Potatoes

Mountain Potatoes
Potatoes on sale in the "hill tribe" market in Chiang Mai.

Potatoes are a relatively recent introduction to the Thai table. Although potatoes originated in South America, the Spanish and Portuguese apparently did not bring them to Asia, as they did with many other new world foods such as chillies. I found a rather humorous account of how they came to Thailand in the Norwegian naturalist Carl Bock’s journal of his 1881 expedition to Northern Siam and Laos. In the book, Bock recounts a dinner with one of the principal “Chows” [princes] of Chiang Mai:

“As he had deferred to European customs in the form his invitation to dinner had taken, so the Chow now did his best to conform to civilized habits by using a knife and fork to eat with. But he was manifestly uncomfortable, and the effort at last became so irksome that he cast aside these unaccustomed implements, and fell back on his fingers and thumbs. The dishes were mostly Chinese, and call for no special comment. One item in the bill of fare, however, reminded me of home, viz. Potatoes – which had been introduced along with other vegetables into this country by the American missionaries, and which the Chow ate with great relish, helping himself to them sans cérémonie, in the good old-fashioned country-peasant style, and blowing his fingers to keep them cool.”

Potatoes aren’t quite as popular with the average Thai as they appear to have been with the late prince, although they are readily available in American fast food chains as well as chips (crisps to the British) in convenience stores. However, in traditional Thai cuisine, the potato rarely makes an appearance.

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