It says a lot about the culture and artistic heritage of a country that the people will spend time and effort in carefully fashioning a papaya or watermelon into a bouquet of flowers or a picture to grace the centre of a table. Or why they would carve a carrot into a rose just to decorate a plate of rice.
Nevertheless the Thais do this even when they do not have an oversupply of time. What they do have in abundance of course, is patience and a flair for an art that is too often overlooked, perhaps because of its association with the kitchen.
Fruit Carving in Hotels and Restaurants:
Hotels and restaurants employ people to sit all day and carve fruit and flowers to decorate tables and dishes. Often one is unsure whether one should eat the beautifully prepared raw fruit shaped like an orchid, or risk disturbing the display of choice vegetables that spill out of a water melon made into an elaborate basket complete with handle.
Old Siam and Form and Content
In Thai culture, form is as important as content and this applies even to the preparation of basic food. Perhaps this came about because Old Siam was a country with an over abundant supply of fruit and vegetables where people had enough to eat and time to spend on decorating the table. Without the need to be hunters/gatherers, there was time for art to flourish.
Historians claim that this art began in the 14th century when a floating lamp was decorated for the Royal Festival on the night of the full moon of the 12th month of that year. One Nang Nopamas shaped fruit and vegetables to look like flowers and used them to decorate the lamp. The king was so impressed with this that he encouraged the women of the royal household to take it up. Not, of course, the princesses.
Food Embellishments in Thai Restaurants
In classical Thai restaurants, the food will always arrive embellished with exquisite carved decorations composed of simple flowers like roses made from chilli peppers to orchids made from root vegetables and other elaborate blooms made from carrots and white radishes.
The most skilled practitioners can demand a high price for their talents and their work can be seen gracing the buffet tables in the best hotels. Often too, they will give demonstrations before a meal at which their dexterity with knife and fruit can be appreciated.
To a Thai, the food on the table should attract first the eye, in colour, shape and presentation.
Mari Nicholson - Award Winning travel writer and historian, member of British Guild of Travel Writers.Travelwriters.co.uk, and Society of Women Writers and ...
