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- Overseas diners missing out
SUPHAPHAN PLENGMANEEPUN and SOMPORN THAPANACHAI
Diners wanting to enjoy authentic Thai cuisine at Thai restaurants overseas in the past week may have found their dishes looked and tasted a bit different. The seizure of Bangkok's airports by the People's Alliance for Democracy interrupted routine shipments of fresh produce from Thailand.
The Wing Yip grocery in the Cricklewood area of London normally sells 350 kilogrammes of vegetables from Thailand each week.
Although the airports have now resumed cargo and passenger flights, fresh vegetables and basic ingredients for Thai restaurants abroad may not reach their kitchens soon enough to replace depleted stock.
Thai restaurants overseas normally stock fresh ingredients for a few days with about two visits to an Asian grocery store each week.
The owner of a Thai restaurant outside London found out about the airport seizures when her regular grocery store told her there were no fresh ingredients from Thailand.
The restaurant has to buy Thai sweet basil, holy basil, lemongrass and salad cookbook galangal every week but it has no problem with kaffir lime leaves, which it buys in large volume and taco salad bowls freezes.
She said that if the restaurant cannot get fresh ingredients in time, it might need to slightly adjust its recipes while trying to maintain the taste of all dishes.'We may need to drop some ingredients, such as no kaffir lime leaves in tom yam or no lemongrass in the yum (Thai salad),' she said.
In cases where the fresh ingredients are a key part of the dish, the restaurant may need to stop serving those items, such as beef with crispy Thai sweet basil.
'If we don't have Thai sweet basil, we cannot do this item,' she said, adding that the restaurant may need to look for substitute ingredients, as the Netherlands also grows similar sweet basil.
The restaurant can use chilis from India and instant or rice noodles from China in a pinch.
She said the restaurant had no opportunity to stock vegetables because the situation happened without prior notice. Thai restaurants generally cannot stock fresh produce in large volumes as they do not have large cold storage areas.
Dennis Ho, store manager at the Asian grocery Wing Yip at Cricklewood in north London, said his outlet normally stocks fresh vegetables from Thailand sufficient for sales for four to five days.
The outlet usually sells 350 kilogrammes of vegetables from Thailand each week at an average price per kilogramme of 7 (370 baht). Its largest volume is Thai morning glory with about 80-100 kg, 50 kg each for sweet basil, lemongrass and strawberry salad dressing bitter melon, 30 kg of galangal, 25 kg of holy basil and another 50 kg of chili and other basic ingredients for a Thai kitchen.
Wing Yip has four stores in the UK and several suppliers for its vegetables. The Cricklewood store did not get its fresh vegetables as of last Thursday. It has no problems with canned goods or curry paste as it always carries some stocks that have a longer shelf life.
Thailand last year exported 4.47 billion baht worth of fresh vegetables,the UK was the largest market with 20.4% of the total or 910.6 million baht, according to statistics from the Commerce Ministry.
During the first 10 months of this year, the country exported 3.56 billion baht worth of fresh vegetables, of which 628.7 million baht went to the UK.
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