Thailand’s Symphony of Flavors

by CHRIS RYALL

A lover of spice finds his happy place among the destination’s cooking schools, street food stalls, and Michelin-starred restaurants.

Red Hot Chili Peppers, both the band and the spice, inspired my initiation into alternative streams of music as well as my taste sensations. My palate awakened when I started traveling internationally and tried Indian, Cajun, Vietnamese, Italian, Japanese, and other global cuisines. Visits to Thailand, however, struck the right chord with a full orchestra of flavor. It was as if my taste buds were playing Beethoven’s 5th Symphony.

Thailand’s food scene can be as diverse as its landscapes, with distinct regional cooking differences from the north to the spicier south. My Thai food experiences have spanned the gamut, from street food vendors and Michelin-starred restaurants to eating brunch as elephants frolic in a nearby creek, testing my culinary chops in a cooking class, and buying noodles in floating markets.

You don’t have to like it hot to enjoy Thai food. Creating the perfect harmony is essential – a balance of sweet, sour, hot, and salty – combining fresh herbs like lemongrass and galangal, salty fish sauces cooled with sugars and acidic elements, like lemon, lime, and mango. Throw in cilantro, coconut milk, and coriander for good measure and peanut sauce for sweet and savory.

Thai cuisine evolved with influences from China and India. Portugal also brought my beloved chili peppers to Thailand in the 16th century. Thailand is considered the street food capital of the world. I’ve had culinary pleasures by the Victory Monument (Anusawari Chai Samoraphum) and in the Bang Khun Non area where I tasted its pink noodles soup (yen ta fo). One of my favorite pastimes is sitting and observing locals and tourists go about their daily lives. I order my favorite dish—a simple but flavorful green curry chicken with rice and a chilled Chang or Singha beer. It’s love at first bite with the combination of galangal, kaffir leaves, coconut milk, lemongrass, chicken, and fish sauce.

Thai cuisine earned respect from the esteemed Michelin Guide when its first Thailand edition was produced in 2017. For the 2022 edition, Thailand restaurants were awarded six two-star entries and 26 one-star entries, including one to Jay Fai, a street food vendor known for his crab omelettes and curry dishes.

I feel nervous entering Saawaan, Bangkok’s Michelin one-star restaurant. Its intimate sleek, dark interior features a nine-course seasonal dégustation (tasting) menu that raises a diner’s foodie knowledge bar. I like looking at food, but

Credit: Chris Ryall

more importantly, I like eating it. That’s the sum of my foodie expertise.

Thankfully, my waiter, perhaps sensing a food neophyte in his presence, describes everything in a clear, simple manner: the raw (amaebi, cucumber, and coconut); boiled (blue swimmer crab, squid, coconut); curried (Iberico pork, banana blossom, southern and northern curry); and other courses, including dessert (water chestnut, gelatinous coconut, smoked ice cream). The meal covers all the traditional Thai cooking methods – fermented, boiled, stir-fried, and curried – while showcasing dishes from northern, central and southern regions. Each course is paired with wines or tea.

To explore my passion for Thai cuisine further, I decide to take a hands-on approach. It leads me to Amita Thai Cooking Class, owned by Tam Jantrupon. The class is my introduction to how all the ingredients come together. The lesson begins with an adventurous long-tail boat ride to Jantrupon’s riverside location through Bangkok’s inland waterways.

When I arrive, I say I would love to add peppercorns to any dish we make. Moments later, we are grabbing fresh peppercorns from her garden. Jantrupon proceeds to guide me with gentle, easyto-follow instructions, on how to make four different Thai dishes, including my favorite, a green curry chicken in coconut milk. We also cook a batch of tom yum goong (hot and sour soup with prawns), papaya salad, and mango sticky rice for dessert. She even provides me with recipe cards to take home. Sweet.

I follow Jantrupon’s class with a Spice Spoons cooking class, in which students first accompany the chef to the local market to select fruits, vegetables, and proteins for the dishes to be cooked later. Though the chef is impressed with my spatula skills, no such praise is forthcoming for my chopping technique.

I love the fact that Thailand’s culinary experiences are not just about eating food but also about giving it away. I had the choice of giving alms of either premade packages of food bought in markets or dishes I made myself. Arriving at the temple before sunrise, I made a solemn gesture of handing them to the Buddhist monks. The act filled my heart with goodness.

Contact your travel advisor to learn more about Thailand's abundance of culinary travel experiences.

A MOST DELICIOUS PAIRING

FINE DINING HAS ALWAYS BEEN ONE OF THE PILLARS OF THE WINDSTAR EXPERIENCE

Our secret recipe is respect and adoration for the places we sail, tastefully reflected in the meals our guests enjoy. Fresh, locally sourced ingredients, often selected by the yacht’s Chef on a trip to the local market, go into each dish. It’s just one way we help guests fully savor local life and community and whet their appetite for travel. As the O cial Cruise Line of the James Beard Foundation, we’re able to work with some of the best chefs to create the extraordinary dishes on our nightly menu and in our culinary demos. So, our guests dine on dishes created by not just one celebrity chef, but by a list of all-stars recognized by the Foundation. And this partnership extends beyond the dining room to a wide range of culinary events and activities that help guests connect more intimately with local cultures.

SAIL WITH A CULINARY SUPERSTAR on one of these voyages.

James Beard Foundation sailings include plenty of time to personally interact with the Chef. You will enjoy a Chef-hosted dinner and wine pairing, two onboard cooking demonstrations with takeaway recipes, and a shoreside market tour with the Chef.

James Beard Foundation: Spanish Treasures via the Panama Canal

Chef Jerome Grant — Dacha Restaurant Group, Mahal, Washington, D.C.

March 4, 2023 | 7 DAYS | Star legend | Balboa to Oranjestad

James Beard Foundation: Adriatic Archipelagos & Greek Goddesses

Chef Ayesha Nurdjaja — Shuka, Shukette, New York, NY

June 17, 2023 | 9 DAYS | Wind Surf | Venice to Athens

James Beard Foundation: Grand Japan

Chef Tracy Chang — PAGU, Cambridge, MA

September 21, 2023 | 9 DAYS | Star Breeze | Yokohama to Osaka

Contact your Trusted Travel Advisor for All-Inclusive Fares and Exclusive Amenities.

Maldives Sustainable

Fishing by KATKA LAPELOSOVÁ

In the Maldives, Dining is Strictly Ocean to Table

“Have you ever eaten octopus before?” freediving expert Hasan Sunil asks as he bobs up and down in the water a short distance from our dinghy.

“Yes, it’s fantastic,” I reply with excited honesty. I’ve had baked octopus in Portugal – the kind that melts in your mouth alongside buttery potatoes – and grilled octopus in Greece, so perfectly charred I dream about it sometimes. It’s one of my favorite things to eat, especially abroad. “Yes, but have you ever eaten fresh octopus?” Sunil repeats. I don’t have time to answer before he disappears into the water; I take a deep breath and follow.

Snorkeling is the focus of my first trip to the Maldives, where I’ve left the island resorts and overwater bungalows to the honeymooners and families, opting instead for the versatility of a week-long GAdventures cruise. Our vessel, The Sea Farer, is no less luxurious than the resorts with spacious cabins, modern furnishings, a full bar, and plenty of open deck space for sunbathing. An onboard chef serves three meals a day, everything from pasta and baked chicken, to fish curries, and even local dishes like mas huni, which is made from shredded tuna, coconut, chilis, and onion, and served for breakfast with roshi flat bread.

Twice a day we swim amongst clown fish, sea turtles, lobsters, and even sharks. Raised in the Maldives, Sunil has been freediving since he was a child. He claims he can hold his breath for almost two full minutes, which enables him to make a living diving and pointing out sea life for snorkelers like me. Today, he excitedly points to an octopus hiding in her cave before he begins his pursuit.

I feel slightly weird about “hunting” our dinner, but Sunil has assured me that this is just one part of the fishing protocol to which Maldivians have adhered for centuries. When he emerges, he holds the body of an octopus in his right hand, tentacles wrapping around his upper arm as he swims back to the dingy.

He can’t contain his excitement. “This is a big one … it will feed the whole crew tonight,” he smiles broadly, as Aram, the dingy driver, grabs a bucket to contain the invertebrate. “She was hard to catch,” Sunil adds. “They are so quick and they camouflage themselves well.”

Food sustainability experts have long cited the Maldives as one of the best examples of sustainable fishing in the world. The small population size, fewer than 600,000, certainly reduces the chance of overfishing. The small size of the islands also contributes to the lack of large fisheries and aquaculture. Out of 1,200 islands, only 200 are inhabited. Many of those are home to solitary resorts that generate far more for the economy than farmed fish would.

A third factor is the sustainable fishing methods that are passed down from generation to generation. Most locals still use “pole and line” techniques. Free divers, like Sunil, are skilled at catching sea creatures with their bare hands.

With the octopus now aboard, Aram maneuvers our dinghy to a sand bar that is less than a quarter of a mile long and rimmed with coral and seashells that have washed up on the waves. Sunil takes the octopus out of the bucket and cleans it, tossing the inedible parts in the ocean. “It’s food for seagulls and sharks,”

he explains. “Nothing goes to waste here, not any piece.”

Back on the ship, I inquire about the typical Maldivian diet. “All fish we eat is fresh caught,” Sunil says as we wait for the chef to prepare the octopus. “But we really don’t eat a lot of fish like you would think.” He goes on to explain that demand for seafood runs high in the Maldives, even at local markets.

Certain types of tuna are plentiful and yield a lot of meat, so the price remains low enough for the locals to eat. Octopus are much harder to catch, and thus, more expensive. “In the local market, an octopus this size might be as much as $100,” he says. “Maybe even more like $125, or $150.”

So we’re in for a treat as the chef places our dinner on the dining table. The octopus has been prepared with peppers, onions, and a satisfying sweet and sour sauce. Sunil, of course, is grinning again as he samples the result of his chase. “You are so lucky,” he repeats over and over between mouthfuls. “You’ll never have fresh octopus like this again.”

Coastal cruise or chic resort? Your favorite travel advisor will show you the way.

Sweet & Savory Slovakia

by ERIKA HARKINS

Jake is a meat and potatoes guy. When he heard that Marcelka and Laco, my beloved aunt and uncle, were making kotlikovy gulášová for dinner, he asked if we could have her traditional dumplings, called knedlíky, too.

This is not typical.

Kotlikovy is a thick, meaty goulash that’s spiced with red pepper, paprika, caraway, and marjoram and usually served with simple slices of bread. The stew itself is a family ritual reserved for special occasions because it takes most of the day to cook in a big pot over a fire. So the dumplings were a big ask, but we persisted. It had been four years since we last visited my hometown of Mlynica in northern Slovakia. While life in the U.S. has changed me in many ways, my aunt’s cooking has a way of rekindling my Slovak roots.

Newly pregnant and knowing I wouldn’t be traveling for a while, I had been excited to return to my homeland to hug my extended family, hike, and give our growing baby his or her first taste of real Slovakian cuisine. For two months leading up to the trip, I dreamed of buchty na pare—sweet, steamed fruit dumplings smothered in butter and topped with cinnamon, cacao, poppyseed, or sweet bread crumbs. Of course, another aunt, Hanička, knows me and had them waiting when we arrived.

Later, during an afternoon hike with Jake and my cousins in the High Tatra Mountains, we came upon a hut that was serving them too. Who could resist a second round? Not us! We savored every bite of their gooey goodness. In addition to the sweet dumplings, gnocchi with similar toppings, fruit-filled balls, and homemade crêpes are my favorite Slovak foods.

While I craved sweets, Jake was yearning for beef tenderloin doused in cream sauce, a dish known as sviečkova. And, of course, Marcelka’s goulash. In the end, she relented and served the knedliky with our kotlikovy goulash. When my little cousins tasted the combination they said, “Babi (grandma), we should have it this way always!” Marcelka laughed, joking that her monthly workload had just increased. But she didn’t really mind. Making homemade dumplings is a labor of love. One worth traveling all the way to Slovakia to experience firsthand.

Contact us to plan a tour and savor the heartwarming flavors of Slovakia.