The New Year's long weekend might turn Bangkok into a peaceful city for once. The capital city might just be a nice place to stick around, giving you the peace of mind to look ahead.
Throughout the year, Cornucopia has returned to topics like healthy cooking, including how to select fresh chemical-free ingredients, eat more vegetables and shop more locally.
So in the final issue of 2017, we continue on the same note while welcoming a fresh start. These topics will never go out of style, but the ways we approach them can change. Cornucopia will continue to talk about healthy cooking, vegetable consumption and honing wholesome home recipes.
I believe it's necessary to watch what we eat, especially for city dwellers who are more likely to suffer from conditions like hyperlipidemia that indicate high levels of cholesterol. Although we might not die of such disorders, they can weaken us and render us prone to other illnesses. The most convenient way to control this would be to use medication, but the cost of this can add up over time.
A better alternative might be to start eating healthy and exercising more regularly. This can help control hyperlipidemia, which ups your chances of heart disease. Eating well can also prevent you from acquiring it in the first place.
Doctors and nutritionists say that people should eat three times a day, with breakfast being the largest meal. Breakfast is supposed to give us the most energy to kick-start our days. For lunch, a one-dish meal is recommended, while for dinner we should eat a small portion of food -- heavy on the vegetables and light on the sugar and carbohydrates.
However, these tips tend to go against Thai dining culture. We usually go for a light breakfast, often some bread and a cup of coffee. The reason we don't have time to indulge more in breakfast might be because we are rushing out the door to fight the fussy traffic in Thai cities. As for lunch, it depends on how much time we have available and what food we have access to at the office. Dinner tends to be a big deal as people have the most time for it. Thais also believe that eating lots will help curb late-night cravings.
Vegetable consumption in Thai cooking goes well beyond the basic Western-style salads. This can include yum (spicy Thai salad mixed with vegetables and other ingredients like kun chiang, dried pork sausage that is both spicy and sweet), yum taeng gwa and moo yang (spicy cucumber and grilled pork) and yum ma kuea yao (spicy boiled eggplant).
There are also more sophisticated dishes like yum tua phu (spicy bean salad), yum hua plee (spicy banana blossom salad), yum yod krathin (spicy baby arcadia salad) and yum pla duk foo (spicy catfish salad). These are not only tasty but nutritious.
If you don't fancy a spicy Thai-style salad, you might opt for a chilli paste dish instead -- for example, nam prik pla tu (chilli paste with fried mackerel). Regional dishes contain a lot of vegetables too, such as larb neua (northern-style minced pork salad), kang som pak tai (southern spicy soup) and Isan food. These dishes tend to be made quite spicy, so they go well with rice and vegetables.
There are plenty of vegetables to choose from in Thai cooking. Some might smell odd or taste bitter, but all are comfortingly herbal and nutritious. Once you get over the superficial strangeness of them, you will enjoy their benefits.
It can be fun seeking out fresh vegetables in local places. Some nice places to purchase vegetables are Talad Ta, Talad Si Moom Muang, Talad Klong Toey and Pak Klong Talad. But the best places to hunt for vegetables are upcountry flea markets. Here you can buy fresh, chemical-free vegetables straight from vendors -- a boost to your health and the local economy.
Serving up more vegetables to your diet is easy. Let's kick off the New Year with a fresh and healthy start.
