Even if it doesn't have as high a profile as cabbage or Chinese broccoli, no discussion of the vegetables used in Thai kitchens is complete without mention of the long, white root vegetable known in Thai as <i>hua pakad</i> or <i>hua chai thao</i>. It is used as a basic ingredient in some dishes and to improve the flavour of others, and even plays an important role in certain festivals.
During the Chinese New Year festival, for example, two sets of offerings are made. The first, made before noon on the first day, is made to ancestors, and includes chicken, pork, duck, fish, fried fine-gauge rice noodles and fruit.
Later, in the afternoon, another offering is made to spirits who are not relatives, but who are believed to exist everywhere and may be near the house. The offerings made to them are similar to the ones made to ancestors.
On the second day, considered to be the first day of the new year, an offering is made to bring good fortune to the family. This is done inside the house, and the items offered include hua pakad prepared as a food called khanom pakad, together with fruit. No meat is offered on this day.
The khanom pakad is made by cutting the root into shreds and mixing them with rice flour. Not too much rice flour should be used or the khanom will be too hard. Once they are thoroughly combined, salt, pepper, chopped shiitake mushrooms and peanuts are mixed in. This mixture is rolled into sheets of tofu paper to form long cylinders and then steamed. After steaming the rolls are set aside to cool, then sliced into pieces that are deep-fried. When they are done, they are arranged on a plate for the offering.
The reason this vegetable is presented as an offering is that the Chinese name for khanom pakad is sai hang kui, with the word sai referring to auspiciousness.
Tasty soups are also likely to include this vegetable among the ingredients, as it contributes a sweet flavour and makes the broth look clear and appetising. When the broth for a soup has to be prepared in a hurry, Chinese cooks use the technique of cooking dried squid together with hua pakad. The result has a good flavour and is much quicker to make than the standard alternative, whose preparation involves boiling pork bones for long periods of time.
Other foods that use the vegetable are a bland soup made by cooking pork bones with hua pakad, or the boiled vegetable dish called jap chai, which requires it. And it is not used only when fresh. It can be salted and dried to make the condiment called hua chai po that is used as an ingredient in innumerable dishes.
People versed in the lore of hua chai po probably think first of Surin province as the main Thai source of hua chai po, but another area just as famous is the village of Ban Jet Samien in Photharam district in Ratchaburi province. Although it is small, at least 10 households there have been making the condiment for more than 50 years. Travellers passing through make it a point to buy some to take home.
Pad thai made without finely-chopped hua chai po isn't really pad thai at all. The subtle saltiness of the dish comes from this condiment. The noodle shop in Photharam that makes the best kui tio moo tom yam (pork noodles with sour-spicy broth) flavours them with minced hua chai po. One other way of preparing it is just to fry it with egg. The result is as delicious as it is simple to make. Khao tom (rice soup) shops always have it available as a side dish.
One of the local foods eaten in Chachoengsao province is dried hua pakad with khao tom. Dishes like this one are made at home, and are usually not available in markets. It is made by cutting the entire hua pakad, skin and all, into long pieces and then kneading them in salt water to remove the astringent taste, and finally drying them in the sun for one day.
The next step is to simmer soya sauce and palm sugar together in a wok to make a sweet-salty sauce. The dried hua pakad pieces are soaked in the sauce until they are fully flavoured by it, then eaten with khao tom. The hotter the rice soup, the better it tastes. As a side dish for the soup it couldn't be easier to make.
One other dish made from the vegetable _ one that has long disappeared from the repertoire _ is salted hua pakad cooked in coconut cream with sliced shallots. To make it, hua chai po is simmered in coconut cream until it becomes very soft, and then some palm sugar is added, giving the dish a flavour that combines sweetness, saltiness and the rich, nuttiness of the coconut cream. Before it is taken from the fire, sliced shallots are put in. It doesn't matter if a lot of them go in, because they make the dish even more fragrant. Easy to make as it is, hua pakad in coconut cream with shallots is a great rarity nowadays.
There is nothing glamourous about this long, white, root vegetable; it is very common and inexpensive. But hua pakad and the hua chai po made from it find their way into such a wide range of foods, including some associated with religious belief, that if it were to disappear many of Thailand's favourite and most popular dishes would go along with it.
