foods and ways of eating them changed and proliferated. Some people worked in shops or offices on salary, some as hired labourers, and some had no particular time when they went to work. There were many who worked at night. Getting to work was hectic and could take a lot of time.
All of these factors worked to make breakfast change from a meal that was eaten largely the same way in every household to one that different people approached in different ways, depending on their schedules and on personal convenience.
Every family still rose early to get ready to leave the house. Many had to be on the road by 6am and children at school by 7am. Parents would give the children money to buy something to eat at the school cafeteria where they could get curry and rice, khao tom, noodles, sandwiches, sticky rice with grilled pork and bottled orange juice.
When the adults arrived at work, they had to hurry to find parking, as spaces filled up quickly. Others went by public transport. But once they got there, everyone had to buy breakfast from the stalls and pushcarts set up nearby. The bigger the office district where they worked, the greater the number of vendors would be, as well as the variety of foods on offer. There might be, for example, grilled pork with sticky rice, fried spring rolls, fried tofu with sauce or grilled luuk chin. There would also be stalls selling coffee or fruit juice.
The foods sold by vendors had to be easy to package and to eat. They were presented to customers in plastic bags or foam boxes with plastic spoons. Beverages like coffee and fruit juice went into plastic cups and containers that were easy to carry.
In office districts like this, there would also be food shops offering curry and rice, noodles, and other dishes cooked to order. Most opened before dawn so that customer had time to sit and have their breakfast before going to work. Many stayed open at lunchtime, too. This same pattern has continued into the present with few changes.
There is one development, however, that is for the worse. It involves health problems that have arisen among a certain group in cities like Bangkok who just skip breakfast. These are usually members of younger generations who like to drink and stay up late, then wake up late in the morning, and who do not yet have families. Many don't cook for themselves and eat all their meals outside.
To save time and not spend it worrying about breakfast, they make do with a cup of coffee and save the full meal until lunchtime. They get used to this routine, but in time can start experiencing health problems that differ from person to person.
This is the lifestyle of people who live in Bangkok or other cities, but in the provinces breakfast and the way it is eaten have not changed much from what they were in the past. People in Isan and in the North are still mostly farmers who have their morning meal early. They eat heartily and the food is usually regional dishes.
Southerners still place high importance on breakfast, and the dishes that comprise it are strong and full of flavour. In provinces along the Gulf of Thailand like Chumphon, Surat Thani and Nakhon Si Thammarat, they like khanom jeen (spaghetti-like rice noodles) with nam yaa (a spicy pureed fish sauce made with coconut cream), curries and spicy stir-fries, nam phrik, coffee and a dessert of khao nio moon (sweetened sticky rice cooked with coconut cream) with a sweet topping, most often the coconut custard called sangkhaya.
Provinces along the shore of the Andaman Sea like Phuket, Krabi and Trang serve local dishes that have a Chinese accent, including khanom jeen nam yaa, Hokkien-style fried noodles, dim sum, the stewed pork bone dish called ba kute tay, grilled pork, coffee and pathongko.
In terms of nutrition, breakfast is an essential meal that provides the body with the nourishment it needs for the new day. Ignore it or rush through it regularly and you'll pay the price sooner or later. But it is also a window into the local culture and lifestyle of the people who prepare and eat it. When travelling around Thailand, take the opportunity to ignore the more generic offerings and sample the dishes that the local people are eating. A meal like that can be as informative as it is delicious. n
