There is probably no definitive answer to the question of whether or not drinking alcohol is beneficial. It depends on the situation, the environment and on how a drinker's body reacts to it.
For example, suppose you are high up in the mountains, the air is so cold that you are numb all over and you are there to visit a remote mountain community. You are invited into a house where the air is foggy with smoke from a wood-burning stove, and even if it is warmer inside than out, your eyes sting and the smell of the smoke is overpowering.
The host has invited you to sit down and join everyone for a meal, but before the food is served you are offered home-brewed corn liquor so fiery that you can feel it burn all the way down, from your throat to your stomach. An occasion like this, in this kind of atmosphere, is just right for drinking. Without some alcohol you would freeze and an unforgettably friendly evening might never get off the ground.
In the past, after finishing the day's work, teams of carpenters and artisans who built houses for their clients would get together to form a drinking circle. The idea was to relax after a long and strenuous day and to discuss plans and solve problems connected with the work that still had to be done.
Both of these situations _ the mountain visit and the carpenters' drinking circle _ involve both natural and social environments with a positive and a negative side as regards drinking alcohol. But there is another factor involving alcohol that is completely in its favour _ it is the reason behind the appearance of a range of tasty Thai dishes.
Thais prefer to do their drinking in groups, not alone. There is a saying in Thailand that there are friends you work with, friends you make merit with and friend you drink with _ and all of these groups are different. In rural areas, when friends get together to make up a drinking circle they bring along whatever local home-brewed spirits they can get hold of. Another thing that can't be missing is a selection of the foods specially made to be eaten together with alcohol, foods called kap klaem.
Things may start off when someone obtains some fresh ingredients that inspire him to prepare some kap klaem-type dishes. Then he summons his friends to get together for some eating and drinking.
The fresh ingredients needed can include birds that can be found feeding in the fields as well as cobras, frogs and fish from the paddies and ponds. Also eligible are the mice that feed on rice growing in the fields and the squirrels and bats that steal fruit from the orchards. All have tasty meat that can be used to make kap klaem.
These dishes are easy and quick to prepare, and one thing that they have in common is that they have to be hot and spicy. The heat goes well with high-proof liquor. One favourite is made with cobra meat, which is minced fine and mixed with so many chopped chillies (fiery prik ki nu) that the meat seems to disappear. Then fresh basil, lemongrass and kaffir lime leaf, all right at hand in the kitchen garden, are added.
Tom yam pla lai (a hot and sour eel soup) is another popular kap klaem dish in the countryside. The broth is prepared to taste in advance and, when it is boiling, live eels are put into it. This is a dish whose recipe is very cruel, and people who are not drinking at the time will not want to make it.
These are examples of dishes that came into being to provide jungle-style food suitable to be eaten with alcohol. With time, they evolved into popular versions as spicy dishes that could be eaten at any time at home or in restaurants. The intense spicy heat was turned down to less aggressive levels, and ordinary, easily available meats replaced the poisonous snakes and live eels.
Social changes have reduced the number of drinkers who get together in old-style drinking circles, but there are still plenty of kap klaem dishes. They are easier to eat than they once were and are widely available. In Thai restaurants the standard main dishes are usually listed in the front part of the menu, while the kap klaem specialities are found on a page together with the beverages.
Some of the most popular kap klaem dishes of the past can be found on restaurant menus now. Little tod man (spicy, deep-fried patties of meat, fish or shrimp) are in this category, as is naem (fermented pork sausage with pork skin) chopped into small pieces or served as a soang khrueang dish with little cubes of fresh ginger, chopped shallots, peanuts and chillies. There are also kai sam yang, an array of chopped ginger, shallots, peanuts and chopped onion.
Some basic kap klaem items are easy to find at roadside stalls and in convenience stores. These include fried salted peanuts and khao kriab kung (crispy prawn chips). Prepared food shops might offer small breaded and fried shrimp with an achar, or dipping sauce, with cucumber, chillies, shallots and perhaps a few crushed, toasted peanuts _ the kind served with tod man. It can be seen that kap klaem foods are generally in small pieces that are easy to eat with a fork or with the hand. They are often deep-fried and salty.
Kap klaem items have provided work for immigrants. Indians who had recently arrived in Thailand often earned income by selling fried peanuts and beans. It was a kind of work that no one would try to take from them, and there were plenty of customers to buy their peanuts and crisp-fried broad beans and mung beans.
They sold their wares from a high wooden tray whose top was divided into sections to hold the different fried nuts and beans. The vendors would balance the trays on their heads as they wandered about, setting them down when a customer came to buy. The buyer would choose what he wanted and the vendor would put some into a paper cone, then sprinkle on salt, chopped spring onion and chopped chillies. The taste was distinctive and no one could make this snack as well as the Indians.
The peanut and bean vendors are still doing business, but they have exchanged the trays for plastic baskets, which are much more convenient. Their main target customers are the ones who get together with friends to drink. Only one of them might buy the nuts, but that is not a problem because there are drinkers and groups of friends who get together to drink everywhere.
It might be hard to take a stand on whether Thai-style drinking is a good or a bad thing or what kinds of benefits it brings. But there is no denying that it deserves credit for inspiring the appearance of one especially tasty part of the Thai culinary repertoire. Cheers.
