12/7/2023 0 Comments Thai bbq chickenTake the only documentation testifying the actual, yet forgettable and insignificant, event that is the birth of her firstborn, if that pleases you. How precious was this sauce to her? Let’s put it this way: sometimes my mom would leave her jewelry lying around in the house and one time we spent a week searching the whole house for my birth certificate, but her southern fish sauce bottles were safely kept in the sanctum sanctorum of her kitchen pantry, neatly arranged according to expiration dates. She carefully rationed them out over the months until our next vacation down south. ![]() My mom always had dozens of bottles of southern-style fish sauce (น้ำบูดู) from the city of Sai Buri (อำเภอสายบุรี) in the southern province of Pattani (จังหวัดปัตตานี) - apparently the place whence the best of this type of sauce comes. Where and how she learned to make it, I never know.Ĭatching a whiff of the news of her cousin’s plan, my mom, in the spirit of friendly competition, would pull out her big gun - southern rice salad with southern fish sauce-based dressing (ข้าวยำ or, to be a bit redundant, ข้าวยำปักษ์ใต้). Her version, to this day, has remained unrivaled. It is fiery hot and full of bold flavors. One of my aunts would bring to these parties a huge pot of her southern fish-based vegetable curry (แกงไตปลา) made with fermented fish innards (ไตปลา), a specialty ingredient from the South. Many dishes are too fiery hot for me, but all are very good. I can’t recall why we like southern things so much in our family. Southern dishes were always included among the stars of the show (and some of the first to get devoured). ![]() When I was growing up, each time we got together for a family potluck-type party, pretty much every adult member of the clan had his or her own signature dishes which we would expect at the party. ![]() Our affection for southern things, in light of all this, is quite perplexing. Everybody in my immediate family is from Bangkok and our lives have revolved around this city, small in area but dense in population, since - I don’t know - forever. All traceable records show that both sides of my family, with the exception of a few ancestors who were assigned to remote posts, have lived in Bangkok since the city was established 228 years ago.
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