Rick Stein In Thailand

[Donnyboy]

[desi]

Great find. Thanks! I enjoy Rick Stein (I have a few of his books).

[thetravellingcat]

awesome. I really enjoyed this episode. missing somtam now also!

[Tippaporn]

I could only watch two of the episodes. Been stranded in the States on business for dam_n near a year and, God!, I miss the food. Ironically, when I came across this post I'm hungry as it is to boot. So painful to watch and not be able to touch, smell, and taste.

Many thanks, though.

[aitch52]

Tremendous, thanks Donnyboy enjoyed it immensely

Cheers

[shawndoc]

The clips above are from Episode 3. Episode 2 also features about 10 min in Bangkok.

[Steps]

Hi there everyone, i watched the full series and they were all as good as the episode here (some if not better, definately cambodia). Try and catch them on thebox.bz.

Enjoy

[samran]

maybe it is just me....

I like his shows immensely. His shows based in the EU, especially France, just make my mouth water. He's inspired me to do a 2 week canal cruise on a houseboat one day. In general, his shows are excellent, some of the best around.

But with this one...well...he looked a bit like a lost brit on holiday and there were a few cringy parts (at the market he takes the freshly cooked curry and dumps a spoon of rice in it....bad manners!!!).

[jayboy]

maybe it is just me....

I like his shows immensely. His shows based in the EU, especially France, just make my mouth water. He's inspired me to do a 2 week canal cruise on a houseboat one day. In general, his shows are excellent, some of the best around.

But with this one...well...he looked a bit like a lost brit on holiday and there were a few cringy parts (at the market he takes the freshly cooked curry and dumps a spoon of rice in it....bad manners!!!).

Absolutely with you on this one.He looked completely out of his depth, a failure at presenting Thai cuisine and an absolutely cringe making when he attempted travelogue.His Asian series was generally slammed by reviewers in the UK.I preferred his West Country seafood oriented programmes although these could have done without his little runt Jack Russell, Chalky, being a constant presence.Rick Stein is actually a highly intelligent and knowledgeable cook but as you say he just looked and sounded like another gormless Brit on holiday (or cough cough in residence here).In one of his Thai programmes there was footage of that brilliant Ozzie chef David Thompson:now there's someone who I would love to see present a programme on Thai cooking.

[samran]

maybe it is just me....

I like his shows immensely. His shows based in the EU, especially France, just make my mouth water. He's inspired me to do a 2 week canal cruise on a houseboat one day. In general, his shows are excellent, some of the best around.

But with this one...well...he looked a bit like a lost brit on holiday and there were a few cringy parts (at the market he takes the freshly cooked curry and dumps a spoon of rice in it....bad manners!!!).

Absolutely with you on this one.He looked completely out of his depth, a failure at presenting Thai cuisine and an absolutely cringe making when he attempted travelogue.His Asian series was generally slammed by reviewers in the UK.I preferred his West Country seafood oriented programmes although these could have done without his little runt Jack Russell, Chalky, being a constant presence.Rick Stein is actually a highly intelligent and knowledgeable cook but as you say he just looked and sounded like another gormless Brit on holiday (or cough cough in residence here).In one of his Thai programmes there was footage of that brilliant Ozzie chef David Thompson:now there's someone who I would love to see present a programme on Thai cooking.

there is something about Thai food, in my book at least, which precludes it from being the subject of food wanke_ry. I can (at least try) to do food wanke_ry with the best of them - sitting at a French Michelin (sp?) starred place - banging on about the complexity of the textures and flavours etc etc. But with Thai food, for the most part, I view most of it as good comfort food, and if you know the basics, it is very hard to do badly, which I guess is its genius. I for some reason don't see the need/or understand how it fits to the world of 'gastronomy' deserving of cookbooks and high-end restuarants, especially when most Thai food can be purchased for between 30 to 100baht at very respectable and popular places.

Edited September 22, 2009 by samran

[jayboy]

maybe it is just me....

I like his shows immensely. His shows based in the EU, especially France, just make my mouth water. He's inspired me to do a 2 week canal cruise on a houseboat one day. In general, his shows are excellent, some of the best around.

But with this one...well...he looked a bit like a lost brit on holiday and there were a few cringy parts (at the market he takes the freshly cooked curry and dumps a spoon of rice in it....bad manners!!!).

Absolutely with you on this one.He looked completely out of his depth, a failure at presenting Thai cuisine and an absolutely cringe making when he attempted travelogue.His Asian series was generally slammed by reviewers in the UK.I preferred his West Country seafood oriented programmes although these could have done without his little runt Jack Russell, Chalky, being a constant presence.Rick Stein is actually a highly intelligent and knowledgeable cook but as you say he just looked and sounded like another gormless Brit on holiday (or cough cough in residence here).In one of his Thai programmes there was footage of that brilliant Ozzie chef David Thompson:now there's someone who I would love to see present a programme on Thai cooking.

there is something about Thai food, in my book at least, which precludes it from being the subject of food wanke_ry. I can (at least try) to do food wanke_ry with the best of them - sitting at a French Michelin (sp?) starred place - banging on about the complexity of the textures and flavours etc etc. But with Thai food, for the most part, I view most of it as good comfort food, and if you know the basics, it is very hard to do badly, which I guess is its genius. I for some reason don't see the need/or understand how it fits to the world of 'gastronomy' deserving of cookbooks and high-end restuarants, especially when most Thai food can be purchased for between 30 to 100baht at very respectable and popular places.

Oh dear you have lost me here.If you are saying pretentiousness is to be avoided then I would agree whether for Thai or any other cuisine.If you are saying that there isn't a high end Thai cuisine which is complex, delightful, time consuming to prepare, the result of centuries of Thai civilisation .... then you are not only wrong, but spectacularly wrong.

If you see Thai food as just cheap and easy comfort food (it can be that of course but is far from being limited to that) then you are missing out on a lot.I once heard Kukrit Pramoj on this subject.At the time I thought he was overplaying Thai food's complexity and sophistication.I don't think so now.Of course every cuisine has its cheap and cheerful or peasant food side, and that I agree is probably what the majority eats.

[samran]

maybe it is just me....

I like his shows immensely. His shows based in the EU, especially France, just make my mouth water. He's inspired me to do a 2 week canal cruise on a houseboat one day. In general, his shows are excellent, some of the best around.

But with this one...well...he looked a bit like a lost brit on holiday and there were a few cringy parts (at the market he takes the freshly cooked curry and dumps a spoon of rice in it....bad manners!!!).

Absolutely with you on this one.He looked completely out of his depth, a failure at presenting Thai cuisine and an absolutely cringe making when he attempted travelogue.His Asian series was generally slammed by reviewers in the UK.I preferred his West Country seafood oriented programmes although these could have done without his little runt Jack Russell, Chalky, being a constant presence.Rick Stein is actually a highly intelligent and knowledgeable cook but as you say he just looked and sounded like another gormless Brit on holiday (or cough cough in residence here).In one of his Thai programmes there was footage of that brilliant Ozzie chef David Thompson:now there's someone who I would love to see present a programme on Thai cooking.

there is something about Thai food, in my book at least, which precludes it from being the subject of food wanke_ry. I can (at least try) to do food wanke_ry with the best of them - sitting at a French Michelin (sp?) starred place - banging on about the complexity of the textures and flavours etc etc. But with Thai food, for the most part, I view most of it as good comfort food, and if you know the basics, it is very hard to do badly, which I guess is its genius. I for some reason don't see the need/or understand how it fits to the world of 'gastronomy' deserving of cookbooks and high-end restuarants, especially when most Thai food can be purchased for between 30 to 100baht at very respectable and popular places.

Oh dear you have lost me here.If you are saying pretentiousness is to be avoided then I would agree whether for Thai or any other cuisine.If you are saying that there isn't a high end Thai cuisine which is complex, delightful, time consuming to prepare, the result of centuries of Thai civilisation .... then you are not only wrong, but spectacularly wrong.

If you see Thai food as just cheap and easy comfort food (it can be that of course but is far from being limited to that) then you are missing out on a lot.I once heard Kukrit Pramoj on this subject.At the time I thought he was overplaying Thai food's complexity and sophistication.I don't think so now.Of course every cuisine has its cheap and cheerful or peasant food side, and that I agree is probably what the majority eats.

I was actually going for both meanings there there actually, more the latter than the former. But I do stand corrected. You are indeed right in that there is alot which is "complex, delightful, time consuming to prepare etc...", but my problem is that I've grown up eating the stuff, parents opened one of the first, if not the first Thai restuarants in OZ back in the 1970's...so perhaps I've been spoiled with the good stuff for too long and that it is all comfort food for me! I guess its the same as my Italian friends who swear that there is no better Italian food than their own grandmothers.....

In terms of the cheap and cheerful, its not quite what i was getting at. Just my experience is that I've been to way to many 'high end' Thai restuarants and walked away disappointed with the fact that I know that x shop down y soi sells a much better version of that particular dish, for about 1/5 of the price. In that sense, I don't 'get' the wanke_ry which you tend to find at those high end establishments. Most of my 'this is an exciting dish' experiences in LOS have been in out of the way places, usually that specialise in only one or two things in totally unpretentious settings.

[desi]

Most of my 'this is an exciting dish' experiences in LOS have been in out of the way places, usually that specialise in only one or two things in totally unpretentious settings.

I've had the same experience. There are high end places serving amazing Thai food, but they are not the norm. For the most part, if the setting is spiffy the food is cacca to mediocre.

Whenever we scout out a place there is a running litany: 'if it is too clean, too new and too upper crust, then they won't serve decent Thai food'. It is usually correct.

In Thailand, there is an art to finding out-of-the-way restaurants with fabulous food. I don't have the skill but the man of the house does. He is also blessed with a good memory and sense of direction (helps when going back for more), so his talents do triple duty.

[HalfSquat]

Did anyone make a list of the places he visited in Bangkok? That green curry looked lush.

He did look a bit of the noob in some of the shots but we can't all live in Thailand.

[tezzaaa]

Hi,

FYI, there are other similar TV shows on youtube... do a search for:

- "Anthony Bourdain no reservation thailand"

- "Anthony Bourdain a cook's tour thailand"

he's quite a funny guy and goes to lots of places (many destinations in Asia).

cheers

T

[Donnyboy]

Hi,

FYI, there are other similar TV shows on youtube... do a search for:

- "Anthony Bourdain no reservation thailand"

- "Anthony Bourdain a cook's tour thailand"

he's quite a funny guy and goes to lots of places (many destinations in Asia).

cheers

T

yes~ i posted one of his here last month No Reservations

Edited September 30, 2009 by Donnyboy

[tezzaaa]

sorry i noticed after i posted!