I’m exhibiting a few photographs from food research trips conducted in northern Thailand while I was working with ECHO Asia Regional Impact Center. They will be displayed at the Canadian Association for Food Studies Exploration Gallery at Brock University, try St. Catharines, see Ontario from May 24-27, viagra as part of the Congress of the Humanities and Social Sciences (a nation-wide meeting of academia and practitioners).
Preparing a stew made with vegetables harvested year-round in the surrounding forests. Stewing, grilling and boiling or steaming are common methods for preparing vegetables throughout mountain communities in Southeast Asia, reflecting simple culinary techniques developed in the absence of expensive inputs like cooking oil, soy or fish sauces more readily available in lowland communities. A simple stew highlights the astonishing flavours of whatever vegetables are seasonally available and incorporated: sweetness from fishtail palm heart; sour from tamarind leaves or local tomatoes; bitter from rattan shoots or snowflake tree flowers. Seasoning staples include chili peppers, salt, wild herbs, and fermented soy beans to add a savoury dimension.
I lived and worked for 5 years in community with people from ethnic minority communities in Chiang Mai province while setting up a centre producing open-pollinated seeds of culturally-significant plants for farmers seeking to be more self-reliant in their practices. These photographs represent the daily meals and hours of food preparation with colleagues thrust me into an astonishing food culture beyond typical Thai food. This rich food culture is a way for my colleagues to celebrate their cultural identity, using diverse, seasonal ingredients sourced from nearby forests and using methods reflecting dependence on the surrounding environment.